Athletic heroes

I especially enjoyed the letter in the last issue by Nick Shundich, comparing the UC Bearcat football teams of 1951 and 2007. I was an 11-year-old boy sitting next to my father in Nippert Stadium on the 40-yard line for every home game in 1951, smelling the cigar smoke and watching in awe as my heroes won game after game.

Reading their names instantly took me back in time: Ralph Staub [Ed '52], Nick Shundich [A&S '57, Ed '57, MEd '58], Frank Middendorf [Ed '52], Bob Stratton [Ed '55], Bill Shalosky [Ed '53], Lee Haslinger [Ed '59], Don Grammer [Ed '53], Gene Rossi [Ed '57], Glenn Sample [Ed '53], Dick Goist [A&S '55] and all the other men on that amazing team! It has been 56 years, but seeing their names on the same page as a picture of the stadium, as I knew it as a boy, gave me goose bumps.

How many outstanding college football teams of today will have so many men become leaders in so many fields? The lure of the NFL motivates many young men to play at the college level although very few have the talent to ascend to the professional level. Hopefully, they will learn and accept that there are many kinds of heroes.

Tim Fleming, A&S '62
Flagstaff, Ariz.

The UC rowing team sent its two most talented and hard-working athletes -- Chad Reid and Jared Kentner -- to the ACRA [American Collegiate Rowing Association] National Championship Regatta in Oklahoma City, May 24-25. This is the last year of rowing for the two men who went to nationals because of the four-year eligibility rule.

On Saturday, they achieved a place in the grand finals, then on Sunday they were awarded fifth place at nationals. This is an amazing accomplishment and proof of dedication. Not only do rowers wake up at four in the morning to row on the freezing Ohio River, but UC's rowing team is especially dedicated because yearly dues are upwards of $1,000 per person. [UC Crew is a "club sport," falling under the Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development, rather than a team supported by the athletics department.]

In light of the accomplishment of the two rowers, I am asking you to dedicate a small amount of space to congratulate Chad [College of Arts and Sciences] and Jared [College of Applied Science] because their story inspired me, and I hope it will do the same for others.

Sara Knigga
College-Conservatory of Music student

Archives obtained

In the last issue I noticed features -- very well done, I might add -- about UC researchers Elwood Jensen and Albert Sabin. We have the archives of both [at the Health Sciences Library at the UC Academic Health Center]. In both cases, it was a coup to get them for UC. Readers might like to know that their papers, medals, oral histories and memorabilia are available at the Center for the History of the Health Professions (formerly the Cincinnati Medical Heritage Center).

Also, we just recently secured Leland Clark's archives, which are massive. He conducted much of his research on blood, inventing the first heart/lung machine (which we have), and on artificial blood at UC/Children's Medical Center. He died about three years ago. We don't have his archives organized for research yet, but thought you might find him an interesting subject at some time in the future.

Steve Marine
Executive director, University Libraries

Misguided stories, campus

The recent article in "UC Magazine" by Amanda Hughes about geology professor Thomas Lowell and his supposed "research" ["Glacier study keeps professor's passion from melting"] has such a narrow viewpoint that it is like looking at your backyard through a toilet paper tube and attempting to construct a theory about what is happening in the entire yard from what you see through the tube.

Let's acknowledge that the climate may be changing, although it is not even clear after this past winter which direction it may be headed as it goes through its normal cycles. The evidence of CO2 has been shown to follow, not lead, the reported average temperature changes.

The placement of NOAA's [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's] temperature recorders has been shown to be faulty and not complying with its own recommendations. The entire temperature database collected, thereby, is thus worthless. Professor Lowell's statement, "We're now the most important geologic agent on the planet," is so egotistically blind as to be ludicrous. Certainly, he couldn't look at the recent earthquakes in China and ignore such "geologic agents" as tectonic plate movement. (Or perhaps he thinks that, too, was caused by CO2 emissions.)

Clearly, the planet has undergone severe climate changes, the causes of which have been theorized and reasonably well substantiated. Certainly, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and mastodons cavorted in Montana and further north, the global climate was extremely warm. That warmth and the subsequent glacier formation are two cyclical extremes, neither of which was affected, or effected, by man.

While we can infer that man has an effect on the environment and atmosphere, and has the power to contaminate much of what he contacts, to think that man is the cause of any current climate change is like pontificating about how many angels can stand on a pinhead.

Professor Lowell actually alludes to this when he says that, "One of the surprising things I learned from my mentor is that it might take a decade to figure a place out. You can't just drop in and understand it."

In this case, it will take more than a decade to "figure it out," and it would help if your reporters broadened their perspective and did not become so awestruck with the UC professors that they treated their musings as the literal truth.

Finally, an A.S. (as opposed to a P.S.): The letter by Fr. Dennis Listermann-Vierling referring to the campus buildings as monstrosities was exactly right! Looking at pictures of the new buildings on campus, I can only think of the tremendous waste of resources used to construct these monuments to self-aggrandizement. Clearly, UC has lost its focus on education.

John Church, Eng '57
Aiken, S.C.

Family memories

I receive the magazine because my dad, Fred Brune [Eng '39], went to UC. Dad left UC right before graduation because of war. When Dad's professor was called to the Army to be an ordinance officer, he asked my dad to join him; however, the Navy also asked him. At that time, he had a sweetheart (who became my mom), and the Navy promised an area closer to her relatives. He retired from the Navy as a lieutenant commander.

Dad always loved UC, and he tried to apply to get that degree by showing them that because of his job and talents he had earned this degree. Dad was written into the contract by the astronauts for the Michoud Assembly Plant when they began production on the booster engines in New Orleans. He refused to let anything go out that was not perfect, and he started the American Society for Quality in New Orleans and certified many engineers there. The society has a scholarship in his honor. [Editor's note: Fred certified missile parts to build the Mercury booster for Alan Shepherd's flight, among other notable achievements, and retired as chief quality engineer for the Chrysler Space Division.]

Dad passed on April 7, 2007, and I buried him in a UC letter sweater that I had gotten him years ago. His original no longer fit and is supposed to be in a glass case in the athletics building. Dad was a manager -- when "real men" played football, as Dad would say, with leather helmets. I donated $500 for a UC locker and nameplate for Dad. You see, Dad really loved the school.

I also read with interest the story "Fighting Fat." Because of health issues, I must lose weight, so I hope your team is successful and soon!

Barbara Brune
Hammond, La.

We found the April 2008 edition of "UC Magazine" interesting, with a great layout, and excellent articles. Thank you.

Gerson Silver, A&S '71, and Susan Silver, A&S '73
Dayton, Ohio

Award won

Keith Jenkins, A&S '08, won a first place Mark of Excellence Award for sports writing from the Society of Professional Journalists for the story on Kevin Youkilis, which ran in the last issue of "UC Magazine."

Correction, clarification

David Meyer -- In the last issue, we incorrectly spelled the last name of UC professor David Meyer.

Beauty queens-- When we announced in the last magazine that CCM student Kirsten Haglund was the new Miss America, we listed the names of other UC students who have competed for that title. We neglected to name 1998 Miss Ohio Cheya Watkins, att. RWC '95; 1996 Miss Ohio Robyn Hancock, CCM '98, who won the talent award in the national pageant; and 1983 Miss Ohio Pamela Rigas, JD '86. In addition, two other UC alumnae competed nationally for beauty-queen titles -- 2002 Miss Ohio Teen USA Renee Jackson, A&S '07; and 1994 Miss Ohio USA Julia Hughes, att. '90s.

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Alumni share their dream-job updates

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