Good article on Butch Komives

BGSU Men's Basketball!!
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factman
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Good article on Butch Komives

Post by factman »

I think we "study" some things/problems too long! Sometimes the answer is obvious and right in front of us.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /COLUMNIST
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Post by BGSU33 »

I don’t know if BG has thought about this or not (I’m guessing the administration is aware of it though), but you can do one of two things when honoring a great player in relation to this article. You can either retire the number, or retire the jersey. Either one is certainly an honor and tribute. If a school chooses to retire the number, no one wears that number again. But if you retire the player’s jersey, the number remains active. There’s no question in my mind Komives is a candidate for either one. Something certainly should be done.
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Post by JoeFalcon »

I'd like to retire the idea of retiring numbers. Greg Christopher is right to tread cautiously regarding this and has exactly the right attitude: "The issue is not whether these athletes are worthy [of such recognition] but how to get there."

If the floodgates open up, whoever doesn't get the recognition is going to feel just as slighted as the Komives nostalgists.

The athletic department has a hundred more pressing issues to concern themselves with.
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Post by factman »

All I know is that I have been watching BGSU basketball since the late 50's, and Nate Thurmond and Howard "Butch" Komives are the two best players I have seen, by far. Komives was probably the more skilled of the two, but Nate was skilled and had great physical attributes.
:D
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Post by BGSU33 »

I think it’s ridiculous that we don’t recognize many of the former athletes the way they “should” be recognized, remembered and honored. Go to nearly any other university and into their athletic facilities and you’ll see retired numbers or jerseys, bronzed statues, memorials, etc. Just take a look right around here in the MAC at what some schools have even done. You mean to tell me we can’t put up something as simple as a jersey banner for one of our greatest basketball players in Butch Komives? As for where to start or end a list for designated honorees, that is the easy part of this issue. It's the lack of overall recognition for these athletes that's the root of the concerns. These athletes our a HUGE part of our history and have carved their names into our record books….simply keeping their names, or numbers for that matter, buried in a media guide or limited to a picture on the wall is very shortsighted. If one of us put the name and/or number of one of our “Greats” on a popsicle stick and placed it somewhere visible in the respective athletic facility where our honorees played is more recognition than what currently exists, there is something very wrong.
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Post by JoeFalcon »

BGSU33, I can't disagree more strongly with your assertions.

We've got the Hall of Fame plaques and pictures in the Ice Arena, banners up at Anderson Arena (with Thurmond's jersey) and football, soccer, baseball and basketball facilities all named after famous Falcon athletic figures. Each year, we induct a host of new folks into the Athletic Hall of Fame with a dinner and ceremony during a home football game. What the heck more are we supposed to do? Carve out a version of Mt. Rushmore with the faces of Perry, Thurmond, Komives and Cochrane into the big hill next to the football field? Recreate Lady Liberty with Antonio Daniels holding up a basketball?

If money was not an option, we could build an entire army of statues and have them line the peremiter of the University. But given the reality of our limited resources, I'd rather focus on the betterment of the present day student-athletes as opposed to endless, redundant trips down memory lane.
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Post by factman »

Money is an OPTION? :wink:
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Post by BGSU33 »

JoeFalcon wrote:BGSU33, I can't disagree more strongly with your assertions.

We've got the Hall of Fame plaques and pictures in the Ice Arena, banners up at Anderson Arena (with Thurmond's jersey) and football, soccer, baseball and basketball facilities all named after famous Falcon athletic figures. Each year, we induct a host of new folks into the Athletic Hall of Fame with a dinner and ceremony during a home football game. What the heck more are we supposed to do? Carve out a version of Mt. Rushmore with the faces of Perry, Thurmond, Komives and Cochrane into the big hill next to the football field? Recreate Lady Liberty with Antonio Daniels holding up a basketball?

If money was not an option, we could build an entire army of statues and have them line the peremiter of the University. But given the reality of our limited resources, I'd rather focus on the betterment of the present day student-athletes as opposed to endless, redundant trips down memory lane.
Yeah, you’re right, I mean, why would BG want to focus on “endless, redundant trips down memory lane???” Man……I "can't disagree more strongly with your assertion” on the issue either. But, we can obviously agree to disagree on this topic.
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Post by JoeFalcon »

BGSU33 wrote: Yeah, you’re right, I mean, why would BG want to focus on “endless, redundant trips down memory lane???”
For the reasons stated earlier in that same sentence that you quoted from...limited resources, the current student-athletes, plus the fact we already honor them in the first place.

We can build a bunch of monuments or we can build a new basketball facility (which will house a Hall of Fame, BTW) like the sainted Bill Frack is helping to further along. As you said, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
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Post by JoeFalcon »

factman wrote:All I know is that I have been watching BGSU basketball since the late 50's, and Nate Thurmond and Howard "Butch" Komives are the two best players I have seen, by far. Komives was probably the more skilled of the two, but Nate was skilled and had great physical attributes.
:D
Jabari Mattox didn't make the cut? :-)
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