Friday, April 8, 2011

“One of the most difficult speeches to prepare is an address to a graduation class, which is why I don't often do them.”


Jerry Moran

     As I searched for a quote for today’s blog post, I came across this one from Jerry Moran.  I thought to myself, we were really lucky to get him to come speak at the KWU Commencement Ceremony in May of 2010, as according to www.brainyquote.com, he doesn’t like it very much.  So no matter how you feel politically about Mr. Moran, you have to like that he was willing to do something he was really uncomfortable with (I mean, he IS listed on brainyquote for goodness sake) to make our students graduation ceremony a memorable event.  This got me thinking about other famous or political people who have spoke here at KWU.

     In April of 1970, Abbie Hoffman,  a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies"), spoke at KWU and caused quite a stir when he blew his nose on the American Flag.  So much so, that he had a warrant issued for his arrest for flag desecration.



      In February of 1978, John Wooden, who just passed away in the past year on June 4th, 2010, spoke at Kansas Wesleyan.  Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period — seven in a row— as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat.  Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games.  He was named national coach of the year six times.  John Wooden’s achievements are a blog post all their own, as are his many inspirational quotes.  His speech that day in 1978 was about success, something he may have know more about that anyone in the world.




     In March of 1980, comedian Jimmie Walker brought his comedy act to Sam’s Chapel. I am not sure how inspirational Jimmie was, but I bet that he was “Dy-no-mite”!





No comments:

Post a Comment