Nov. 18, 2015
Quick Slant is an array of brief insights and occasionally opinionated overviews of collegiate athletics in general and the Vanderbilt Commodores in particular.
It occurred to us while attending David Price Project One Four Foundation events last week that he is our version of Tennessee’s Peyton Manning. Both were fantastic college performers, both reached the peak in their high profile professional sports, both are enthusiastic about their alma mater and both are first-class guys involved in many worthy projects.
In addition to supporting a half-dozen or more charitable organizations, David is building a “Miracle Field” in Murfreesboro, the site of his first little league diamond. We didn’t fully understand what the Miracle Field was but please pause to view this short video. If your eyes water, you are in a long line. We are so proud of his priorities.
Speaking of quality events, we were able to attend two of the four NCC Gridiron Club Luncheons featuring Derek Mason and select members of his staff. We’ve been to scads of luncheons over the years and its possible these are the MOST informative and interesting. There are similar luncheons for men’s basketball and baseball; you might want to be joining the NCC at a level that gets you invited to partake and if you have the chance, by all means go!
Can it already be 37 years ago Nov. 18 that Frank Mordica pounded an Air Force defense led by Bill Parcells for 321 rushing yards?
We’re fed up with con artists and scams, some of which are geared toward sports. A recent one involved local college baseball programs: a long-distance parent gets a phone call explaining their son has been jailed. The parent is given a bogus phone number to confirm this and told they can post bail by using their credit card. The short answer is anytime you get a contact that seems out of the ordinary and implicates Vanderbilt athletics, please call someone here first – before you take any action – to verify the authenticity. Over the years, another common scam has been selling ads on “schedule posters”, usually for a few hundred bucks as a way to show support. Of course the posters are seldom produced. Isn’t this stuff disgusting?
For those of you that took family or friends to the Kentucky football game, have you thought about what you got to enjoy for the price of admission? In addition to a win on the field, you saw our Military Appreciation Day that included the Anchor Drop by a Naval Rear Admiral and the Navy ROTC; on-field tributes to Wounded Warriors, video appreciations from team members with family in the military and a spectacular halftime parachute exhibition by a special ops group representing three branches of the military on a cloudless autumn day.
