Columbia Football

Chris Carey in 2001


Just a little bit of news again today before we continue with the countdown:

1) The real recruiting highlight of the year is just two days away. Columbia's football camp for high school students is at Wien Stadium this Friday and Saturday. A big number of incoming freshmen started participating in these camps when Coach Wilson came to Columbia. This is where we find and truly test our future stars.


2) Two big questions on two other Ivy teams are still unanswered. Harvard to LSU and then back to Harvard QB Andrew Hatch is still not on the roster for the Crimson. With 73 days until kickoff, one has wonder when the cutoff date would be for someone who has already been back on campus for months.

The other big transfer, Stanford's Fred Craig, is still expected to join the Penn Quakers, but his name is also not yet on Penn's roster. I will keep checking.


3) One thing I neglected to mention about Dartmouth yesterday is that the Big Green are pushing back the start times for most of their home games to 1:30 pm. This might allow me to stay home on the Friday night before the game and then hit the road at about 6:30 am on game day. It's another night at home, which is nice...but it also means returning home at about 10:00 or 10:30 on Saturday night. I'll have to weigh this one as will some of the CU fans who plan to make the trip in week 6.


Captain Carey

It seems like linebackers have become a font for underclassmen captains at Columbia in recent years. First Rory Wilfork in 1995, then Drew Quinn in 2007, and in between them we had middle linebacker Chris Carey '04 who was elected captain for both 2002 and then 2003.

Carey was a shoo-in for the job after recording 102 tackles in his sophomore year, third-highest in the league for 2001. 80 of those stops came when he posted double figures in six consecutive games against Lafayette, Penn, Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, and Cornell.

Carey came to Columbia from New Jersey's Pingry School, and he had a lot of Ivy football pedigree from day one.

Carey’s grandfather Bill attended Columbia and commuted from Connecticut for classes. His uncle Max was a star cornerback and kick returner for the Lions, setting several records as a returner in the mid- to late-1960s.

Carey’s father, Chris Sr., wrestled for Princeton in the 1970s.

Carey was a big part of the exciting 2003 season for the Lions, but only for half of it. A concussion kept him out of the lineup for the second half of the season. But before that, he was a big contributor in the heart-stopping 33-27 Hail Mary win over Princeton at Princeton Stadium. That had to be a mixed emotional night for the family.

Something tells me that game is Carey's No. 1 college football memory.

But I could be wrong.

Coach Galen Snyder


First off today, make sure you check out the GoColumbiaLions.com Web site and see the "splash page" that hawks football season tickets.

The page features a good shot of QB Millie Olawale, Roar-EE, and some students in full light blue body paint. (By the way, I never did the full body paint thing...but you have to respect the kids who do, as long as they are indeed below the age of 30 and 250 or so pounds).


Today's memorable linebacker I'd like to recognize is Galen Snyder '91, who came to Columbia as a transfer from Duke University. During the first two seasons of head coach Ray Tellier's tenure, Snyder was the anchor of the defense and showed signs of being a good motivator and future coach.

The Lions won only two games in Snyder's two varsity seasons of 1989 and 1990, but Snyder had so many standout games that he was named to the All-Ivy second team in '89 and the first team in 1990.

Unbelievable tackle totals were Snyder's calling card.

In a 27-12 loss to Bucknell at Wien Stadium in 1989, Snyder was a part of an incredible 35 tackles. No, that's not a misprint, it was 35 tackles in one game!

In a close loss at Penn in 1990, Snyder had 18 tackles.

Snyder was elected team captain before that 1990 season, and he has continued that legacy as a team leader. Snyder currently is the head football coach at his alma mater of Pennsbury High School outside of Philadelphia.

None of Coach Snyder's recent grads are playing ball in the Ivies, but there must be no hard feelings at Bucknell over his efforts in the 1989 game because one of his players is now with the Bison.

The author and Matt Sodl, April 2008

Matt Sodl '88 played his heart out during his four years at Columbia, and despite going 0-10 in his senior season, he was named to the All-Ivy First Team in 1987.

Once again, there's not much valuable that I could add now to an interview I did of today's subject, so here it is reprinted below:


Matt Sodl (No. 65) Makes a Tackle


Longtime readers of this blog are familiar with my special admiration for the seniors on the 1987 Columbia Lions football team.

They stuck with the team and worked hard, despite compiling an 0-30 record during their three-year varsity careers, (freshmen were not eligible to play varsity ball back then). Eleven players from that '87 team stayed with the program all four years.



