This afternoon in my e-mail, I received the Alumni Association’s “E-Ziggy-Zoomba” newsletter. Normally, I give it a quick glance, realize that most of the headlines are either sports or donaton related and move along. Today’s was different. Included was a story about the passing of former university president William T. Jerome III on March 10. He was 88.

Certainly a sad day for the Falcon community and one that I hope gets a good bit of attention from the university and local media. The obituary posted by the alumni association (which I can’t find an outside link to anywhere and therefore should be step one of “good bit of attention”) is quite impressive.

The BG News has a story posted, I hope someone takes the opportunity to write a deeper piece. I don’t know if it’s the kind of thing college papers go for, but the resources are right there, many in the building which bears his name.

The Sentinel-Tribune also has an obituary posted.

The Blade wrote a nice piece about Dr. Jerome on Thursday.

A few of the highlights of his pre-BG career:

-Graduated Magna Cum Laude from Colgate
-Attended Yale Law School
-Served military intelligence during WWII
-Attended Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration for his Master’s Degree
-Received Doctorate from Harvard

In 1963, he was named the sixth president at Bowling Green State University, at the age of 43 (maybe 44). The size of the student body and faculty both doubled during his tenure, and nine Masters programs were created. In an indirect connection to BGSU, in 1970, Jerome became a consultant and vice president at Florida International University, which was formed by BG alumnus Charles E. Perry, and saw legendary coach Doyt Perry serve as athletic director and golf coach in the 1970’s. Of course, Jerome also had the library named in his honor in 1982. (See top right corner of this site.)

Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, his life gets much more interesting.

Jerome’s father was a second cousin of Winston Churchill. Yes, that Winston Churchill. He was a nationally-known attorney, serving as District Attorney in New York City for a time. (Insert Law & Order sound effect here.)

There’s also a likely link between Jerome’s mother, Hope Colgate Jerome, and the man for whom Colgate University and the toothpaste are named.

Don’t think I’ll be letting the research stop here.

Roll along, you BG warrior…

1 Comment »

Yesterday was one of those days in BGSU history, and more specifically BGSU Basketball history, that I’m happy to have been around for. Unfortunately, I missed the games yesterday, wasn’t even in BG at all because of house hunting… but I FELT yesterday and the importance of it.

The gift from the Stroh family is insanely generous. $8M to BGSU… the majority of that earmarked for the new convocation center which will serve as the new home court for our basketball and volleyball programs. The next House that Roars. Kerm Stroh and his wife, Mary Lou and their entire family are great people. I’ve met many of them, consider some of them friends… and I have to say, I’m not at all surprised by this gift.

A few years ago, I was up in the press box area of Anderson Arena talking to Todd Walker before a basketball game. Kerm was up there and knew who I was. He started asking questions about what it costs to run ay-ziggy-zoomba.com and if there was any way he could help. He hinted at buying me a server if I wanted/needed it… I turned him down, but what a generous offer from a man I’d never met.

I started thinking yesterday, if I had $8 million dollars I could give away, what would I do with it? I’d do exactly what Kerm and the Stroh family have done. That’s what makes this so amazing… they’re US… They’re Falcon die-hards! I see them at all the games, home and away, that I get to. I’ve seen them there forever. They’re Falcon fans…

I truly think this gift came at the most opportune time. I think we’re on the cusp of something big here at BGSU with our mens basketball program. I don’t think this gift would have had the same impact had it been made a year ago. I think the program is in a completely different spot and moving in a completely different direction than it was 12 months ago. The status quo wasn’t working. Change brings more change and the snowball is now rolling down the hill at the golf course.
Something big is happening. Maybe not this season, but we’re on the verge. I’ve never been more excited to be a Falcon… I’ve been living and breathing BGSU Men’s Basketball for over 30 years now and I’ve never been more excited.

Thank you to the whole Stroh family and everyone in the administration at BGSU who worked to make this happen. Things are happening. I can feel it.

No Comments »

Giving a break for the Presidents Day holiday - if they can’t deliver mail because of George Washington’s alleged birthday, I can’t hardly expect them to fly a flag. Although I suppose that might have been part of Carty’s plan… fly it on Saturday-Friday this week, and get 3 days with no one seeing it grace the Toledo “skyline”.

