Black History Month Great Black Person #10 of 28

Black History Month Great Black Person #10 of 28:

Walter Banks

Walter Banks isn't exactly famous. His primary claim to fame is that he's the only usher or employee of any kind to work for the Braves every season since they came to Atlanta in 1966. However, I know Mr. Banks from his years working as an usher at Georgia Tech football games. When I was young, my family ran a concession stand at Tech home games and I always tagged along because I loved (and still love) Georgia Tech football. It was there that I met Mr. Banks; a kind gentleman with a welcoming smile and patience enough to deal with a rambling (no pun intended) young Tech fan. It became a tradition for me to visit Mr. Walter in his section before every game. I'd talk to him excitedly about our hometown team and he'd listen and nod and respond without any hint of condescension. I think that's why I was drawn to Mr. Walter; even at that young age, I realized that his kindness and humility weren't commonplace. Anyone who knows him will tell you the same thing; he's a genuinely friendly person.

As the years passed, I eventually started working at the concession stand myself. I was a teenage boy and things were changing fast all around me, but Mr. Walter did not. Walker Banks was the same. Same job, same smile, same humble heart. I'd still drop by to say hi and he'd still talk with me and enlighten me with some of his famous sports trivia. It should be noted that he's a veritable encyclopedia of Atlanta sports knowledge. It's funny what sticks with you when you get older. I don't remember the scores of those football games or the names of all the players or all of those sports facts, but I can remember Walter clear as day.

It had been years since I had seen Mr. Walter when I spotted him at a Braves game not too long ago. I was sure he would have no recollection of the young man he use to chat with on game days nearly a decade prior, much less recognize me all grown up. To my surprise, he did. I was treated to a warm smile and kind words, just like when I was a kid. The years of hard work at a tedious job hadn't changed him a bit.

Looking back, maybe it wasn't that surprising that Mr. Walter remembered me. When you care for others the way that Walter Banks does, you tend to have a good memory. I guess it's also not that surprising that I remember him so clearly either. When you care for others the way that Walter Banks does, you tend to be remembered.

Black History Month Great Black Person #28

Black History Month Great Black Person #28 of 29:

Calvin Johnson

For my money, Calvin is the best receiver on the planet... and he went to my beloved Georgia Tech. Despite being on the receiving end of crappy Matthew Stafford's weak, wobbly passes, Johnson led all WRs in yards and touchdowns this season. Fans nicknamed him Megatron because of his power and size, but I say if the real Megatron from Transformers possessed the same skill set as Calvin Johnson, the Decepticons would have defeated the Autobots long ago. Happy Black History Month, Calvin... Go Jackets!

10(+) Things I Hate About UGA

It's Hate Week for Georgia Tech fans and you won't find a bigger Tech fan than me. Hate Week is the week leading up to the big GT/UGA football game where students and alumni air their grievances about the rival school. Yes, I know it's not good to hate others, but while there certainly are some good Georgia fans out there, there are far too many bad ones for me to feel the least bit bad about all the animosity I feel toward the university[sic]. The following is a little poem I wrote to celebrate my hate for all things UGA:


I hate the way your fans all bark and how you misspell dogs
I hate the way your Sunday best is camo overalls
I hate the way your mascot drools and how you live off beer
I hate how half your football team ends up in jail each year
I hate how you don't count those wins from war years when we played
I hate how I took harder classes in the 7th grade
I hate how half your fan base has never seen your school
I hate how you call Techies nerds, as if farming is cool
I hate your hedges, Herschel Walker, hate black and hate red
I hate how Larry Munson's voice makes me wish I were dead
I hate the way your redneck school brings down the whole darn state
I hate you so much UGA, clean old-fashioned hate

My College Roommate

This is a true story...

Being a Tech student has its share of hardships... especially if you're a guy. In addition to the insane academic workload, the cramped dorms, and the occasional samurai sword attack, there's the dreaded Ratio. You see, Georgia Tech boasts one of the most unbalanced male-to-female ratio of students in the country, with over 2 guys for every girl. Throw in the fact that many of these girls are engineers who prefer to spend time in the lab rather than in front of the mirror and the pickings are slim. Yes, even Jimmy Dean thinks there's too much sausage on the Georgia Tech campus.

