UGA great Conrad Fink, dead at 80

Conrad Fink, who in his life was a U.S. Marine, foreign correspondent, vice president of the Associated Press, newspaperman, University of Georgia professor, husband and father, died Sunday, according to numerous media outlets and the Grady College of Journalism.

He was something else, as his Facebook page today makes clear.

Just to give you an idea: Go to the 1:02 mark.



Update: A much longer version of his obituary.

Drop your beer: AD news

Now pick your beer back up.

Mark Weiszer for The ABHDN:

Florida executive associate athletic director Greg McGarity, an Athens native and University of Georgia graduate, is interested in becoming the next athletic director at his alma mater.

Shot by the party gun, 10 of 13 years

Being named the nation's No. 1 party school would be significantly better if Damon Evans had not just gotten a DUI.

From The AJC:

UGA climbed up from No. 4 to snatch the top spot on the annual list compiled by the Princeton Review. The university has the distinction -- or disgrace, depending on your perspective -- of being on the top 20 party list for 10 of the past 13 years.

Worth noting that No. 2 on the list, Ohio University, is located in Athens, Ohio.

Portraits in Bulldog Awesome: The Music Business

This is follow up information on the post below. But I didn't see any way it wasn't it's own post.

Below is Nick Thompson, rising University of Georgia Senior and one of guys behind H.E.R. Hip Hop.


I think he's majoring in "being Cool Hand Luke." (2:48 mark.)

Says Athens Bureau Chief Brian Huff, who is in Mr. Thompson's business fraternity:

In addition to producing videos for country stars in Nashville this summer and helping launch/run a small business, H.E.R. Hip Hop, Nick plays bass guitar with The Wales, a hip hop/rock/reggae band in Athens, GA. I wish I would've had my shit together like that at 21 years old.

Huff also notes that "Fresh" from this new "Bulldog Nation" song is the lead singer for The Wales.

Note: With rare exceptions, we don't publish pictures of girls in their bikinis here, and particularly not without the girls permission. But the swimwear attire these ladies selected is both understated and classical.

Henley: "If I never play another round ..."

From The Telegraph:

“If I never play another round of golf, then this is enough,” Henley said after shooting a 2-over-par 73 in the final round. “This was just the most amazing experience.”

He finished tied for 16th.

North Campus tailgating: All whammies = self whammies

There's a good life lesson in the crack down on North Campus tailgating. When you know someone wants to hit you on the head, don't hand them a hammer.

Beyond that, this is the university's definition of North Campus, and an interesting reference to parking changes from UGA's official game day sit:

NOTE: North Campus is defined as the area bounded by Broad Street, Lumpkin Street, Baldwin Street and Jackson Street (including, but not limited to, the quadrangle between Broad Street and Old College, the quadrangle between Old College and the Main Library, and Herty Field).

In order to accommodate the increased fan traffic in these areas, a few changes in parking regulations are also being implemented at locations throughout the campus. These changes will help to free up valuable parking spaces to accommodate the more than 92,000 fans that gather on campus during a gameday.

If you have the means, now is the time to bargain with the powers that be on tailgating. Surely there is a solution beyond a complete North Campus lock down.

Kupets: Seven 10's, 2009 Sportswoman of the Year

Damn right, Courtney Kupets.


Image: UGA sports communications staff (galleries).

The official announcement:

NEW YORK --- Former Georgia gymnast Courtney Kupets received the Sportswoman of the Year Award for individual sport athletes Tuesday at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. She was honored at the Women's Sports Foundation's 30th Annual Salute to Women In Sports Dinner.

As a senior in 2009, Kupets led Georgia to its fifth straight NCAA Championship title, and she won the all-around, bars, beam and floor individual competitions. She became the first gymnast ever to win a national title in all four events and received five First-Team All-America honors, making a total of 15 for her career, the maximum for only competing three years.

Kupets is the all-time NCAA leader with nine individual championships and was named SEC Athlete of the Year, as well as the AAI National, NCAA Southeast Regional and SEC Gymnast of the Year. Kupets became the third Gym Dog ever to record a 10.0 in all four events, and she had seven 10.0s in 2009, including three at the NCAAs.

Tailgating: Recycling bag donations get free beer*

*Where free beer = good will.

University of Georgia business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi will be distributing garbage and recycling bags this season. They're also taking donations for the recycling bags, which will be clear.

Chick-fil-A Beechwood and Jittery Joe's have already made generous donations, the fraternity reports.

Donations can be made online with a credit or debit card via PayPal. Click here then click on the logo. Athens Bureau Chief Brian Huff, a member of AKPsi, notes you may also physically send bags or checks to the fraternity at 545 S. Milledge Ave., 30605.

