Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Ain't It Great...To Be..A Miami Hurricane

When the Man Pictured, Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports comes knocking on your door, You best get out of town.

In about 1994 I told my oldest son that I would love to take him to a real stadium, Sun Devil Stadium, to see a game on a real grass field instead of this damn Astrodome. The opportunity finally presented itself, Miami was playing the University of Arizona at Sun Devil Stadium for the Fiesta Bowl. Being a Miami Alum, I hadn't been to a Hurricanes game in over 20 years. Plus, I grew up in Sun Devil Stadium, going back to when it held on 30 thousand people. My dad played for the Sun Devils and I was a brainwashed Wildcat hating Sun Devil fan (since then I have come to realize being a rabid fan is mostly BS).

During my visit to Phoenix, I paid a visit to the hotel the Canes were staying at to see a good friend, the late great Sonny Hirsch, the voice of the Canes and the funniest guy in the world. I was at Sonny's show, and it was the greatest. While at the hotel, I noticed the lack of control and how the football players were running around wild. Oh well, its a Bowl Game and kids will be kids. A friend said his wife was going to the Hurricane Club party that night and would I like to come. Since I never went, I agreed.

To my dismay, at the party, the same cheerleader that was legendary at Miami when I was there, was introduced as "the Mouth of the South" and did the same old tired cheers we used to have at our games. Ain't it great, to be, a Miami Hurrr AH Cane as well as a bunch of mumbo jumbo being yelled out to our unofficial fight song, "The Land of 1000 Dances". I left after about a half hour of bad memories. The next day I saw the perpetrators in sombreros under a souvenir stand with severe hangovers. The thing that really stood out was the old people with money that were escorting the players. I guess if you can't do much of anything for kicks anymore, you can always buy some friendship with a young athlete who is probably broke.

Athletes on a boat in Miami? Are you kidding! Any jock in the school could get invited to go on a boat. This is Miami and they were everywhere. Just go over to a frat house and someone will eventually ask you. Good looking women and cocktails. Miami is not exactly some Midwestern outpost where the women are eating bon bons all winter, dressing like Eskimos and putting on an extra 40 to 50 pounds. (As a side note, it cracks me up when these snowbound schools are rated in the top 25 in the party ratings. Although, it is probably so miserable when you don't see the sun for 9 straight months, being an alcoholic is maybe a good alternative. Hey lets go skinny dipping in the lake. Its a warm 10 above zero.)

Many of us got invited on boats. In fact, one time our guys didn't go and the boat capsized and mangled a really good guys leg and dumped the passengers in a bed of Man O Wars. So partying on boats has always been a Miami staple.

Charles Robinson does monumental research. His graveyard tombstones include, USC, Jim Tressel, North Carolina and more. The difference with Miami is this is a number one booster. Ohio State's booster was a 3rd tier booster. Miami had a ton of players on this deal, USC and Ohio State only a few. Former Miami AD and AD while some of this went down, Paul Dees, laid it on big and showed no mercy for USC in his role in advising the NCAA. Now the tables are turned on the program he ran. What will justice bring?

I hope this is all a lie. Shapiro is after all a professional liar. You have to be a very exceptional liar to embezzle people out of 900 MILLION DOLLARS. Still, I saw people in pictures I know. Pete Carol never hung with Reggie Bush's bagman and posed for a picture. Yet the head Basketball Coach and University President posed with Shapiro. This is just way too wierd. He said they knew. They were paid off and used his money for a student lounge and to recruit a player.

Why is it always the little Napoleonic complex guys, the midgets, that want to hang with the jocks? What's so special about being with someone that you have to buy their friendship? Most College kids will accept booze and boat rides. Bill Russell had it correct when he wouldn't sign autographs. He said kids should ask for their parents autographs. Bill Russell was right.

I have received opinions all day about this from my former team mates. I will put them out in a later post. They show no mercy to our school. Miami is not alone, but it is a place that can take craziness to the next level due to the unique sun soaked atmosphere.

Yesterday my Miami hat came in from Amazon. I decided to buy it because a real hero, Will Allen, the captain of our/my basketball team, is always wearing that hat. Will was our first Afro American basketball player at Miami. He is a difference maker (www.growingpower.org). He is feeding the poor of Nations, speaking at big universities and addressing the concerns of organic healthy food and making it available in blighted neighborhoods and third world countries. I want to end this on a good note. So, when you think of Miami, put Will Allen in your search engine and read about someone who was a really special Hurricane.

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