Now I'm not saying there aren't pretty girls at Tech. There are. It's just that with the Ratio and the focus on academics, there are less pretty girls than say at your typical SEC party school. So the odds are bad enough as it is, with guys clamoring for girls' attention and fighting over the one dumb blonde who somehow slipped through the cracks in the admission office... you can't afford any extra obstacles. But I had one. Boy, did I have one.

Enter Paulo Rodriguez.

The man pictured atop this post is Paulo, my roommate my sophomore year at Tech. If you think he looks like a model, it's because he is. With the odds of getting girls already against me, I also had to deal with this. The thing about beautiful people, though, is that they have flaws like the rest of us. All I had to do was find and expose Paulo's flaws, then surely all the ladies would look straight past his washboard abs and at me and my... personality. So I made a list of common beautiful people flaws and tested them out:

He may be hot, but he's dumb.
Nope. Paulo majored in Mechanical Engineering, is multi-lingual, and was on the Dean's List at one of the nation's top institutions.

He may be hot, but he's not nice.
Paulo was a sweetheart. He was always nice to me and by all accounts completely satisfied every single girl he brought back to the dorm.

He may be hot, but he's not smooth.
He was. And even if he wasn't, he's from South Africa and has a heavy accent. Not fair.

Paulo on Manhunt. (4th from the left)

So needless to say, I didn't get a lot of action thrown my way sophomore year... though I did always have the hottest girls on campus in my dorm. There were some other positives that came from having Paulo as a roommate. The lack of girls led to an increase in studying, so I got pretty good grades that year. I also learned an awful lot about humility.

Sophomore year ended and Paulo and I parted ways. We haven't kept in touch, but I have seen him on TV several times, most notably on the Bravo show Manhunt: The Search For America's Most Gorgeous Male Model. He got sixth. I feel sorry for the roommates of the five guys who finished ahead of him.

All These Things That I've Done

Georgia Tech just got their 2009 ACC Championship revoked, fined $100K, and placed on four years probation by the NCAA because a former player received $312 worth of free clothes. As a Tech fan/alum, this is obviously disconcerting, but for more than just the obvious reasons... I believe I too have committed several NCAA infractions. I mean, if covering up $312 worth of clothes is grounds for that much punishment, what I've done could severely hurt our athletic program, so I'm gonna report the following violations to the NCAA as a show of compliance and hope they go easy on my Yellow Jackets:

Infraction #1: When I was in the 5th grade, I got bored while taking notes in class and proceeded to doodle the Georgia Tech "GT" logo on my notebook paper without the expressed written consent of the NCAA.

Infraction #2: Former Tech RB Tashard Choice was on my little league baseball team of which my father was the coach. After the game, my father took the team to Dairy Queen where he bought Choice an ice cream cone, free of charge.

Take this trophy, the Heisman's still named after us.

Infraction #3: I had a PSYCH 1000 class with Chris Bosh during my freshman year. We had to put on a two-minute skit with three other people. Bosh didn't show up for the performance, so I did his lines as well as my own. We all got A's.

Infraction #4: Former Tech basketball player Theodis Tarver once missed a test in ENG 1101. I told the professor that Tarver was away at a road game... it was football season.

Infraction #5: Two members of the Tech cross-country team were on my intramural flag football team. They bought their own jerseys, but I paid a dollar each to get numbers put on them.

Infraction #6: On numerous occasions at Tech football, basketball, baseball, and volleyball games, I vocally expressed my displeasure with NCAA sanctioned referees, umpires, and officials. I was never punished for said comments.

Infraction #7: In the last 24 hours, I've said some pretty negative things about the NCAA, including the next few sentences. Hey NCAA, why don't you go punish some actual violations? Georgia Tech's ridiculous academic standards already put us at a disadvantage athletically, you don't have to add to it by punishing the smallest violation in the history of college sports. Perhaps you could look into, I don't know, illegal recruiting, thousand-dollar bribes, assault charges, drug deals, memorabilia sales, or the 150+ incarcerated Miami Hurricanes. Basically, get your head out of your NC double A.