Ahem, Loyola – Chicago Won Over Illinois?
Loyola – Chicago emerged with a convincing 71-58 victory over top-seeded Illinois. This was no “fluky” aberration either as the eighth-seeded Ramblers never trailed and led by six or more for the game’s final 26-plus minutes.
I think Sister Jean must have a direct line to God.
Hey Run, I sort of follow this stuff too and I really thought the Big Ten was a stronger conference than it is proving to be. Baylor convincingly demolished the Badgers after they had played well against North Carolina, Purdue and OSU lost in the first round and while Rutgers, Maryland, Iowa and Michigan are still alive, I am not confident any will make the Sweet Sixteen at this point. Sister Jean will continue to have her weekly stress test although truth be told it was not really close today.
Terry:
I received my Masters degree in 1980 going at night time while I worked at Parker Hannifin Fluid Power, Des Plaines. That plant was division headquarters and was the old Hannifin facility. I even had my own parking, 4th from the rear door with mu name stenciled on the concrete. Old facility and old practices. Porter Moser seems like a good coach. This team is not that much different than the team which made it to the quarter finals.
This is a university of 15,000 full time student taught by Jesuits who hunger for your donation (they are cheap in paying). That they can pull together a team that can to this level is interesting.
Businesses also respect the degree so, it did help in acquiring a descent job.
My dad went to medical school at Marquette before the medical school broke off and became the Medical College of Wisconsin. I grew up following Marquette and Wisconsin although I never went to either school. When Marquette won the National Championship in 1977 I was at the University of Michigan—the school which lost 3 games in 1976–all to Bob Knights Indiana Hoosiers including the championship game. I have always had a lot of respect for the Jesuit Schools.
Tery:
If you must know, I live near Brighton. My dad was no doctor or prof and never finished grade school. Trained to be a tool and die maker and ended up as a tuck pointer and brick layer. After I left the service, I worked for a bit and found such to be unrewarding and ended up at Lewis being taught by the Christian Brothers after leaving DuPage college. In three years I had my BA with a minor in Math. Two years later I enrolled at Loyola and three years I completed my Masters going at night to the Water Tower campus. It was a long haul at night. My Econ Prof. was pushing me to go to Chicago. I had had enough and my wife was pregnant with our 3rd. This old Marine needed to be home.
I like Ann Arbor and its Main Street venues. It is anice town. I still like Madison better though. My three are up at Breckenridge with my oldest son’s wife and daughters. My daughter has a nice condo there. Wisconsin was good to us.
Why do people care so much about professional sports?
Bread & Circuses for the Lumpen Proletariat.
@Dave Barnes,
Better question on this thread is why do people care so much about college sports? The answer of course is that sports gives marginal academics something to fall back on :<)
That said then the answer to your question is different. Professional athletes and their voyeurs form a mutually reinforcing monetizing paradigm for the purposes of retail marketing. As neuroses go, voyeurism and exhibitionism are safe complements to those that would capitalize on our self-indulgent fascinations.
Hey:
To wit, Barnes and Ron.
I played through high school and we were never really any good till our senior year. We lost terribly till we gelled.
When there was no high school games, I played pickup games at the Y and church league. As a “thunker,” this was my field of dreams which I never got to see. I could thunk when the ball hit the rim instead of slipping through the hoop making a loud thunk – noise.
When I played there was no “carrying” the ball like they do now. If I could have done such, I would have doubled my average of 12 points a game easily. Watching the under dogs play, for me is a “what could have been.”
We all have different paths in life, I do not regret mine, and in the end I am here, aint’t I?
Hey Run:
Whether to wit or nitwit is immaterial in this context.
I played football briefly in high school, young and foolish out to impress the chicks, but chief chick Mom back home quickly calculated that the short term cost of sports injuries was an excessive transactional cost and pulled my dance card. Cost were more than just medical as I was the primary gardener and the painter. Well the long term costs of sport injuries were more than the profit as well. The only reason that I even got to play for a little while was because football was my school’s absolute worst sport in competition. It was a decent academic high school in NoVA, so track and B-ball were their best and even the wrestling team won more than football. Girls softball and field hockey were great. Too bad we did not have tennis.
