Bidding farewell to a true original
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: July 19, 2009

We should all be so fortunate to be remembered in the manner that Michael Colley was on Friday at John Paul Jones Arena.

Family, friends and colleagues gathered near courtside, only a few paces from where Colley spent so much of his time, his office inside UVa’s Sports Media Relations department. We were all touched by the shocking news that he had died during a walk at Virginia Beach last Saturday.

Colley, 46, was a unique character in a sports world that could use a few more.

Behind-the-scenes hero

He was one of those behind-the-scenes guys that never sought publicity for himself, but made sure that Virginia’s athletes and coaches gained as much exposure as possible. Colley’s responsibilities included arranging interviews for Cavalier football and men’s lacrosse players and was chief statistician at UVa football, men’s lacrosse and men’s and women’s home basketball games.

Having known him for more than 20 years, I would say no one in his department was as passionate about UVa athletics as Colley. He was one of those great guys who always told you exactly how he felt, wasn’t always politically correct, and loved to debate with no hard feelings afterwards ... well, maybe a couple of times.

Colley had a booming voice, and as UVa Associate Athletics Director Rich Murray, who worked with Colley for 18 years, aptly put it, “Michael spoke to me as if I were in St. Louis, even though I was in the next room over.”

A Cavalier expert

His knowledge of UVa athletics, particularly football and lacrosse, was unmatched. When I sought out to write my book on the history of Cavalier football last year, Colley was the first person I contacted.

He had spent countless hours researching UVa’s football history to update media guides and the program’s archives. We would sit and talk about various moments in Virginia’s gridiron past, then move on to some of his other passions: the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Redskins, along with UVa lacrosse.

His loyalty and dedication to UVa and his job was amazing. He put in such long hours and rarely took time off. Michael once shared with me that sometimes on rainy weekends in the offseason, he would venture over to the school’s library and spend hours examining old articles about Cavalier football — just part of his research routine.

When he owned season tickets to Orioles baseball games back during the end of Ripken’s streak, I had the opportunity to take in a couple of games in Baltimore with Colley and found his knowledge just as amazing about the Birds as it was about the Cavs.

Most Virginia fans didn’t know him, but all they need to know about Michael Colley is that he wore orange socks to all the games and he always referred to rival Virginia Tech as VPI.

Hundreds of people, including media from all over the state and D.C. and officials from the ACC, joined all the rest of us Friday to say goodbye. It was a very difficult farewell for all of us. This coming football season will not be the same without hearing that unique voice every day.

Michael’s dad, Don, knew his son was a loyal soldier for UVa, but he had no idea how much he meant to all of us.

Don Colley said Friday that all along he thought his son was more of a Bruce Wayne type, but from all the admiration shown, he realized that Michael was really Batman.

Michael, of course, would have shunned all the attention cast his way on Friday, but would have taken pleasure in knowing that so many loved him.

There will be an empty spot in our hearts this football season. We’ll miss seeing those orange socks every Saturday and hearing that billowing voice barking out everything we sportswriters need to know.

Rest in peace, Michael. We will miss you.
 

UVa’s Colley Remembered fondly
Tech gets two more commitments as Notebook Plus files
By Doug Doughty

As I watched a video that friends at The Roanoke Times unveiled for my 35th anniversary Wednesday, I couldn’t help but think of Michael Colley.

Colley, a top assistant in Virginia’s sports information office for the past 20 years or so, collapsed last Saturday while taking a morning walk along Virginia Beach and never regained consciousness. He was 46.

There will be a memorial service this afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena and I wonder if there will be a room large enough to support his friends and admirers.

(Seriously, I am curious about the parking but Colley was always one of the first people I would consult on such matters).

Colley wasn’t one to worry about his popularity and I suspect he would be shocked at the widespread emotions that have been triggered by his passing.

I’ve heard Colley described as a curmudgeon and might have described him that way myself before I looked up the definition: “a surly, ill-mannered, bad-tempered person.”

