From: John McMillan
To: "jrussell26@mail.utexas.edu"
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009, 07:41:46 PM CST
Subject: 2 reply letters from Athletic Director Dodds re: proposed awards tradition
Dear Jarod,
I hope that you and your team members and coaches will also be interested in the following (attached) two infomative and friendly reply E-mail letters I've received from UT-Austin Varsity Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds.
You will note, by the way, that Mr. Dodds praises your varsity tennis team members as being "great" people.
Thank you again, Jarod, for your very kind interest in this proposed new collegiate athletic awards tradition.
Best Wishes,
UT-Austin alumnus and former Pampa resident John Kevin McMillan.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295.
--- On Wed, 1/21/09, Dodds, DeLoss
From: Dodds, DeLoss
Subject: RE: reply to UT-Austin Athletic Director Dodds re: proposed awards tradition
To: mcmillanj@att.net
Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 11:11 AM
John – John Ivy is the person who has the ability to present a class on the History of Tennis. You should contact NACDA regarding your suggestion to develop a prize for #1’s. They currently handle this. Stanford wins it every year. You can reach the NACDA folks by emailing them at mcleary@nacda.com. Hook ‘em - DD
From: John McMillan [mailto:mcmillanj@att.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 4:13 PM
To: Dodds, DeLoss; Ex-Students Assn Public Policy Dir.; Ex-Students Assn. Dir. Boone; TexasFacultyAssnSecretaryDixieKing; UT-AustinAssocLegalVPLeeSmith; Texas Higher Ed Coordinating Board Genl Counsel William Franz; AttorneyGeneralofTexas; StateRep.DonnaHoward; State Rep. Rob Eissler
Subject: reply to UT-Austin Athletic Director Dodds re: proposed awards tradition
Dear UT-Austin Athletic Director Dodds,
Thank you for your friendly E-mail reply letter, which has reminded me to make a point of attending some or several of the varsity tennis tournaments that UT-Austin hosts this spring semester.
Athletic Director Dodds, I would appreciate receiving a courtesy follow-up note from you.
I would like to find out from you why you believe that UT-Austin Professor John Ivy, who reportedly is a kinesiologist, is the UT-Austin employee most appropriate to review this annual athletic-awards-tradition tentative proposal (see attached letter, below) from myself.
I should mention that I myself have never met Professor John Ivy, nor do I have any current involvement with the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Education or any of its staff members, faculty, or administrators.
Is Professor John Ivy possibly involved in planning for UT-Austin in regard to any of the proposed new athletic awards programs for which UT-Austin might ever qualify as a cited beneficiary?
Thank you in advance, Athletic Director Dodds, for your very helpful response to this one follow-up question from myself.
Sincerely and Best Wishes,
Ex-Students' Association Member John Kevin McMillan of Austin.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295.
cc: Ex-Students' Association Representatives.
Texas Faculty Association Secretary Dixie King, I myself being a current dues-paying member of the Texas Faculty Association with a Master's Degree in Journalism and Mass Communications.
Lee Smith, an attorney, and Associate Vice President for Legal Affairs, UT-Austin.
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board state agency, Austin.
Texas Attorney General Gregory Abbott, Office of the Attorney General, State Government of Texas, Austin.
State Representative Donna Howard, Texas Legislature.
Texas House Education Committee Chair Rob Eissler.
--- On Tue, 1/20/09, Dodds, DeLoss
From: Dodds, DeLoss
Subject: RE: Annual Award to U.S. university with Best Overall Varsity-Sports Teams
To: mcmillanj@att.net
Cc: johnivy@mail.utexas.edu
Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 1:47 PM
John – Thank you for your email. I’ve passed it on to John Ivy who is in the position to look at your recommendation. The tennis kids are great kids – have a great 2009. Hook ‘em - DD
From: John McMillan [mailto:mcmillanj@att.net]
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 3:13 PM
To: UT Austin Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds; Center, Michael; McCain, Patty; n.a.sutherland@mail.utexas.edu; State Rep. Donna Howard; USTA Member Services; CapitalAreaTennisAssnDirVickieWright; Chris Evert Charities/Ms. Chris Evert; Austin Tennis League, Roger Vallejo; TennisMagazineEditorJamesMartin; Texas A&M Chancellor McTeer; University of Iowa President; UniversityofMinnesotaAlumniAssoc.; University of Nebraska Pres. James Milliken; UnivofGeorgiaLifelongEducationPrograms; Carter Center for Human Rights; Univ Iowa Alumni Association; Harvard Injury Control Research Center; President-Elect Obama & VP-Elect Biden; President George W. Bush; UTSystemGeneralCounsel,Austin; Center for Science in the Public Interest; AMA Council on Science and Public Health; AMA Foundation Exec Dir Churchill; UofHAssocGenlCounselValerieColeman-Ferguson; UniversityofTexasSystemAdmn.; StateSenatorKirkWatson; University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston; U.S. Representative Michael McCaul; Public Health Advocacy Institute, Boston; Action on Smoking and Health; Assoc of Health Care Journalists; customer.service@dshs.state.tx.us; TEA Commr Shirley Neeley; National Youth Sports Safety Foundation; Consulate General of Sweden (N.Y.); Daily Texan News Editors; ChristianScienceMonitor Editors; NewYorkTimesEditors; KVUE Reporter Clara Tuma; KVUE Television Newstips; KVUE TV News Dir. Frank Volpicella; SenatorJeffWentworth; Senator Florence Shapiro; State Rep. Rob Eissler; NebraskaGov.Asst.LanaGillming-Weber; New Ulm (MN) Journal Editor; Diocese of New Ulm Roman Catholic; Tami Dove, Insurance Agent; WashingtonPostOpedEditors; BostonGlobeEditor Martin Baron; Austin Mayor Will Wynn; Eanes ISD Superintendent; Superintendent Forgione; Gov'sOfficeAttyChelseaThornton; TexasTechSystemChancellorHance; Louisiana Republican Party Officials; DemocraticNatlCommittee; USC Senior Vice President Martha Harris; Univ of North TX System Genl Counsel NancyFooter; NoCussingClub(S.Pasadena,Calif.); BaltimoreSunLettersEditor; BaltimoreSunEditors; DMN ME George Rodrigue; DMN Editor Bob Mong; CountyJudgeSam Biscoe; CountyCommissionerSarahEckhardt; CityAttorneyDavid Smith; CountyAttorneyDavidEscamilla