Meanwhile, BG’s hoops team is now 0-2 while Flag Watch continues. Clearly, this issue is affecting the team’s play on the court. Also possibly one of Fink(beiner)’s evil plots. Who could expect a team to not foul the short white kid shooting a 3 pointer in the waning moments of a one point game? Or get off the bus in Athens?

This cannot continue! Call your congressman! Call your mayor!* Call your town sheriff! We want the flag raised! We NEED the flag raised!

(*-If you’re a Toledo resident, you may skip the mayor and continue to the town sheriff.)

No Comments »

Welcome to day three. Still no flag at Government Center in Toledo. While the lucky undercover operative will be away from downtown Toledo on Thursday, I have no doubt that others will step up to monitor the situation as we enter the fourth day of flag-free City Hall.

(One thing is for sure, I won’t be contacting Carty Finkbeiner’s spokesman to ask about the flag.)

Also, as a bonus, the informant sent along this link to an editorial about Carty’s latest woes. (Most likely regarding the Marines training deal, but we all know the absence of the BG flag is the real issue here.)

No Comments »

From the undercover operative, who is apparently all about leaking his information to other outlets:

Still no picture of the BGSU flag. No, I’m not going up to Carty’s office to find it.

I believe we’re within 24 hours of hostile activity. “A stink”, if you will. And apparently, an inside operation into the mayor’s office is out of the question. (See above.)

So here’s the proposal. Every day the flag goes unflown on it’s 7-day excursion into the bowels of Northwest Ohio, we tack on a week. If it’s not flying by noon Monday, Carty’s dog gets a BGSU collar to parade around Government Center.

Mayor Quinn, make it happen.

No Comments »

Thanks to a 4-3 loss to Bowling Green Mayor John Quinn in a free throw shooting contest during halftime of BG’s **WIN** Sunday over rival Toledo, there is supposed to be a BGSU flag flying in front of One Government Center in downtown Toledo, home of Toledo’s City Hall and Mayor Carty Finkbeiner (also known as “How To Run A City Like A Circus…And Get Re-elected”).

However, thanks to an e-mail from an operative close to the situation, Monday passed with no flag:

I will gladly send you a picture of the BGSU flag flying over Government Center as soon as it happens. As of this afternoon at 4:15, NO flag.

Technically, I don’t know if anyone knows the terms of the deal, other than the flag was to fly “for one week”. But what we do know is that the flag exchanged hands on Sunday, and it’s not in place as of yet.

We’ll keep you posted.

No Comments »

When I started to write this, I had to dig a little to make sure I didn’t miss anything I wanted to say. To the college football world, Larry Smith is a former coach at Arizona, USC and Missouri, and a Hall of Fame coach at that. But to fellow Falcons, he’s one of us.

He grew up in Van Wert before heading to the U.S. Military Academy for college. Deciding he wanted to get into coaching, he transferred to BG. As a sophomore, he was part of a national championship, even though he was the last player in the last row of the team picture. The next year, Smith was named honorable mention All-Ohio by the UPI at end, and as a senior, he was named a team captain (not to mention front and center in the team picture) as the Falcons won their third MAC title.

As a lineman, his name doesn’t pepper the record books like so many other BG greats, but he’s just as accomplished as any of his teammates, if not more so. In fact, he’s not even the only “Larry Smith” on the all-time roster. His namesake put on the Brown and Orange four years after he graduated in 1962.

(Although, Smith did return to BG to earn a master’s degree in 1967. Coincidence?)

Media outlets from around his coaching stops have lengthy obituaries about their former coach, all mention Bowling Green, some in the Los Angeles area refer to the 1959 championship. The official athletic site at BG borrowed one of those obituaries, as did The Blade, though I hope in both cases, as the days pass, they write a more BG-centric story. Maureen Fulton at The Blade did a great “In Their Own Words” story a couple years back ($2.95 through the paper’s archive search), so I know there is a lot of information there.

He’s a member of the BG Athletic Hall of Fame (it’s on me to write up a bio for him still), and was on the field coaching Mizzou when Gary Blackney led the Falcons to a 17-10 win on September 9, 1995 (a game which I broadcast for WBGU and still have on tape somewhere). Smith got his revenge and a little more three years later, blanking a much different BG squad, 37-0.

