NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 27 number 1 - Fall 2006

Friends of the Library: Frank DeFord its a Home Run at the Spring Dinner

By Anne Schnatter, Friends of the Library

The Friends of the Library's festive Home Run Dinner was held on March 30, 2006, at the McKimmon Center. The evening commenced with a cocktail reception, complete with live blue grass music performed by Charlie Pennell of the NCSU Libraries' Metadata and Cataloging Department and his fellow band members. Guests took the opportunity to mingle and meet the distinguished guest speaker, Frank DeFord.

Following the elegant dinner, Susan K. Nutter, vice provost and director of libraries, and Suzanne Purrington, FOL board president, welcomed guests and new life members Nancy and Jim Olson, G. Milton Small III, B. Lorraine Pierce and Ralph Nollner, Risa Ellovich, Elisabeth Wheeler, and Frederick and Lynn Greenberg. On behalf of the Friends, Nutter recognized the contributions made by Purrington, who was concluding her two-year term as FOL president. Nutter also introduced new FOL President Cyma Rubin, Vice President Charlotte Martin, and new board members Frank Daniels and Harold Swaisgood.

As part of her remarks, Nutter recalled her first encounter with Elliott Avent, head coach for NC State's baseball team and an honored guest at the evening's festivities. She remembered how very pleased she was to meet the head coach of the university's successful baseball team, and she expressed her pleasure in being able to introduce him to the audience at the Spring Dinner.

Avent, who has read and admired Frank DeFord's writing for years, provided a warm welcome and introduction to the guest speaker. DeFord, a commentator for National Public Radio, is the senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, a correspondent for HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and the author of fourteen books. DeFord, who has been voted U.S. Sportswriter of the Year six times by his peers, discussed his decades of sports writing, famous athletes he has covered, and current issues facing major league sports. He noted that the only sports picture he displays in his office is one of himself and a woman from Cameroon taken at a bar during a sports broadcast there during the 1990 World Cup soccer quarterfinals. Cameroon was playing against England, an incredible feat for that country. The woman's excitement and happiness when she turned and grabbed him in a hug captured the pure joy of sports for him. The evening concluded with dessert and a book signing by DeFord.