Subject: re: Annual Award to U.S. university with Best Overall Varsity-Sports Teams
To: Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
January 17, 2009
Dear Athletic Director Dodds,
I would like to thank The University of Texas at Austin for having hosted the very fine Varsity Longhorn Tennis Teams banquet last evening at Bellmont Hall on your campus. I enjoyed attending that event as an invited guest, and I was very impressed by the friendly, very talented, and articulate athletes, coaches, and parents whom I met at that event.
Particularly impressive to me were the affable college-student manager of the Longhorns men's varsity tennis team, who took the time to chat with me about tennis tournaments and about his Panhandle region hometown of Dumas; and the kindly empathetic Longhorns men's tennis team award recipient Jon Wiegand of San Antonio. Jon Wiegand, a true gentleman, happened to notice that I was myself dining alone at a smaller dining table, and in a Texan-friendly display of hospitality, that alert junior at UT-Austin then politely invited me to move to the larger dining table where he and his kindly father and two sisters and numerous other varsity UT-Austin tennis team players were all seated.
As a dues-paying current member of the Ex-Students Association at UT-Austin, the Capital Area Tennis Association, Action on Smoking and Health, the No Cussing Club, and the United States Tennis Association, I would like to offer you a tentative suggestion for a proposed new nationwide award.
To more effectively promote the full range of lifelong sports being pursued by college athletes around our country, and to more effectively honor varsity collegiate athletes in those admirable lifelong sports, I am very hopeful that a fund-raising campaign can be initiated in Texas that will help to finance an independently-endowed nationwide annual awards tradition.
That proposed annual award and proposed accompanying $1 million dollar prize would go to the participating member university of the National Collegiate Athletics Association, regardless of where in the U.S. that school is situated, that in the most recent previous school year achieved the highest combined total number of first-place finishes nationwide at the end of the season from all of its various varsity NCAA-endorsed athletic-squads.
At present, as you must be painfully aware, all too many Americans are completely ignorant about which university or college in our nation at the end of each season achieved "best in the nation" status through the superior record of that school's varsity men's tennis team; its varsity women's tennis team; its varsity racquetball team; its varsity squash team; its varsity table tennis team; its varsity handball team; its varsity rowing team; its varsity track and field team; its varsity wrestling team; its varsity hockey team; its varsity roller-skating squad; its varsity bowling team; its varsity swimming team; or its varsity softball team, to name several examples of varsity collegiate sports in which outstanding achievement generally does not receive adequate nationwide publicity at present.
A "Best of America Varsity Athletics School Award," or some similarly titled award, would serve to remind all Americans to pursue as many of the lifelong sports as possible that make it possible for them to remain in good physical condition throughout their entire life. The proposed annual awards tradition could thereby help to promote first-rate medical health and wholesome, law-abiding, cheerful lifestyles by as many Americans as possible.
The proposed annual award would also provide much-deserved nationwide praise to those admirable universities and colleges that sponsor the greatest variety of, and the greatest consistency of excellence in, their entire gamut of varsity athletic teams. The University of Texas at Austin is surely among those schools, and would no doubt do very well in an annual "All-Sports" competition of that type.
Athletic Director Dodds, I would also like to take this opportunity to tentatively suggest that The University of Texas at Austin consider offering an academic course on the History of Tennis---or possibly instead an academic course on the History of Lifelong Sports. As crucial as those lifelong sports are to my own and others' quality of life and level of enjoyment of life, I am convinced that an academic course of that type would provide an invaluable educational service.
Thank you in advance for giving consideration to this tentative proposal from myself. I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely and Best Wishes,
John Kevin McMillan, a former History major at UT-Austin, and a former University of Texas at Austin full-time clerical-staff employee with a Master's Degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from The University of Minnesota-Minneapolis.
11411 Research Boulevard, Apt. 325, Austin, Texas, 78759.
Home phone: (512) 342-2295.
E-mail: mcmillanj@att.net
with numerous carbon-copies, in the hope that some public official or media company will help to promote this proposed annual awards tradition.
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