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Give him Hall
Fordham to honor longtime AD McLaughlin
This Ram is getting one Hall of an honor.
Frank McLaughlin will be one of 10 inductees to the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday. After playing basketball for the Rams in the 1960s and becoming an assistant coach for the team, McLaughlin served as the school’s athletic director for nearly three decades, a tenure which ended last year.
“This is what happens when you get old, it seems like only yesterday,” McLaughlin told The Rumble’s Anthony Sulla-Heffinger. “It was a terrific run. [Fordham] is a special place.”
The Bronx-born McLaughlin played high school basketball at Fordham Prep and, despite being recruited nationally, decided to stay close to home and go to Fordham University, where he captained a team that featured Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo.
“The Jesuits had a very positive impact on me,” McLaughlin said. “My mom and dad always emphasized education, so I thought Fordham was the best combination of getting a great education and playing top notch basketball.”
McLaughlin passed on that emphasis during his tenure. In 27 years under McLaughlin, Fordham’s graduation rate among athletes has remained strong, and there have been no NCAA violations to speak of.
“I’ve always looked at [my responsibility being] the well-being of the student athlete,” McLaughlin said. “I thought it was a great honor to be a student-athlete at Fordham. When I had the opportunity to become the director of athletics, I wanted to pay back in some way the kids that were there.”
The induction will take place on Saturday at Rose Hill Gym, where the Rams will take on Rhode Island. For the inductees there will not be a black-tie affair, but rather a brunch, keeping with Fordham tradition.
“It’s very family oriented,” McLaughlin said. “You’re going to see people there with their kids and grandkids, it’s a family thing and that’s what Fordham’s about.”
Decker, Barber tackle Times Square Challenge
Knockout actress Brooklyn Decker had fun surviving the first Times Square Challenge Reebok Spartan Race and will be training next for the Austin Marathon next month.
“When I’m done with it, I’m going to feel proud,” Decker told The Rumble. “This may be my first and last marathon!”
Decker, who was joined by ex-Giant Tiki Barber at the event, vows she will finish the marathon.
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” she said. “It’s going to feel wonderful.”
What was the toughest challenge in Times Square?
“The rope climbing to the top. … My arms are not as strong as I thought they were,” Decker said, and laughed.
Middle Bay course a victim of Sandy
Middle Bay, one of the top private golf clubs on the south shore of Long Island, announced last week it was shutting down after much it got wiped out last fall by Hurricane Sandy.
One-third of the club’s 230 members have left the club, which said it will be filing for bankruptcy after insurance failed to cover all of the $3.5 million suffered in storm damage.
However, sources have told The Rumble the golf course might reopen this spring as a public daily-fee course to generate some cash flow while new ownership is being sought. The 6,821-yard course, which opened in 1964, was designed by Alfred Tull.
No future LPGA stops near NYC
The New York area no longer has a stop on the LPGA Tour.
Sybase, a California-based software and services company, has pulled the plug on its match-play championship, which was played for the last few years at Hamilton Farm in Gladstone, N.J., and won by Azahara Munoz. Previously, that same tournament was played for years at Wykagyl in New Rochelle in various formats under different sponsors.
Fortunately, the U.S. Women’s Open will be played this June 27-30 on Long Island at Sebonack GC in Southampton. After this year, the nearest LPGA stop will the Shoprite Classic near Atlantic City.