A little late this week, but let’s get caught up on what some area graduates have been up to. The Something Completely Different portion is longer than the rest of the newsletter, but hope you find it interesting.
Martin County West graduate Hunter Schmidt, a freshman at MidAmerica Nazarene University, tied for 17th place in a field of 63 golfers at the team’s fall home meet, the Pioneer Prairie Classic at Terradyne Country Club in Andover, Kan. He had rounds of 72, 76 and 78 for a 54-hole total of 226.
MNU won the team title by 24 strokes over Kansas Wesleyan. The Pioneers will compete in the Memphis Shootout next Monday and Tuesday at TPC Southwind in Memphis, which is the host of the FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
Fairmont grad Solveig Senf, a sophomore at St. Olaf College, tied for 36th place at the MIAC Women’s Golf Championships at St. Cloud Country Club. She had rounds of 84, 87 and 95 for a 266 total.
The Oles were seventh as a team. That concludes the fall portion of their schedule.
Jackson County Central graduate Evan Paplow, a freshman at Iowa Lakes Community College, placed 171st of 273 finishers at the University of Arkansas’ McDonnell Memorial event at the Chile Pepper Festival.
Paplow had an 8K time of 27:05.6. The Tritons were 20th in a 25-team field that consisted of squads from all levels, ranging from NCAA Division I through junior colleges.
Ryan Pierson, who competed on the Martin County West/Butterfield-Odin cross country team, is a freshman at UW-River Falls. He was the second runner for the Falcons and 54th out of 299 runners overall recently at the St. Olaf Invitational with an 8K time of 27:21.7.
UWRF was eighth of 22 complete teams. Pierson and the Falcons run in Northfield again Saturday, this time at the Carleton Running of the Cows.
Fairmont graduate Will Saari, a senior at Hamline, also ran at the St. Olaf Invite and was 151st in 29:19.3. Also, Aspen Clarksean, daughter of JCC graduate Dallas Clarksean and a senior with the Hamline women’s team, was 144th of 282 runners with a 6K time of 27:02.5. The Pipers are also at Carleton Saturday.
Martin County West graduate Max Olson is a 6-3, 253-pound sophomore defensive lineman at Gustavus. He had five tackles (1.5 for a loss of 7 yards) and a half-sack (loss of 3) for the Gusties in a 28-0 win at Augsburg.
Gustavus is 2-1 and hosts Bethel Saturday.
JCC grad Emma Haren, a freshman at Morningside, recorded two kills in a 3-0 GPAC volleyball win over Briar Cliff and four in a 3-0 win over Hastings. The Mustangs are 15-6 overall, 3-3 in the conference.
Morningside hosts Mount Marty Friday and Saint Mary Saturday.’
Jackson County Central graduate Alicia Brandt, a 6-foot senior middle blocker for Waldorf, put up some good numbers for the Warriors. She had six blocks and three kills in a loss at Northwestern and nine blocks and five kills in a 3-1 win over Saint Mary.
Waldorf is 8-7 and 2-4 and hosts Concordia (Neb.) and Midland this weekend.
JCC grad Sadie Voss, a 5-9 junior outside hitter at the University of Sioux Falls, posted seven kills and 17 digs for the Cougars in a 3-0 win over University of Mary. USF is 8-4 and 3-1 and is on the road this weekend at St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth.
Another JCC grad, Alaina Wolff, is a 5-9 senior defensive specialist at South Dakota, which opened Summit League play with road wins at Denver and Oral Roberts, each by a 3-0 margin. She had 11 digs vs. the Pioneers are three vs. the Golden Eagles.
USD, 10-3 overall, hosts St. Thomas Thursday and Omaha Saturday.
Three former Windom Area boys hockey players are again on the club men’s hockey team at Dordt University, which has played three games. Senior defenseman Alex Espenson has three goals and one assist; sophomore forward Brady Espenson has two assists; and junior defenseman Zach Espenson has an assist.
The Defenders are 3-0 with two wins at Washington University and one at Omaha. Dordt has three more road games this weekend with two at Maryville (Mo.) sandwiched around one at Saint Louis. The first home games for the Defenders are Oct. 18-19 vs. Kansas.
Dordt will play Gustavus at Windom on Saturday, Feb. 1.
The start of the 50th season of Saturday Night Live has prompted talk of the original program titled Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell aired on ABC from Sept. 20, 1975-Jan. 17, 1976, hosted by Howard Cosell and executive-produced by Roone Arledge. The series ran for 18 episodes before being cancelled.
The show was later remembered by its director Don Mischer as "one of the greatest disasters in the history of television."
In fact, in 2002, TV Guide ranked the series No. 37 on its "50 Worst TV Shows of All Time" list. Also, in his book ‘What Were They Thinking?’ The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History, author David Hofstede put the series at No. 30.
Despite having highly notable celebrities both as cast members and guests, Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell has never been made available on home video.
All that seems to exist are a few promo clips on Youtube. Here’s one of them with Lee Majors, who was interested in an appearance by a running back for the Buffalo Bills.
The premiere episode had a strong guest list with Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Paul Anka, Siegfried and Roy, Yogi Berra, the cast of the Broadway musical The Wiz, John Denver, and tennis pro Jimmy Connors, who sang Anka's "Girl, You Turn Me On" as a dedication to his then-girlfriend Chris Evert. Anka accompanied Connors on piano.
The episode's musical guest was the Bay City Rollers, from Scotland, whom Cosell dubbed "the next" British phenomenon.
Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell is confused with the sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live.
NBC began airing the late-night comedy show NBC's Saturday Night, created by producer Lorne Michaels. After Cosell's show was cancelled, the NBC show adopted the Saturday Night Live name.
Cosell’s show featured Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Christopher Guest as regular comedy performers, dubbed "The Prime Time Players".
In response, NBC's show Saturday Night called its regular performers "The Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players" (especially since the show didn't air in prime time, but late-night).
Eventually, Murray, Doyle-Murray, and Guest would all work on the NBC program.
Billy Crystal, who appeared on the premiere episode of Cosell's program, was also scheduled to appear on the premiere episode of the NBC show but was bumped when the show ran long. He later joined the NBC program's cast, along with Guest, during Season 10 a decade later.
Also, that season, Cosell himself guest-hosted the NBC program in its season finale on April 13, 1985.