Northwestern boats one of the foremost design schools in America among a wide range of other leading academic programs of study and research.
This Sunday evening, a SABR friend of mine whom I respect very much wrote me the following after apparently reading Sunday morning’s Pecan Park Eagle column, “Wake Up the Echoes?” …
“Northwestern is far from rinky-dink. While its Drama Department has indeed produced some notable actors and actresses, its Schools of Journalism, Engineering, Business, Arts & Sciences, and Music have all received their shares of acclaim. And that’s merely citing some of the undergraduate programs. It has graduate programs like medicine and law with exceptionally strong reputations as well. Perhaps you already realize this, and your blog today was written simply to mouth off about UH losses, but it wasn’t very nice to see a slur like this against my alma mater being presented to those readers who may know nothing about the institution.”
My apologies. Yesterday’s column, “Wake Up the Echoes?”, was merely and only something I tried to write in good spirit for an ancient Notre Dame friend of mine who has enjoyed more than his share of good luck over the years, including his joy and my agony over that Joe Montana rally of the Irish in the January 1, 1979 Cotton “Ice” Bowl that brought ND back from a 34-14 deficit with 7:30 left on the 4th quarter clock to a winning TD pass to Chris Haynes on the last play of the game that gave the Boys from South Bend another 35-34 “miracle” win over my UH Cougars – as we both sat together in the frigid stadium watching my horror show unfold on the frozen, football field-striped tundra before us.
This year, the worm took a sharp turn on ND fortunes – and I was merely tracking his slimy, legless path in mock remorse in the “Echoes” column. I don’t really think that your Northwestern University is a “rink-dink” theatrical school at all. In fact, had I been able to afford it after high school back in 1956, Northwestern would have been my choice as the place to study journalism. Unfortunately, I could not swing it, but fortunately for people like me at that time, UH and my ability to handle work and a full-time academic load nearer to home made my undergraduate degree possible in four years.
Now I can’t wait to hear from my Arizona State friends. They are going to love my reference to their Alma Mater as a “cactus patch” school.
Northwestern friend, just know too that I meant no serious denigration of Northwestern, Florida, State, Arizona State, Louisville, USC, Notre Dame, the Louisville Slugger Bat Company, or Churchill Downs in yesterday’s column.
My regrets also include my deluded belief that what I thought was an obvious attempt at humor may have been taken as a serious slam or slight by anyone of any of the fine institutions listed in the previous paragraph.
Bill McCurdy, Editor
For more information about Northwestern University, check out their website at this link:
http://www.northwestern.edu/
Tags: Northwester University
The Pecan Park Eagle 
December 1, 2014 at 1:18 pm |
Bill, you simply found the secret to column writing…the Richard Justice School. Generating controversy–whether you truly believe it or not– sells.
December 1, 2014 at 4:53 pm |
And that reaction is what Charles Schulz had one of his Peanuts characters call “Offensisensitivity.”
December 5, 2014 at 2:54 am |
And they hire convicted Weathermen bomb killers to their law faculty. I wrote this school off long ago….