Staudt: Magic’s Lansing Promise dinner a hot ticket
I predict the Lansing Promise Scholarship dinner will become the toughest ticket in town in the coming years. The second annual event drew 1,300 to the Lansing Center Thursday night, featuring Earvin "Magic" Johnson who brought the musical group Earth, Wind and Fire to entertain.
When the likes of Kelly Dean, the Lansing Chamber of Commerce, Magic, Tom Izzo and a litany of big time community sponsors are involved you know the event will be classy and grow. Scholarship money for Lansing school students has now grown to more than $1 million in two years of operation helping some 500 needy students attend either Michigan State or Lansing Community College. As long as Earvin comes back every April and he can draw Izzo to be a part of the program -- this will be a highly sought ticket.
LET THERE BE LIGHT? Purdue installed lights when it built Alexander Field three years ago. McLane Stadium does not have lights at Michigan State, but if they were available when would they be worth the cost? You can’t schedule night games in March and April. They would only be worthwhile to attract an NCAA Regional when lights are mandatory. But who knows how often they would be needed even then.
WELCOME ABOARD: It’s impressive that Michigan State lured quarterback Rocky Lombardi into a verbal commitment from his home state of Iowa where the nearby Hawkeyes also offered a scholarship. When Lombardi arrives next year he’ll be fighting three legitimate starting pospects for playing time down the road in Damien Terry, Brian Lewerke and Messiah deWeaver. Tyler O’Connor is in his final year of eligibility this fall.
FISCAL TALK: As long as television money flows into Big Ten schools maybe the current system of running athletic departments will be sustainable. Commissioner Jim Delany has a six-year deal with Fox beginning in 2017 which will reportedly pay each school nearly $18 million annually. That TV money better not dry up since I haven’t seen one annual budget decrease lately. So how will the other 114 division one football schools make it work without the help of the Big Ten Network?
BUDGET WOES: The HBO special airing this week on athletic budgets is a haymaker at both Rutgers and Eastern Michigan, the two main schools who were profiled. I’m amazed that trustees or regents at some of these schools, who could care less about athletics, mostly rubber stamp requests whenever athletic department funds are sought. HBO says Eastern Michigan gives the athletic department 80 percent of its annual budget, which means students who enroll in Ypsilanti are paying part of their fees to fund an endlessly losing Div. 1 athletic program. Rutgers reportedly has lost $312 million in athletics the past 12 years, and how that escapes the wrath of taxpayers is a mystery to me. Rutgers is currently paying off fired coaches and administrators $6.5 million and HBO described how the football team spends $26,000 on home weekends to stay in a campus hotel on Friday nights. Rutgers belongs in the Big Ten like I belong on the PGA Tour.
TEE IT UP: It’s noteworthy that Eagle Eye Golf Course in Bath Township will host the 105th Michigan Amateur Men’s Chyampionship from June 20-25. The course will close at 2 p.m. on the 19th for the 162 players to play practice rounds. The public is invited to attend free of charge with no parking fees either. Two days of stroke play will reduce the field to 64 for a bracketed match play finish with the semifinals and finals matches set for Friday the 25th. The Michigan Amateur for years was played in Northern Michigan but the Golf Association of Michigan has been alternating with southern courses to try and build interest. Some 75 volunteers will be used to help keep golf balls from getting lost in the numerous hazardous areas along with 15 rules officials spread out around the course. This will be the first time the Amateur has ever been held in the Lansing area and it is a one-year commitment. Qualifying around the State begins early next month.
LANSING GEM: In 1962 Dean Shippey, then athletic director at Lansing Everett High School, created the Diamond Classic baseball tournament. It began as an eight-team event for the city wide schools. Today, 10 teams play and Cooley Law School Stadium is included as often as possible. Shippey has attended virtually every tournament through the years and his name has been attached by the committee. His presence is in doubt this year. Shippey turns 98 in June and he is currently battling an ailing back at the St. Lawrence Hospice Care Center in Lansing.
COMETS LEGEND: One of Shippey’s frequent visitors is veteran Grand Ledge High School baseball coach Pat O’Keefe, now in his 48th season. Grand Ledge is loaded again, as usual and was unbeaten in its first five games. O’Keefe has now passed the 1,150 career victories mark, the most of any high school baseball coach in Michigan history, and he became an inaugural member of the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame, founded last year by the Lansing Lugnuts. There is no end in sight for him as long as his health is good and he has rallied from a hip transplant in the past year.
JOB WELL DONE: Coming this Wednesday night at Okemos High School -- the CAAC Senior Scholar Athlete Ceremonies. The top 10 seniors who have lettered in two sports, ranked academically, are honored from each of the 20 conference schools. I have been invited to participate the past 10 years and it is easily the finest high school gathering I have ever been around. It is the unofficial start of senior graduation activities for most of those taking part.
ON THE CLOCK: Next up for MSU football coach Mark Dantonio is the NFL Draft, which begins Thursday night in Chicago. He’ll beam in person as departing seniors Jack Conklin and Connor Cook may well be chosen in the first round and some believe Conklin may go 16th to the Detroit Lions, who apparently are looking for offensive line help. I’m most interested to see how many quarterbacks are chosen ahead of Cook and might he end up going to his hometown Cleveland Browns early in round two?