OK, going back 20 years doesn't qualify to many of us, but for the Gen-Xers, it does. Suffice to say current Demon football players would have enjoyed the lunch conversation today at the Bossier City/Shreveport QB Club Luncheon at Ralph & Kacoos, when head coach Scott Stoker traded cracks with former teammate Dr. Randolph Hayes.
I mean, how would you expect a quarterback and a linebacker to get along? They are actually old friends, but with any set of old teammates, there's plenty of material to cover, and plenty of barbs to throw.
Tim Fletcher of KTBS TV and Mike Dirmann of KSLA TV, both who will be covering Saturday's homecoming game at Turpin Stadium, were seated at the table with us and enjoyed the ribbing immensely.
Both Hayes and Stoker bemoaned the departure, mandated several years ago by the NCAA, of athletic dorms. Some of the hijinks they described might have been the bane of the Dean of Students, but the bottom line is that teammates lived together as well as played together, and that togetherness is something that is all too rare today across the country as players dwell in dorms, apartments, houses and trailers instead of on a couple of floors in the same dorm.
I remember the year that the rule changed, all of the coaches here were frustrated, especially because having their teams housed together made it easy to adjust when team travel plans changed (which they often do) or during holiday periods or weekends, when people off campus are scattered. It wasn't like our players were living at a standard any different than other NSU dorm residents, but the legislation wasn't directed at schools like Northwestern, but much higher up the food chain.
Another case, I suppose, of excess at the top spoiling a good thing for the majority of NCAA members.
Doug Ireland, SID
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