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The Simplest Things Matter
Friends, athletes, graduates, lend me
your ears. If you leave this school year
with one impression, just one memory
that will stick with you until you sit on
a swing one summer evening at an
elderly age and think back on your days
of youth, remember this: the simplest
things are the things that matter.
Money in sports has apparently re
placed games in order of importance.
The actual contest is now a side-show
compared to its financial aspects.
Witness:
• Gambling is everywhere. Point
spreads and tournament pools do not all
filter out of Las Vegas and Atlantic
City, but can be found all over the
Waddell
April 24,2011
Dear Son,
At the time you will be reading this, you
will be embarking on your own college
journey. I thought I would take this oppor
tunity to tell you of my own collegiate
experience, as the time when I write this
will be during the waning hours of my
three years at Guilford College.
I chose to attend Guilford for the oppor
tunity to participate in the Sports Manage
ment Department under the guidance of
Dr. Herb Appenzeller. The amount of
knowledge that I was able to absorb both in
and out of class with Dr. A and Dr. Kathy
Tritschler has given me a sound founda
tion as I now embark on the job world.
But being at Guilford was more than just
going to classes and learning of times gone
by, it was a time when great things hap
pened in my life—coming both by partici
pation and observation.
Some of my most fond memories were
intertwined with the athletic program at
Guilford. My experiences with Coach
Charles Forbes and the football program
for two years taught me that things don't
always turn out as you would like them to,
but it also taught me that being a part of a
team and the relationships which are culti
vated in the team concept are ones which
extend far beyond the chalk lines of the
field.
During the course of my freshman year,
the basketball team won the District Cham
pionship and earned a spot in the NAIA
National Basketball Tournament Being
an avid basketball nut, I followed the team
to Kansas City and was witness to what
some call the "best seven days in college
THE GUILFORDIAN April 22, 1991
12
place—from the business offices on Main
Street to the neighborhood parties in the
suburbs.
• Salary arbitration, contract disputes,
and bonuses for displaying a clothing logo
encourage athletes to "get all they can."
• Fantasy sports leagues, which play for
prizes in the thousands of dollars range,
focus on buying players so that they can be
"yours."
• Sports cards speculation boomed in the
'Bos and may explode in the '9os. Kids
spend their lawn-mowing and babysitting
money on rookie cards that they hope will
escalate in value.
• Players sign autographs at shows for
around $l5-20 per signature (No, that
basketball." Even though we lost in the
first round, I could sense that I was seeing
a part of Quaker athletic history coming to
an end. It would be the last time that Coach
Jack Jensen would guide the Quakers to an
NAIA Playoff berth, but was also a team
which was special because it, like most
teams at Guilford, never accepted failure.
That quality came right from the top. Coach
Jensen never overestimated the importance
of the game to his players. To him, it was
important to win, but more important to
make something good out of even the bad
results that can sometimes happen in sport.
I was also on hand when the women's
basketball team made its only NAIA Play
off appearance in 1990. This was a re
markable achievement as the ladies had
only half a team of scholarship players left
on the team, but still managed to top the
competition to make it to the tournament
Every sport had its individual characters
at Guilford. This make it always entertain
ing to attend a Quaker athletic event.
My most fond memories are of eager lan
Russell, gridiron star Buddy Cunningham.
Russell was a towering 6'B" center who
had begun his playing days at Oregon State
University along with L.A. Laker A.C.
Green. He chose to come to Guilford for
many reasons, many of which were per
sonal. He touched many people with his
kindness and seemingly non-aggressive
state of being. Yet once he was in the lane,
he was a shot-blocking monster. As of my
graduation, lan was working with under
privileged children in his home area of
New York. He always cared more for
others than himself.
My memories of Buddy Cunningham
being that he would never let an injury or
an opponent get the best of him. He always
gave everything he had both on the game
field and the practice field. You hear of
people like this everyday, yet they usually
only pass through your mind for a minute.
I feel as if I am truly fortunate to have seen
this man perform on a first-hand basis.
The advent of a new era also came to be
doesn't come with dinner and a movie).