BTW, I taught all three of my girls to play sports, but it only took for the youngest girl. She was like me in many ways, not least of all that she also liked girls.
Barnes
bread and circuses. wht the hell else would you have them do?
sports are fun. being a fan is fun too in its own way. i used to have a friend (he died)who hated the idea of colleges spending money on sports. not very different when you think about it from those masters of the universe who can’t see the point of spending money on workers, or poor people who are not working.
after all, isn’t the purpose of life to make more money?
Sports are good and all, but have you seen books?? 😉
John:
When I travel and are gone weeks at a time, I still take hard backs, The Atlantic, and other reading paraphernalia. I collect book markers and turning pages is better than trying to read on a tablet or IPhone. A good one is the “The Rise and The Fall of Great Powers.” You get lost in the detail. Three times. “Tale of Two Cities” is a great read. Reading “The Fall of the House of the Hapsburgs” gives you a good perspective on Europe and what led to WWI and II. Now most of those little countries are back.
So yeah, I turn pages because I like to do so. My brothers and sister stole many of my books when I left for the service in 68. Regards.
I graduated Loyola for my Masters which is why I watch a school of ~15,000 play basketball.
Regards,
Coberly,
IMO the problem with sports is not with sports per se, but rather their attention stealing popularity tends to overwhelm everything that they are bound to, whether broadcast TV or university.
That said our university system was not so great in general before it lost its mind to sports, with notable exceptions where sports still do not dominate and tuition and other fees guaranty exclusive access. Most pedagogues demand obedience and eschew independent thinking amongst their acolytes. Intellectuals do not need God, because academics is enough religion for anyone.
In my lifetime from my vantage point as an outsider to academia, then it seems to me that university education has for a large part progressed from mediocre to mind-numbing. Sports may be less to blame for overshadowing academics than simply an alternate reason to attend college along with sex and partying that contributes to the diminishing relevance of higher education for academic reasons.
Of course I cannot say. I partied for one semester, then dropped out so that I could learn something useful and have a productive career.
Ron
i never partied. never had to study. hated school. dropped out after half a term. went back because i didn’t know any better.
sports was not the problem at any school i went to. the problem was they treated students like cattle. i just can’t get behind anyone who talks as if sports was some commie plot to sap the intellectual energy of the nation. schools do that.
sports, like plastic toys, takes the minds of people off their condition. i prefer sports to plastic toys.
Coberly,
OK, then we are less far apart than we initially appeared on this.
I tried going back part time at night after Viet Nam and two divorces (c. 1975), but it ended the same way. I still could not stand an entire semester of it. The next time that I considered it, then I came to my sanity and dropped out before the first class.
Coberly,
I found that I did not need college to party and party hard. After my second divorce at age 25, then I partied insanely until I became a step father in my mid-thirties. I resumed partying after the three girls were grown and I had left their mom, whom I never married, but on a subdued level compared to my youth. I did not give it up entirely until in my mid-50’s I bought a house and married for the 3rd time. After that I was far too cash poor to party on any longer. Now that I am no longer cash poor, what with HELOC and mortgage both paid off, then I don’t miss those wild younger days, but I do remember them fondly. Given how screwed up that things are now, then those wild crazy days seem like time well spent. What a shame it would have been if I had spent my entire life sane and responsible as I am now.
Ron
i think the purpose of “education” is to make everyone read and think the same things so they will think they understand each other (and share the common wisdom) when they get turned loose.
i used to envy my friends’ partying. then i realized that parties bored me. Eventually found something better to do. Miss my friends, though.
Coberly,
We agree exactly about formal “education,” but are no where close on partying. OTOH, if partying is just booze, then I agree unless the booze was laced with LSD-25.
What did Dr. John Lilly, Oscar Ichazo, Ram Dass, Timothy Leary, Albert Hofmann, Fritz Perls, John Lennon, Abbie Hoffman, Groucho Marx, Jerry. Garcia, Eldridge Cleaver, Owsley Stanley and Ken Kesey have in common with me? Only one thing that I can think of. Wow, would that have been an incredible party to have together?
i came for the women, but i have no stomach for booze. and i have enough trouble with reality without the artificial stimulants to home movies. and the women found me boring.