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The Prime Effect 

Coach Prime is spot on with his observation regarding the ambience and culture of the Boulder campus [Summer 2023 cover story]. To be successful at this level, the program must attract the best talent in the country regardless of race. The program and the community must “get in the game,” as the coach says. All of our players must feel comfortable in Boulder. Let’s all make that happen for them.

William Childers (���ʰ�������’75)
Durango, babyֱ��app 

While everyone seems to be overjoyed that the obviously talented Deion Sanders has been hired, I have some questions regarding how this advances the educational mission of the university. His $5 million per year salary and the other expenses of the football program are enormous. Do any of the revenues to the football program go to academic programs or buildings or academic scholarships? 

Peter Urone (Phys’65; PhD’70)
El Dorado Hills, California 

[Editor’s Note: The CU Athletic Department operates its own budget that is completely independent of CU Boulder’s operating budget. The department’s revenue is largely made up of media rights fees, ticket sales to events, sponsorships and donors. This revenue is in turn largely dedicated to student-athlete resources related to academics, mental health, nutrition and career services.]

Very impressive interview with Coach Prime. This was so much more meaningful than any other report in the local paper or other media. I wish we could have dinner together so he could meet a normal resident of Boulder who remembers his track coach with fondness and a recipe for life.

Spense Havlick
Boulder, babyֱ��app

Thanks for the Coloradan article on new CU head football coach Sanders. Your article really straightens out what the general media has been saying. He is primarily a teacher, and that is good.

Geary Larrick (�ٲѳܲ�’84)
Glenview, Illinois

You are to be commended for your article “Prime Time in Boulder” featuring Deion Sanders. I am a graduate of CU who over the past few decades has become more disenchanted and ashamed of my alma mater. In the past few years the culture of the school has drifted more to the progressive left.

When I first picked up this recent copy of the Coloradan with Mr. Sanders on the front, I almost immediately went to trash it. However, something compelled me to read your article; and I can tell you that for the first time in years I felt proud of the direction the school seems to be headed. This is a man who truly has all of the attributes of a winner; and it is understandable why the school has been all abuzz.

I will be sending your article to my three sons, as well as numerous friends who will be blessed by this man.

Thank you so much for being a part of taking the school in a new and “winner” direction.

Rev. Samuel H. Shafer (��&������;��’63)&�Բ�����;
Oakland, California

Punch Cards

I read with interest the short article “CU Boulder Computing: Punch Cards to AI.”  You’re mistaken in stating that classes were graduate level only. In 1972, a new A&S major was announced — mathematics with a computer science option. I was in those first classes graduating in fall 1973 with that degree.

We had no books and all our work was done with technical papers. I also worked in the computer center on the help desk with the punch cards and helping students review issues with their green bar results. I recently retired from a long career in computer science and systems management that was made possible by that new degree option.

Gale Bridgeman (�Ѳ��ٳ�’73)&�Բ�����;
Grand Prairie, Texas

I used punch cards in my business statistics class in 1967. I believe they were using an IBM computer. We punched the cards, stacked them in order and waited for the results on a printout the next day.

Joseph Gorski (Fin, Mktg’69)
Conroe, Texas 

The Sink … And Clothes

Regarding your Sink story [Spring 2023 issue], I have many Sink memories, and some of them, strangely enough, center around clothes.

I am a member of a CU legacy family, the Garbarino-Miles clan featured in your Spring 2017 issue. I grew up in and around Boulder, and one of my earliest memories is being with my grandparents (James Pike and Alice Miles Pike) and parents for lunch at the Sunken Gardens after church. These seemingly very long lunches involved my staying in my starched, itchy church clothes the whole time.

Later, in the 1950s, as a CU student there were unwritten rules in lots of groups about what to wear on campus. But it was permissible on Friday nights to wear Levis (often with fraternity letters painted on the seat) to drink red beer at The Sink.

One night a group of us snuck out of the sorority house after hours. We were in our pajamas and went to The Sink to pick up snacks and then went to the Boulder Theater, still in pajamas, for the late movie. We got home safely via the fire escape. Being relatively law abiding and extremely chicken I never did anything like that again.

Nancy Pike Hause (���dzܰ�’53)
Estes Park, babyֱ��app