Old Guys Rule

Some weeks just happen to hit one demographic disproportionately. Such was this one where I got a healthy helping of our greatest generation.

I felt like I was in a marvelous time warp where civility and gratitude reigned; where family, country, service and alma mater mattered.

Now don’t worry, I am not going to start sermonizing. And I am sure I can find some nice things to say about 20 and 30 somethings and even teenagers if pressed. But to be in the company of these Aztec octogenarians this week leaves me compelled to brag some and to beam and tout.

Monday was a luncheon honoring the founders of the war memorial on campus. President Weber hosted them for lunch and spoke to the importance of the “obelisk’s solemnity,” and its historically essential affect on our current students. He emphasized our commitment to current veterans and reiterated State’s gratitude to the founding group of the memorial.

Then Ed Moore (’43) got up. He spoke of his pride in all of the people in the room and to his gratitude that the university (actually “college” to these guys) has embraced the memorial and the annual ceremony honoring fallen Aztecs. Then he went and said some beautiful things about everyone one of the founders including Anthony Ghio (’43), (Anthony has been a community icon via Anthony’s Restaurants. He has modestly and quietly been devoted to the community for 60 years) Harry Hodgetts (’41) and Bob Menke (’43). Harry played on the 1941 national championship Aztec Basketball team and from my well-positioned observation post has spent the intervening decades actively participating, supporting, and working on behalf of San Diego State. Bob Menke has a similar resume of unending service to the University. Along with their wives Pat and Pat, the Hodgetts and the Menkes have been an endlessly generous stream of volunteerism, good advice and financial support. Ed’s speech was laudatory and heartfelt. It was articulate, well-paced and contained an irrepressibly emotional underpinning that stopped 25 dessert forks in their tracks for 15 minutes.

On Tuesday I had an uplifting chat with Tom Ables. He and Nancy are about to celebrate their 60th. That is about the length of time Tom hasn’t missed an Aztecs game. Actually he has missed two, but we are talking home and away! During those decades Tom has had close relationships with every single football coach, basketball coach and athletic director. He has provided NCAA-legal employment for scores of players, designed Aztec logos, written hundreds of Aztec newsletters and felt the joy of victory and agony of defeat over and over. Beyond his pro bono work - yes it is all pro bono - Tom has contributed towards Aztec scholarships generously forever. A truly amazing guy. Even his recent hip replacement surgery was scheduled around Aztec football. Can any of us claim commitment on this magnitude?

Well, maybe Leon Parma can. I had the pleasure of meeting with Leon on Wednesday. Leon, class of ’51, has a mind-blowing resume which includes owning lots of companies, partly owning the Padres, quarterbacking the Aztecs, being president of Sigma Chi, bringing the first Super Bowl to San Diego, donating millions to SDSU and, oh yeah, being best buddies with President Gerald Ford. But there we were watching the video clip of his speech at our alumni center ground breaking where he said that “everything good that has ever happened to me and my family was a result of San Diego State.” Leon takes humility and grace to a heretofore unknown stratum.

Service. Commitment. Humility. Passion.

Aztecs.

Groundbreaking

This week's Alumni Center Groundbreaking turned out to be truly one of the most enjoyable events probably ever hosted on this campus. The mood was like that of a gathering of longtime friends.

For some reason I had been obsessing over this event for months but the past 2 weeks had been somewhat over the top. I found myself fiddling with the script and making lists on little pieces of scratch paper on planes, in my car, during meetings about other stuff; pretty much constantly.

I guess that is because I had been chipping away at this project for as long as I had been an alumni director which is going on 9 years.

Some years I thought I was the problem, sometimes the school, sometimes the prospects. Usually I just felt like it was a difficult and complicated assignment which we would eventually conquer if enough people kept trying. And eventually enough people did.

So the events leading up to the groundbreaking provided some nice opportunities for historical reflection, some nostalgia for the old building, and some real sense of gratitude for the individuals who stepped up.

What I was left with as the confetti faded away but not before providing us with timeless photos of the historical moment was simply this: Our Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center will exist because the University and the Alumni Community collectively willed it to happen. And soon we will have a building whose primary output will be the harvesting of good ideas and deeds that come from bringing the alumni community and the University together.

Matt Dathe was editor of the Daily Aztec back in 1989. He became president of the Alumni Association in 2003. He is married to Stephanie who is a graduate of the class of 1995. They have a delightful baby daughter who will undoubtedly attend San Diego State. The reason I know this is that Matt and Stephanie live and breathe for SDSU. They are high-achieving, diehard Aztecs committed to the overall well being of their community and our university.

Matt is the type of guy whose compliments are sincere; (he regularly appreciates our monthly newsletter http://alumni.sdsu.edu/enews) and whose criticisms are well thought out and constructive. So recently when he told me about a day he spent with his grandfather-in-law I listened with great interest.

It seems that Matt had some issues surrounding his own grandfather whom he lost a while back. I got the impression that Matt regretted not going on a trip with him and then one day it was too late. Determined to keep his regrets in the “then again too few to mention” category, Matt asserted himself with his grandfather-in-law Jack. As you can see from the attached photologue, Matt persuaded Jack to make a one day, 15 hour foray to his Hometown in Oregon.