There was a second definition: “cantankerous fellow.” Colley could be surly at times, but he wasn’t ill-mannered or bad-tempered. “Cantakerous” would be a good word for him.

I suspect that former UVa football coach George Welsh will be at the memorial service today, if he’s in town. I hope to see Welsh’s longtime secretary, Nancy Steinke, and ask her if she agrees with me, that there was a lot of Welsh in Colley, and vice versa.

I’ve had a few run-ins with UVa people over the years but, strangely, seldom with Colley. If the Cavaliers’ athletic teams weren’t distinguishing themselves or a coach wasn’t producing, Colley wasn’t going to volunteer it but he also wouldn’t argue to the contrary.

When I’d walk into the press room at John Paul Jones Arena, set down my gear and get a bite to eat, I frequently would sit down at Colley’s table. Nobody knew more about UVa football or men’s lacrosse but he wasn’t oblivious to the other stuff.

He also shared my fascination with the esoteric. When left-handed Jameel Sewell took over as Virginia’s starting quarterback in 2007, Colley was able to produce a list of past left-handed UVa quarterbacks that he regularly updated.

Colley also had the thankless task throughout his career of rounding up football players for UVa’s Monday and Tuesday interview sessions. Many of the players dreaded the interviews and Colley grew weary of tracking them down. At one point, he gave up the interview duties for a year or two.

But, last year, he was back on interview duty. Turns out, nobody had been more successful at gathering the players than Colley. I think he took great pride in the number of players who attended at least one of those sessions last year. I think the final count was in the low- to mid-30s.

Somebody is going to have a huge task in replacing Colley and you can bet it will be years before his successors realize everything he did.
 

Beating the odds
By Jay Jenkins
Published: July 16, 2009

Finally it hit home.
Andrew Carraway was a member of the work force.
The former standout on the mound at Virginia had a real paycheck in his pocket.
It was the numbers on the pay stub, however, that might jump out.
“We got our first paycheck and that was nice,” he proclaimed recently from Everett, Wash. “The first one was like $400 after taxes.”
Not bad for seven days of playing minor league baseball, right?
Think again.
“They give it to us every two weeks,” he offered with hesitation.
Let it be known, Carraway is not complaining. A lifelong dream is being fulfilled daily: he is playing baseball as a professional.
It helps too, he said, that he landed with a host family that charges just $50 a week for rent and meals. And when he is on the road accommodations and meal money are covered.
“The cost of living is hardly anything. It is a really good set-up that we have,” he said. “The host mom cooks for us and there is tons of food. Really, if we wanted to be we could be financially sufficient, self-sufficient during these minor league months.”
With the long-awaited platform that Carraway is on follows some cruel realities, especially while in the lower levels of the professional ranks.
Drafted in the 12th round by the Seattle Mariners, Carraway was promptly assigned to the Everett AquaSox in the Northwest League, a short-season Class A organization.
“We got into Eugene, Oregon — it was the first road trip that I was on — and I looked and it was at 5 a.m.,” he chuckled. “That was kind of like the ‘welcome to minor league baseball moment’ for me.”
On the field and outside of the lengthy bus rides to road games, Carraway has been near perfect.
Having thrown 91 innings in Virginia’s magical season that finished with a trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., the powers that be with the Mariners organization elected to slot Carraway in the bullpen for the remainder of the season, protecting his arm.
“They wanted to protect me. It was a long season,” Carraway said. “I am really comfortable right now coming out of the bullpen. It really has been nice.”
Carraway, 22, could have elected to leave Virginia after his junior year by relaying that he would accept a cheap signing bonus to secure his services. The right-hander made the decision to float a large monetary figure, however, allowing him to live on The Lawn during his senior year and complete the requirements for his degree on time.
Playing all four years of college baseball may have made it harder on the Georgia native to make it to the ultimate stage, the Majors. In fact, a study by the San Francisco Chronicle said only 42 of the 750 players on active rosters had a four-year college degree.
“I guess it is a stat against a guy that graduated college, but being a minor league baseball player is being a statistic against yourself,” he said. “The odds are against every single person in the minor leagues.
“The odds were against me when I went to UVa. I wasn’t supposed to get a college scholarship for my first year. I wasn’t supposed to be a weekend starter, and I sort of feel like I thrive in that type of environment.”
Returning for his senior season, however, allowed Carraway to continue to prosper under the direction of pitching coach Karl Kuhn in adverse
situations. While it did not always appear to make complete sense, what Kuhn asked of Carraway prepped him for what he faces in every appearance with the AquaSox.
“I think back to my start against Irvine in the NCAA Regional and there were a couple of innings where I had to pitch inside a lot. It was on a big stage, it was a regional of death and I had to pitch against metal bats. That is scary,” he said. “And then I got here in the minors and the pitching coach out here in every pitching meeting that we have, he tells us to pitch inside.
“I was able to have that ability because of this year. It was those little things that I wouldn’t have picked up if I didn’t have this last year. Hopefully, those are the things that will help me move up faster.”
 

