Day 74: John Alex

No golf for me this year


A couple of quick updates from Bruce Wood over at the Big Green Alert:

"1) Long a fixture of early August, the Ivy League preseason football media day is now a thing of the past. At least for this year.

Instead of the annual lunch-and-golf gathering at Yale Golf Club, the Ivy League will conduct a teleconference early next month."

This actually works well for me, as I will not have to take a day off from work to travel to the event. Hopefully, the teleconference will yield some interesting news in addition to the announcement of the preseason media predictions for he final standings.


"2)The Big Green have added an opponent for the 2010 and 2011 seasons
with Sacred Heart University. Dartmouth will host the Pioneers for the 2010 season before playing the following season in Fairfield, Conn. Sacred Heart replaces the University of New Hampshire on the schedule."

An interesting, but probably sad development for a lot of football fans in New Hampshire who loved seeing the annual in-state rivalry. But facts are facts, and UNH is moving closer to becoming a BCS program and this contest hasn't been competitive for a long time.

Bruce Wood reported a few weeks back that Columbia may replace Dartmouth on UNH's schedule, but I have not heard any confirmation of that and I think everyone around the league is considering that a long shot.


Linebacker of the Day


The best things come to those who wait.

And John Alex '89 learned that lesson well during his years at Columbia.

The highly skilled linebacker came to Columbia in 1985 from Overland Park, Kansas at a time when the Lion program was at the bottom and seemed like it could sink no further.

But it did.

Three years later, Alex was beginning his senior season with the real possibility of going through his entire varsity career without a win.

He had to know it could happen, his linebacking mentor Matt Sodl '88 had just graduated suffering that very fate.

Alex made his best efforts, especially in his junior year, to stop the slide. He had 12 tackles in the near upset against Brown late in the season before the refs blew a fumble call that sealed the win for the Bears.

But after grabbing a spot on the Honorable Mention All Ivy team in 1987, John Alex took the leadership role as captain of a team entering the season with a 41-game losing streak.

The Lions stumbled through the first two games in '88, before sorely testing eventual co-champion Penn at Franklin Field.

Then came the big win against Princeton on Homecoming and the wild celebration that ensued. Even though he was not a super star contributor in that particular game, everyone knew Alex was a big reason for the win.

Columbia got one more win that season, and the fact that it was the final game of John Alex's career made it all the sweeter.