On the Road... to Baker Field

If he played ball as well as he wrote... nevermind

On a literary note... a lot of folks are planning to do special things for the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road this year. I have an idea: why not come to a few Columbia football games?

Kerouac probably would never have written that book had he not come to Columbia... and he would never have come to Columbia if it weren't for football.

Yes, Kerouac was recruited to play ball for the Lions by legendary Coach Lou Little. He never got out of freshman football, but it's always a good trivia question. Come to think of it, he never graduate Columbia either... but we can't hold that against him.


Tyler Duffy's interview is worth reading (CREDIT: Columbia Athletics Dept.)

The mini-interviews series with CU athletes on the GoColumbiaLions.com web site, "On the Prowl," has a nice little talk with rising junior Tyler Duffy. Tyler had a good spring, (scoring a TD off a fumble recovery in the spring game was the highlight), so his is a good voice to hear.




Stormont, Evangelist, Sanford & Walcker all hail from the great state of Minnesota

And there's a nice little mention of incoming frosh Joe Stormont in his hometown paper, The Stillwater Gazette. Joe's slated to play in the Minnesota state high school all-star game on June 30th.



Burritos: The gift that just keeps on giving

The very popular Columbia blog, Bwog.net, has news of a new Chipotle franchise coming to Morningside Heights. And in the chain's infinite wisdom, it's doing a fundraiser for CU athletics! It would be great if more of the local businesses on upper Broadway go into this spirit when it comes to the Columbia teams. Since Columbia holds all their leases and can often decide "the neighborhood needs a change," it could help everyone to show a little more school spirit.

This season, I'd like to see the local eateries and watering holes go a little further than the "1/2 off a sandwich" deal and actually put football posters in the windows, team portraits on the walls, and some healthy competition to win the title of biggest supporter of the CU teams. On gamedays, the bagel places should have a special on bagels and spreads you can bring to the picnic area. On nights after the team wins, there should be free pitchers with your game ticket stub, etc.

It'd be nice to see some inkling of team support in Morningside Heights and beyond in NYC.