Marino gets tough lesson
Associated Press
Published: July 19, 2009

TURNBERRY, Scotland — Steve Marino got a kick out of playing links golf for the first time. Took right to it, in fact.

Playing in the final group of a major on the weekend for the first time? With Tom Watson, no less?

Well, that was a little different.

The former Virginia star made it to the big stage for the first time in his fledgling career Saturday with a 67-68 start to his first British Open, but the nerves sure showed during a wild ride Saturday along the Scottish coast.

“It was a combination of the good, the bad and the ugly out there,” Marino moaned.

The 29-year-old went tumbling down the scoreboard in the first five holes, losing five strokes. He plugged his ball in the side of a hill, had to drop from an adjoining fairway and took triple bogey. He missed a bunch of putts inside 10 feet, the sort of thing you just can’t do trying to win your first major championship.

But Marino also had an eagle, nearly made another and closed with a birdie-birdie finish that kept him on the fringe of contention, even as everyone else at Turnberry was toasting Watson, his 59-year-old playing partner in the last group and the improbable leader heading to the final round.

“Right now, I’m a little bit bummed out because I really hung in there in the middle of the round,” said Marino, who finished with a 6-over 76 that included only seven pars. “It’s amazing how fast you can let a pretty good round get away from you.”

He certainly deserves credit for hanging in there. His round started dismally — three straight bogeys beginning at No. 2, then a double bogey at the fifth when he drove his tee shot into a bunker, hit a poor approach that left him with a treacherous line above the hole, and wound up missing a short one after he finally got it down near the cup.

But two brilliant shots gave Marino a virtual tap-in for eagle at the par-5 seventh, and his first birdie of the round at No. 11 carried him within a stroke of Watson for the lead.

“I was going along so well and all of a sudden it was like, bam!” Marino said. “Next thing you know, I was like 8 over for the round.”

He made a bogey at No. 12, but a few of those are acceptable with the wind howling off the Irish Sea and only five players managing to break par. Marino’s real trouble came at the par-3 15th, where one bad shot off the tee led to all sorts of mayhem.

It took awhile just to find the ball, lodged among the tall grass on the side of a hill. A marshal finally located it, and Marino pondered whether to take a whack. But he could barely see the ball, would’ve had trouble just taking a stance and finally decided to take an unplayable.

Allowed to move his ball backward along a straight line, Marino wound up over by the eighth fairway. But there was no way he could stop a wedge near the flag, cut along the right side, and his shot skipped all the way through the green. From there, it took three more shots to get down — a devastating triple bogey.

Still shaken, Marino drove in the bunker at 16, lipped out a short putt and had to write down a second straight 6, his score for the round climbing to 8 over.

“I started playing real well, I thought,” Marino said. “All of a sudden I just missed it right on 15, had a horrible lie and my only option was to take an unplayable or go back to the tee.”

Fortunately, he still had two holes left to mitigate the damage. Taking his own advice from a day earlier — crazy things happen at a British Open and be ready to deal with them — Marino somehow pulled himself together. Again.

