Wednesday, March 29, 2017

 

Go Gonzaga!


My NCAA bracket is looking pretty good right now, in part because I picked Gonzaga to win it all. Not that it was so much of a stretch-- they had a #1 seed in their region-- but I picked them in part because I love the idea of a small school doing so well.  

Here are some fun facts about Gonzaga:

-- It's a Catholic school with about 7,000 students in Spokane, Washington.

-- Bing Crosby went there, as did Sherman Alexie, author of "The Absolutely True Story of a Part-      Time Indian" and other books.

-- Intramural sports include Pickleball.

-- The got rid of football in the 1940's (and, in a twist that might surprise some people, did not collapse as an educational institution)

-- The average class size is 23 students




Comments:
And as I live 150 miles north of Spokane (in Nelson, B.C., Canada), I saw in the Spokane Spokesman-Review online that the crowds in the bars last weekend (when Gonzaga was winning on its way to its first Final-4) were annoyed at the national broadcasters mispronouncing the Gonzaga name, "even yelling the correct pronunciation, nearly in unison". The writer gave the official phonetic spelling, "straight from Gonzaga University's "Facts & Figures""-------- Gone-ZAG (as in 'bag')-uh. I would say it's easier to say 'Gun-ZAG-uh'.

And Spokane's name gets mispronounced. One of the ways residents can tell they have a telemarketer on the phone is if they say Spo-CANE.
 
Sherman Alexie is awesome!

 
I love Sherman Alexie! He's a poet too.

I've been to Spokane a couple of times. From there it's an easy drive to the beautiful panhandle of Idaho.
 
I live in Spokane. It's a great city. The moto is "Near nature, near perfect," and it couldn't be more true. The Spokane river runs right through downtown, and the falls are spectacular, especially this time of year. It has a vibrant night life, great restaurants, and it is definitely a college town.

They sure do love their Zags. The city is alive with Final Four fever. I hope they win. True fans, small school die-hard fans, deserve it.
 
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