Campbell to Cupertino?

Bill Campbell



With Steve Jobs announcing his decision to step down for at least six months due to medical reasons, speculation is running rampant about who will take over as CEO. One leading Apple analyst says Columbia Board of Trustees Chairman and former football great Bill Campbell is a good bet.

The fact that one of the world's leading companies would look to Campbell in its desperate hour speaks volumes about the man. He deserves congratulations even if it doesn't happen.


"Women Have to Work Harder"

Columbia athletic director Dianne Murphy is quoted prominently in the lates issue of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Most of the readers here know that I'm not exactly a bleeding heart type, but Dr. Murphy makes an excellent point when she says: "athletics is one of the last bastions of male dominance," and, "Women have to work harder."

No doubt they do. I do have to say that whatever successes or failures Murphy has had in her tenure at Columbia, at least I don't see her gender playing a role in either. I haven't heard even the harshest critic, (of which there seem to be very few anyway), say gender was a factor. But being a woman AD is just not easy.

Speaking of female AD's, Dartmouth's AD Josie Harper has announced she is stepping down. She oversaw some major improvements to Dartmouth's physical plant, even as the football and basketball teams declined overall.



Gehrig in his Columbia days


Hollander's Story

Now back to history and we look at page 5 of the 1961 Columbia-Penn game program and the historical piece written by legendary sports writer and historian Zander Hollander. The topic was the 1922 Columbia-NYU game played right on the Columbia campus on South Field. One of the Lions stars in the game was Lou Gehrig, but he was ejected just minutes into the game for slugging the NYU quarterback.

The game was one of the controversial sporting events of the 1920's, and not because of Gehrig's ejection. NYU was awarded an early TD when the Violets blocked a punt and fell on the loose ball... but the ball had already bounced out of the end zone. It should have been a safety, but at the time the score was 7-0, NYU. Columbia only scored 6 points in the game and the final on the field was 7-6 in favor of the Violets.

A DAY LATER, the ref admitted his mistake and the final score was amended to 6-2 in favor of Columbia. NYU never accepted the revised score.

Hollander's writing is great and fun, even though he's recounting historical events not many fans could have remembered in 1961, (however, I realize that in 1961, 1922 was 39 years in the past while in 2009, 1961 is 48 years ago!).

I hope to find more articles by Hollander in other vintage Columbia programs.