READER FEEDBACK
It seems like a world ago , but Tritons wrote in after our Winter 2020 “ Epic ” issue :
Dear Triton Magazine : Your article about Judy Sweet (“ Sweet Victory : How Judy Sweet Changed the Game in Collegiate Athletics ”) had some inaccuracies .
The opening paragraph uses the passive to explain Sweet ’ s ascendancy : “ In 1974 , UC San Diego made a nontraditional choice in selecting Judy Sweet as its athletic director .”
UC San Diego higher administration perhaps approved this selection , but it was my father , Dr . Howard F . Hunt , then Chair of Physical Education , who appointed her . It was an innovative and surprising choice at the time , and he received criticism for it . But he stood by his decision that she was the right person for the job . It was so unusual that The Chronicle of Higher Education did an interview with my father and with Sweet , and put her photograph on the front page . He was the first university physical education chairperson to appoint a female director of athletics in the country .
And in the second paragraph : “ Sweet promptly set about using the new law ( Title IX ) to chart an ambitious course for our athletics programs — which at the time had large disparities in resources .” She did not do this by herself . My father , who was still chair , had already set many of these policies in place , and together they worked — along with other excellent professors and instructors
in the department — to right these disparities . My father ’ s overarching goal was to make UCSD physical education and sports programs consistent with his view : that members of the UCSD community should be participants , rather than spectators , and that fitness and well-being should be available to all students , faculty and staff . To this end , innovation in class offerings and an abundance of intermural opportunities were deemed crucial .
I hope you publish this letter . Many of the hundreds of UCSD staff , faculty and students my father helped ( to quit smoking , to find a daily fitness regime that was sustainable , to eat in moderation with thoughtful consideration , and to think positively ) have perhaps left UCSD . But I am sure they have not forgotten him .
I would love it if some of these UCSD graduates , and former staff and faculty might write a sentence or two to Triton expressing memories of my father , and his contribution to their approach to fitness and exercise . He was a native Californian , a graduate of UCLA , and he truly embodied the resourceful spirit of California and of UCSD . — Robyn Hunt ’ 78 , MFA Carolina Distinguished Professor , University of South Carolina
Dear Triton Magazine : I ’ m a GPS alum from 2000 , and reviewing my print copy of the Winter 2020 magazine this evening , I just had to send you a quick word of congratulations and thanks for this excellent publication . I am an alum of several schools , some very prestigious , but your magazine surpasses anything I receive from them or have seen from other schools . With all the personal and professional stories — the wide breadth of which is impressive alone — you manage to inform , teach , and inspire with each well-written article . It makes an alum like me really proud to belong to UCSD ! What a wonderful team you must have .
So , thank you once again for your fine work and dedication to making each edition better than the last . I wonder what the next edition will hold . — Abe Lee , MPIA ’ 00
BRUSHES WITH GREATNESS
When I was a Revelle freshman , Linus Pauling lectured on orbital theory in Jon Singer ’ s first-year chemistry . I followed Pauling out of the lecture hall into Revelle Plaza to ask a question . He said we should sit down to talk , so we did , and 10 minutes later when I looked up , we were surrounded by students listening as well . It was a wondrous time . — Steven Tracy ’ 72
In 2004 , I briefly did crunches next to my hero Kobe Bryant ( RIP ) at RIMAC . The whole gym , and time , stood still ! — Jeff Wilson ’ 07
MISS THIS ONE ?
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