sports

I’ve had the joy recently of reopening a relationship with a dear woman who was nurse to my intern at Barnes over 40 years ago. She was married (still is), and thus one of the few St. Louis skirts I didn’t chase. In a recent text exchange, she mentioned how she didn’t like sports very much, not liking dates she had with jocks. I had to counter with how much I did, and wrote her the following:

Kathy and I are big on sports. She was quite the jock, lettering in 3 sports in college and attaining Division III All-America in swimming (backstroke). Me not so much but I played HS football, basketball, and golf, and ran cross-country. I got a HS varsity letter in golf. Intramural basketball in college and med school. Curiously, neither of us was ever injured, except for an ankle sprain here and there. I’ve got a way cool varsity jacket I hope to show off at my Bulldogs’ home opener next Tuesday. Our season football tickets go back to the early 60s when Kathy’s orthopod dad got them for helping to recruit Ohio boys to come to Michigan. We’ve had season basketball tickets since early in the Beilein era. Weekly joys during the football and basketball seasons besides the games are the U of M Club of Ann Arbor Coaches’ luncheons at Weber’s, and in basketball season we add evening Monday sessions of Inside Michigan Basketball from Pretzel Bell where Kathy’s buddy Brian Boesch interviews Michigan’s basketball coaches for a radio show. Kathy got named to the board of the U ofM Club and now has the assignment to corral the coaches of “non revenue sports” to come speak. So now we’re taking in more their matches. So I think that UofM sports are a huge part of our bond to AA. So, there’s something we don’t have in common. Young jocks tend to be pretty self absorbed, but we’ve met some gems among them. At U of M, the jocks are expected to go to class and succeed, so the way they balance the demands of academics and sport can be impressive. Kathy had jocks in her class (more women than men), and several sought and attained med school. Michigan ex-jocks tend to do well in the real world based on their competitive nature, experience with working as part of a team, and having the discipline necessary to excel both in the classroom and on the playing field. Go Blue!