It’s an unassailable truth that brains and brawn do not mix. You hardly hear a peep about sports prowess coming from MIT, Cal Tech, or Chicago. Harvard et al. take their sports very seriously, but rarely at the Division I championship level. That’s why I love it that Stanford won its … 12th straight … Division I Director’s Cup. (Okay, I went there to B.School.) Hence the myth of brains or brawn suffers a fatal blow—as I see it. Some say the secret is Stanford’s prowess in “minor” sports: swimming, baseball, tennis, etc. “Minor”? You must be kidding. I’ll surely agree that our Rose Bowl trips have been few and far between of late. (Two in a row while I was getting my MBA, thanks in part to Heisman winner Jim Plunkett.) Basketball is a powerhouse—a string of Pac Ten championships, and a Final Four appearance a couple of years ago. There’s more, my real turn-on: Stanford’s women’s programs. Wow! Great facilities! Great coaches! Great records!
Brains & brawn. A non-starter? Think again. (FYI: Hats off to Williams for its 8th straight Div III Director’s Cup victory.)