On Mizzou's Alden and Moore; and Giambelluca gets some pub

The Sunday sports section of the Columbia Tribune marked the 10th anniversary of Mike Alden’s run as athletics director at the University of Missouri with a lengthy question-and-answer formatted story.

Alden talked about his successes and regrets in this piece.

He also talked about the increase in gas prices and how it affected his budget, which is interesting when you consider the increases Southeast Missouri State has made across the board in the operating expenses for its sports teams.

Alden said:

As we built our budget for next year, we put in the travel budget for all our teams and put it in place for what we knew and then just tacked on 20 percent immediately. But it’s a moving target, and you have no idea. Let’s say your budget is $5 million for travel. Immediately it’s $6 million, and we have no idea if we’re going to hit that. When we put the budget together, gas prices were $3.49 a gallon. Now they’re $3.99 a gallon. Today, it probably should have been 22 or 23 percent. So it absolutely impacts how we operate as an organization. How is it going to affect our turnstiles? Are people going to elect not to drive to our games? We don’t know. Everyone in sport and entertainment are concerned with that right now. It’s kind of the fear of the unknown.

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Also from the Columbia Tribune this week was a feature on defensive back William Moore. The story begins by setting the scene when Moore, as part of a Mizzou caravan that included Alden and others, returned home to Hayti and was the center of attention.

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I had the opportunity to meet Sam Giambelluca for the first time last year at the Carr Trophy and Gridiron Banquet put on by the Poplar Bluff Letter Club.

Giambelluca was featured Sunday on the front page of the Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic, and this accompanying article mentioned that he has given up chairmanship of the Poplar Bluff Museum. He still is the chair of the Poplar Bluff Sports Hall of Fame.