Mick Ronson
Well-Known Member
i don't expect this to be popular, but it's been nagging at me....so: Mac gets the culture at CU and Boulder.
this is a refrain i keep seeing. i've lived in Boulder for almost 16 years straight and more than half of my life. I've been on campus 3-4 times a week as a grad student or employed since 1997. i was around the campus, Boulder, or in Colorado (the Springs) when Mac was here. Mac was a controversial figure. He had players getting in trouble (it's just true), his famous comment about homosexuality being "against God", the situation with Sal and his daughter among others which it's not for me to judge but it makes pretty flashy, inflammatory press....to say that "Mac got CU and Boulder" then....seems a little stretched or a selective interpretation to me.
It's one thing to agree with Mac, to think he knows what it takes to win at CU with an uneven playing field vs. the Texas and USC's of the world because he's done it before, but to say that he's a "good fit" or ever was in a sense at CU is questionable to me.
I'd also say the "culture" at CU and Boulder has changed a lot since 1990. It's still CU and it's still Boulder (and vastly more expensive to live here)...but to suggest that it's a constant that Mac can pick up right away....seems like bad, possibly lazy historical thinking.
what's my point? I just see this statement a lot at AB and I think it's a little glossed over by nostalgia. If Dan Hawkins had the contestable public figure presence today that Mac had at CU in the late 80's and early 90's....I don't think people would call that "getting it".
People can talk about Gordon Gee all they want, but I remember....there was open hostility between a lot of the student body and the team and student fans. CU football was pretty polarizing. You don't see anything like that today. Most kids/students are at worst ambivalent.
You can blame it on the liberals or PC or Boulder fem-nazis or whatever...and I love Mac as much as anyone; but, to say Mac "got" CU is a contestable statement to me. not an a priori premise to accepted on faith or happy memories of the I-bone.
Hire Mac and the homosexuality comment and even the scandal is going to come back full bore in our awesome local sports media who sets the tone for the national nimrods.
this is a refrain i keep seeing. i've lived in Boulder for almost 16 years straight and more than half of my life. I've been on campus 3-4 times a week as a grad student or employed since 1997. i was around the campus, Boulder, or in Colorado (the Springs) when Mac was here. Mac was a controversial figure. He had players getting in trouble (it's just true), his famous comment about homosexuality being "against God", the situation with Sal and his daughter among others which it's not for me to judge but it makes pretty flashy, inflammatory press....to say that "Mac got CU and Boulder" then....seems a little stretched or a selective interpretation to me.
It's one thing to agree with Mac, to think he knows what it takes to win at CU with an uneven playing field vs. the Texas and USC's of the world because he's done it before, but to say that he's a "good fit" or ever was in a sense at CU is questionable to me.
I'd also say the "culture" at CU and Boulder has changed a lot since 1990. It's still CU and it's still Boulder (and vastly more expensive to live here)...but to suggest that it's a constant that Mac can pick up right away....seems like bad, possibly lazy historical thinking.
what's my point? I just see this statement a lot at AB and I think it's a little glossed over by nostalgia. If Dan Hawkins had the contestable public figure presence today that Mac had at CU in the late 80's and early 90's....I don't think people would call that "getting it".
People can talk about Gordon Gee all they want, but I remember....there was open hostility between a lot of the student body and the team and student fans. CU football was pretty polarizing. You don't see anything like that today. Most kids/students are at worst ambivalent.
You can blame it on the liberals or PC or Boulder fem-nazis or whatever...and I love Mac as much as anyone; but, to say Mac "got" CU is a contestable statement to me. not an a priori premise to accepted on faith or happy memories of the I-bone.
Hire Mac and the homosexuality comment and even the scandal is going to come back full bore in our awesome local sports media who sets the tone for the national nimrods.
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