(Brent Schwert)
The most recent edition of Lawrence Today had a feature on what college students are like today. How we spend our free time, what we believe in, what’s swell, what’s totally bogus.
An attempt by our distinguished Dean of Students Nancy Truesdell to quantify and qualify what it means to be a college-age man or woman in academia in 2007.
I don’t remember whether I read the article, but if Mrs. Truesdell really had her finger on the pulse of the common Lawrentian, she would have (or might have) pointed out that there’s one thing that unites every student, freshman or senior, Connie or bio-nerd: YouTube videos of people jumping over things.
Here are some of my favorites:
Vince Carter leaps over France’s dignity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3m0eKpNX24
A classic. Taken from the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, this is one of the coolest dunks you’ll ever see. Vince Carter, the king of YouTube dunk videos, intercepts an errant pass and barrels down on Fredric Weis, France’s 7-foot-2-inch center. Weis sets himself to draw the charge, and Vince decides to go over him. Yeah, over the guy.
Tim Hardaway gave the dunk a 12 out of 10, and Jason Kidd called it the greatest play in basketball he’d ever seen. If you haven’t seen it, you’re doing your country (and me) a bogus disservice.
Beau Kittredge jumps over a (slightly) shorter guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kst2yrNJolY
This one is a little more obscure, but just as cool. Beau plays for Mamabird, the University of Colorado’s Ultimate Frisbee team. He’s known for how high up he can get to pull discs down as evidenced in this video. It has been speculated that this is the most watched Ultimate Frisbee play ever. Oh, and extra points for the music editing, video creator.
Adrian Wilson’s weight room trick.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7vL19q8yL54
This one would impress the ladies in the locker room, I would think. Although I can’t imagine Adrian Wilson has any trouble attracting women. Or jumping over barbells, as it turns out.
Joey Gathright is pretty impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cySfw8f0beg
Joey Gathright may not be the fastest guy in baseball like the scouts predicted, but he sure can jump. Here he is in a parking lot leaping BMWs. Indecently, he was traded from the Devil Rays to the Royals. I can’t even make a clever analogy about that, because all my analogies about bad teams center on the Devil Rays and the Royals. Swell.
