Well, George, as for the investment, that’s a good point. I note in retrospect that my two recent examples of uplifting triumphs are people I didn’t follow. I learned of their story as they rose to greatness in overcoming great obstacles (well, the Red Sox’ curse was famous on its own ? but the 3-0 deficit to the Yankess wasn’t). In that sense their stories aren’t much different from any other American success story in a different field.
What Shannon said about having an emotional attachment to the athletic successes of the school certainly rings true, and those emotional attachments often extend beyond alumni. Oddly, though, they seldom extend beyond athletics. A good friend of mine once lampooned this idea by painting the picture of alumni storming the library when their school gets ranked No. 1 by US News & World Report.