It is clear to me that somewhere along
the line, we pushed aside the "lace 'em up,
go out there, and have you some fun"
mentality. In 1991, we are supposed to
look good, rather than to try and be good at
what we do. It's enough if you wear a pair
of Nike tennis shoes on the basketball
court, even if you didn't score in the sec
ond half. Come on now! People are being
shot for their "Air Jordans" on the streets
of L.A. Where have our values gone?
Money displays an image favorable to
'9os sports figures. A desire for productiv
ity and enjoyment of the delightful diver
during my time at Guilford, as the athletic
program completed the shift from NAIA
competition to a more erudite NCAA 111
brand of play. Under the leadership of
Athletic Director Phil Roach, the change
was made as swift as could be following
the state of the Alan Piatt regime. Roach
implemented a new structure for the world
of Quaker athletics and mended fences
with alumni which had eroded along with
the move. On my exit, I felt as if athletics
at Guilford were on the right track.
Guilford was also an experience in the
classroom, as teachers named Hobbs,
Granger and Grice taught me different
things about life which hold more than the
actual classroom rhetoric.
Grimsley Hobbs, a philosophy man and
former president of the school, was always
making the effort to reach out to the stu
dents in his class who seemed to be strug
gling with Plato, Aristotle and just the
subject in general. I'll never forget calling
him at his Chapel Hill home on the eve of
our final exam to ask a last minute ques
tion. He seemed to be thrilled to help a
student in need, not angry that his personal
time away from campus had been inter
rupted. A true educator.
John Grice and Garland Granger each
had a unique way of communicating their
message to the lucky students in their
classes.
Granger, of the Accounting Department,
was always telling us that if you earned a D
on the first test, that you might as well drop
the class because you were going to fail.
Every lesson was a matter of life and death
to him, and it sunk into the heads of his
students as each of us got through what
could be a very exhausting class.
A professor of justice and policy stud
ies, John Grice was a gruff, stocky man
who was as much of an entertainer as he
was an instructor of our justice system.
Our class met in the largest room on cam
pus and was by far the biggest class I'd
ever been in. He taped every lecture and
left it on file in the library for the people
Butch Maier
sions that athletics bring us should be in
the forefront Never lose the "kid at
heart" motivation to perform a sport
Money blinds us to the pure joy and
thankfulness we should have at simply
being able to function physically.
Take off the blinders, lace 'em up, go
out there, and have you some fun.
Work, play, friendship, and family.
These are the things that matter. That's
what we lost sight of—the simplest
things.
—Robin Williams as Dr. Sayer in
Awakenings
who may have missed his class.
Education at Guilford was an all-en
compassing experience, as you could learn
how "to" do things by the people who I
have already mentioned and you could
learn how "not" to do things.
My senior year was 1991, a time marked
by budget cuts at the college which sent out
shock waves to many different channels of
the community. All in all, between 25 and
30 positions were cut around campus to
offset the higher costs of operating a pri
vate college in the 19905. "All colleges are
making cuts," said one administration
official. "We tried to be as fair and impar
tial as possible," said another. But how fair
is fair, when the president of the college,
along with his right hand man, are Still
driving Rolls Royces and Mercedes and
pulling down their same salaries while
housekeepers, maintenance men and lead
ers of established programs on campus are
given the axe? Yes, Guilford spoke the
gospel of respect for persons and equality
for all, yet it did just the opposite. A great
place to learn —yes, but a real disappoint
ment in trying to teach the future leaders of
the country how to treat their fellow man.
Hypocrisy ran rampant, but then it does
that everywhere, so why should I be sur
prised that it was at Guilford as well. I
guess Guilford was just like Professor Grice
said it was during his class period: "At
Guilford, everyone in the administration is
either in a meeting, on vacation or out to
lunch."
I would not take anything for my time
spent on Friendly Ave. The people, places
and things which I was exposed to could
not have been any better had I gone to a
Stanford or a Carolina, surely nowhere
like an Elon. Pitfalls will line your path
throughout all of you life, but if you are
fortunate to choose a route which is both
challenging and rewarding, then you have
chosen well. Guilford has been that type of
experience for me; I hope your choice will
turn out to be as fruitful.
Mike Waddell
Tba'a *c n*M aid ■ at on* baa..