Tom’s Trivia

Challenge yourself to Tom’s Trivia!

See if you know as much as King of UConn Trivia and University Deputy Spokesperson Tom Breen ’00 (CLAS).

Scroll to the bottom to reveal the answers.

UConn’s school colors of National Flag blue and white were made official in 1952. What were the earliest colors known to represent the institution?

A: Orange and white
B: Red, white, and blue
C: Imperial blue and white
D: Midnight blue and white

The opening of the Downtown Hartford Campus this fall is the first time UConn has had an under- graduate campus in the capital city since 1970. How many previous locations have there been for the University in Hartford?

A: One
B: Three
C: Five
D: Six

UConn’s Winter Weekend ”“ a bright spot during the cold New England months on campus ”“ began in 1979 with jugglers, an ill-advised parachute jump, and a “pajama party beerfest.” Only one activity has survived as a mainstay of campus life, though. What is it?

A: The Senior Scoop
B: A ski trip
C: One-Ton Sundae
D: Saturday basketball game

What non-Halloween costume tradition disappeared from University life after 40 years?

A: UConn’s president dressing once a year as the “Mayor of Storrs”
B: A parade through campus led by someone dressed as the Pied Piper
C: The football team and marching band swapping uniforms after the Spring Game
D: Students dressing as the mascots of Yankee Conference rivals to mock their teams

In 1904, some 40 students ”” a quarter of the student body ”” posed in their Halloween garb.

Answers

C. In the 1890s, UConn colors were white and a very light blue, known as Imperial Blue, which is the earliest known use of colors to represent the institution that would become UConn.
C.Â Opening as an extension center on Bellevue Street in 1939, the campus rapidly expanded after World War II, moving first to a location on Woodland Street, and then to Barnard Junior High School before moving to rooms in Hartford Public High School. The last location of the old Hartford campus was the former Goodwin estate on Asylum Avenue.
C. First scooped out in 1979, the One-Ton Sundae has been one of the most popular traditions at UConn ever since, the scene of hundreds of students eating ice cream outdoors in the dead of winter being one of the unique spectacles of campus life at UConn.
B. From 1932 to 1972, the highlight of Freshman Week was the nighttime parade through campus led by the head of student government attired as the Pied Piper ”” who would often be thrown into Mirror Lake at the conclusion of the festivities.

September 29, 2017

Rowe Gets Top Hall of Fame Honor

Kudos

Rowe Gets Top Hall of Fame Honor

Rowe coaching a ”˜77 game against UMass

Kudos

Rowe Gets Top Hall of Fame Honor

Rowe coaching a ”˜77 game against UMass

The thing about Dee Rowe, this man who long ago became a sort of living legend both at the University of Connecticut and in the larger world of college basketball, is that if you played for him for one day or for eight seasons, you became one of his guys forever.

I found that out one night in my senior year at Brown. There he was in the locker room after a game, there to say hello, there to give me a hug, there to symbolically say that I was still one of his guys, even if I had only played one year for him at Worcester Academy, and it had not been the easiest year for me.

Is there any better message a coach can send, any better message anyone can send? This is Rowe’s great gift, always has been his great gift, this ability to stay connected to people, whether it’s a note, a phone call, a drop-in at their son or daughter’s junior high basketball game.

Hero
Just after this magazine goes to press in September, Rowe will be awarded the prestigious John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Basketball Hall of Fame. The news delighted many.

“He was a surrogate father figure,” says Tony Hanson, a standout player for Rowe’s Huskies from 1973 to 1977. “He was one of the first people who opened up my eyes, who told me there was a bigger world out there beyond basketball, who promised me that he would make sure I graduated.”

He pauses for a second.

“He wouldn’t let me get away. He’s a hero to me.”

“Dee Rowe is the greatest ambassador the state of Connecticut has ever had,” says Tim Tolokan, former UConn associate athletic director. “There’s no one else like him, not even close. This is his 49th year at UConn, and his legacy goes way beyond basketball. He’s got an amazing ability to relate to people.

“And Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma? I don’t think they would have been here without Dee Rowe. Because without Dee and his close relationship with Dave Gavitt [founder of the Big East conference], you can make a case that we might not have gotten into the Big East in the first place. And without that everything turns out differently.”

Need captions here for the images above

Ambassador
Calhoun recognizes the breadth and depth of Rowe’s accomplishments: “Coach Dee Rowe is a true basketball lifer. Dee’s world has always been, and will continue to be, about family and the game of basketball. In his own special New England region of Worcester, the Cape Cod area, and UConn, Dee Rowe has always been the ultimate ambassador. Through the years, Dee has expanded his impact and influence nationally and around the globe as a superb teacher and mentor. But above all, we continue to pay him the highest honor by calling him ”˜Coach.’”

