Scribbled notes on a cocktail napkin, Part X
Wooooooooooo! It’s Yale vs Harvard of the West tonight … Ric Flair’s college … the Wikipedia-ization of knowledge … Sunday links … and more unlikely stories
"Scribbled notes on a cocktail napkin" is my weekly Sunday feature that's a tribute to the sports columnists I grew up reading who penned Herb Caen-inspired three dot columns. It's an excuse to shamelessly plug my other side projects, post my favorite Immaculate Grid from the week with a story about one of the players, link to stories I found interesting, and string together loose topics on my mind.
It’s March 2011, about five hours after San Diego State had clinched its first trip to the Sweet 16, a heart-stopping, double-overtime victory over Temple at the McKale Center in Tucson.
I’m in a hotel hot tub with my friend Greg Block. We’re still on the euphoric high of the victory, celebrating a season in which our record was 34-2 (at the time), discussing logistics for attending the Sweet 16 game in Anaheim. We’re also reflecting on the awful teams we saw as students.
In 1991-92, my freshman year, SDSU was 2-26.
In 1995-96, when Greg was The Daily Aztec beat writer, SDSU was 15-14. That was only winning record in a 17-year stretch between 1985 and 2002.
Some fans from other schools joined us in the hot tub. All around us, we constantly heard SDSU fans channeling their inner Ric Flair with a loud “Woooooooooo!”
If you’re not aware, after made free throws, Aztecs fans just constantly yell “Woooooooo” as the Aztecs get back on defense and continue it through the other team’s offensive possession. It’s also just really fun to Wooooooooooo, so fans do it all the time, especially after wins.
Remember, this is 2011, and the “Wooooooooo!” hasn’t become a thing that fans all across the country do. Our new friends in the hot tub wanted to know the backstory. We told them it’s an honor of Ric Flair, the pro wrestler. They asked if Flair attended San Diego State. With a mischievous grin, yes, we told them, Ric Flair is an alum. (He’s not.)
Greg and I were not the only SDSU fans to have a little fun with Ric Flair’s actual college.
It’s easy to connect the dots that this could be true. Flair kinda looks like a SoCal bro with his blonde hair and tanned body. He’s flamboyant and likes to party. SDSU is was a party school. The fans yell “Wooooooo” like Flair.
Hey, look, Ric Flair even attended Comic Con in San Diego because of course a San Diego State alum would return to San Diego, right? You don’t need an inferential leap to connect these dots.
Before the internet, this was known as an Urban Legend. The fate of the world was safe, even if SDSU fans told a little white lie about a professional wrestler who was not an actual alum.
Nowadays, we use these technological devices in our pocket to fact-check any statement. The usual first place to check is Wikipedia, right?
Well, at some point around that time, Ric Flair’s Wikipedia page was changed to indicate he did attend San Diego State. [I swear to you, it was not me, I don’t even know how to edit Wiki pages.] None other than USA Today incorrectly once printed that Flair was an SDSU alum. I’m a stickler for complete accuracy, but this was just plain fun.
To this day, if you type “did Ric Flair attend San Diego State” into Google, the top entry is an old post from March 15, 2011 on the Aztec Mesa message board that lists Ric Flair as a famous alum.
Re-reading through the comments from 13 years ago is a hilarious time capsule of people who are in on the gag, don’t get the inside joke, or think it’s a serious post and wonder why Marshall Faulk is not listed.
The best response was someone who referred to all this as “the Wikipedia-ization of knowledge.”
You could also describe it as the Search Engine Optimization of knowledge. Let’s find out if it works, shall we?
Yale vs. Harvard of the West
Tonight at 6:40 pm San Diego time, in the Round of 32, America gets the matchup they’ve been craving for a century in the NCAA Tournament: Yale vs. San Diego State.
Yes, finally, it’s Yale vs. Harvard of the West.
This will be the first matchup between Yale and Harvard of the West (or HOTW) in the NCAA Tournament. The winner advances to the Sweet 16 next weekend.
Fans all over TwitXer are eagerly looking forward to this legendary matchup.
Yale students are not sure how to contain their enthusiasm.
Why is San Diego State called the Harvard of the West?
San Diego State is known as the Harvard of the West because it’s educational standards are equal to any Ivy League institution, and many of the top high school students prefer the immaculate weather in America’s Finest City.
I can relate. As a high school senior in the Bay Area, I didn’t want the harsh Winter weather back east in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey or Pennsylvania.
I knew the education at San Diego State was the exact same as Harvard, the in-state tuition was drastically more reasonable, and I could receive class credit for a surfing class. Picking San Diego State was a no-brainer.
I’ve talked to people who refer to Harvard as “the San Diego State of the East” … and they remain fascinated that surfing classes are offered at the Harvard of the West.
This week’s “Where Ya At?” podcast guest: Brooke Martell
I host a podcast for San Diego State’s School of Journalism and Media Studies titled “Where Ya At?” Each week, I interview an alum to learn about their experience at SDSU, transitioning from student to professional, and their current job. You can listen on all podcast platforms, including Spotify.
Brooke Martell is a hybrid reporter and meteorologist for NBC 7 in San Diego who graciously agreed to join me on SDSU’s campus last week to record our interview in the JMS’ new Podcast Studio.
At her previous job, in her hometown of San Luis Obispo, Brooke covered a number of wildfires and weather events, which inspired her to take online classes to obtain a certificate in meteorology. Now she blends weather forecasting with reporting on climate issues.
We discussed her decision to attend SDSU, favorite memories as a student, how she got an internship at NBC 7 on her second attempt, and the reporter who helped build her demo reel to get the job in SLO.