He had an eagle putt at No. 17, but the ball slid by the cup. He pulled out the driver at 18, hit a brilliant approach toward the flag and made the putt for his second straight birdie.

Amazingly, he’s still in the mix for the claret jug, five shots behind Watson’s 4-under 206.

“This is my first Open and it’s happened to almost every guy that’s played in the British Open, so you know it’s just crazy,” Marino said. “It was definitely a learning experience. At the same time, I’m only five shots off the lead and anything can happen in this golf tournament. I still think I have a chance to win.”

If nothing else, he relished the chance to play alongside Watson, a five-time Open champion who’s put himself in position to become the oldest major winner in golf history.

“I joked with him and said, ‘You could probably be the king of Scotland! These people love you,’” Marino said. “It was just awesome watching him do his thing. You know there’s a reason why he’s won five claret jugs.”

And Marino hasn’t given up on winning his first.
 

Dombrowski gets his due from Hall
Associated Press
Published: July 19, 2009

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Former Ohio State coach John Cooper remembers when he was a young assistant going to coaching conventions hoping to catch a glimpse of Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Bo Schembechler and Bear Bryant.

On Saturday, he joined those coaching greats in the College Football Hall of Fame as he and 20 other former coaches and players were enshrined. Cooper, who also coached at Arizona State and Tulsa and finished with a career record of 193-83-6, said it’s a great feeling to be associated with the coaches he once just wanted to see, calling it one of the best days of his life.

“It’s a humbling experience to be in that group,” he said.

Others being enshrined Saturday included former Virginia offensive tackle Jim Dombrowski, former UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman, former Oklahoma State tailback Thurman Thomas, former Florida linebacker Wilber Marshall and Lou Holtz, who coached at Notre Dame, South Carolina, Minnesota, Arkansas, North Carolina State and William & Mary.

Dombrowki played at UVa from 1982-85 and was a unanimous first-team All-America selection in 1984. He was a two-time first-team All-ACC pick and won the Jacobs Blocking Trophy, given to the conference’s top offensive lineman, in 1984-85. A four-year starter, he is one of only five UVa players to have his number (73) retired.

He went to the New Orleans Saints with the sixth pick in the 1986 draft and spent 11 seasons with the team.

The festivities began Saturday with a parade and a pep rally, where those being honored were given their Hall of Fame blazers. The biggest applause was for Holtz, who guided the Irish to their last national championship in 1988. Shouts of “Looouuu” rang out when he was introduced and again when he was given his jacket.

Former Syracuse quarterback Don McPherson, the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1987, said being enshrined was a surreal experience.

“Because I don’t see myself in the same class as some of the guys that are in the Hall of Fame, like this guy right here,” McPherson said as former Arizona State offensive guard Randall McDaniel walked past. “It’s fun just to be associated with these guys. I’m just a fan of college football. So for me, it’s just fun to be around.”

McPherson led Syracuse to an 11-0-1 record and a No. 4 national ranking his senior season. He won the Davey O’Brien Award and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award as the nation’s top quarterback, and captured the Maxwell Award as the nation’s outstanding player.

“It was just one of those magical seasons,” McPherson said. “We just had a lot of good people come together and we all understood what we needed to do. I was lucky to be one of those guys.”

Former LSU tailback Billy Cannon was enshrined into the Hall 26 years after he originally was supposed to go in. He was selected in 1983, but that honor was rescinded after he was arrested on federal counterfeiting charges. Cannon pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison in 1983. He served 2 1/2 years.

Cannon, who won the Heisman in 1959 and played on the national championship team in 1958, said he holds no grudges about being the only person to ever have his selection rescinded.

“I thank the people who voted for me initially, and I really thank the people who voted for me the second time,” said Cannon, now the dental director at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Cannon said he is just happy to finally be in the Hall.

“To be in this Hall and to be associated with the great players who have played this game in the past and to be associated with the great players who will play this game in the future, it’s just an unbelievable thrill,” he said.