When I asked Matt how Stephanie had reacted to his trip with her grandfather he sloughed it off and said “the baby was sick, and it was difficult for her with me being gone.” When I asked Stephanie I got a much stronger reaction, which included some welling up. Made me proud to know him.

So if any of you were thinking about acting out on an impulse that keeps finding its way into your front burner conscious, I’d say go with it. So would Matt.

For photos, visit http://alumni.sdsu.edu/blog/jackbook.pdf.

Sandwich Alum

Jeff Goodall is a sandwich alum. His parents are SDSU grads and his son is a student. Jeff attended Point Loma Nazarene, but since he has attended hundreds of Aztec Basketball games he is entitled to some alumni status.

One thing that always struck me about Jeff was that his courage quotient was off the charts. I will never forget hearing, about ten years ago, that Jeff was about to undergo some life-threatening surgery in order to provide some critical body part for his son’s friend.

So, knowing where he lives in the winery area of north Poway, I asked him recently how he had fared during the fire season. I guess I wasn’t too surprised to hear he’d fought the fire all week. I think you will find the following photo-journalistic account of his and his neighborhood’s saga (Including Derek Cohen, SDSU ’85 and his son Zack) as fascinating as I did:

http://goodall.cc/firestorm_2007.htm

Aztecs to Write Home About

Jan and Jim Sinegal are a couple of Aztecs to write home about. If there were an Alumni Hall of Fame they would be inaugural members. Come to think of it there is an Alumni Hall of Fame for SDSU. It’s called the Montys. Last week Jan was in town because she won one and will be properly feted on March 29, 2008 at the 38th annual Montys at the Marriott Hotel and Marina.

So while Jan was being interviewed and videoed about her difference-making involvement in granting scholarships to future Aztec alumni, Jim sat on a concrete planter in front of the Athletics building returning phone calls and answering emails. As the president of Costco, idle time is not an option for Jim Sinegal.

As alumni director, I enjoyed golf-cart chauffeuring and being a part of the subsequent conversation with Jan, Jim, President Weber, Vice President Carleton and Education Dean Rick Hovda.

Steve asked Jim about Sol Price, founder of Price Club and a mentor to Jim. “I go to lunch with Sol every few months, Jim said. He is 90 and still as sharp as ever. He treats me as if I am still an 18 year old shelf stocker.”

The irony here is that Jim is the CEO of one of the world’s greatest retail operations. As one of Time Magazine’s “2006 Top 100 Most Influential People” you would think he might project something other than immodest humility.

But he doesn’t. Steve and Jim talked about Sol Price. The president stated that Sol once told him that he would best serve SDSU by being a harsh critic. He may have been, but the result of Sol’s vision and SDSU’s talent was what Dr. Weber characterized as the “most important thing the university has ever done.” He was talking about the City Heights project where State took over the management of Rosa Parks Elementary, Monroe Clark Middle and Hoover High School. In fact, the Sinegals are using the model at Seattle University.

Hearing Steve and Jim talk about the visionary Sol Price fueled some more of my Aztec pride. Sol Price, Jim Sinegal and Jan Sinegal are the type of people who tackle monumental social challenges. Through their experience, creative problem solving and extreme generosity they actually improve our world.

Just the type of Aztecs you’d want to write home about.

The Football Operations Center

Well, we are finally going to do it. We are going to tear down these hallowed halls known as the Football Operations Center, now occupied by the staff of the SDSU Alumni Association. I sit in the southwest corner in a room formerly used by Denny Stolz, Al Luginbill and Ted Tollner and their staffers.

This is a great place. Before it became the Football Operations Center it was a wedge of dirt between Choc Sportsman Oval (Aztrack) and Terry Pool and Peterson Gym. Don Coryell spent some quality time on this very spot. In 1986 in Denny Stolz’s first year we won the WAC and made it to the Holiday Bowl. In January 1987 Fred Miller and Al Luginbill fired up the local construction and contracting community with an enthusiastic plea for a better facility for Athletics. Those guys could get pretty fired up. Bill Cowling of Dixieline Lumber jumped up and said “Count me in for the lumber.” Dozens of others joined the parade and this building got built as if it were an old fashioned barn raising. The Associated General Contractors led by Bill Burke and Art Lujan were among the dozens of generous entities that stepped up and provided tradesmen and sub contractors to handle every aspect. They did it all for football season tickets. By 1988 this $3,000,000 building was operating at a total cost to SDSU of only $70,000.

This became the hub of the athletics department. While the majority of the staff sweltered or froze in Peterson Gym our athletes got taped up, weight trained, counseled, and tutored here. It was a state of the art athletic oasis.

Then John Moores came along and built a better oasis and plenty of other stuff. Fred’s lament that we had no competitive facilities has been completely eradicated in the past 20 years.

So now we are going to build something even better on this historic site: Our Alumni Center. This is going to become an even more incredible gathering spot for Aztecs than this FOC. But that will remain a topic for another day. Gotta pack up.