Dee Rowe loves to say that he was “captured by the game” in the third grade of his Worcester childhood. He coached the Huskies from 1969 to 1977 and at age 88, he is still on the roster, still goes to his office at Gampel, and often attends men’s and women’s basketball practices.

Rowe in August in the Gampel office he still works from at age 88. The photo shows 1980 Team U.S.A. with Rowe as assistant coach and Dave Gavitt as coach. Though the team boycotted the Moscow Olympics after Russia invaded Afghanistan, they played a number of exhibition games against NBA players and others.

Legend
Those of us to whom he has passed on the love of the game discovered there is justice in the basketball world when Rowe was named to receive the prestigious Hall of Fame award.
Just how big an honor is this?

Past winners include John Wooden, Red Auerbach, Bob Cousy, Dave Gavitt, Pat Summitt, and the Harlem Globetrotters. That’s how big.

And I know this: it’s well deserved. The innumerable people he’s coached, the legions of people he’s mentored, the people he’s tutored at all levels of the game, and the countless people he’s touched in his life outside basketball would surely agree.

Coach Auriemma recently expressed his gratitude to Dee, his recognition of Dee’s continuing contribution to UConn, and his belief that even this award isn’t quite big enough for the likes of Dee Rowe

“There is no award existing today or that could be created that is going to do justice to what Dee has meant to the countless people he has touched in his life and what he has meant to his family and the game of basketball; but the John Bunn Award comes close.

“Dee is a man who I admire as much as anyone and he has been a tremendous ambassador of the game and of UConn for as long as I can remember. He has supported me since I arrived on campus as a young coach 32 years ago and he is still there for me now. I will be forever grateful for his guidance and I am thrilled that he is being recognized with this prestigious award. I know he is very proud and we are proud that he is ours,” said Auriemma.

””bill reynolds, a columnist at the providence journal, is writing a book about rowe.

Honoring Dee Rowe

UConn honors Rowe’s award on Friday, October 20, in Hartford at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m. Speakers include Auriemma, Calhoun, and Hanson, as well as emcee Bill Raftery of CBS Sports, UConn men’s coach and former player Kevin Ollie, former players Dom Perno, Bob Staak, Robert “Snake” Taylor, and former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese. For more information and tickets, visit s.uconn.edu/roweevent.

September 29, 2017

Building a Better Race Car

Clubbing

Building a Better Race Car

What’s the best part of being a member of UConn’s Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE)? For many it’s a day in mid-July.

Most of the year, the student club toils away doing everything you could imagine goes into designing and building a Formula-style race car ”” except driving it.

Just one member gets behind the wheel for the club’s two competitions, in Michigan and Canada, at the end of each spring semester.

But, after all the races are done (this past spring UConn’s car ranked number 22 out of 109 teams in Michigan and number 8 out of 25 teams in Canada), the engineering students get together for a team drive day, in which all members get to take their baby for a spin. “It’s a lot of excitement because we get to see the car from nothing but some metal tubes all the way to a race car that competes. Then comes the next wave of excitement where you realize you’re going to get to drive the car and kind of feel the power behind something you’ve built,” says the club’s lead powertrain engineer Kenneth Brown ’19 (ENG).

””Emma casagrande ’18 (CLAS)

September 29, 2017

3 Books with Eva Lefkowitz

UConn Reads

3 Books

Eva Lefkowitz is the new head of the Human Development and Family Studies department, having recently moved to UConn after 18 years at Penn State. She says she does her reading via hard copy (bedtime, beach time) and listening to audiobooks (while driving, walking, or exercising).

Just finished:

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

One of those books I always meant to read and finally did when it got assigned at my book club. I loved it. It looks at the Bible from the perspective of Dinah and the other women. It was particularly interesting to read around Passover when you’re reading the Haggadah. Same stories. Very different perspectives.

Currently reading:

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

I read a lot of YA [young adult], because I have middle schoolers and because my research is on young people and sexuality. I think this book is amazing. So much about race and class. The dialogue is very well written. Even though it’s about someone whose experience is vastly different from mine, I feel like I can totally relate to the character.

On deck:

Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers

I don’t know much about this book, but I love this author so want to read his latest. He’s around my age so I tend to identify with his characters and circumstances. And I love the way he writes about families and relationships; it’s funny, sometimes satirical and over the top, but it also feels real.