Brooke also provided practical advice on recording stand-ups alone in the field and mastering how to work in front of a green screen. A really fun conversation about Journalism and Weather. Highly recommended and full of SDSU nostalgia.
This week’s not-so random Immaculate Grid story: Randy Winn
Randy Winn played 13 years in the major leagues in an unlikely career that was mostly defined for his more famous teammates.
Winn once nicknamed my friend “Front Spin Ferris” for his unorthodox basketball shooting style. At San Ramon Valley High, he played basketball and baseball. The basketball stars were this guy named Kevin Dunne and this other guy named Mark Madsen. They won a couple NorCal titles. Winn wasn’t drafted out of high school and barely recruited in either sport.
For college, Winn stayed in the Bay Area and attended Santa Clara. He made both the basketball and baseball teams as a walk-on. He didn’t play much for either team initially. His basketball teammate and roommate was future NBA Hall of Famer Steve Nash. He kept working, learned how to switch hit to take better advantage of his speed, and ultimately focused on baseball.
Winn was drafted by one expansion team (the Marlins), selected by another expansion team (the Devil Rays) in the Expansion Draft, and later traded to the Seattle Mariners for a manager (Lou Piniella).
Early in 2002, four years into his MLB career, Winn was randomly selected from the stands for a halftime promotion during a Clippers game at the Staples Center. Winn banked in a half-court shot and won a Mitsubishi Lancer. That summer, he reached his first and only All-Star Game.
Three years later, in 2005, the Giants acquired Winn at the Trading Deadline to bolster their lineup for the playoffs. That was the year Barry Bonds missed the first 5.5 months with an injury. After the trade, Winn did his best Bonds impersonation, hitting 14 home runs over two months. He’d never hit more than 14 homers any season of his career.
Winn retired in 2011, has done some baseball commentary on TV, and is heavily involved in community outreach. He’s the Founder and President of Medea Charitable Foundation. In February, he returned to Seattle and donated to the Mariners Hometown Nine program that offsets fees for youth baseball and softball teams.
Hopefully, he doesn’t refer to any of the kids as “Front Spin” anymore.
Internal clocks in disarray
This is my final weekend before the start of the minor league baseball season and my internal sports clocks and weather clocks are totally confused.
For most of my time working for the Albuquerque Isotopes, our season began on a Thursday, three days after the NCAA men’s basketball championship game. A few times, the season started just before the Final Four. Last year, we opened during the Final Four Weekend. But this year, our season starts during the Sweet 16 Round.
We’re one week early and NCAA basketball is one week late, so I’m mentally off by two weeks.
Last year at this time, I was wearing shorts, planting flowers, and watching NCAA games in my backyard. Right now, I’m writing this newsletter with a blanket around me and the heater occasionally kicks on.
I’m also battling a sore throat, which normally happens 1-2 weeks into the Isotopes season as I get accustomed to talking 3-4 hours nonstop every day. This year’s sore throat began last weekend, roughly a month ahead of schedule.
I’m taking all this disorder as a sign that the Harvard of the West Coast is going to win the National Championship. My voice better be ready to properly Wooooooooo! in celebration.
Fact checking this Newsletter
Like I mentioned earlier, I’m a stickler for accuracy. I’m also curious about SEO and fascinated if any of the above nonsense ends up in Google search result one day.
Let me close this Newsletter by fact-checking myself.
The hot tub story with Greg Block is 100% true. One of my favorite memories of my cherished late friend. I wish we took more photos that day. Miss you, Greg.
The stories about alums claiming Ric Flair is an SDSU alum are 100% true.
Ric Flair is not really a SDSU alum.
SDSU alums enjoy calling their beloved university the Harvard of the West. The ridiculous of it all is part of the fun.
Nobody else refers to SDSU as the Harvard of the West except SDSU alums … or other people who enjoy a hearty laugh.
When I was a freshman in the dorms, some random dude told me that Playboy ranked SDSU in the Top Five of party schools … and it was all of our responsibilities to reach #1.
SDSU is not a party school anymore. In 2020, Playboy.com even referred to SDSU as the worst party school in the country.
Only 38% of students who apply to San Diego State are accepted. Only 3.2% of students who apply to Harvard are accepted. The national average is 57% acceptance rate for all universities.
With my high school grades and SAT score, I’d have never, ever, EVER been accepted into SDSU based on the current standards.
I don’t know about now, but in the 1990s, it was true you could take a one-credit class for surfing at SDSU. I never did it and I regret it.
It is true that I once convinced a girl at a Journalism conference in Florida that SDSU’s campus is on an island, requiring students to take a ferry or surf to reach the campus.
SDSU’s campus is not on an island. We do not have “surf racks” instead of “bike racks” on campus. Sure would be cool if we did.
I later told the girl the truth.
All of the words about Brooke Martell are true.
All of the words about Randy Winn are true, including the “Front Spin Ferris” story. Ferris was a year ahead of Winn in high school and remains astonished that he ever reached the majors.
Brooke Martell. I knew I remembered that name from somewhere. We get the SLO NBC affiliate where I live, and got to see a few reports from her. Never knew she was a fellow Aztec. Another fun note about that TV station, which has the call letters KSBY: They had an evening anchorman for a few years named John Reger. After a couple of years I found out that he used to be an actor, and actually played the evil Austrian skier Rudy in the guilty pleasure “Hot Dog: The Movie,” alongside erstwhile Dr. Pepper guy David Naughton and Gene Simmons’ better half Shannon Tweed. I found him to be so much cooler after that.