Aztecs Supporting San Diego

I may have pinpointed the moment in time when the fortunes of Aztec Football went 180.

It started at last year’s Montys when Audrey Pine bid $1,000 for the right to conduct the Marching Aztecs in our Fight Song at an Aztec game. Audrey had a feeling her husband Tom might enjoy that.

Fast Forwarding to Saturday’s Wyoming game Tom and I found ourselves on the sideline late in the first half. Tom had spent the week procuring his authentic Cowboy outfit, thinking up his skit, and dealing with me regarding the details of pulling it off. I had spent an hour or two pestering Bryan Ransom, (Band Director) and Steve Schnall and Sean Briner from Athletics into allowing it to go forward.

There had been some collective consternation and understandably so. Not only was the proposed skit too long in a halftime that was saturated with important elements like the induction of the Aztec Hall of Famers, http://goaztecs.cstv.com/trads/sdsu-trads-98hof.html the mood of the evening was not frivolous. In fact, everyone was uptight about the pregame ceremony which was to be a tribute to the Fire and Police and volunteers. The lineup included Mayor Sanders, Fire Chief Jarman, Police Chief Lansdowne, County Supervisor Chair Ron Roberts, and Red Cross Director Joe Craver. President Weber would give a live on-field tribute along with Jeff Schemmel and Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson. It was a trying event to arrange. When one added in the undeniable context that attendance at Aztec football has been falling rapidly with no abatement provided by cheap tickets, everyone involved at the university was getting a little anxious. They weren’t really in the mood for fun.

I stashed Tom in a corporate box and went to the field to check out the ceremony. For some inexplicable reason the Qualcomm PA system seemed to have a few loose screws and the announcer’s spiel was incomprehensible. But as always, the trusty Diamondvision camera caught the tenor of the event and the VIP’s faces were dutifully scrolled on the Jumbotron. The throng of fans—mostly on the new home side, understood what was happening and paid attention. When Steve took the live mike, the PA system rallied and I was able to enjoy watching Steve speak his tribute while hearing the words 2 seconds later. In the elevator Steve sincerely remarked to the VIPs “Isn’t sports marvelous for bringing people together?” The collective responses of agreement were convincing.

By the time I got back to Tom, the Aztecs were down 14 nil. He was despondent. “They haven’t got the proper scheme. The formation is wrong for this group of players!” he lamented. Eventually we walked around the stadium. Tom was still in a funk. “We’re not improving,” he whined. “Coach says we’re improving, I countered. It may not show up in the win column yet.” “Do you think Long can do this?” Tom asks. “I do” I said.

I decided to change the subject to get Tom psyched up for his 2 minutes of fame. “What we need is some levity. We need to change the mood of this place. You are just the guy to do it.” “Okay,” he said without much enthusiasm.

We collected President Weber and got down to the field. Tammy Blackburn interviewed Steve on TV. They talked about how well our community and our SDSU community contributed to fire trauma abatement.

Tom and I went into a tunnel under the stands and got him into his cowboy gear. While he was putting on his chaps I snuck a peek at the game. Wyoming went up by three touchdowns. Tom walked out of the tunnel. His fake mustache, ten gallon hat, yellow bandana, boots and chaps were convincing. I laughed out loud. Tom smiled. We scored.

Suddenly the half ended and a stampede of Cowboys rushed by. Tom ventured into their path and was high fiving and barking at them. “What did you say to them?” I asked in the wake. “I said we were going to kick their asses in the second half!”

Before we knew it the cameras were rolling, and the Aztec Warrior mascot was denying Tom the Cowboy entry up the ladder to conduct the band. The Marching Aztecs booed loudly. Tom fell down in a choreographed heap and the mascot (Miguel) and I quickly helped transform him into a red and black tuxedo-clad fight song director. Tom leapt up the ladder, vigorously conducted and then turned and bowed to the fans. The cheering was real.

I went to the president’s box and introduced myself to the Fire Chief. “I know you are getting important accolades for your terrific work recently, but I just wanted to say that I thought you executed an excellent coin flip.” “Well, she said, the result was we lost the flip but I did get good rotation on it. Last week, Arnold just flung it up in the air!”

We scored. Steve and I went visiting. He naturally approached all the box guests and introduced himself. Vice president Roush talked about some obscure football eligibility rule. Vice president Kitchen talked about a conference of University presidents he’d attended that day. On our way to the booster box I asked Steve about his legacy. He told me that every president of a great university brings a new and needed dimension. Steve’s is to sync up the university and community. We scored.

As we were headed back he told me how proud he was that our school had produced so many local leaders who had really stepped up over the past three weeks. He envisioned a full page ad in the UT with pictures of Jarman, Kolender, Sanders, Roberts, Slater-Price, Cox, Madaffer, Jacob, Horn and Faulconer beneath the headline “Aztecs Supporting San Diego.” I found myself contemplating how important State really was. I thought about how football is a nice stage for convening a lot of really good people. Winning football would be a bonus but really, as a University we were doing remarkably well.

Our defense was quietly exerting some influence. We scored again. Everyone stepped up. We won.