The 1984 Lion Cubs, Matt Sodl, No. 65, is in front


One of the best players on that team and the strongest was defensive tackle Matt Sodl. Matt came to Columbia in 1984 from rural Pennsylvania and made an immediate impact on the freshman team. By his sophomore season, he was starting at nose tackle, recording 59 tackles and three sacks.

But as a senior in 1987, Sodl truly broke out as a first-team All-Ivy player (unanimous selection), with 84 tackles, 5.5 sacks and 10 tackles for a loss.

During Matt's 0-30 varsity run, not many of the games were close. But two of the last three games of his career became some the most excruciating losses in Lion history.

Leading at home against Dartmouth by a 10-9 score, the Big Green pulled out a late FG to take the 12-10 lead, only to see the Lions return the ensuing kick-off very close to field goal territory.

Columbia indeed got into position to try the winning field goal, but it went just wide, (after a five-yard false start on the first attempt...of course, the actual kick hooked just about five yards from the goal post).

Two weeks later against Brown in Providence, a late Bear fumble was nullified by the officials in one of the worst calls in Ivy football history. Brown kept the ball and went in for the winning score in a 19-16 season-ending win.

But Matt Sodl is proud to have played on this team and for Columbia. And he remains a very strong supporter of Columbia football in many ways.

Today Matt is now Managing Director and Co-Founder of Innovation Capital, where he runs the investment banking firm that has a specialty in the gaming, hospitality, and entertainment industries.

Matt is often quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek and the Las Vegas Sun and was named to Investor Dealers' Digest's "40 under 40" list in 2006.

Most importantly, he recently appeared as a guest on FOX Business Network.

Matt was good enough to do an interview for ROAR LIONS ROAR.



Jake: Tell us about where you grew up. Football was obviously a big part of life in that part of Pennsylvania, but how many guys thought about going to the Ivies to play ball?

Matt: I attended Whitehall High School, which is located in a farm community just outside of Allentown, Pa. The school is best known for its famous alum Matt Millen who grew up down the road from my neighborhood.

The Ivy League certainly wasn't in the mindset of any of us growing up. All we heard about was Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia, and Notre Dame.

Our high school football program was populated with several Parade All-American players who played at these schools.

I remember Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden, and Bo Schembechler visiting our school, walking through our weight room...I think you get the point.

Most of my teammates were focused on playing for Division 1-A schools. Of the 17 seniors in my class, I believe 13 of our players went to play football at a Division 1-A or 1-AA school.

J: Give us some highlights of your high school career on and off the field.

M: Our high school team was all about winning...competing against the largest schools in the state of Pennsylvania. We lost three games in four years. We had some phenomenal athletes who could really play the game.

I played defensive line, was a two-year starter and earned All-State honors my senior season.

In the off-season, we lifted weights year-round and actually competed as a powerlifting team, (comprised of nearly all offensive and defensive linemen), where we won the Pennsylvania state championships several years in a row.

The off-season weight training program was ahead of its time. The offensive line coach expected all of the football players to lift weights year-round...beginning the Monday after Thanksgiving (right after our last game), and up and through summer camp.

It was here in high school, thanks to my coach, John Bendekovitz, that I learned the type of work ethic and dedication that it takes to compete and win.

J: How did you come to Columbia? Who recruited you and what was the recruitment process like?

M: The recruiting process at our school was interesting. When the Division 1-A schools looked at our game film, they mostly were focused on my teammate Chris Parker, who was a 6-7, 290-pound defensive lineman who played next to me.

Parker went on to be a Parade All-American and star at WVU. My 5-10, 220-pound frame obviously didn't excite the Division 1-A schools. A number of Division 1AA schools from the Ivy League and Patriot League recruited me.

That was when I met Jim Benedict, Columbia's Freshman Coach at the time. He met with me in our guidance counselor's office and literally unveiled a model of the Wein Stadium.

He said the stadium was under construction, that they were playing games in Giants Stadium and invited me for an official visit. Benedict was a class act and on my visit did all he could to keep my parents calm.

As you can imagine, the initial idea of their son living in New York City didn't sit too well my parents who had lived their lives in a small farm community in eastern Pennsylvania.

Ultimately, I focused on the long-term and felt that an Ivy League education would create many more opportunities for me down the road as opposed to a Patriot League school.

In my business today, I don’t come across too many Patriot football alums. But I run across Ivy League football alums all the time.

J: What do you remember about your first training camp and the 1984 freshman football season?

M: Our first training camp was up at Baker Field. It was my first exposure to the infamous bus ride, which in those days was straight through Harlem. Certainly an eye opener for me.

Breakfast was a chocolate donut from "Twin Donut" and an orange juice. Hardly the breakfast of champions. In terms of the Freshman team, the diversity of the athletes was quite astounding.

