Sentimental Journey

Check out the Miss Bellows Falls Diner... and tell 'em Jake sent ya!


If you're like me, you wonder from time to time whatever became of some of Columbia's football coaches of the past. I was finally able to find out that former Head Coach Larry McElreavy is now running a diner in Vermont. If you click on the link to the left and explore the site, you can find some info on McElreavy's days at CU, but there's more real info on the actual diner in this article.

My map-reading skills can be spotty, but it looks like the diner is pretty much right on the way from my house to Dartmouth, so maybe I'll try to drop in for the all-you-can-eat fish fry on the Friday night before the game against the Big Green on October 20th, (seriously). Based on the stuff I see on the web site, McElreavy probably won't kill me at the first mention of "Columbia" out of my lips. It looks like he's at peace with it.

In all fairness, I thought McElreavy had Columbia moving in the right direction by the time he finished his final season in 1988. An ugly personal incident brought about his downfall, and Ray Tellier succeeded him and eventually did quite well... but I'd always wondered what happened to Coach Larry. Well, now I know.

Running a diner in a small Vermont town, (is there any other kind?), is about as far as you can get from coaching football at any level in New York... or is it? From what I've heard about the restaurant business, it can be pretty brutal in every way.

Speaking of Eating...

We now know just a little bit more about the Chipotle event for Columbia Athletics on Wednesday. Coach Joe Jones is now also scheduled to be there. Check it out and save some good stuff for me.

Tad's Turnaround

It looks more and more like Tad Crawford will be on the field at Rogers Centre this Thursday night in the CFL regular season opener against the Toronto Argos. BC released another four players this weekend, and Crawford was not one of them.

What's interesting to me is that Tad will be playing pro football with a remarkably short turnaround, (about 7 months), from the day of his last game for Columbia in November. Even NFL players who participate in January bowl games have about 9 months between competitive games.

And when you consider that Crawford was only drafted last month... he's had precious little time to adjust to the CFL and the BC Lions system. It may take some time for him to really get used to it all, but luckily the CFL regular season is very long and he'll have time.

The life of a safety in the CFL must be pretty rough as the 3-down rule makes for a lot more passing. I'm glad Tad is a young man, just watching him run all over the field will probably make me feel old.


Columbia's "Pouncing Lion" Helmet


Helmets!

For the Columbia football fan/collector who already has everything and a wife who doesn't mind more junk in the house, there is the selection of replica Columbia team helmets, (or are they mini-helmets?... I'm really not sure), at myteamspirit.com. If I had my choice, I'd buy the "pouncing lion" helmet from the 70's and maybe the "03 special" helmet which was the headgear the Lions wore in the homecoming loss to Penn that season. It's actually a replica of the helmets the team wore in the late 50's/early 60's, including the 1961 championship season.

Tomorrow, I'll host a little discussion, (or monologue if no one comments), on my favorite and least favorite helmets throughout the Ivies.

How it Works...

The details of how one good student who wanted to play Ivy football, (albeit at Penn), are explained in this article. I assume this is how it goes at the other Ivies too.

Delgadillo Update

Yesterday I wrote about how L.A. City attorney Rocky Delgadillo and how he falsely claimed to have gone to Harvard on a football scholarship, (there are no athletic scholarships in the Ivies of course), and made All-American. But we should not take everything away from Mr. Delgadillo, as he was indeed an All-Ivy defensive back for the 7-3 (4-3 Ivy) Crimson in 1980 and again for the 1981 Crimson who finished 5-4-1 and 4-2-1 in the Ivies. But the only All-American during his playing days was Yale running back Rich Diana. Why Rocky couldn't be satisfied with just claiming to be a rare 2-time All-Ivy player is beyond me.

Pranks!

Remember the "we suck" prank the Yalies pulled on the Crimson faithful at Harvard Stadium in 2004? The writers of this editorial. do too and they compare it to some of the much more nefarious graduation pranks going on around the country this month.