MAKING MY DEGREE WORTH JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE…

MAKING MY DEGREE WORTH JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE…

I did not attend an Ivy League university, but I didn’t exactly attend Left Armpit Community College, either. I am a 1979 graduate of The George Washington University, a school founded to be the national college and, if I recall correctly, the oldest non-religious university in the country. It’s situated in Washington, DC, and, let me tell you, attending college just four blocks from the White House and a short walk from the Smithsonian and so many important monuments was a terrific experience.

And nobody knows my alma mater. Or, worse, they think I went to Georgetown, which itself is a decent school, but confusing GW with Georgetown is like confusing UCLA and USC.

Despite my antipathy toward big-time college sports, I have learned that the average guy thinks about college sports first when he thinks about universities, and more likely it’s college football.

In 1966, GWU dropped its football program in order to concentrate on basketball. The problem was that for many years, the program was mediocre at best. That changed in 1993, when GW made it to the Sweet Sixteen.

That’s going to change again this year or next. This year GW won its divisional tournament for the first time in the 29-year history of the division. And while it may not go far – if the Colonials defeat first-round opponent Georgia Tech (where my college roommate’s son attends — wonder whether Nader is rooting for GW or the Ramblin’ Wreck), they then will most likely face 29-4 Louisville — they will pretty much return intact in 2005-06.

So, I wanted to write this before the game on Friday. Who knows how it will go. But the team that ESPN called this season’s "it" team and which was recently responsible for two of ESPN’s top ten plays of the week has a bunch of exciting players who also seem to be good kids, and they’re easy to root for. I think they might be in until the last game or two next year. But try to catch them this year.

Because the more folks who know GW, the more folks who’ll think more highly of my degree. And that’s okay by me.


By the way, Friday happens to be the birthday of my friend Bobby’s daughter Katie… who happens to be finishing her freshman year at GW.

George Washington University men’s basketball website.