This was posted on our board. We pass it on without comment
This probably belongs on the off-topic board, but since it is the off season, I thought I'd post it here. Yesterday, May 22nd, I had the pleasure of attending my son-in-law's MBA graduation ceremony at the University of Maryland. For the record, I stopped going to Duke/MD games years ago because of the physical and verbal abuse that my wife and I received from the MD fans, so this was my first visit to the Comcast Center. It is a beautiful facility and my whole family settled into our seats for what we thought would be a very pleasurable experience. I was appalled at what happened next.
The undergraduate speaker, introduced as the absolute "cream of the crop" by the Dean of the School of Business, began his speech by announcing that he went to the U of MD because it was the only school that accepted him. He continued on that he played ice hockey against Duke and that, after realizing that the Duke players were "a bunch of dorks" he knew that the U of MD students were "just as good as they are".
The logic of being just as good as a dork aside, I couldn't believe that "cream of the crop" would choose to attack Duke rather than extol the virtues of his own institution. My wife tried to calm me by reminding me that he was "only a kid" with little or no real world experience and that you can't expect great oratory from a kid.
Then "the kid" sat down and the Dean of the School of Business took the microphone to introduce the next speaker, but before doing that, felt it was necessary to announce to all at the Comcast Center that the U of MD had decided to buy Duke University and shut it down. I was stunned. I couldn't believe that the Dean, whose self-described role was to teach leadership, would demonstrate such unprofessional and, in my opinion, unacceptable behavior.
As a Duke graduate, I was angered that I had to be subjected to verbal abuse yet again at the University of Maryland. As a Maryland resident and taxpayer, I was embarrassed that my state university couldn't find anything positive to say about themselves and had to stoop to degrading other institutions of higher learning to elevate themselves.
If you've ever wondered why the Maryland students behave the way they do at basketball games, this experience might help to explain it.