It’s stories like Larry Smith’s that I set out to tell when I started BGSUsports.com almost three years ago, the Falcons that did great things, but didn’t necessarily get the headlines. It’s a fun project, but always a little sad when one passes away.

Roll along #83!

1 Comment »

So. That was a little less than pleasant.

Short of running play “EMU 24 Turbo Left” (you know, the one where we line up with trips to the right, send the RB in motion and have the QB drop back, gift wrap the ball and place it on our goal line and slowly walk away), BG did what they could to give away the GMAC Bowl, and with flying colors.

It was unpleasant, and there are issues that may be better discussed at an even later date (even two full days of forgetfulness doesn’t feel like it’s enough to get an emotion-free post), but it’s only fair to document it.

For the record, I’m in the “horrible aberration” camp. BG came out knowing they would be in a dogfight with Tulsa, and after a couple unfortunate accidents (I have a hard time blaming Freddie Barnes for dropping a pass he never appeared to have much of a handle on and having it ruled a fumble as he was hit), the Falcons were in full-on press mode, trying to make up for lost ground. Like the Barnes play, I always have a hard time getting mad at players who make “errors of effort”, like Anthony Turner (remember him, the one that took a position change and carried us through November?) coughing it up on a dive to the goal line.

And the 4th and 2 from the 3 that went incomplete? I questioned parts of it as it happened, but quickly recognized it. It was a mirror image of the “awesome play call” that picked up the winning two-point conversion at Minnesota at the start of the year. Just didn’t go this time. In fact, aside from an odd reliance on a Turner-free running game, even down a couple scores, the only play call I wasn’t huge on was the ever-popular draw play from 5 yards deep on 4th and a foot.

(Not including, of course, Tulsa’s choice of playcalls down the stretch, with their starting quarterback throwing at will up 49. They say they had their reasons, I still think their reasons border on classless, but then again, my team lost by 56.)

I already said more than I planned in this post, but I’m not ruling out more thoughts later.

But for now…how about that hockey team?

No Comments »

The hockey team put up a valiant effort before falling to Miami(OH), so the weekend won’t be as perfect as previously suggested, but the men’s hoops team beating Ohio was pretty awesome and we have dessert yet to come.

I mentioned at AZZ.com, but can’t believe I missed it here, but Bowling Green’s eighth bowl appearance comes on what would have been Doyt Perry’s 98th birthday. Happy birthday Coach, and if you can find some time to help out your beloved Orange and Brown, it would be much appreciated!

GO BG!

No Comments »

Remember a couple months (and about four posts) ago when we had a near-perfect weekend for BG athletics? Well, we’re 1/5 of the way through another that would make the first one look like an early season win over Urbana.

Last night, the hockey team dominated (then held on. Whew!) #1 Miami(OH) at the BG Ice Arena. They go back at it tonight, and while BG can probably expect to see a completely different (and desperate) team coming at them, a win to sweep the RedskinHawks might just seal the best weekend in Falcon hockey in 15 or more years. (The last win over a #1 team was 1993, I can’t imagine the last time they swept #1 over a weekend.)

But wait, there’s more. The women’s hoops team is currently up 17 on Chicago State (after seeing a 24-point lead dwindle before halftime) in an appetizer before the real fun begins. Or so we hope. The men open MAC play against Ohio at 4pm, and a win over a strong Bobcats team would be incredible. By all accounts, the guys were a bushel basket of turnovers away from being even more in a game against a tough Duquesne than they already were (they fought back to within four or five before losing it down the stretch, and watching the margin expand with free throws). Not saying they can click their heels and make turnovers go away, but if they can limit them, they might have a shot to beat OU, and send a throng of cocky Bobcat fans home with their tails between their legs.

Of course, after the second half of the hockey series Saturday night, the day we’ve been waiting for since we started turning things around in November has arrived. BG vs. Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl. The more I think about how strong Tulsa’s offense is, the more I think about how our defense stepped up against Toledo and shut down a Rocket offense that had been clicking through November.

And how.

Even though BG didn’t play for a MAC Championship, they were clearly one of the best teams (and CMU got awfully wishy-washy after locking up the MAC West) in the conference during the last four weeks, and make a damn fine bowl representative. Some grade/discipline-related issues thin the ranks a little in some key spots, but if we’ve learned anything with this team, it’s to never count them out.

A liveblog from afar might not be out of the question. GO BG!

No Comments »