Great column, Mark. Count me among those who had seen enough over all the years since my long gone days as a Vanderbilt athlete. We trained in a pool that was adjacent to the practice fields. Today, the pool is gone, replaced by a bullpen, appropriately so. Anyway, I sat among Alabama fans in October 1969 and watched a Watson Brown-quarterbacked team beat a Bear Bryant-coached Alabama. Bama was only ranked No. 13 at the time. It didn't matter. It was Bama and the Bear. Tom Hanks instead of Johnny Musso could have been running the football for the Tide. We didn't care. We just went wild. Over the last 55 years, however, Vanderbilt improved academically, yet football remained stagnant in what has become today's SEC. I'm still waiting for the day that Vanderbilt's football ranking surpasses the academic ranking, somewhere between No. 18 and No. 14, depending on the publication. I'm not holding my breath on that one, and that's probably a good thing. Given the school's priorities, I think a football ranking equal or higher than the academic one would make the university nervous. The school has always been run by the faculty. But for one glorious day, I didn't care. I looked at those kids carrying the goal post down Broadway and into the Cumberland River and saw myself. I would have been there, among them. Thanks for the column. Norm.
Great column, Mark. Count me among those who had seen enough over all the years since my long gone days as a Vanderbilt athlete. We trained in a pool that was adjacent to the practice fields. Today, the pool is gone, replaced by a bullpen, appropriately so. Anyway, I sat among Alabama fans in October 1969 and watched a Watson Brown-quarterbacked team beat a Bear Bryant-coached Alabama. Bama was only ranked No. 13 at the time. It didn't matter. It was Bama and the Bear. Tom Hanks instead of Johnny Musso could have been running the football for the Tide. We didn't care. We just went wild. Over the last 55 years, however, Vanderbilt improved academically, yet football remained stagnant in what has become today's SEC. I'm still waiting for the day that Vanderbilt's football ranking surpasses the academic ranking, somewhere between No. 18 and No. 14, depending on the publication. I'm not holding my breath on that one, and that's probably a good thing. Given the school's priorities, I think a football ranking equal or higher than the academic one would make the university nervous. The school has always been run by the faculty. But for one glorious day, I didn't care. I looked at those kids carrying the goal post down Broadway and into the Cumberland River and saw myself. I would have been there, among them. Thanks for the column. Norm.