We had some great athletes...we also had some offensive linemen who looked as if they'd never seen a squat rack in their lives...a vast departure from my high school days.

In all, as a team we developed a bond that was an "us vs. the world" mentality. And, while we are the class known for not winning a single game in four years...I'm here to remind you that we did win our very first Freshman game against Lafayette.

It may not count in the NCAA record books, but it was nice to play near my hometown and get a win.

It is important to note that there were 11 players from that freshman team that had the fortitude and commitment to play all four years and not experience a win as a varsity player.

Each of us handled the tough times in a different manner but all told, we believed that we could win as a team at Columbia. We played through adversity and used that experience to “wins” in our careers and personal lives after we graduated.

The names of these 11 players are: Mike Bissinger, Phil Fusco, George Gianfrancisco, Mike Lavelle, Dave Putelo, Nick Leone, John Miller, Tony Natola, Rich Ritter, Paul San Fillipo, and Matt Sodl.

J: What was it like adjusting to life on campus and in NYC?

M: There was certainly an adjustment period necessary coming from rural Pennsylvania. However, as a team we went through it together and that provided the support group we all needed to adapt.



The coaches during The Streak: Bob Naso, Jim Garrett and Larry McElreavy


J: Coach Garrett was in charge during your sophomore year. Most of the players I’ve spoken to from that year say they actually like Jim despite the ugly way his career ended at CU. Are you in that camp as well?


M: Coach Garrett is certainly a lightning rod for discussion. My take is that his vision for the program; his quality coaching staff; his expectations; his offensive and defensive schemes; his ability to recruit...ALL were on point.

And, yes I am in the camp that like the guy and wish things could have ended differently. I have no doubt that we would have been quite competitive in subsequent years (Garrett brothers notwithstanding) if he had stayed on as head coach.

All that said, I think the post-game press conference after the Harvard game got the better of him. I'll leave it at that.

Coach Garrett is certainly remembered for his "catch phrases" and impassioned speeches...especially the one in the first meeting where he predicted we would go "10-0" that very first season. We all wanted to believe.


J: What was the transition period over to Coach MacElreavy like?

M: Coach Mac was a tough, hard nosed and no-nonsense guy. He had a proven track record on the college level, so I think the comfort level was there that we could turn this program around.

I think Coach Mac shared the same passion for the game as Coach Garrett. That said, I think he was much more approachable than Garrett.

J: As the streak continued, what pressures did you feel on the field and on campus week after week?

M: Living in the media capital of the world that is NYC didn't allow us to forget about the Streak. As the losses mounted, it seemed that the intensity of the press coverage increased.

It got to a point where NFL Films and Sports Illustrated were practically a part of the team, riding the bus with us to practice, etc. The one element that I did not appreciate was the support (or lack thereof) of the student body.

I truly believe there was a pretty large faction of the students who wanted us to continue losing.

I still remember the group of students huddled around Coach Mac shouting "We're No. 1" after we broke Northwestern's losing streak. Still makes me sick to this day.


J: Did the losses help you focus on life after college a little better than perhaps a player on a team that won every week?

M: I think whether we won or lost, we had no choice but to focus on our school work.


J: Did you have a very different outlook going into the ’87 season? Did you think that this would be the year more than you did in ’85 or ’86?

M: In the '87 season, I was a senior and tried to be a leader...leading by example. The finality of being a senior really drove my intensity.

I did not want to end my career without a "W" so I played every day (practice and game) as if it was the last time I would step on the field. I think that intensity level carried over to many of my teammates.

Also, Tom Gilmore (our defensive line coach) was a big factor for my elevated playing level my senior season. Playing for a Bushnell Cup winner and thriving off his intensity was something I internalized and that helped me take my game to the next level.



Tom Gilmore, 1985's Bushnell Cup Winner



J: What was it like after those Dartmouth and Brown losses in ’87. How hard was it to cope in the days immediately afterward?

M: Words cannot describe the emotions. After 3 1/2 years, having a "W" in your grasp only to be taken from you. We truly believed we would win those games.

Dartmouth: one field goal, wide left. So close.

Brown: game winding down. Brown fumbles inside our five-yard line. We couldn't stay on the ball. You’re supposed to win those games.

I think we all felt numb in the days following those games. Feeling that there is no such thing as a moral victory.

J: Tell us about your playing career after college.

M: I loved the game of football and wished I could have extended my career after Columbia. That said, my 5-10 frame would only take me so far.



J: How did you get into your current line of work, and did you try anything else before getting into the financial world?

