Outstanding Scholar Athlete Class

LOS ANGELES------It was a pleasure to attend the 2007 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards Dinner in the historic Orpheum Theater while in town to have an early Happy 48th Birthday celebration with my eldest son Michael Sean McDowell who is the group's Chairman of the Board.
Seated next to Warren Beatty and his lovely wife Annette Benning it was a most enjoyable evening. After our introduction Warren asked where I was from. I replied: Mississippi. He said he thought the accent was familiar since he was originally from Virginia. I asked him whether he planned to enter the political scene since it had been rumored he might. He said "No."
My son, who is the Senior Director of Cultural Tourism for Los Angeles, Inc. and a graduate of the University of Virginia lives in Sherman Oaks. His neighbors include Lilly Tomlin and Loni Anderson. Had I been there I would have offered to trim Loni's hedges.
Los Angeles was always special to me, serving there in World War II at the Naval Armory located in Chavez Ravine, a stone's throw from Dodger Stadium, I was a Regular at the Hollywood Canteen where the guest hosts included: Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Gene Tierney, Olivia de Haviland and one evening Rita Hayworth, who helped husband-to-be Orson Welles, an amateur magician, sawing her in half despite the protests of service men in attendance.
*******
The National Football Foundation's 2007 Scholar-Athlete Class is again outstanding.Fifteen seniors will receive $15,000 grants including Mississippian Michael Eubanks, a Pre-Med major from Delta State University. Look forward to seeing this group in New York Dec. 4 at the Waldorf Astoria.
Eubanks and Danny Woodhead of Chadron State are the two Division Two honorees. Erid Safran of LMount Union and Jake Weller of Illinois College are the Division 3 honorees. Nick Clark of Texas State University and Brandon Cramer of the University of Dayton are the Division l-AA selectees.
The nine Division 1-A honorees include: Heisman Trophy candidate Dennis Dixon of the University of Oregon, Alex Brink, Washington State, Paul Smith, University of Tulsa, Jacob T Tamme, University of Kentucky, Brandon Renkart, Rutgers University, Mike Klinkenburg, University of Iowa, J. Leman, University of Illinois, Dallas Griffin, University of Texas, and John Carlson, University of Notre Dame.
The best of this group will receive the Draddy Trophy in honor and memory of the NFFHF's great chairman Vincent DePaul, of whom I was associated with for 27 and a half years as Executive Director, Executive Secretary, Administrator of Chapters and Director of Public Relations. I traveled 262 days a year helping build the Foundation into a national organization and have two ex-wives to prove it.
*****
Look forward to also attending the presentation of the Conerly Trophy Nov. 27 at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame to the outstanding Magnolia Player of the Year. I am waiting until the final regular season game to cast my ballot, after all of the returns are in. The same is true for my Heisman Trophy Ballot. The Heisman Dinner, which I have attended every year since 1962, is December 10 in New York.