Zips Football Golf Outing

[Captain Kangaroo]

Outstanding event in every aspect once again! A HUGE thank you to all involved in organizing it. Beautiful day to hack-up some sod @ a very nice country club. I expect it will take weeks...maybe months to repair the damage. For your $125 you received a sleeve of balls, nice Akron Football golf shirt, burgers, drinks, dogs-n-brats, greens fees w/cart, door prizes, steak dinner, access to the team staff - who honestly answered ANY question you asked...$125 sounds like a lot, but it is a steal if you add up what you get out of the deal.The event was kicked-off with JD giving a short "state of the union address." Nothing huge to note, other than his expectation to be hosting Indiana in an on-campus stadium to start the 2009 college football season. Mack Rhoades followed the speech with confirmation that an important meeting was being held June 13th regarding the stadium (major donor has stepped forward?). And, that is is fully expected the stadium plan announcement will be officially held sometime in August 2007. That's the first time I've ever heard Mack directly address the stadium issue with confident, concrete statements so I'm guessing things have progressed to the "dotting the I's and crossing the t's" state. Mack also has lost about 30 lbs. You could hardly recognize him?The couse was in great condition. I think the University could fund the new stadium by recycling the empty Coors light cans that mounted as the day wore-on? I could probably have funded a lodge myself:D No sign of Charlie Frye. I think the Browns also had a golf outing @ Firestone yesterday. That may be the reason. Substituting for Charlie was Elvis Grbac and Mount Union's own Jim Ballard. There were enough former Mount Union players on hand I was shocked that Terry Pluto didn't show up to write a column about it? Seriously - it was good to have them attend. While the Zips had a decent showing of former players...John Buddenberg, Brian Hilk, Dan Basch, Brian White, Jim Borreci, Andy Wills and several others...you'd like to have believed more would show up and support the program. That's not just my opinion...the football alumni present seems to unanamously feel the same. Getting sidetracked for a second...I think this is where the AK-rowdies and the whole Fear the Roo thing will pay dividends in the future. There was really ZERO done for a couple decades to foster any school spirit @ UA. It is being done now, but the damage done by the comatose University alumni groups...be they football alumni or general alumni...is impossible to overcome in a year or two. This year's outing had 20 more participants than last year's, so things are going nowhere but up.Funny story: JD drove a ball for our group @ hole #14. He hit a big time banana-screamer that got no more than 8-feet high, and removed some serious bark from a tree about 50 yards down the fairway. SOMEONE in our group immediately commented "Man, that looked just like a Domonokos field goal!" About 14 of the people around the tee box got a kick out of it. JD just groaned "last year it was..." Gotta get back to work. I'll leave with this:In JD's earlier speech he stated the event is much more of a "fellowship" event with the staff and the program's supporters than it is a fundraiser. It really came off that way. It was a lot of fun getting 150-or-so supporters together for a day of bad golf, football-talk and cold beer. If you missed it this year, it is next being held on June 9th, 2008. Mark your calendars now...you won't be disappointed!

[Captain Kangaroo]

A couple things I picked up at the outing:1.) Harvey is officially gone. No miracles left in the bag.2.) Lindsay still has a chance.3.) Ryan Brinson "Enrolled in a couple classes this spring...but that's about it." Don't look for him to be in a Zips uniform this fall.4.) As previously reported on this site: Forget about the ND QB, and forget about Johnny Long.5.) It was good to see Sean Hakes participating in the event. He's probably up to around 220lbs now?

[timmyboy]

A couple things I picked up at the outing:1.) Harvey is officially gone. No miracles left in the bag.2.) Lindsay still has a chance.3.) Ryan Brinson "Enrolled in a couple classes this spring...but that's about it." Don't look for him to be in a Zips uniform this fall.4.) As previously reported on this site: Forget about the ND QB, and forget about Johnny Long.5.) It was good to see Sean Hakes participating in the event. He's probably up to around 220lbs now?

johnny long? what happened to him? i told everyone a while back he was talking about leaving the team and transfering, but i didnt know if he did or not.....so did he?

[Sparks-Fly-High]

Maybe more alumni athletes would support the program more if the athletic dept didn't turn their backs on the athletes when they are done. They act like they don't know you after you just gave them 5 years. Unfortunately, it would be like pulling teeth to get me to support the program. I didn't appreciate the way they treated me after I was done.

[Dr Z]

That's too bad, I know the fans LOVE to see former players. You will get a lot of love from them I know that