M: Like many college students looking to break onto Wall Street, I began my career as a financial analyst at a boutique investment banking firm. I was introduced to the firm by a Columbia alum, Eldridge Gray.

J: Do you think your lack of wins in college spurred you on to better things post-graduation?

M: My Columbia football experience is without question the single most important driver in my career. It taught me to prepare daily; compete harder; the need to work through adversity; and most importantly appreciate victory and success.


Matt Sodl & Son

J: Do you keep it touch with your former teammates, and do you know what they’re up too?

M: I do keep in touch with many of the guys in the class of 1988 and surrounding classes. Our 20-year reunion is coming up and I hope to see many of them. No doubt we will be sharing football war stories.



Matt Sodl and wife Cathy have three children and live in a beach community just outside of Los Angeles.

Des Werthman '93 was flat out the most versatile players I ever saw in a Columbia uniform.

It would not be possible to creat a list of memorable Lion players, let alone linebackers, and not include him.

It would also be silly not to simply sum up his career by reprinting the interview I did with Des more than two years ago.

Enjoy:


Des Werthman, 1992 (credit: Columbia University Athletics)

It's hard to describe just how much former Lions star Des Werthman meant and still means to Columbia fans.

Des was a defensive standout at linebacker, but he also chipped in as a running back on short-yardage situations, and even helped out as a kicker from time to time.

That all made Des a throwback-style hero years before people started selling old jerseys for five times the retail price.

Werthman was a part of Ray Tellier's first recruiting class, playing on the freshman team in 1989 and then on the varsity from 1990-92. He made an impact in almost every game he played and Des' career stats are simply breathtaking.

I don't think any Columbia player will ever top his 449 career tackles in just three years on the varsity. And what he meant to the team overall during those years can't be quantified.

But nothing can match his heroics in the final two games of his career against Cornell and Brown... both at home.

Against Cornell, Des helped shock the 7-1 Big Red with 16 tackles, two fumble recoveries, two rushing touchdowns, a 2-point conversion, two extra points, just missed a field goal attempt, and even threw a pass, which went incomplete. (There are also unconfirmed reports that at halftime, Des sold game programs in the stands). The final score was 35-30, and the loss eliminated Cornell from the Ivy title race.

But Des was just warming up. The next week against Brown, he rushed for 114 yards, scored 19 points (three rushing touchdowns and an extra point) and had 15 tackles. With the Lions leading 34-28, Des missed a field goal that would have iced the game, but on the very next play he made an interception to end it.

Des went on to a short career in the Arena Football League, something that suited his 5"11, 225-pound frame a little more than the NFL.

For some crazy reason, Des was not included in the inaugural class of the Columbia sports hall of fame last year. It's a controversial decision to say the least.

Thankfully, he was named a part of the CU football team of the 20th Century and he was on the field at Homecoming in 2000, (when Columbia crushed Dartmouth 49-21),

Des' playing exploits are never far from the minds of longtime Lion fans, but when Justin Masorti joined the Lions last year, his build and style of play reminded many of us of old number 49.

Des contacted me via the comments section of this blog a few months ago, and kindly agreed to do an interview.



JAKE: Walk us through the highlights of your post-Columbia life since you graduated in 1993, both personal and career-wise.

Des: Well, I lived in NY until 1998 and then moved back to Chicago. I came out of school and tried to play professionally, with a brief stint in the Arena League and some NFL try outs, but nothing ever materialized.

I went to work in the investment field in late 1994 and have been there ever since. On the family front, I got married in 2001 and have two daughters, ages 4 and 2. Neither seem to be big sports fans, but I am trying to convert them.



Jake: Did your time as a Columbia football player play a positive or negative role in your personal life or your career? Did it ever directly hurt or help you?

Des: I don’t think it ever played a negative role. It didn’t produce any jobs when I came out of school, but I met with a whole bunch of Alumni which is interesting and hopefully Columbia alumni will help more with hiring others in the future.

I think the years as a player at CU are a constant reminder that one is only as good as the weakest link. A great team can be a thousand times better than a great player. This carries into the real world as well.



Werthman as a member of the Loyola High School Ramblers (Wilmette, IL), where he also excelled in Track and Field.



Jake: You were one of the first players to shine during the Ray Tellier era. Did he and his team recruit you, or were the last group brought in under Larry McAlreavy?

Des: It was interesting, I was originally contacted by one of McAlreavy’s coaches. I met him and then never heard from Columbia again. Several months passed and then one of Ray’s coaches came to see me, Sean McDonnell, now head coach at New Hampshire.

I visited some other schools, but had pretty much decided on Columbia once I went to the campus.


