July 14, 2011
Quick Slant is an array of brief insights and occasionally opinionated overviews of collegiate athletics in general and the Vanderbilt Commodores in particular.
We announced our 2011 Athletic Hall of Fame Class last week. Nine new members will be inducted Sept. 2 at a sparkling event that offers one of the best nights of the year for Commodore fans. This is our fourth class and these nine newcomers will make a grand total of 40 Hall of Fame members.
Each time we unveil a new class there are questions. Who nominates, who selects, what is the criteria, how come my favorite ‘Dore wasn’t chosen? This comes with Hall of Fame territory.
When the Vanderbilt Athletic Hall of Fame was established in 2008, a conscious decision was made that its membership would reflect the best values of the university. Therefore, it wasn’t simply going to be a kingdom reserved for the greatest or most popular student-athletes – lest it become a haven for football or men’s basketball alumni. We want our Hall of Fame to be a diverse mix of achievers from all sports, trailblazers and people who invested various talents and resources to make the icon Vanderbilt Commodores special. It takes a village.
Our Mission Statement reads: “We prepare student-athletes to become leaders and champions in life by placing the highest values on integrity, character, sportsmanship and victory.” These words, by the way, were chosen after an intensive fan survey. Accordingly, there are three routes to induction into our Hall of Fame, detailed on this website under the Athletics subhead on the front page.
Super-star athletes are easily understood. A second category is the student-athlete that goes on to have a sparkling career and the third pathway is the individual that makes extraordinary contributions from outside the realm of a student-athlete.
Our selection committee is the Senior Athletic Administrative Team and the process takes a couple months from nominations to final voting. We require a unanimous vote from the 14 A-Teamers for membership. Cases are made, discussed and defended. Nobody sweet talks or buys their way in. It is an interesting process and one we take seriously but nobody suggests it’s easy with so many outstanding candidates. We’re often asked why “So and So” isn’t a Hall of Famer and we almost always agree, saying in due time they probably will be.
One thing Quick Slant can assure readers: we do not vote membership to curry favor with anyone. The cynical among us might scoff at that notion but we simply have no reason to do so. The best of our best do not need Hall of Fame induction to know what they have helped achieve or that they are appreciated. We consider each nominee on his or her merits.
You might consider purchasing a table for this year’s Hall of Fame Dinner (single tickets are generally not available due to space limitations). Contact Diane Scott at 615-343-1107 for details if you are interested. The dinner has been a sellout of about 450 each of the first three years.
Random fact: Vanderbilt’s web site had 233,064 unique visitors in June, normally a quiet month and the site we created for the College World Series received 32,000 unique visitors (defined as different computers, not repeat visitors). Put in perspective that could mean that roughly one out of every three living alumni were following the events in Omaha.
NAME DROPPING…Too much sad news here this week…Neil Dougherty, a former Vanderbilt assistant basketball coach under Eddie Fogler and later a head coach at TCU, died while out on a run last week in Indianapolis. Neil’s sister Kelly played basketball for Jim Foster in the 1990’s. Neil was just 50…sincere condolences to former Commodore quarterback Kurt Page whose wife, Candace, passed away last week after a three-year bout with cancer. Kurt is the athletic director at Franklin Road Academy.