Clear recycling bags make sense because you can see through them, yo.

For more information: melanielfoster@gmail.com.

From AKPsi:

“UGA fans are a people of pride,” said Thorne Brown, President of Alpha Kappa Psi. “We can show that same pride in the way we treat our campus. You don’t show your pride just by wearing UGA’s colors—you show it by keeping your campus clean.”

"Or, if you play defense, by destroying things, being in the right position and making sure tackles."

Ashley, soldiers, deserve to be remembered

Three years ago my friend Ashley was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq. She was 23. She was a soldier and a University of Georgia ROTC graduate.

You may remember her story, which ran in most of the state's newspapers. Brian Huff, a regular contributor here, was her husband.

Ashley was buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery across from Sanford Stadium. I'm told you can hear the crowd noise there on gameday.

A ceremony in Ashley's honor is planned Friday at 2 p.m. at the University Chapel on North Campus. After that, the University ROTC program will dedicate a plaque in her honor in the newly renovated ROTC lounge on campus.

They based the plaque on one of the more iconic pictures Ashley sent home from Iraq. It shows her smiling with a little Iraqi girl.

But, then, all the pictures showed her smiling.

The plaque is not the world's only monument to Ashley. When the Iraqi government opened a new police academy in Erbil, a bust of Ashley was placed outside.



The Inscription reads:

Operation Iraqi Freedom
First Lieutenant Ashley L. Henderson Huff, USA
19 December 1982 – 19 September 2006
Friend of Kurdistan
Advocate of Irbil Police Academy
Died in the Defense of Freedom
Remembered always with fondness

I know not everyone can be on campus Friday afternoon. But, if you would, will you think of my friend Ashley this weekend? And of her family and of Huff, and all the soldiers and families out there.

So many never make it home.

And if you do happen to be near campus Friday, the University's ROTC liaison assures me the ceremony is open to the public. The online guestbook from Ashley's funeral is still up as well. All 68 pages of it.











1st Lt. Ashley Laine Henderson Huff with Iraqi police trainees.


Update: After some contemplation, I've decided the looks on those guys faces translate to "Wow." Agreed, gentlemen. Ashley, may you rest in grace and peace, and may the Iraqi people flourish.

Uh-oh. Adams gets involved on tailgate trash

He called a press conference today to issue a warning. Chip Towers has the basics.

The University will put out more trash bags and Adams doesn't "want to start arresting people."

Obviously the trash bags will help. But there are more bedrock problems. Just because it's in a bag doesn't mean it's not a ridiculous amount of garbage.

I'm also a little surprised how up in arms folks have gotten over the trash this year. I guess not everyone strolls through campus at 2 a.m. the way I tend to, but the trash on North Campus isn't noticeably worse than it has been in years past.

I'm glad to see it, but it's interesting the way issues reach tipping points.

Tailgating and trash: Please do better

UPDATE: I feel like I should add here: That looks like one hell of a party. Someone needs to invent a better disposable cooler.
...
This video is from Saturday night. Ten years ago I can see myself contributing to this, so I understand. But if you tailgate like this, you should be ashamed of yourself.



It was like that all over the two main quads at 2 a.m. The people who clean that up, I wonder what they think of you?

Thanks to Georgia Sports Blog, Get The Picture and The Grit Tree for getting the word out. You have to wonder: Just how bad is the environmental impact of a University of Georgia game?

It's actually pretty easy to recycle on Gameday. Just bring a bag and make a little sign. There are drop off locations all over campus, as shown on this map, downloadable here in pdf form. And I imagine if you mark it, some enterprising soul will come pick it up.

Georgia girls and Sanford Stadium: Your only guarantees in 2009

And Rennie Curran.
...
A couple of years ago I think Ford had a commercial: "The only guarantee on Gameday? Tailgating."

My tailgate isn't even guaranteed this year. A parking deck is under construction and the University has temporarily destroyed my tailgating spot to execute what looks like a bad ass master plan.

There are a lot of questions about this season, and we're going to have answers very soon. And that is what I think about this team. I think I was more confident about the opener 2 weeks ago.


Note the new red bridge, and yellow riverwalks.

...

JOE: What about Joe Cox, man?

ME: For all our talk about the o-line, here we are at the end, we're talking about the quarterback.

JOE: Can he complete 60 percent of his passes?

ME: That's the question.

JOE: Nah. Too many questions. But, shit, I guess that's what happens sometimes.

I think these are reasonable questions about The Dawgs on Aug. 29, 2009:

• Starting corner opposite Prince Miller
• Safety
• Defensive end
• running back
• Quarterback
• Offensive line
• Defensive coaching

Now, the question is, how many of those do you really feel confident in? And, if you have six or seven questions heading into a season, how reasonable is expecting great success?