Ray Tellier


Jake: What were your impressions of Tellier and why do you think he was eventually able to find success at Columbia after so many had failed before him?

Des: Ray was very good on several fronts and this led to his success. He had been a winner at Rochester and brought several coaches that had been successful as well.

I think Ray was very good at several facets of the game. He was a good recruiter, knew the X’s and O’s, and could also motivate people.

I think what ultimately led to his success was that he was organized and stuck to a plan of action that ended up working. I think a lot of the success is based upon diligence, focus and planning.


Jake: How did it come to pass that you had to play so many different positions for Columbia, (sometimes in the same game)? Did you take the initiative, or were the Lions so shorthanded that they had to call on you so often?

Des: I never initiated playing any other position except for linebacker. It is funny, but I tried to hide the fact that I kicked extra points and field goals in high school.

I was like the super jock character toy with the straight shoe and you would slam the guy's head down to kick. Unfortunately one of the coaches remembered film of me kicking. It was the saddest day of my life…(laughing).

In all honesty, Columbia had good talent, but lacked depth. I think this was the real reason I played several positions. Once the first guy or if we had a second guy, (highly unusual), went down, we would look for options at positions.

I started playing running back as a junior in short yardage situations and then more frequently as a senior.

This was a lot of fun and I think that was because I was kind of winging it on offense and the guys in the huddle were so serious that I would just start laughing and they would eventually loosen up.

There were some really good players on offense; like Mike Sardo, who was a great possession receiver.



Jake: Give us your overall impressions of what it was like to be a Columbia athlete in the late-80's/early 90's. Were the non-athletes friendly or overly hostile to you? How about the faculty and the administration outside of the athletic department?

Des: My experience may be different than others, but I had a blast. I never looked at it as "non-athletes vs. athletes," but to answer your question, the non-athletes were very cool.

Sure you had some people who didn’t see eye to eye with you, but that is pretty par for the course. The student body was always friendly and never gave me any hard times about being on a team that lost more often than not.

I never noticed the faculty treating me any differently. But I can recall my senior year asking one of my teachers to let me take the final exam early so that I could attend football camp for the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena League.

The guy shot it down immediately and didn’t seem to comprehend what football was. There was no language barrier so I'm not sure why he opposed. In hindsight, maybe he was right to stop me. But it would have been fun to have been there.


Jake: Did you live in the dorms or did you join the large segment of the football players who pledged and lived in the Sigma Chi house?

Des: I lived in the dorms. I never understood why you would join a fraternity when the parties were largely open anyway. I lived in Carmen, Ruggles for two years, and then Wallach.



Jake: How often have you been able to return to Columbia to either see the team play or just to walk around campus? During your visits, what changes have you noticed if any?


Columbia Football's Team of the Century, October 2000. Des is the back row, third from the right. (PHOTO CREDIT: BEN ASEN)


Des: Honestly, I have been back to 2 Columbia games since I graduated. The last being when the Team of the Century was inducted. I honestly doubt I will ever see another game in person.


Jake: Columbia fans will forever remember you as the guy who seemingly defeated Cornell and Brown singlehandedly to finish out the 1992 season. What are your memories of those games, and what do you remember about the efforts of some of the other players who many of us have forgotten over the years?

Des: I remember the Brown game the most and this makes sense since it was the last game we were going to play. The Cornell game was fun to remember because it was one of the first and last times I got to see some of our players actually smiling on the field. When you lose a lot, smiling doesn’t come easy.

Brown was a really memorable game. My fondest memory combines two plays; the first was when we were trying to ice the game and they sent me in for a field goal. You have to understand that I just hated kicking these things.

I would sit there cursing myself for ever having sent a film that had footage of me kicking in it. Needless to say that I missed the field goal, no surprise here right? The next play I pretty much knew the play they were going to run.

Call it intuition or whatever, but they had been trying the whole game to run a shallow cross with a deep cross and for most of the day I had played the shallow cross.

This time I just knew the QB was going deep and that was exactly what he did. We picked the ball off and the game was over.


We had some great players. Mike Sardo was one of the best receivers I have ever played with, Kevin Robinson was a great running back and moved to defensive back to help the team on defense.

The defensive linemen Jim Daine and Bob Wolcott, were key reasons why I was able to do the things I was able to do.

Others during my tenure that I got to play with were Galen Snyder, who was a very good linebacker, Bob Kent, Gary Comstock... there were a lot of very good players.


Jake: You were one of the last classes to play freshman football. Do you think abolishing it has helped or hurt Ivy football and what are your memories of playing in your freshman year?