September 28, 2017

HDFS 3042: Baseball and Society

Coveted Class

HDFS 3042: Baseball and Society: Politics, Economics, Race, and Gender

Wisensale spent the spring semester as a Fulbright Scholar in Japan where he taught “Baseball Diplomacy in Japanese-U.S. Relations.” He visited all 13 of Japan’s major league ballparks, including the Chiba Lotte Marines’ stadium in Chiba City.

Coveted Class

HDFS 3042: Baseball and Society: Politics, Economics, Race, and Gender

Wisensale spent the spring semester as a Fulbright Scholar in Japan where he taught “Baseball Diplomacy in Japanese-U.S. Relations.” He visited all 13 of Japan’s major league ballparks, including the Chiba Lotte Marines’ stadium in Chiba City.

The Instructor:
Steven Wisensale remembers listening to the 1952 Republican National Convention on the radio. He was 7 years old. “Growing up, I always had an interest in politics,” says the professor of public policy in UConn’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies. “My parents engaged my interest at an early age.”

The ’52 convention was where Dwight D. Eisenhower became the GOP presidential candidate on his way to winning the White House. That same year, the New York Yankees defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games to capture their fourth straight World Series. Baseball was no less a presence on the Wisensale household radio.

The diamond interest of young Steven Wisensale ramped up in 1954, when the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore, not far from where his family lived in southeastern Pennsylvania. Five decades later, he remains a devout fan of the Baltimore Orioles.

For many years, as he was pursuing his studies and establishing himself in the world of academia, Wisensale kept his interests separate. His scholarly interest was in family policy, particularly as it relates to aging and family leave. His baseball fandom was curtained off for his leisure time.

But that changed once he was promoted to full professor. “I felt like I had more freedom,”says Wisensale, “and as I began to think about what I wanted to do inside the classroom, I decided I wanted to teach a course on baseball.”

Wisensale had heard of baseball-related courses at around 20 other universities. Harvard and Tufts offered courses that were quantitative in nature. Stanford and San Francisco State had courses that focused more on baseball in society, which was what Wisensale was after. “I wanted to delve into history,” he says.

Class Description:
Baseball and Society: Politics, Economics, Race and Gender explores the connections between historical events and the history of baseball. A discussion of labor relations, for instance, digs into the evolving business of baseball as it runs parallel to the ever-changing circumstances surrounding the U.S. workforce in general.

“I hit the Curt Flood story pretty hard,” says Wisensale, referring to the ballplayer who in 1969 refused to abide by a trade, instigating a contractual challenge that made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and led to player free agency throughout the game. The drawing of historical links goes all the way back to the origins of baseball.

“A lot of students would prefer that we get right to the current day or recent history,” says Wisensale, “but they’re surprised by how rich the dead-ball era was.” It was the time of World War I, which is when baseball became directly connected with its time in history.

“When the war broke out,” says Wisensale, “baseball owners were nervous: Do I want my right fielder being hit by a landmine? They had to figure out how to protect their assets.” So the owners cut a deal under which players could remain in baseball as long as, during the offseason, they worked in a defense plant or in some way contributed to the wartime effort.
“This is going to be fluff,” was the concern Wisensale heard when designing the course for its 2012 debut. He understood the reluctance, so he took pains to design a curriculum about baseball that wouldn’t be a softball.

Wisensale puts prospective students through a screening process in which they answer questions about their goals for the course. They also must write an essay on what baseball means to them. And Wisensale checks out every applicant; typically there are 180 to 200 for the 50 spots.

“I don’t want slackers in the class,” he says.

Wisensale’s Teaching Style:
“Baseball news! Anybody have any baseball news?”

This is how Wisensale begins each class. A discussion of current events takes up just the first 5 to 10 minutes of class. Then the professor digs in at the plate and starts swinging. The connections he draws aren’t always obvious. An example: baseball’s steroids scandal.

“Maybe I’m the only one who thinks this way, but I believe that what the ballplayers did is the same as what Bernie Madoff did,” he says, referring to the financial advisor who cheated investors (including the New York Mets ownership) with a Ponzi scheme.

“They all basically conned the system and made a lot of money, with so-called regulators not regulating. There were so many people making so much money within a corrupt system ”” why police it?”

The challenge in teaching this course, for Wisensale, stems from the diverse student enrollment. “Students come for different reasons,” he says. There are accounting students “who want to work for Billy Bean” and understand all the sabermetrics ”” or statistical analysis ”” but may have no interest in history. Then there are the history majors, who are deeply interested in the origins and development of the sport. And journalism students “who think in terms of writing stories about current events,” says Wisensale. “I try to get them to read Roger Angell’s stuff and John Updike’s essay about Ted Williams’s last game, things like that.”

