Saturday, April 01, 2006

Everybody Knows Our Name

I went to a small liberal arts school, Goucher College just north of Baltimore, for my undergrad degree. No one had ever heard of it. I thought people would certainly have heard of George Mason University, after I started going there for grad school. I was wrong. More people knew of the name than of Goucher, but my school was still relatively anonymous.

Four years of undergrad, this is now my second year of grad school, and only now, seemingly out of the clear blue sky, is everyone in the country familiar with my school. It is a bizarre feeling.

My school is now part of a possible trend the "George Mason Effect," where, possibly, a lesser known school's athletic achievements raise the profile of its academic program. We've been on tv constantly. We've been on the front page of national newspapers. You know the name: George Mason.

Why is this?

All because of the heart of a group of players, who weren't recruited by big name schools. They are undersized, underdogs, and now under seize with publicity. They have raised the profile of my school and for that I thank them. I also thank them for their entire George Mason basketball careers (to this point and beyond), it has been wonderful.

On a side note, I was actually asked if I was a bandwagon fan this week. If you go to George Mason, who know how crazy that is.

1 comment:

knibilnats said...

comparative world history (George Mason's term for non-Western, I guess the West can't be compared to "the rest of the world")- specifically South Asian and East Asian.