San Diego State is my number three college, after UK and UCLA, the two places I actually have degrees from. Most know I grew up in San Diego. Here is more. My dad founded the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State in 1980, and taught there for 16 years. I grew up cheering for the Aztecs on every front.
As a kid, I played Little Aztec basketball, a program run by then assistant Michael Brunker. We would practice out behind their indoor basketball facilities. One day Michael Cage walked by us, with both the biggest boom box and finest Jheri Curl I'd ever seen. The box defied all description. Cage's shoulders rivaled any you see now in the NBA. It was from carrying that damned box around. If you don't know who Cage is, Google him. He is right behind Tony Gwynn on SDSU sports' Mt. Rushmore. When I was 11, seeing Cage in person was like seeing bigfoot.
I also got to be a fan of SDSU football, which had a pretty simple philosophy. Get great skill position players on offense, screw the rest, then close your eyes and hope you win a couple games. It was a delightful mess.
A couple of my high school teammates played basketball at SDSU, including Terrance Hamilton, who must have caught endless grief from his teammates when my Dad would see him on campus and yell, "Hi Clarence".
When I went off to UCLA, many of my high school friends went to State. A couple of my best friends worked for the athletic department there, and I ended up being an outer circle member of a great group of guys who were sports writers, sports information guys, and baseball players at the school, even though I was 130 miles away in LA. While I got a crash course in political correctness and cold showers, they basked in the glory of one of the best party schools in the nation.
I love the Aztecs.
4 comments:
Go Aztec! Love the comments about Mike Cage, great! Also the offensive (in both meanings of the term) Aztecs football teams, go Coryeal! He did the same thing with the Chargers, who were spectacular to watch. Play in Black, Play at night, Throw the ball!
Love you Dad. Thanks for reading.
This stuff is why I read blogs.
That was an interesting look into the formative years of the Scutch. That's kind of awesome. I didn't realize you had such a connection with SDSU.
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