Day 80: Honors for Jackie & Remembering Rory
Jackie Blackett (CREDIT: Columbia Athletics)
In all my years of interacting with Columbia's athletic department, no one has been more warm and welcoming than Associate Athletics Director Jackie Blackett.
And in all my conversations with Columbia athletes and their families, all I ever hear are nice words about Jackie.
So I was very happy to see that she is being named the Jostens Administrator of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision.
I think I can speak for all the readers here when I send my congratulations to Jackie.
Speaking of administrators, the Ivy League's new Executive Director officially took over today. We wish Robin Harris good luck and the wisdom with which to make the best decisions for our league.
Rory Wilfork (CREDIT: Columbia Athletics)
100 Players in 100 Days: The Linebackers
Moving from the defensive backfield to the linebacking corps, I'd like to focus on 10 memorable Lion linebackers in the next 10 days beginning with the great Rory Wilfork '97.
Wilfork came to Columbia from Miami with good football blood flowing in his veins. His dad Roy was star linebacker for Mississippi Valley State and played with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969 and 1970.
As a freshman in 1993, he was among the first Ivy League footballers to be allowed to play for the varsity as a freshman. He made a bit of a splash in week 9 with a big tackle to help preserve a 29-24 win over Cornell in Ithaca.
But Wilfork broke out big time as a soph in the 1994 season. He exploded for 127 tackles, 16 of them for a loss. He was an easy choice for 1st Team All Ivy as the Lions posted their first winning season in 23 years.
Wilfork's presence on and off the field were good enough to earn a spot as co-captain of the team as a junior in 1995; he was the first junior captain in 59 years at Columbia. The 1995 season was really a testament to Wilfork, as fellow star Marcellus Wiley sat out the season. That put a huge degree of the defensive pressure on Wilfork and he responded with 141 tackles!
With Wiley back in the fold in 1996, Wilfork could "relax" as a senior as he posted 103 tackles and 15 for a loss in that final season.
When he was done, Wilfork would be named as a 1st Team All Ivy member all three of his final years, only the 13th player in Ivy history at the time to achieve that feat.
What set Wilfork apart was his speed, the kind of speed that current standout linebacker Alex Gross exhibits, but Wilfork was just as fast and with more size on him.
Rory Wilfork is now a managing director at Goldman Sachs.
posted by Jake @ 8:29:00 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
How does Wilfork compare with the tackling machine, Chris Zingo, of Cornell.
In my humble opinion, Zingo was the best LB in Ivy history.
i think isaiah kacyvenski might argue that.
IK was indeed quite good.
Zingo's tackling ability was amazing. Christopher Zingo Class of 1994
Induction Class of 2004
Football
. . . He was named to the ECAC I-AA first team in 1993, after leading the ECAC in total tackles with 173. He set Cornell records for most tackles in a game (27 at Brown in 1991), in a season (179 in 1992) and in a career (512), and career sacks (18). He became the first Cornell player to have over 500 tackles in a career. He had double-digit tackles in every outing, and he had 20 or more tackles in a game 11 times, averaging 17.1 tackles per contest in 30 contests over his three years.
as a stat, tackles are over-rated. there are plenty of reasons for a high number of tackles, and different statisticians/coaches award tackles differently. schemes and weaknesses can create a lot of opportunitities for tackles as well.
while the pure tackling comparison between the two might be up for debate, your statement "zingo was the best LB in Ivy history" would undoubtably include more than just the ability to tackle. kacyvenski was all over the field(as evidenced by his 11 career ints), made every tackle he had to, and was an absolute force.
Jake, not sure the importance of people like Jackie Blackett and Diane Murphy to C U recruiting is given enough acknowledgement. As I indicated in our interview in July 2007, the passion for Columbia athletics shown by Jackie during recruiting visit really helped seal the deal for Drew. Congrats to Jackie and if you read this keep that passion. THE LIONS WILL ROAR AGAIN.
Ed Quinn
Zingo was good, but Wilfork was better. As a GS MD, he is also probalby the richest former LB of the last 20 years.
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