Why We Want to Take It Ourselves:
Three strikes and four balls. Nine innings, each with three outs. Baseball has a rhythm to it, one that hearkens back to what we tend to reminisce about as simpler times. But were they really?

Baseball and Society delves into some dramatic twists and turns that the game and its surrounding culture shared. Race comes up in discussions of the Negro Leagues and Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.

Gender is at center stage when the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League comes on the scene during World War II. And then there’s the steroid era. “That last item generates the most discussion in class,” says Wisensale.

If putting historical events into context isn’t enough of a draw, how about the opportunity to have your own baseball card? During the enrollment process, Wisensale instructs students to create their card. “It can be a childhood dream come true for some,” he said.

That includes the professor himself. He creates a Wisensale card before each semester, a reminder that for him this course represents a second wind after many years of teaching and writing.

“This really has energized me,” he says. “It has taken me back to my youth.”
Who wouldn’t want to be in a classroom with a professor who feels that way?

””Jeff Wagenheim

September 28, 2017

Hans Rhynhart ’93 (CAHNR)

Alumni Spotlight

Hans Rhynhart ’93 (CAHNR)

UConn Police Chief Hans Rhynhart at Wilbur Cross just before the start of the fall semester.

Student Perspective

Hans Rhynhart ’93 (CAHNR)

UConn Police Chief Hans Rhynhart at Wilbur Cross just before the start of the fall semester.

With a slight crane of the neck, peering from the corner of UConn Police Chief Hans Rhynhart’s second-floor office window affords a sliver of a view of an empty lot atop King Hill Road, bounded by vegetation and parking spots.

Generations of UConn students came and went over the decades as renters in a two-story red house that once stood ”” or, some would say, tottered ”” on that lot. Its unbeatable location and the warmth of roommate friendships easily compensated for its grungy floors, bare-bones kitchen, and the broken door, whose missing lock allowed genial strangers to wander in for a bathroom break after closing time at the nearby bars.

Among those renters: Rhynhart, a quiet but companionable undergrad whose engineering aspirations had given way to an interest in natural resources management. He never imagined that more than two decades later, his admiration for law enforcement would lead him to the top spot at the UConn Police Department, which he’d walked past regularly as a student heading to and from his modest digs.

Rhynhart ’93 (CAHNR) was named to UConn’s top police job in January after serving in the interim role for seven months. He is also interim director of public safety, a position in which he also oversees the UConn Fire Department, Office of Emergency Management, and the Fire Marshal & Building Inspector’s Office.

“Coming to UConn has been one of the best returns on investment I’ve ever made in terms of the education I received as a student and the opportunities I’ve been able to pursue in the police department,” Rhynhart says.

In the dorms
A Woodstock native, Rhynhart spent his freshman year at Johnson State College in Vermont before transferring to UConn and moving into Goodyear Hall, where some of his closest friendships were forged over the family-style dinners that were served there before meals were consolidated into the Northwest complex’s main dining hall.

Bryan Busch ’93 (ENG), ’98 MS, who remains one of his close friends, says the Hans who wears the chief’s badge today is the same earnest and honest person he met at Goodyear and with whom he later roomed in New London Hall and that memorable red house on King Hill Road.

“The best way I can describe Hans is that he’s a stand-up guy. He has your back as a friend, and he has integrity in his work and his life,” Busch says.

Part of that work included several summers with the agency now known as the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. That’s where his respect for law enforcement transformed into admiration ”” and the start of a career aspiration ”” as he worked closely with officers in the state’s Environmental Conservation (EnCon) Police.

Rhynhart worked as an environmental analyst in Vermont and Connecticut after college until 1998, when he decided to pursue his law enforcement ambitions. He was hired at the Department of Motor Vehicles and went through the Connecticut Police Academy, working as a vehicle safety inspector until he applied for a UConn police job at the encouragement of a DMV supervisor who recognized his potential.

From his first few days on the job in June 2001, the UConn Police Department has felt like home.

Undercover
Rhynhart’s familiarity with the campuses and the ease with which he interacts with others has benefited UConn time and time again ”” including a 2002 undercover stint when he posed as a graduate student as part of a team of officers who apprehended 13 people who were using and selling heroin and other drugs on campus.

Rhynhart was so laid back that the students he was investigating assumed he was an amiable stoner and welcomed him into their fold ”” and to this day, colleagues never tire of teasing him about the long hair, scraggly goatee, and ratty clothes that made him appear so convincing, even as he counted down the days until a return to his clean-cut self.

