bukdow
06-18-2007, 11:03 PM
From another board, an attendee provided this:
Went to the Congressional reception tonight at the Rayburn Building. First off, it was a long day for the team. They left Lansing on a charter at 5:45 this morning and visited with Chief Justice John Roberts, the President, and the Congressional delegation while in DC. They left DC at about 8pm for a charter flight home.
Yet despite the exhaustion on some of their faces, the players and coaches couldn't have been friendlier. They signed tons of autographs, posed for pictures with the trophy and answered the same question about 1,000 times. They represented MSU well.
In addition to the players and coaches, Pres. Simon, Ron Mason, and former Pres. McPherson were all there. Comley thanked McPherson for hiring him which I thought was a nice touch. Dave Ellis from MSU took video of the whole thing and Hondo and a crew from ABC-53 were there as well. Hondo seemed like a nice guy.
A few other observations:
Comley told a funny story about how the trophy was "lost" for a few days while he was vacationing in Florida and none of the asst coaches on campus knew where it was. The trophy was returned to the locker room the next day with "no questions asked."
Jeff Lerg is really short.
MSU has a ton of alumni on Capitol Hill. It was funny to see people I have sat accross from in meetings at the reception and finding out that they were at MSU the same time I was.
Ron Mason could be a politician, he has that look, the smile, the firm handshake, the whole thing down. He seemed more comfortable glad-handing the crowd then Simon did.
Towards the end a group of players took up seats along the dais (the reception was in the House Energy and Commerce hearing room) so they could more easily sign autographs. It made for some nice photos to see the team up there.
One final thing, I have attended more than my share of these type of receptions and they are really hit or miss. MSU, however, did it first class. Two open bars and a nice spread of sandwiches and horsd'ourves (the type of food served is, believe it or not, limited by Congressional rules to "finger food"). They had highlights of the season projected on two video screens.
Overall it was a nice way to end the day and celebrate the championship!
Went to the Congressional reception tonight at the Rayburn Building. First off, it was a long day for the team. They left Lansing on a charter at 5:45 this morning and visited with Chief Justice John Roberts, the President, and the Congressional delegation while in DC. They left DC at about 8pm for a charter flight home.
Yet despite the exhaustion on some of their faces, the players and coaches couldn't have been friendlier. They signed tons of autographs, posed for pictures with the trophy and answered the same question about 1,000 times. They represented MSU well.
In addition to the players and coaches, Pres. Simon, Ron Mason, and former Pres. McPherson were all there. Comley thanked McPherson for hiring him which I thought was a nice touch. Dave Ellis from MSU took video of the whole thing and Hondo and a crew from ABC-53 were there as well. Hondo seemed like a nice guy.
A few other observations:
Comley told a funny story about how the trophy was "lost" for a few days while he was vacationing in Florida and none of the asst coaches on campus knew where it was. The trophy was returned to the locker room the next day with "no questions asked."
Jeff Lerg is really short.
MSU has a ton of alumni on Capitol Hill. It was funny to see people I have sat accross from in meetings at the reception and finding out that they were at MSU the same time I was.
Ron Mason could be a politician, he has that look, the smile, the firm handshake, the whole thing down. He seemed more comfortable glad-handing the crowd then Simon did.
Towards the end a group of players took up seats along the dais (the reception was in the House Energy and Commerce hearing room) so they could more easily sign autographs. It made for some nice photos to see the team up there.
One final thing, I have attended more than my share of these type of receptions and they are really hit or miss. MSU, however, did it first class. Two open bars and a nice spread of sandwiches and horsd'ourves (the type of food served is, believe it or not, limited by Congressional rules to "finger food"). They had highlights of the season projected on two video screens.
Overall it was a nice way to end the day and celebrate the championship!