Draft Results

David Howard

Brown's David Howard was the lone Ivy player chosen in the NFL draft, (7th round, Tennessee Titans).

Howard had a good track record against Columbia in his three games against the Lions.

In 2007 he recorded just one tackle, but it was a tackle for a four-yard loss. Brown won that wild game at Wien Stadium, 30-22.

In the 2008 41-10 Bear rout, Howard had his best game overall against Columbia with two sacks, another shared tackle for a loss and three quarterback "hurries."

Last year, Howard did well with six overall tackles with another 2.5 for a loss.

But you'll recall Howard had some questionable problems this past offseason when he was convicted of simple assault connected with his work as a bouncer. Compared to what so many NFL draftees have on their records, this is nothing.

Five other Ivy players signed free agent contracts yesterday. Three of them were from Brown: Bobby Sewall, Buddy Farnharm and James Develin. Cornell's Bryan Walters and Penn's Jake Lewko also penned deals. Lewko and Sewell join Howard with the Titans, Walters joins the Chargers, Develin goes from Brown to the Browns, and Farnham went to the Bucs.




John Skelton


The other familiar foe for Lions fans who was drafted this weekend was Fordham's John Skelton.

Skelton went pretty high: 5th round for the Arizona Cardinals. Last month, I wrote about Skelton's mixed record against Columbia... including the two TD passes he threw to the Lions' Drew Quinn!






Overall, 19 FCS, (formally Division I-AA), players were drafted this year. But my favorite draft pick from a non BCS-type school has to be Hillsdale College's Jared Veldheer. Hillsdale is a very conservative Division-II school in Michigan that is very popular among parents who want to send their kids to a college that isn't about partying or hating America. It was actually the first college in America to impose a non-discriminatory admissions policy based on race or religion, etc.


**UPDATE**

#50 Josh Smith's dad has written to tell me that Smith was a high school teammate of Veldheer's at Forest Hills Northern HS. Very, very cool!



Judie Lomax draws another double team


Speaking of going pro, congratulations to Columbia women's basketball star Judie Lomax, who will try to break onto the WNBA Connecticut Sun's roster. Judie is probably the greatest Lion woman basketball player ever and we will miss her. She had an option to return for one more season, but that would have required some juggling as she only had one academic semester left to graduate. We wish her the best of luck.





And continued best wishes also go to the baseball team as it heads into the final four games of the season with a two-game lead in the Lou Gehrig Division. The Lions lead Penn by those two games and the final four games are, of course, against Penn. The home-and-home double set of two doubleheaders begins in Philly on Friday. Two wins in that four game set would clinch the division for Columbia and a spot in the Ivy League Championship Series, most likely against Brown or Dartmouth. The Lions beat Dartmouth for the league title in 2008.