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.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Peace Memorial
I knew this was coming. I knew that as soon as we widely publicized our "War Memorial" that someone like Joanne Singh would write wondering why we don't have a "Peace Memorial."
I enjoy being an alumni director of a huge university with a couple of hundred thousand alumni who represent all sides of controversy. Really. I am not sure of whether my centrist political nature has helped me in my profession or whether my profession has molded my sensitivity for all sides of challenging, oft gut-wrenching and always thought provoking issues. But I am certain that people see things differently and that their passions are valid regardless of point of view.
So I will do my best to answer Joanne who writes:
Dear Alumni
Is there a peace memorial on campus for Conscientious Objectors, speakers and writers and protestors for peace and against wars, persons and organizations who try to help victims of wars and atrocities? Many have given their lives for goodness, for compassionate living, for loving one's neighbor as oneself. How do we honor them? Joanne Singh
Dear Joanne,
So far we have no Peace Memorial on our campus. That doesn't mean we couldn't though. 12 years ago we had no War Memorial. A small cadre of determined graduates from the 40's decided we needed to memorialize their fallen classmates from WW II. They raised the necessary funds, petitioned the university administration, designed the monument and worked with the university to get it erected in 1996. They annually hold a ceremony during Homecoming that evokes significant emotion. I find that the vintage plane flyover, the laying of the wreathes and the playing of Taps fills me with gratitude for what I concede to be the greatest generation.
So what about the subsequent generations Joanne? Can we stake a claim? Can any of our Aztec alumni muster the organizational, political and philanthropic capital to memorialize peace on our campus? Its doable. San Diego State University and President Steve Weber have an incredible track record for partnering with community and external constituencies to make a real difference in our collective quality of life. This just may be an initiative worth pursuing.
Jim
Finally, I believe we do honor our alumni for goodness and compassionate living. Each year when I hear the stories our "Montys" award winners have to tell, I am truly inspired. http://alumni.sdsu.edu/montys/past_awardees.htm Who knows, perhaps Joanne will receive a "Monty" someday for being the driving force behind our campus "Peace Memorial."
I enjoy being an alumni director of a huge university with a couple of hundred thousand alumni who represent all sides of controversy. Really. I am not sure of whether my centrist political nature has helped me in my profession or whether my profession has molded my sensitivity for all sides of challenging, oft gut-wrenching and always thought provoking issues. But I am certain that people see things differently and that their passions are valid regardless of point of view.
So I will do my best to answer Joanne who writes:
Dear Alumni
Is there a peace memorial on campus for Conscientious Objectors, speakers and writers and protestors for peace and against wars, persons and organizations who try to help victims of wars and atrocities? Many have given their lives for goodness, for compassionate living, for loving one's neighbor as oneself. How do we honor them? Joanne Singh
Dear Joanne,
So far we have no Peace Memorial on our campus. That doesn't mean we couldn't though. 12 years ago we had no War Memorial. A small cadre of determined graduates from the 40's decided we needed to memorialize their fallen classmates from WW II. They raised the necessary funds, petitioned the university administration, designed the monument and worked with the university to get it erected in 1996. They annually hold a ceremony during Homecoming that evokes significant emotion. I find that the vintage plane flyover, the laying of the wreathes and the playing of Taps fills me with gratitude for what I concede to be the greatest generation.
So what about the subsequent generations Joanne? Can we stake a claim? Can any of our Aztec alumni muster the organizational, political and philanthropic capital to memorialize peace on our campus? Its doable. San Diego State University and President Steve Weber have an incredible track record for partnering with community and external constituencies to make a real difference in our collective quality of life. This just may be an initiative worth pursuing.
Jim
Finally, I believe we do honor our alumni for goodness and compassionate living. Each year when I hear the stories our "Montys" award winners have to tell, I am truly inspired. http://alumni.sdsu.edu/montys/past_awardees.htm Who knows, perhaps Joanne will receive a "Monty" someday for being the driving force behind our campus "Peace Memorial."
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