Unruffled
His talent helped him move quickly up the ranks over the coming years, earning him a spot in the FBI National Academy professional development program in Quantico, Virginia, in 2009, and he eventually became second in command at the police department in 2011. He later was appointed deputy chief, and held that job until his interim appointment as chief in May 2016.

“The people I’ve worked for at UConn have always looked toward the future and considered how to bring people along to cultivate the next generation of leaders. I consider that to be a very important part of this job, too,” Rhynhart says.

He jokes in his self-deprecating style that he’s not the best at anything ”” not the best shooter in the department, not the fastest runner, he says ”” but, “if there’s one thing I believe I am good at, it’s putting people in the right positions to succeed, not only for themselves but also for the organization and the community we serve.”

Even through the hardest days ”” notifying parents of their children’s unexpected deaths, manning the front lines during Spring Weekends, training to guard against acts of terrorism ”” Rhynhart is consistently calm, rational, and unfailingly reliable in the eyes of those who depend on him and his public safety personnel for the safety of the campuses.

“Police work on a college campus requires a special set of skills and sensitivity, and Hans has always had the ability to build those kinds of trusting relationships throughout the UConn community,” President Susan Herbst says. “His UConn roots run deep, and we’re incredibly fortunate and grateful to have him here.”

Several people who work with Rhynhart say that even in the midst of stressful situations, his demeanor is calm and authoritative. He jokes that he is like the proverbial duck who appears placid on the surface while paddling madly out of sight below the water ”” but it’s his gravitas that stays with those who meet him.

“Even as a student in my classes, he was steady and he had a presence. He stood out as a solid individual, and that is the same kind of person he is today,” says John “Jack” Clausen, a professor in the UConn Department of Natural Resources and the Environment.

“At one point when he was the police department’s spokesperson, I saw him on TV one night and said, ”˜Oh, wow, he’s doing an amazing job ”” he’s so composed and well spoken.’ At that particular moment, I had a feeling of pride that he came through our program.”

All Blue
Those who know Rhynhart say that off duty, you’re most likely to find him spending time with his 15-year-old daughter Emma, 13-year-old son Hans, and his wife, first-grade teacher Beth (Swenson) Rhynhart ”˜95 (CLAS), who he met in the Homer Babbidge Library when both were UConn students. He’s also likely to be working on renovations to their 1840s-era house or barn, or tinkering with an engine, or seeking out bargains to appease his frugal nature.

He certainly won’t be idle.

In fact, these days, you’re certain to find him with textbooks and meticulous notes from the classes he’s taking to earn his master’s degree in human resource management at the UConn School of Business. Like his other endeavors, he’s jumped in wholeheartedly.
“Being a student again, I’m taking it all in like a sponge,” he says.

And while he’s come a long way from his undergraduate days in that ramshackle red house on King Hill Road, Rhynhart is still the person who impressed his professors with his maturity, cultivated countless friends with his sincerity, and jumped at the chance to serve the alma mater he loves.

“UConn has given me a chance to be part of something that makes a positive difference and has lasting meaning,” Rhynhart says. “The police department and the UConn community as a whole fit really well with who I am as a person, and I’m grateful for the opportunities I have here.”

””stephanie reitz

September 28, 2017

Britney Reynolds ’19 (BUS, CLAS)

Student Perspective

Britney Reynolds ’19
(BUS, CLAS)

A new U.S. citizen, this psychology and business major still has a scholarship in her name in Jamaica.

Reynolds at Blue State Coffee, a Hartford café across the street from Travelers insurance company, where she worked as a summer intern in Information Technology Services.

Student Perspective

Britney Reynolds ’19 (BUS, CLAS)

A new U.S. citizen, this psychology and business major still has a scholarship in her name in Jamaica.

Reynolds at Blue State Coffee, a Hartford café across the street from Travelers insurance company, where she worked as a summer intern in Information Technology Services.

Why did you choose UConn?
I came to Bridgeport from Jamaica in 2009. I was 12. I never knew anything about college, just that it was something I wanted to do. So when the time came I applied to Connecticut colleges. When I got into Southern my mom was so excited; she was like, “Oh, you’re going there!” Then I got into UConn and she was like, “No, you’re going to UConn!” One great thing UConn has going for it is that as a first-generation college student, through Student Support Services, I was able to live on campus the summer before freshman year to transition to college and to begin earning credits. The counselors are great and help with everything. I became a U.S. citizen this year, and they helped me get my passport.

