July 13, 2012
Quick Slant is an array of brief insights and occasionally opinionated overviews of collegiate athletics in general and the Vanderbilt Commodores in particular.
It is natural to assume that summer time is the slack time for those of us lucky enough to work in collegiate athletics. If you’ve been watching the local news lately, you would have noticed we were the top sports story several days in a row with the terrific football uniform unveil event followed by the Chancellor’s announcement that David Williams will become full-time with athletics. Our facilities staff is hoppin’ with construction and renovation everywhere, all to be complete in advance of the return of student-athletes in a few weeks. In some ways, summer has become the busiest time of the year in college athletics, not the most quiet.
Speaking of facility enhancements, there was a time not so terribly long ago when we referred to our football stadium as “the new stadium” and it was over a decade old. We did so because we just didn’t have the resources to make truly new things happen. That culture has changed in a big-time way and not simply with football. While fans at the game will notice Vanderbilt Stadium’s new sports turf, the fabulous new video board, the team’s stylish new uniforms and tv viewers might realize the stadium’s new lights are making their hi-def picture better, there are as many or more improvements that are not visible to their eye but certainly are to current student-athletes in the way of brand new locker and team meeting rooms.
We just finished Life of Dreams: The Good Times of Sportswriter Fred Russell. What an enjoyable read! The book was a labor of love for Vandy alum and Russell-Rice scholar Andrew Derr, whose intention was to make this readable in a long weekend. Mission accomplished; if there was ever a book to take on vacation or read by the pool, this is it. Locals can find it at Barnes & Noble at Vanderbilt (25th & West End) and others can order it easily on amazon.com.
A Quick welcome to our dynamic new men’s golf coach. Scott Limbaugh came to us from Alabama, which during his five years with the Crimson Tide was one of the nation’s elite programs. He is known as an especially effective recruiter as evidenced by the Tide’s stable of top golfers. Nashville has an active golf community, great golf courses and when combined with Vanderbilt’s resources, it’s an understatement to say that we are looking forward to the future.