March 20, 2018, Vol. 24, No. 14

More Mail!

Hello Kevin, Welcome aboard sad to learn that your predecessor won’t be returning, we all wish him well. If you’ve followed the letters closely the past few years you might recognize my name as I’ve been a regular contributor, class of ’53 Metallurgical Engineering. As I close in on my fourth 21st birthday this coming June I’ve had the distinct pleasure of knowing several Tech administrations and serving on various boards over the years. At some point I’ll recap a story or two about each of those leading up to Dr. Mroz, all in good humor of course.

For the moment I wanted to mention that Winter Carnival did feature long blade speed skating in the 50′s including a king of the rinks, one Dante Iacovoni from Dearborn, MI, class of ’52, retiree living near Lac La Belle. Winter Carnival also featured a half mile snowshoe race that began at street level, heading directly uphill in general direction of today’s upper campus athletic facilities. I continue to treasure two ribboned 2nd place medals that I won in WC ’51 and ’52.  As a distance runner with no mentionable indoor training facilities that was the closest thing to a race before and after the snows set in.

During my senior year a Dastardly Plot believed to have been hatched by the Alpine Ski Team resulted in the course venue being changed to a flat race through the old cemetery close to the SDC. Naturally since it was mid- season for the well conditioned  team, they all participated and swept every position entered. I was embarrassed since I’d been elected captain of the ’51 Track Team yearning to see dirt or cinders not to come for another 2 months or more. Over the years since then I’ve had the pleasure of owning property in Park City, UT , skiing the Uintas and other Mts., learning to X-country skate and glide, and Snowboarding and accidentally leaving the surface to become airborne on occasion.

I’m an avid, some might say rabid, Husky fan and actively sponsor a team of Enterprise students working on sports products to be used on snow and ice. I couldn’t be more proud of our current Huskies and their resurgence under Coach Mel Pearson and his staff. Looking forward to viewing the upcoming games and playoffs via Everhome WCHA, Go Huskies.

Bob Carnahan, ’53
White Salmon, WA

Thanks, Bob! It’s a good time to be a fan of Tech athletics, with hockey and basketball making headlines. And thanks for helping to fill in my gaps in Tech history knowledge. They’re large gaps, but I’ll get there!
Question for Kevin Hodur:  Was isn’t Rio Tinto who controls Torqoise Hill Resourses who employs Kapla, doing something to free Justin? It would seem that the ball is in Rio Tinto’s court.

Dan Koss, Mining 1960

Hi Dan: I would certainly hope Rio Tinto is doing something/everything for Justin, but I figured every little bit helps.

In the spring of 1963, some of my fellow Tech students and I ventured downtown to the Ambassador Bar to watch a boxing match between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston which would determine the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World at least for a few months.  We were the first ones in the bar and we sat down in wooden folding chairs right in front of the bar’s black and white television set. There were plenty of seats set up behind us because a big crowd was expected in the bar. No worries on our part though–we were sitting right in front. The fight was going to attract a lot of viewers and it was going to be shown on cable television which was in its infancy and quite a novelty at that time.
We were at least an hour early so we all ordered beers to pass the time until the fight began. As the time for the start of the fight neared zero hour, one of the guys in our group headed for the bathroom to work off the two beers we had each imbibed by then.  Getting to the bathroom was no easy matter because all of the seats behind us were filled with Tech students. Meanwhile, the fight announcer was making his announcements as they did in those days and still do and then the fight began. One or two minutes into the first round, Clay let Liston have it with a vicious uppercut and Liston went down cold for the ten count.  By this time, the guy in our party of four had fought his way through the crowd to our seats and asked, “How’s the fight going?”  “It’s over,” we said. He had missed the whole thing.
Don Robinson, 1963
I publish this with full apologies to Don; I misplaced this message for last issue. So thank you for your patience, Don, and for everyone, please don’t be shy in mentioning if I’ve missed something you submitted!