As a freshman you lived in Innovation House. Have you always been entrepreneurial?
I like the idea of having my own business. When I was little, I wanted to be a fashion designer, and my friends and I would draw collections. Later, I became interested in teaching. But if I was going to be a teacher, I wanted to plan the school, create the curriculum, and make everything exactly how I thought it should be. When I have an idea, I always think, “I’ve got to own this thing!” So Innovation House was immediately interesting to me.

Where does psych fit in with entrepreneurship?
If I want to be a business owner one day, I’ll want to know the psychology of my employees. How are they going to play together? For my research project,Â through the McNair Scholars Program, I decided to study impulsiveness. Because I really don’t understand it. It sometimes boggles my mind when I see people making impulsive choices. Your life is going to be terrible if you keep doing that! I want to know how the brain works.

What’s been your favorite class so far?
I have two favorite classes. I really liked Psychology of Language. One thing we talked about was how someone who learns sign language at age 10 won’t ever be as fluent as someone who learns it at age 5. Which is just like a spoken language. American Sign Language is my minor, so that means I’ll never be as good as a child. Nice to know!

My other favorite was a coding class with Alex Tung. Not because I did well in it, because I didn’t really, but because I learned a lot. One of the things I learned was that when a professor gives you 10 days for an assignment, you need all 10 days. The instructions for a coding project might only be a couple of lines, but to execute those two lines requires a lot of thinking and trial and error. On our first project, my group finally left the Business School at 5:59 a.m. The sun was coming up. This was when it really hit me that I was in college. Freshman year was pretty chill, first semester sophomore year was pretty chill. But spring semester? No. I was like, “Mm-hmm, now I know I’m in college.”

You won a First-Year Excellence in Innovation Award for work on a phone app.
Yes, as part of the Innovation House program, students pitch an idea that could be developed as a start-up. I joined with a student named Jeremy, who had the idea for encrypting personal data on your phone. When you download certain free apps, they strip your data. We worked on a security app to protect data so that it can’t be hacked or stripped. We divvied up the labor. Jeremy is a computer science major, so he was technical. I handled the business development end and put together a plan for the product.

What’s something most people don’t know about you?
I’m a fan of WWE. The first time I passed the corporate headquarters in Stamford on the highway after moving here from Jamaica, I was like “Whoa!” I thought I could go over and meet the wrestlers. I was so disappointed when I found out they didn’t stay there.
Last summer WWE was offering internships and I seriously thought about applying. I thought maybe they’d give me a free ticket to SummerSlam. But I had already accepted an IT internship with Travelers in Hartford. During my orientation at Travelers, a woman from the leadership group mentioned that she’s a fan of the wrestler Sheamus. I said, “Sheamus?” She said, “Yeah, he used to work in IT. I love him.” I thought, “We could all bond over this.” But everyone else was like, “No, not really. We’re all grown-ups.”

Do you ever visit Jamaica?
I visited in May to present the Top Girl scholarship at my old school, Victoria Primary in Linstead, St. Catherine. I presented the first scholarship in 2013, but since then I’ve just sent the trophy and the money, so this was a little different.

Wait, you send the scholarship money yourself?
I was the Top Girl when I graduated, so my grandmother, my mother, and I thought maybe this was something we could do to give back to the school. We started the scholarship my sophomore year of high school here in Connecticut.

Does it have a name?
The Britney Reynolds Top Girl Scholarship. Inflation in Jamaica is very difficult. Every little bit helps a struggling family, so I add whatever I can to the monetary award my grandmother puts together. I work on campus in the Admissions Office, and I don’t really spend much, so there’s a little left over from my paycheck.

Any other great ideas in the works?
I’m an RA, and my current thing is figuring out ways to get my residents more engaged with floor programs. My first floor meeting last spring, I said, “Come to the Community Center.” Nobody came. So next time I made it easier: “Come to the second floor lobby.” I could capture everyone as they went to their rooms.

Then I realized people might already be in their rooms and not ever pass through the lobby. So for the next one, I knocked on doors. And I always offer snacks. I’ll keep trying different things, mixing up locations and times and incentives, until we get a formula that works. That’s part of being an entrepreneur, I think. You test an idea, find out where the errors are, and keep modifying it until you get it right.

””Kevin Markey

September 28, 2017

Joel Gamoran, Host of FYI’s “Scraps”

Checking In With…

Joel Gamoran,
host OF FYI’s “Scraps”

Joel Gamoran, Courtesy of Scraps and the FYI Network

For chef Joel Gamoran ’07 (CLAS), scrappiness is a state of mind. “Why does cooking always need to be so perfect?” he asks. “The best meals at home aren’t when you buy the expensive cut of meat. It’s the pasta with the leftover anchovy oil and some chili flakes. Not having the fancy ingredients ”” it forces you to get inspired.”