Des: Freshman football was an easy way to get acclimated to the school and the program. That being said, we lost most of our recruiting class during freshman football as a ton of people quit.

I think that getting rid of freshman football has been a good thing. I think you mature faster as a player and then you avoid having to endure two years of acclimating, where you get used to playing your first year and then the next year you have to acclimate yourself to the next team and summer camp.



Jake: The best Columbia ever did during your three varsity years was 3-7. How tough was it to play for a team that never really contended for a title?

Des: I guess it was hard since I am going to say that we were much better than our records, which means I still struggle with the fact that we didn’t win more. It was very hard to get up and go on those teams as the constant losses and heartbreaks made it hard to want to win.

This is what happens when you lose, it debilitates your desire to win and wears you down a little more until you become apathetic. I don’t think we ever became apathetic, because we had a lot of guys that just loved to play the game, but it certainly wasn’t easy.

We went up to Cornell my junior year and we threw for a touchdown only to have the refs call it back for the QB being over the line of scrimmage. Our QB wasn’t even close when you looked at it on film, we should have won that game, but didn’t..those were the worst.


Jake: Do you think that Columbia was at some kind of unfair disadvantage during the time you played there? Did things like the long ride to practice, the administration's seeming indifference to athletics, or the quality of the facilities play as big a role as many long-time fans like me think they do/did?

Des: I think Columbia will always be fighting an uphill battle as long as the practice field is so far away. You would barely make it back for dinner. I think people quit just because of that bus ride. I recall one game day when the buses didn’t even show up.

We had like 70 guys hailing Gypsy cabs down on Amsterdam in order to be able to afford the ride and get to the field. Imagine playing a game after you did this and got to the field late!?

The facilities were, and maybe still are, just dated. You just can't compete with other schools if your facilities are so poorly kept up and don’t offer the same things that a Princeton or Harvard can offer.

And how can an administration be taken seriously when they have three head coaches on the payroll at the same time? I think when I was there they had Garrett, McAlreavy and Tellier on the payroll at the same time.

The practice field was used as a parking lot during games, so you would come back to the field on Monday and be picking up glass and stuff like that.

If you want to win there has to be a commitment to the program and I don’t think that was ever there for football. If you aren’t paying to win then you shouldn’t even field the team.

This isn’t high school where you are trying to get kids involved in different things so that they try new stuff. This is a college where you had a Rose Bowl championship team and a QB named Cliff Montgomery. Have a little respect and pride.



Jake: If you could do it all over again, would you come back to Columbia?

Des: I loved going to school at Columbia. You have to look at the whole package and Columbia was a great place to be. I almost transferred out after my freshman year, but didn’t. So, I thought long and hard about this and stayed then and wouldn’t change my mind now.

That being said, I look now at the school and think that things could and should have been much better. It still bugs me to this day that there was such a lack of commitment by people at the University and in the Athletic department.

I would classify them as dead weight and they are probably still there at the school. I have a sour taste with a lot of these people and some of the people today.

All-Americans don't grow on trees, but Paul Kalides '73 was built like one.

Coming from a top-notch high school program in New Jersey, Kaliades immediately made a splash with the varsity in his sophomore season of 1970. Playing mostly on the defensive line that year, Kaliades was named to the All-Ivy second team as a defensive guard.

With a rising junior like Kaliades and an unusual amount of good returning talent at other positions, the pundits thought the Lions had a good shot to challenge for the title in '71.

They were right.

Moving to his more natural linebacker position, Kaliades made a monstrous impact on the Cardiac Columbia Kids of that magical season. Doubling as the team's placekicker, he also made a number of clutch kicks, including the miracle game winner against Dartmouth at Baker Field that just barely cleared the crossbar.

A week earlier in a legendary 24-21 loss against the Big Red in Ithaca, Kaliades made 20 tackles despite his left arm being taped to his chest to protect a separated shoulder. Most of those tackles were on Ed Marinaro.

The disappointing 1972 season that followed was not Kaliades' fault. Like he did in 1971, he was named to the All-Ivy first team and made another series of great plays.

Kaliades also has a special connection to Columbia quarterback great Eugene Rossides. Rossides later became the founder of the American Hellenic Organization, which took great pride in Kaliades also being a Greek-American.

Today, Kaliades is a successful real estate expert currently serving as the president of Renters Legal Liability Insurance, LLC.


