All photos by Paul Goldfinger, taken from the YOU TUBE video 3/17/23
Paul Goldfinger. Editor Blogfinger.net. And graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson U.
This is a remarkable sports story, and the FDU Knights can bask in this amazing victory: a 16 seed beats a 1 seed. I found this on the Net:
POLITI: “Fairleigh Dickinson’s first-round victory over No. 1 seeded Purdue is the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history and maybe college basketball history. Go ahead and comb through the record books, if you must. What happened last night in Columbus, Ohio, between the tiny commuter school from Teaneck and the Big Ten powerhouse from Indiana is basically unparalleled.”
But for most colleges and universities, sports is not the major preoccupation in students’ lives. I was a student at FDU Teaneck in the 1960’s. I was a commuter as were most of the students. They had no football team, but there was a basketball team.
The undergrads tended to be older than most, and many were attending the business school which was quite eminent. My OG neighbor graduated Harvard, took a corporate job and obtained his MBA at night from FDU. He was impressed.
Many students had jobs and college classes. College life wasn’t much, although I did belong to a secret frat. Do you see the swan in the logo above? Well my frat brothers stole a swan, temporarily from the pond on campus in Teaneck and created a minor incident.
And I had a part in Antigone and a girlfriend who was learning to speak Russian. Music was my main interest there, playing sax in a number of groups. My own quintet played for the Spring Weekend, and on the bill were Carmen McCrea and Gene Krupa.
Here is link regarding that era:
In Rutherford , NJ they had no July 4 parade, but they did have a big Memorial Day parade, and the University recruited me to ride the float. The school originated in 1942 in Rutherford.
I’m in front with the crew cut and white mouthpiece.
Anyhow, basketball was an obscure preoccupation. The team mostly played at the Rutherford Campus, so I paid little attention to it. It was, as far as I was concerned, small potatoes.
But then, I saw a headline in the campus newspaper about how the basketball coach was complaining that he needed more money for scholarships. I thought this was obnoxious because the school had a weak academic scholarship program, and not even the valedictorian at Teaneck High could get a full ride to attend school at FDU. So I wrote a letter to the editor suggesting that they take the basketball money and do some academic recruitment for the school .I even suggested that they buy a few more famous professors to populate the library.
My letter created a minor uproar. My frat buddies kidded me endlessly about how my “library professors” were doing. And my English professor stopped me on campus to complement my writing and then suggesting that the basketball players should be paid to play for the school.
But it was a tempest in a teapot then, but now–wow! FDU broke a record for the NCAA tournament which has been run since 1939.
And boy, was I wrong about FDU sports. I enjoyed watching the FDU coach be interviewed post game, and they played a video of his speech to the team before the Purdue game was to start, and he said that he sincerely believed that they could win the game. Impressive.
But, then again, the idea of paying college athletes is still a good one and an honest one. There still those who advocate that.
So Go Knights, Could they win in Round Two? Why not? I am a fan now–better late than never.
The school cheer or school song? I have no idea.
But here’s a song; I have no responsibility for the lyrics, but it’s called “The Girls of Fairleigh Dickinson” by the Down Cows.
ADDENDUM: I have just learned that college athletes will be able, starting soon, to make money capitalizing on their names, autographs and other means. You can Google The NY Times article on this.