The charming, affable scrap-proselytizer has just parlayed his lifelong passion for imperfection into a cooking show, “Scraps,” which debuted on the FYI network in May.

Each half-hour episode of “Scraps” follows Gamoran in his 1963 VW bus to prepare a meal with a local chef, using their favorite typically tossed kitchen scraps. As he says over the show’s opening credits, “I see flavor where the world sees waste.”

Take pickle juice, shrimp shells, and broccoli stems for example. Chicken thighs soak in that briny pickle juice before being fried, drizzled with honey, and showered with cilantro (just the stems, natch). Shrimp shells become a rich sauce for oysters that Gamoran has inexpertly and comedically chiseled from the South Carolina shoreline. Broccoli stems are shredded into a sweet and crunchy slaw.

But given that it’s such a zeitgeisty moment for sustainability and reducing food waste, the show was a surprisingly tough sell ”” even with co-executive producer (and huge Joel Gamoran fan) Katie Couric on board.

“Networks just didn’t think there was a place for food waste to be interesting to people,” Gamoran says, with nearly comical disbelief. “I was like, ”˜But it’s super-hacky and understandable and completely digestible for people ”” and it will save them money.’” Eventually FYI bit.

“We got the order to make the show on February 1,” says Gamoran, “to deliver 10 episodes on May 21st. We had no guests, no cities, no plane tickets, nothing. We filmed the whole thing ”” 10 cities ”” in six weeks. We decided to embrace it, get scrappy, and really make it part of the show!” This meant cooking in the rain if it rained. It meant sticking with the original plan, even if an ingredient turned out to be a little bit yum-resistant.

“That spent grain!” Gamoran reminisces about some particularly stubborn waste gleaned from an Asheville brewery, which he turned into biscuits he describes as a “major fail at first.” Eventually, though, they got it right.

“I stand for the bruised, the forgotten, and the back of the fridge!” is the tag line of the show, and it seems to be Gamoran’s ethos in general. When I ask him about his favorite aha moments, he says, “I had so many moments where I was like, ”˜I can’t believe you can even do this!’ Like in episode two, when the guest tosses the scallion roots right into the dish. Now I’m obsessed with them.”

I bond with him over our shared love of celery leaves (“A free herb!” I say, and he says, “I know, right?”) and ask him about his favorite everyday scrap: “I don’t peel my garlic! I really think the outer paper is really special and it’s the unsung hero of the garlic.”

Gamoran himself is self-effacing, excited, quick to laugh. And he brings out the best in the chefs he works with ”” they can’t seem to help being infected by his vibrant good humor. Mostly, though, he just makes them laugh and laugh. It’s clear that they adore him. Everybody does.

Gamoran’s day job is National Chef for Sur La Table, the kitchenware retailer and cooking-class giant based in his hometown of Seattle. This seems more cushy than scrappy to me ”” in a good way ”” although Gamoran is quick to point out that it’s a job he invented himself and pitched to the company, which I have to admit is pretty scrappy after all.

It’s the same resourceful mentality he brought to UConn, after he was recruited as a tennis player. In short order he realized first that he wanted to be a chef, and then that UConn didn’t offer a course of study that would help him do that. So he pulled together a hodgepodge of classes and made his own major. “I learned how to craft something out of nothing. And they supported it. I graduated with a degree in restaurant management and a minor in communications. It was my first win! The first time I got to get scrappy.”

Gamoran has moved his Sur La Table gig to Brooklyn, where he lives with his wife and rides a little Vespa around.

“What’s next?” I ask. “What’s the dream?”

“I think when people cook, it really enhances their life,” he answers. “Cooking builds connection and draws us together and draws us to the table. I want to motivate and inspire people to cook. I want to be known as the guy that made the kitchen a little more accessible.”

””catherine newman

Joel is the National Chef for Sur La Table.

Chef Joel Gamoran heads to Asheville, North Carolina, where he visits local celebrity chef Katie Button. Scraps Season 1, Episode 1.

Joel and Katie put together an outdoor dinner feast, using out-of-the-box local ingredients consisting of “scraps” ”” food that usually gets trashed. The pair gather discarded spent grain from a local craft brewery to make incredibly savory biscuits, as well as using caul fat, adding intense flavor to chorizo. Scraps Season 1, Episode 1.

Chef Joel Gamoran heads to Atlanta, Georgia and partners up with local restaurateur and James Beard Award Winner Steven Satterfield. The pair looks for inspiration at a popular farmers market and cooks a delectable dinner using classic southern scraps such as an entire turnip, herb stems, country ham ends, and bruised strawberries. Scraps Season 1, Episode 3.