Special Pictures



Sorry, I couldn't post a picture of Paul Kaliades today, but I came across some great pictures of Baker Field to share with you. Above, you see a shot of Wien Stadium, just before construction was completed in 1984. Here you can see the old coliseum-style gate that used to be on the 218th Street side of the complex at the old Baker Field. (click on all these pics for a larger view)





Here's absolutely one of the best pictures I had never previously seen of the old Baker Field. This is the view from the north side where you can see the old baseball field in the foreground, the enclosed end of the 32,000 seat football stadium in the background, and the old practice field to the left. Note this photo from 1936 also predates Chrystie Fieldhouse built in the 1950s.

The billboard advertising Columbia football on the left clearly was meant to catch the eyes of the passengers traveling the New York Central train line every day.




This picture from 1927 is probably taken from Broadway and the billboard is probably at the corner of 218th street.

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.

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.

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 sophomore in the 1994 season. He exploded for 127 tackles, 16 of them for a loss. He was an easy choice for First-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 First-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.

Wilfork is now a managing director at Goldman Sachs.

Salpulpa High School in Oklahoma: Where the Roy Hanks legend began.

Today's memorable Columbia Lions' defensive back of the past makes the word "memorable" an understatement. When Roy Hanks '98 was on the field, or on campus, you remembered him. He made you remember him.

Hanks came to Columbia in 1994 from a small town outside of Tulsa and immediately made an impact as a freshman on a Lions team that earned the first winning season at Columbia in 23 years.

By the time he was done, head coach Ray Tellier would call Hanks the best defensive back he'd ever coached at CU.

During that freshman campaign, Hanks contributed in the secondary and as a kickoff return man. He made an interception to end the Elis final drive in the 30-9 whipping of Yale at the Bowl. A few weeks later, he recovered a fumble in a win over Cornell that clinched the winning season.

He continued to develop as a sophomore, enjoying many memorable games including a starring role in the 24-14 win over Penn. That win ended the Quakers' best-in-the-nation 24-game winning streak at the time. Hanks had a 39-yard punt return for a touchdown that gave the Lions the lead to stay in that game. Later, he knocked down a desperation Penn pass, and that iced the game.

A few weeks earlier at Harvard, his key punt return for a TD helped the Lions beat Harvard for the first Lion win over the Crimson since 1978.

In the magical 8-2, 1996 season, Hanks made First Team All-Ivy. It started on the right foot for Hanks as he intercepted a Harvard pass in OT to seal the victory on opening day.

He would repeat that feat the following year in his senior season, despite the Lion's disappointing 3-7 campaign.

But what made Hanks truly memorable was his outgoing personality. On the field, he was a big-time trash talker, but he just about always put his money where his mouth was.

He was outspoken in classes and on campus, too.

How outspoken?

I'm happy to announce that the New York Daily News, which did a great job covering the Lions during the happy days of the mid-1990s, has finally made its archives available online. So you can read this great profile of Hanks written in 1997 to get an idea of what a great personality he was.

Will the Lions roam to the Granite State?


Bruce Wood of Big Green Alert is reporting that Columbia is one of the schools the University of New Hampshire is considering replacing Dartmouth with on its schedule after this year.

Taking on a team that has recently beaten BCS clubs like Northwestern sounds pretty scary... but it also could be fun.

And if we add UNH to the schedule, a scholarship-strength Fordham team won't look so scary anymore!


Chris Tillotson


Getting back to the "100 Players in 100 Days" countdown, I continue my look at notable Columbia defensive backs with the spotlight today on Chris Tillotson '99.

Chris was recruited first as a wide receiver, but he first started getting his feet wet helping out the great defense on the 1996 team that went 8-2.

In 1997 he earned honorable mention All Ivy honors, mostly because of his efforts at defensive back, but he also stepped in at wide receiver from time to time and scored some key touchdowns.

Tillotson's 1998 senior season didn't start out great, as he was suspended for the first two games, but he made up for it with stellar play the rest of the way.

It all came to an impressive crescendo against Cornell on November 14, 1998 when Tillotson almost singlehandedly defeated the Big Red in a 22-10 Columbia victory.

Tillotson finished the game with two interceptions, a 25-yard reception to set up one field goal, a cagy 12-yard punt return to set up another, a 17-yard game on a reverse, and a 70-yard return of a fumble recovery for the game-icing touchdown.

Tillotson finished the season as a first time All Ivy member, an impressive feat for someone benched for the first two games of a 10-game season.

For a short, shining moment in the mid 1970's, it looked like the Columbia football team was going to make a return to respectability.

Under popular young Head Coach Bill Campbell, the team made some modest strides in 1974 and 1975, then things seemed to fall into place in the 1976 season, thanks to some heroics to star senior safety Ed Backus. 

After stumbling out of the gate with a 34-10 loss to Harvard, the Lions got their first win of '76 with a 38-31 win over Lafayette at home, thanks to two interception returns for TD's by Backus.

