I thought I could make it to August without a single Displaced post. I was content to slumber through March and April without a care during Florida’s run to another basketball championship, not to mention USC’s Sweet 16 showing. I was thinking I could let USC Spring Football and the NFL Draft slide by as I continued my rest until the Trojans begin another season atop the college football world. But, I was wrong …Instead, the “nation” and its fearless (read shameless) leader Mr. Zaheed … I mean, “Nestor” … thought they could make a big deal out of ugla supposedly winning its 100th national collegiate championship in a team sport.
At least two things struck me about this.
First, ugla won its “100th” championship in women’s water polo. That’s right, women’s water polo. Like many of its other championships -- 22 in men’s and women’s volleyball, 16 in men’s tennis -- the “nation” stakes claim to a “national” title in a secondary sport that no one really cares about.
However, since we here know enough to give credit where credit is due, a “national championship” as recognized by the NCAA is, in fact, a national championship. So, we’ll give the Lady Bruins water polo team as much as they deserve.
That said, what also struck me about all this was how -- in typically hypocritical and convenient ignorance -- “Nestor” and his “nation” forgot the fact that this win by the ugla women’s water polo team was actually the 101st time an ugla team had raised a “national” championship trophy.
As “Nestor” continues to post disparaging, biased remarks about the integrity of USC Football, he somehow forgets that ugla’s softball team was actually stripped of the national title it “won” in 1995. This for enrolling a ringer -- named Tanya Harding (above), of all scandalous monikers -- for one half season and one academic quarter, which she never finished. “A lack of institutional control” was how the NCAA officially described it.
Not only was the ugla softball team stripped of its title, it was also stripped of scholarships, placed on probation for three years and disallowed from playing in the 1997 post-season.
We’re not talking about alleged violations, about which the coaching staff or the school knew nothing. These are violations proven as fact, which resulted in near-death penalty punishment of a celebrated ugla sports team.
Typically, all this happened in 1995, while “Nestor” was a student at ugla. Just another example of the master of selective memory and hypocrisy at work. Speaking of work, what does “Nestor” do for a living? Does anybody know?
Anyway, I wouldn’t have had to write this post had anyone else remembered in any significant way that the 1995 UCLA softball team was, in fact, a fraud and a lousy bunch of cheaters.
But, perhaps this Displaced Trojan was never meant to sleep through three straight months. Maybe it’s time to get ready for the 2007 USC Football season. So much for the summer slumber …
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