Lehigh Football Nation

As everyone knows, I'm a football guy. Even with the football season seven months away, I still get a lot of football news to sift through - but this weekend, an old-fashioned basketball "Rivalry" takes center stage. Don't get me wrong, I still have a ton of football news to report. I'm watching the "Goodman 20" DVD for an upcoming DVD review for the blog, I'm discovering great articles about current Lehigh football players such as one gem about junior LB Tim Diamond (is he really getting talked about as a possible NFL prospect? ) and on announcement about former Lehigh coach Casey Creehan getting a position with the Montreal Alouettes as a defensive line coach. But with the 8-11 wrestling team traveling to Harvard and Brown this weekend (after their biggest win of the year this year against nationally-ranked Navy this past week ), the hottest ticket in the Valley are one game in Easton and a possible sellout at Stabler Arena. The first one fea...

I've been getting caught up with some nice MLK day "holiday reading" this weekend concerning the history of the fall of American University's president and how it's spurred a fresh look at university spending across the board. Maybe it's simply my focus on football all these years that made me miss the spectacular fall of former American University president Ben Ladner . Mr. Ladner did a lot of good things for AU in his nine-year reign, like increasing the academic profile of the school and multiplying their tiny university endowment by nearly ten, from $29 million to $271 million in 2005. Unfortunately that allowed Mr. Ladner to engage in a high-rolling lifestyle that included jet-setting around Europe, complete with personal drivers and limos, a personal chef making $88,000 a year and making regular five-figure trips to destinations such as the US Virgin Islands, UAE and Nigeria - all paid for by AU and the endowment that he grew. It's pretty remarkab...