4th Annual Susan K. Hofacre 5K Run/Walk

Just today, I got an e-mail announcing the 4th annual Susan K. Hofacre 5k Run/Walk, which will take place at RMU’s Moon Township Campus on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 9 a.m.

This e-mail came at an interesting time, since I’ve recently been considering getting back into running again. Considering. I have a two-year-old daughter, you see. Ever since she was born, instead of running, I’ve been working on my long-distance loafing on the couch, which is a lot easier on the knees.

Susan K. Hofacre, Ph.D., was RMU’s first female athletic director. Hofacre, who earned an MBA from RMU in 1999, joined the university’s athletic department in 1989 as its senior women’s administrator, assisting with compliance issues, academic advising, events scheduling and policy development. She also served as department head and professor of sport management.

As athletic director from 2000-2005, Hofacre helped the Colonials add seven new NCAA Division I athletic programs, including the first men’s and women’s hockey teams in Pittsburgh. She also oversaw the development of the new track and field at the RMU Island Sports Center, as well as the construction of Joe Walton Stadium and athletic administration building.

In 2002, Hofacre was awarded the Robert Morris University Alumni Philanthropist Award by the Alumni Association for her establishment of endowed scholarships and her raising of funds for the University. She passed away on Jan. 8, 2005, at the age of 54, after a courageous battle with cancer.

The Susan K. Hofacre 5k Run/Walk benefits the Susan Hofacre Memorial Scholarship Fund. If you’re an avid runner or considering getting back into running like me (considering), be sure to mark November 7 on your calendar and support this important cause. (Registration starts at 8 a.m. at Joe Walton Stadium. The race begins at 9 a.m.)

– Valentine J. Brkich

The Man. The Foil. The Legend.

When you hear the name Dave Hanson, reading probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

Hanson is best known for is memorable portrayal of “Jack Hanson,” one of the fight-starting, thick-glasses-wearing Hanson Brothers in the 1977 movie, “Slap Shot,” starring Paul Newman.

But as it turns out, he’s just as handy with a pen as he is with a hockey stick.

Hanson, general manager of the RMU Island Sports Center, will be appearing at Bridgewater BookFest on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 9 a.m to 3 p.m., in Bridgewater, Pa, where he will be selling and signing his autobiography, Slap Shot Original: The Man. The Foil. The Legend. Proceeds from the sales of the book will go to the Association of the Hole In The Wall Camps, which Newman founded in 1988.

Hanson was a defenseman for the St. Paul Vulcans and for the University of Minnesota, whose coach was the legendary Herb Brooks. After that, he played 10 seasons of professional hockey with the Detroit Red Wings and Minnesota North Stars of the NHL, and the New England Whalers, Minnesota Fighting Saints, and Birmingham Bulls of the WHA.

Also at Bridgewater BookFest, Nicole Bazner ’09, a graduate of RMU’s Elementary Education program, will be heading up the BookFest Children’s Tent. Bazner, who now works in the Canon Mac School District as a 2^nd grade teacher, was a student in Assistant Professor Michele N. Hipsky’s Special Needs and Assessment classes. At BookFest, she will be organizing and coordinating book readings, crafts, and other fun activities for the little ones.

Be sure to come to Bridgewater BookFest next Saturday to say hello to Nicole and get a signed copy of Dave’s new book. Just don’t get him angry. He may check you into the boards.

Ha! Just kidding! That was just in the movies.

(Seriously, don’t make him mad.)

–Valentine J. Brkich

The Perils of Antiquing

I may be the first – and youngest – person to ever sustain a knee injury at an antique store.

Okay, I admit it—I like antique stores. I’m not into porcelain tea sets or costume jewelry or paintings of dogs playing poker or anything like that; I just enjoy perusing the aisles and seeing what type of interesting junk…um, I mean treasures people have to sell. Occasionally I’ll buy an old book or a vintage typewriter, but for the most part I’m just a browser.

And that’s exactly what I was doing a few weeks ago down at a local antique dealer in nearby Coraopolis. I was coming back from a meeting at the RMU Island Sports Center, when I spotted the store and decided to do a little treasure hunting. That’s when I came across an old painting entitled “The Formation of the First National Bank of the United States.” I was immediately intrigued.

In case you didn’t know, our very own namesake, Robert Morris, “Financier of the American Revolution,” helped organize the Bank of North America – the first modern U.S. bank – in 1781, while he was serving as superintendent of finance. This bank was the predecessor of the First Bank of the United States, which got its charter from Congress in 1791. Was Robert Morris involved in the establishment of this “First Bank” too? I didn’t know, and it was impossible to tell from the painting, which shows several men all wearing traditional colonial garb and powdered wigs. The only recognizable face was that of George Washington. So, unsure if Morris was in the picture, I decided not to buy it.

After a couple weeks, however, I decided to just go and purchase the painting since it wasn’t expensive, and there was a good chance that Morris was one of the subjects depicted. But when I arrived at the store I became distracted by some dusty old books and started to peruse the titles.

That’s when it happened. As I squatted down to look at a book, I felt a sharp pain in my knee. And when I came back up, the pain was even more intense. So, after paying for the painting, I hobbled out of the store, hoping that I hadn’t just blown out my ACL while antiquing.

As it turns out, I just pulled my quad muscle, which is not as serious an injury, but still quite an embarrassing one to sustain at an antique store. Fine, I admit it: I’m old.

As for the painting, I’m still not sure yet if Robert Morris is one of the white-wig-wearing gentlemen shown discussing our nation’s first bank. Regardless, I gave it to Fran Caplan, RMU’s dean of university libraries, as a donation to the Heritage Room, of which she is the curator. It should make a nice addition to the room, which honors our esteemed namesake.

In the meantime, I’ll keep digging around on the Internet to see if I can find an answer to this mystery. Hopefully I won’t pull anything while operating my computer mouse.

–Valentine J. Brkich

Rest in peace, Reg

Trib sports writer Joe Starkey devoted his column yesterday to talking to Dave Hanson, general manager of the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center and one of the Hanson brothers from the 1977 comedy classic “Slap Shot.” Hanson talks about his new book, the latest “Slap Shot” sequel, and of course, working with the late, great Paul Newman:

Like so many people, Hanson recalled Newman as a down-to-earth, decent man. Newman threw a cast party at his Beverly Hills home after “Slap Shot” came out and later offered to throw one for Hanson and his wife, Sue, a Nanty Glo native, on the way to their honeymoon in Hawaii. The couple declined, but accepted Newman’s invite to join him and his actress wife, Joanne Woodward, at a Detroit auto race in the mid-1990′s.

To this day, when people ask Hanson about “Slap Shot,” they want to know what it was like to work with Newman, who was 52 at the time and a pretty decent skater.

“I always say, ‘Well, you’re asking it wrong,’ ” Hanson said, laughing. “It should be, ‘How did Paul Newman feel about working with us?’ ” (link)

Congratulations, Dave. And Mr. Newman, you will be missed.