Yes, I'm happy to announce that, one week before kickoff, my supreme confidence has turned to organ-gnawing worry. Worry with confidence at its foundation, colored by an excitement for Sanford Stadium. Now it's football season.


Not even guaranteed this year.

I say we truck these fools in their renovated stadium. Otherwise, what the hell are we doing?

One other thing: The University of Georgia Master Plan is to destroy my tailgating spot this season. But it's to build something better in the future.

I expect a 10 win season like anyone else. And if Tebow gets hurt, a path opens through the SEC East.

But that's a big if to add to 7 questions.

The Lucid Interview: Michael Adams

UGA President Michael Adams was in Macon Monday and stopped by The Telegraph for about an hour. Most of this isn't new news, but it is interesting. The newspaper version of this story is here.

He'd like to raise tuition. Between the hit the university's endowment took in the stock market and state budget cuts, Adams said "there are no more rabbits in the hat" and that layoffs are next if the state makes more cuts.
The Board of Regents already did away with the "fixed for four" tuition lock-in, but Adams said we're still too low.
"Alabama is $3,000 more a year. ..." he said. "You can be too good a buy."



He's likely against banning smoking campus-wide: A proposal to do so is "in the university committee structure," but Adams said he hasn't decided whether he'd sign off on a ban, if it makes it to his desk.
"When you start telling people they can't smoke or use any other legal product... somebody's going to need to make an argument to me that it's harming other people (outside)," he said.
Adams has already signed off on measures to ban smoking in university buildings and at Sanford Stadium.

East Campus smell to improve: A new sewage plant under construction near College Station Road should "eliminate rather than reduce" the strong smell that sometimes permeates parts east campus and the surrounding area, Adams said.
The new plant should be online in early 2012, according to The Athens Banner-Herald. It's one of three Athens Clarke County plants being rebuilt by the local government, the newspaper has reported.

The Butts-Mehre expansion ground breaking will be the day of the South Carolina game.




Sanford Bridge reassurances: Adams said he expects the Sanford Drive Bridge to remain open with its view into the stadium intact. He said the next expansion of the stadium would be along the top of the eastern end zone stands.
"I think if I closed (the bridge) end of the stadium the alumni would go nuts. ..." he said. "The tying of that stadium to the campus is part of the lore of that place."

He'd like to see Tim Tebow graduate. He also said The Dawgs "could" beat Florida this year and threw out 28-20 for a prediction.

Furloughs and closing buildings: Talk about some campus buildings, such as the Miller student center, closing on furlough days is "pure rumor," Adams said. The planned furlough days for university employees are Oct. 30, Nov. 25, Dec. 24, Jan. 4, March 8 and April 30.

On retirement: Adams said he doesn't have an exit plan, but he recently turned 60 expects to leave the university in "another four or five or six years."

Also, he was wearing braces.



The Lumpkin Street area: Adams still favors closing a portion of Lumpkin Street near Baxter Street and building a landscaped mall there. Traffic would be routed over to Pulaski Street, but those plans "haven't gone any where," he said.
Several new buildings are planned further north along Lumpkin where the university recently bought fraternity buildings, including new business school buildings.
The university is also buying up the public housing units along Baxter Street, a bit at a time, to make room for future expansion, he said.

Campus will continue to grow on the east side near the Ramsey Center with the focus in that area being on residential and recreational buildings. There are plans for a new bridge across the North Oconee in that area as well as a riverwalk.
You can get all kinds of master plan documents from the university here, and the East Campus plan shows part of the loop around Ramsey closing in favor of new housing.

May update: UGA still awesome

Updates from The University of Georgia Magazine...

The Seiler family has donated papers from the Uga mascot line to the university. They will be housed in one of the library's special collections, which are partially accessible online, and are awesome.

This one is dedicated to the women of UGA.
----
A UGA professor is studying parasitic worms that cause schistosomiasis and affect 70 percent of people in some African villages. The research may lead to advances in organ transplants and immunosuppressant therapy.
----
As of fall semester, there will be no more in-room phones in University of Georgia dormitories.
----
Terry College, graduating college of one John W. Fain, was second in the nation in passage rate for the CPA exam in 2007. Wake Forest was No. 1. I pretty much stole the whole story.
----
It snowed on March 2:

Image: University of Georgia Magazine, Peter Frey, BA 1994.

City of Athens, circa 1909

One of my favorite little known University services comes from The Hargrett Library, which maintains an archive of old pictures and maps of Athens and the University of Georgia.

They will even make and mail you prints of old pictures and maps for a reasonable fee. Very cool.


Bonus points if you can identify where Sanford Stadium would be built some 18 years later.