Chef Joel Gamoran travels to Denver, Colorado to cook with local chef and restaurateur Biju Thomas, who is quickly emerging in the Denver food scene. The pair head to a local butcher to find the scrappiest cut of meat, and use beef cheeks, cucumber seeds, stale rice, and ginger peels to create a mouthwatering meal for some Denver locals. Scraps Season, Episode 6.

Gamoran’s bus equipped with a stand mixer, blender and mini oven.

Chef Joel Gamoran escapes the hustle and bustle of New York City and heads to Hudson Valley, NY with chef, blogger, and health coach Jenn Claiborne. The two try their hands at bread making, and use stale bread, bruised apples and carrot tops to create a jaw-dropping, scrap filled feast. Scraps Season, Episode 4.

Joel is the National Chef for Sur La Table.

September 27, 2017

Welcome Back, Coach

Snap!

Welcome Back, Coach

Randy Edsall is back on the UConn sideline. Edsall is the most successful football coach in UConn history with 74 wins in 11 seasons, from 1999 through 2010. He led the team from NCAA Division I-AA to Division I-A to full Division I status. UConn’s three bowl wins all came under Edsall, who also oversaw consistent academic success. During his tenure the University regularly posted Academic Progress Rates well above the national average and at one time led all Division I-A public schools in graduating more than 90 percent of its student-athletes. “It is an honor to have the opportunity to rejoin and lead the UConn program,” says Edsall. “It is my goal to get us back to that level of success, and I hope that all of the Husky fans out there will be along for the ride.”

Snap!

Welcome Back, Coach

Randy Edsall is back on the UConn sideline. Edsall is the most successful football coach in UConn history with 74 wins in 11 seasons, from 1999 through 2010. He led the team from NCAA Division I-AA to Division I-A to full Division 1 status. UConn’s three bowl wins all came under Edsall, who also oversaw consistent academic success. During his tenure the University regularly posted Academic Progress Rates well above the national average and at one time led all Division I-A public schools in graduating more than 90 percent of its student-athletes. “It is an honor to have the opportunity to rejoin and lead the UConn program,” says Edsall. “It is my goal to get us back to that level of success, and I hope that all of the Husky fans out there will be along for the ride.”

September 27, 2017

UConn Class of 2021

Snap!

UConn Class of 2021

The 5,230 freshmen who make up UConn’s Class of 2021 include 3,650 who are making Storrs their home. This class includes a record-breaking 184 valedictorians and salutatorians; and 54 percent of the newbies were in the top 10 percent of their graduating high school classes. Outside Storrs, one-third of incoming freshmen chose to attend regional campuses. UConn Stamford saw a 50 percent increase in enrollment thanks in part to its new student housing so close to New York City. Meanwhile, a move downtown for UConn Hartford drove its enrollment up 14 percent. Congrats to all of this year’s freshmen, who were competing in a field of some 36,900 applicants.

Snap!

UConn Class of 2021

The 5,230 freshmen who make up UConn’s Class of 2021 include 3,650 who will make Storrs their home. This class includes a record-breaking 184 valedictorians and salutatorians, and 54 percent of these newbies were in the top 10 percent of their graduating high school classes. Outside Storrs, one-third of incoming freshmen chose to attend regional campuses. UConn Stamford saw a 50 percent increase in enrollment thanks in part to its new student housing so close to New York City. Meanwhile, a move downtown for UConn Hartford drove its enrollment up 14 percent. Congrats to all of this year’s freshmen, who were competing in a field of some 36,900 applicants.

September 27, 2017

Author: crj99002

Challenge yourself to Tom’s Trivia!

Rowe Gets Top Hall of Fame Honor

Rowe Gets Top Hall of Fame Honor

Honoring Dee Rowe

Building a Better Race Car

3 Books

Just finished:

Currently reading:

On deck:

HDFS 3042: Baseball and Society: Politics, Economics, Race, and Gender

HDFS 3042: Baseball and Society: Politics, Economics, Race, and Gender

Hans Rhynhart ’93 (CAHNR)

Hans Rhynhart ’93 (CAHNR)

Britney Reynolds ’19 (BUS, CLAS)

Britney Reynolds ’19 (BUS, CLAS)

Joel Gamoran, host OF FYI’s “Scraps”

Welcome Back, Coach

Welcome Back, Coach

UConn Class of 2021

UConn Class of 2021

Britney Reynolds ’19
(BUS, CLAS)

Joel Gamoran,
host OF FYI’s “Scraps”