PrezBo plots to thwart next mug attempt

Before I delve into my topic for today, I would like to bring up something that relates to my last column. You might recall that in my last column I wrote about the dearth of iconic moustaches in professional and college sports. A few days ago, my Internet sojourns brought me to The Wright Stache, a blog dedicated to trying to get New York Mets star David Wright to grow a moustache for 2009 “because naked lips don’t bring championships.” Columbia athletes, whether you are in the midst of your season or preparing for competition next fall or winter, take note of the above quote—and act accordingly.
Now that that’s out of the way, I will shift focus to a topic that at first might not seem very sports-related, but bear with me. As you all know, we are in the midst of a recession and some are worried that as the power of the dollar decreases, crime will increase.
It seems like that fear is already becoming a reality. Things are getting so terrible that one of the most-recognized people on television had to resort to paying for sex and got arrested because of it. If you’re not aware of the plight of Vince Shlomi you must be living under a rock. He’s better known as the ShamWow guy, and was arrested on Feb. 7 for punching a prostitute because she bit his tongue and would not let go.
Our own fair city is not free from the stain of crime during these hard times. In fact, our university has experienced this directly in the fairly recent past. On Dec. 2, 2008, Columbia’s fearless leader, Lee C. Bollinger, was assaulted in Central Park during his morning run. According to Bollinger, Norries Wilson, head coach of Columbia football, sent Bollinger an e-mail after the incident saying, “I told you running is dangerous,” a fact Bollinger had finally realized for himself on that early December morning.
That’s the story that everyone already knows, but what happened since then has not yet reached the public. That is, until now. Bollinger is an avid runner who prefers to run outside. After coming to grips with the dangers of running, Bollinger realized he couldn’t just go out and run anymore—he had to be prepared.
According to a person affiliated with the university, for the past three months, Bollinger has been training in Goju-Ryu karate so that he can be better prepared to defend himself if he should be attacked again during a run. At least it started as a form of self-defense, but as he got deeper into the discipline, Bollinger has found that he is enjoying it more and would like to further pursue it as a hobby. During spring break, Bollinger visited China to help open Columbia’s global center in Beijing and while he was in Asia, he had the opportunity to receive instruction from trainers there.
Here in the United States, combat-based sports have experienced a growth in popularity as of late. White collar boxing has become a major hit, especially in urban areas, and was even the subject of the book White Collar Boxing: One Man’s Journey from the Office to the Ring by John E. Oden in 2005. White collar boxing shows are televised worldwide from America and though they may sound dangerous, they are relatively safe.
With the widespread popularity of white collar boxing, there are other white collar sports that people are beginning to look into as ways to work out, relieve stress, and compete. There are currently some American gyms that have branched off from solely offering white collar boxing and now also allow their patrons to practice white collar kick-boxing and karate, which could soon become widespread.
According to his trainer Liu Kang of the Acclaim Gym, Bollinger has expressed a level of interest in using his new skills in competition—white collar or otherwise—and is healthy and fit enough that he could do so if the opportunity arises in the future. As of today, April Fool’s Day, Bollinger has not engaged in any combat-based competitions. It will be interesting to see if he does if given the chance.

Matt Velazquez is a Columbia College junior
majoring in history. Sports@columbiaspectator.com">Sports@columbiaspectator.com