A week later, Columbia went down to Franklin Field and eked out a 14-10 win, thanks in no small part to Backus' excellent work against the pass.

Sadly, the Lions anemic offense was finally exposed in the ensuing weeks and Columbia only won one more game all season.

But Backus, who had been a second team All Ivy honoree in '75, stood out enough to grab First Team honors his final year.

He was also a star baseball player for the blue and white, batting .368 his junior year and pitching the Ivy League championship clinching victory over Penn.

As a sophomore, Backus made headlines in the New York Times when he was mugged on campus, and the Times decided to use this as an example of how Morningside Heights was extremely dangerous.

Backus ended up mugging a lot of opposing players with big interceptions and rough tackles in his varsity career. He was inducted as member of Columbia's football team of the century in 2000.

After graduation Backus dived into the business world, eventually becoming an Eastern Division GM at Pepsi. He currently is the president of EMP Management where he provides consulting services in sales, marketing and strategic planning for restaurant and consumer product companies.

During some tough times for New York City and Columbia football, Ed Backus was a definite bright spot.

Day 92: John Siegal '39


Sometimes wide receivers and quarterbacks forge an incredible bond on the field that makes history. Take a few greats like Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, Roger Staubach and Drew Pearson, Dave Krieg and Steve Largent... the list goes on.

The most extraordinary QB-WR bond of all time may be the Sid Luckman to John Siegal connection because it began in college and continued into the NFL.

Luckman and Siegal started working together right during Luckman's first varsity game, a 34-0 rout of Maine at Baker Field.Siegal caught a thirty six yard bomb from Sid just when the Black Bears were getting into the habit of trying to stop Luckman from running the ball all over them.

Siegal would go on to play a big role in each of Luckman's greatest games as a Lion. That includes the surprising 27-14 win over Yale at the Yale Bowl in 1938, and the greatest game of Luckman's career, the 20-18 win over Army at West Point just one week after that Yale win.

Siegal joined Luckman as a member of the Chicago Bears in the 1939 season. He played on the Midway for five seasons through 1943, earning three NFL titles on the way.

However, his real purpose in Chicago was to study for a dental degree, which he earned at Northwestern.

John Siegal is still alive and living with family in Pennsylvania. I did get in touch with him last year, but he was too hard of hearing for even a phone interview. It was still great to talk to him briefly.



The moment we knew he was special: "AK" scoring his 1st TD in his very 1st game



Day 91: Austin Knowlin '10

The last of the tenwide receivers I want to focus on during this 100 day countdown to the season opener, is current star Austin Knowlin.

Even before his senior season, I have no hesitation when I say that Knowlin is a once-in-generation type player in Columbia history.

In three seasons, "AK" has done it all, he has grabbed tons of passes, scored handfuls of TD's, and returned kicks for scores. He gets open even when everyone knows the play is going to him. He simply makes things happen.

It all started in his very first game, a 37-7 win over Fordhamat Wien Stadium. Knowlin grabbed a sixty two yard TD catch to ice the win and announced his presence to the Lion faithful in grand fashion.

He is now in striking distance of a number of Columbia all-time records, including total receiving yards, total receptions, and receiving touchdowns.

Knowlin has been placed on the 2009 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Preseason All-American second team for the coming season.

I look forward to chronicling a glorious final chapter in Knowlin's brilliant Columbia career.


Day 90: Philip Murray '03

Philip Murray, the man who is tied for the Columbia all-time record for interceptions at sixteen, leads off my list of ten memorable defensive backs in Lions history.

Murray came to CU from Mesquite, Texas and made an immediate impact in the 1999 season. By his sophomore year, he was a 1st Team All-Ivy at free safety. He fell back to the second team in 2001, but returned to the First Team in his senior campaign in 2002.

His best moment came in that 2001 season, when he picked off Yale QB Peter Lee and returned it for an 85 yard TD just seconds before halftime to give the Lions a 14-7 lead in an eventual 28-14 win. Before that play, Lee hadn't been intercepted all year and he was working on an Ivy League record for most attempts without a pick off.

A frustrating moment that I also won't forget came in Murray's final home game against Cornell in 2002. Clinging to a 14-10 lead, the Lions were trying to hold Cornell off in a final drive of the game. Murray made a great athletic move to almost pick off a pass by the Big Red's Rick Rahne, but it fell through his fingers. Just a few plays later, Cornell would score, snatching a win from Columbia's hands.

Murray's career was still impressive any way you look at it. Sophomores don't often make 1st Team All Ivy, and Murray is one of the rare few who did.