If you’re a supporter of Southern Utah University, boy, should you be excited.

And if you’re not, spend a few minutes talking with Michael T. Benson or Ken Beazer. I can guarantee you’ll be excited then.

In the past year, Benson, the president, and Beazer, the athletic director, have stepped into the two highest-profile positions on campus and immediately provided an injection of adrenaline.

Just 15 days into his administration, Benson on Wednesday announced the largest private donation for a capital project in university history, a $3 million gift from an anonymous donor.

How’s that for starting with a bang?

He’s not done, either. Benson has vowed to raise $115 million in his first five years as part of the most aggressive and ambitious fundraising campaign in SUU history, and I get the feeling he thinks he can raise even more than that.

Beazer, meanwhile, is on the verge of doing something just as important as raising money. He’s about to build an athletic tradition at SUU.

Next month, SUU will retire the first athletic jersey in university history, that of former women’s basketball star Myndee Larsen. It sounds like other former Thunderbird standouts -- might I suggest Matt Cannon and Jeff Monaco, two of my all-time favorites -- will also soon be recognized for their wonderful careers.

By remembering the past, I believe Beazer is ensuring a better future. Every kid dreams of seeing their jersey hanging from the rafters of a gymnasium or seeing their number permanently displayed at a football stadium.

But what are prospective SUU athletes to think now? That no T-Bird has ever been good enough to be remembered? That no matter what they do, nobody will remember them?

It’s about time SUU sends a different message, a message that if you kick butt and take names, your name will forever be remembered.

While I’m not an alum of SUU, I’m excited by what Benson and Beazer are striving to do. Aren’t you?

Posted by Steve Kiggins at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

God, I hate Ann Coulter.

She's the devil's spawn.

And, she's dumb as a fencepost.

Every now and then, I like to tune into the Faux News Channel just to see what the enemy's up to.

Just now, Smiling Sean Hannity was braying about how liberals want the United States to lose in Iraq so they can seize even more power. His asylum partner, Coulter, was jib-jabbing away, nodding her stringy blond head in agreement, then remarking, ridiculously, about how we're winning in Iraq.

Lady, I don't know what planet you dropped down from, but I wish you'd go home.

Hannity's deskmate Alan Colmes tried to question Coulter who did a great tap dance all around the question before burbling that Iraq is like California and Baghdad is like Los Angeles. Then she described what is going on in Baghdad as something akin to the Crips and Bloods -- two notorious L.A. gangs -- going at it in a back alley.

Then Hannity bubbled in patriotic garble about how proud he is of the American troops.

Take the quotes and put them together and what do you have?

An insult to the U.S. military both of these Faux reporters seem to admire so much.

I mean, isn't it an insult to insinuate that the U.S. military would still be in the heat of the battle four years after going into South Central L.A. to take on the gangbangers?

But, Sean is a "good American" and so are the others who fall into his political way of thinking. The rest of us are anti-American scum, don't ya know.

And, of course there's also the weirdness of that skinny little wench whose eyes glazed over as she talked excitedly about how many terrorists we are killing over there and how we are preventing any of "them" from flying airplanes into our buildings.

I'm not shocked or disappointed. I mean, what else would you expect from the Fairly Unbalanced crew at the Faux News Channel?

Posted by Ed Kociela at 07:13 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 3 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )