Baylor Proud

Nov

2009

Alum’s latest film, ‘The Blind Side,’ hits theaters today

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Alumni, Just for Fun

The Blind Side Hollywood director John Lee Hancock, BA ‘79, JD ‘82, first made a name for himself in the movie business in 1993 as the writer of the screenplay for A Perfect World, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood and Kevin Costner. He went on to produce the critically acclaimed My Dog Skip before finding widespread recognition as director of The Rookie, which won an ESPY in 2002 for “Best Sports Movie.”

Hancock has returned to sports for his latest film, The Blind Side, which opens today. The movie stars Sandra Bullock and is based on the true story of a homeless teenager who, after being taken in by a new family, fulfills his potential on the football field, earning a college scholarship and eventually making the NFL. (See the trailer here.) Variety and The Los Angeles Times each speak well of the film; closer to home, my wife has been excited to see this since she saw the first preview, even before we knew of the Baylor connection.

Sic ’em, John Lee Hancock!

Nov

2009

Law students win moot court competition for fourth straight year

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors, Student life

Jennifer Salim and Wes LeRouax If practice makes perfect, then Baylor Law students are clearly well on their way to starting excellent careers.

For the fourth straight year (and the seventh time in 12 years), a team of Baylor Law School students won first place at the annual Mack Kidd Administrative Law Moot Court Competition. The team of Jennifer Salim and Wes LeRouax (pictured) claimed top honors at the event, in which students take place in simulated court proceedings.

In addition to winning the event, Salim and LeRouax were each recognized among the competition’s top speakers, finishing second and third, respectively. Their brief also won second place honors. Two other Baylor teams also performed well, with one pair reaching the semifinals and another reaching the quarterfinals.

Sic ’em, Baylor Law!

Nov

2009

Baylor pays tribute to Fort Hood soldiers

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Alumni, Athletics

Baylor helmet sticker honoring Fort Hood While the tragic shootings at nearby Fort Hood have dropped from the national headlines, the victims and those around them have not been forgotten in Central Texas. Baylor honored Fort Hood soldiers and their families by providing 1,000 tickets for last Saturday’s Baylor-Texas football game; a Fort Hood representative also ran onto the field with the Bears and participated in the pregame coin toss. Additionally, the Baylor football team will wear a helmet decal (pictured) in honor of Fort Hood for the rest of the season.

We wrote last week about First Baptist Killeen pastor Dr. Randall Wallace, a Baylor grad ministering to a congregation with strong ties to Fort Hood. Since then, we’ve heard of many other Bears serving in the area. One name you probably read during the first couple of days following the incident was Dr. Roy Smythe, BS ‘84, chairman of surgery at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, where many of the injured were taken. Smythe lettered in football for head coach Grant Teaff’s 1980 Southwest Conference championship squad and today serves on the Board of Directors for the Baylor “B” Association.

Seven other Baylor graduates (and four interns) from the Army-Baylor Physical Therapy program have been helping with the wounded at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, providing direct patient care to those wounded on Nov. 5.

Last but not least, Lt. Col. Les Maloney, “a proud Baylor alumnus,” wrote in to let us know that after earning his doctorate in philosophy in 2005, he now works at Fort Hood as an Army chaplain. He specifically asks the Baylor family to “keep us in all your prayers.”

Sic ’em, Bears in service!

Nov

2009

Current shuttle mission carries Baylor into space

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Alumni, Just for Fun, Student life

It’s not unusual for Baylor administrators to receive requests from parents. It is unusual when that request is for a Baylor item that the parent — in this case, Col. Charles Hobaugh, commander of space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-129 mission — can take into space.

Hobaugh (pictured) is the father of Baylor junior Stephanie Hobaugh, who naturally missed classes yesterday to watch the shuttle’s launch from Cape Canaveral. Hobaugh’s wife contacted Baylor in August on her husband’s behalf to see if he could take anything into space to represent his daughter’s school. The University naturally provided a Baylor flag that will be returned after the mission and likely displayed in Baylor’s visitor’s center.

This isn’t the first time Baylor has been represented in space, either. Last fall, the shuttle crew awoke one morning to the song “You Are Here” by Dutton, a band comprised largely of Baylor alumni.

Sic ’em, space shuttle astronauts!

Nov

2009

Freshman defeated rare cancer to join sisters at Baylor

Posted by admin in Alumni, Just for Fun, Student life

In February, the Dallas Morning News profiled high school senior Cody Novak as his basketball team prepared for the state semifinals. Novak, however, was sidelined in the midst of fighting a rare, aggressive form of cancer that developed into a grapefruit-sized tumor on his thigh and threatened to take not only his basketball career, but his life.

Nine months later, Cody — now a freshman business major at Baylor — is, amazingly, cancer-free. Multiple rounds of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation, coupled with the Novak family’s faith and sense of humor, helped Cody regain his health in time to join his sisters (senior Casey and sophomore Courtney) at Baylor this fall.

Cody’s mother Kristi, BS ‘81, says the goal of following his sisters to Baylor was an incentive for Cody throughout the nasty treatments. Now he’s got bigger plans: “When I first got diagnosed, I got this huge realm of peace. I realized there’s a reason for this, and you need to use this as a platform. My dad always told me a smile could make a difference in someone’s day.”

Sic ’em, Cody and the Novak family!

Nov

2009

Young grad honored as a healthcare ‘Up and Comer’

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Alumni, Honors

The day after he turned 30, George Gaston, BBA ‘93, learned from doctors that he had a major cyst on his brain. He underwent several surgeries. That process has helped Gaston — now CEO of Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital in Houston — relate to his patients and their families in a new way. That sort of caring, in addition to an approach that led one co-worker to describe him as a “servant leader,” is a large part of why Gaston was named a 2009 Up and Comer by Modern Healthcare Magazine.

Gaston is one of just 12 recipients of the honor nationwide, and the only one from Texas. After working his way up through the Memorial Hermann system since 1996, Gaston was named CEO of Memorial Hermann Southeast in 2007. He and his wife, Mary Robin Gaston, BA ‘94, BS ‘94, now reside in Sugar Land, Texas.

Sic ’em, George!

Nov

2009

Men’s and women’s hoops each sign national top-5 recruit

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Athletics, Honors

Perry Jones Last year, the Baylor women’s basketball program received a commitment from the No. 1 high school player in the country, Brittney Griner, on National Signing Day. Griner, known for her 6-foot-8 height and ability to dunk, is now the Big 12 Preseason Freshman of the Year as the 4th-ranked Lady Bears open their season Sunday at No. 9 Tennessee (4 p.m. CT, ESPN2).

This year, both the Baylor men and women drew national headlines on Signing Day. Three years after he first verbally committed to head coach Scott Drew’s Bears, Duncanville forward Perry Jones — a consensus top-5 recruit — made his commitment official Wednesday. The highest ranked recruit in program history, the 6-10 Jones is ranked No. 3 overall in the ESPNU Top 100, No. 4 by Scout.com and No. 5 by Rivals.com. This marks the fourth straight year the Bears have signed a top-50 national recruit, following LaceDarius Dunn, Anthony Jones and Nolan Dennis.

The women, meanwhile, followed up last year’s signing of Griner (part of the top signing class in America) with the commitment of the nation’s No. 2 player this year, point guard Odyssey Sims. The nation’s top high school point guard, Sims averaged 18 points, 7 assists and nearly 6 steals a game last year as a junior and was named district MVP for the third year in a row.

Baylor basketball has seen tremendous success in recent years, with the women coming off six straight NCAA tournament appearances (including the 2005 national championship) and the men having made back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time in 20 years. Adding talents like these should keep the good times rolling in the Ferrell Center.

Sic ’em, Baylor basketball!

Nov

2009

Former Kazakhstan orphan thankful to be a Baylor freshman

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Student life

Angela Weber In 2002, Anzhela Anatolevna Tesluk was an 11-year-old orphan in Kazakhstan, with no family and no hope for the future. Today, following a series of obstacles that could have easily derailed her dreams and life, she’s a freshman at Baylor thankful for the opportunity she’s enjoying.

After her mother’s death seven years ago, Anzhela spent four years in an orphanage before being adopted by a North Carolina family. There, she adoped an American name — Angela Weber — but things never really worked with her adopted family, who she says struggled to accept who she was. Weber eventually was sent to the Texas Baptist Children’s Home in Round Rock and then to a Montana ranch for Russian adoptees before finally setting out on her own through a Job Corps training program. She earned her GED, and with help from a Round Rock family who took her in and a scholarship from the Children at Heart Foundation, she was able to enroll at Baylor this fall. (KWTX-TV relays her story in this video feature.)

A freshman majoring in international studies, Weber may one day return to Kazakhstan to help others who have the same needs she once did. For now, though, she’s happy to be right where she is — here at Baylor. “Every morning when I walk to class, I look up at all the beautiful buildings and thank God that I made it here,” she says.

Sic ’em, Angela!

Nov

2009

Baylor, Truett grad pastoring church near heart of Fort Hood tragedy

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Alumni

Dr. Randall Wallace Our thoughts and prayers remain with our neighbors at Fort Hood, 60 miles southeast of Waco, as they continue to deal with the tragic shooting that claimed 13 lives last Thursday. With the nation’s largest military base right outside their door, most every resident of nearby Killeen has some connection to the base where the killings occurred.

Dr. Randall Wallace, BA ‘84, D.Min ‘07, is pastor of First Baptist Killeen, where about a third of the congregation has direct ties to Fort Hood. The church was also home to a a multi-denominational service last Sunday night that brought together believers from across the city as well as leaders like Texas Governor Rick Perry.

“My church has civilian people who were in the room at the time [of the shooting], and they were spared bullets,” Wallace told CBS News. “Fort Hood has been a sanctuary to our families… What we said was, ‘You go to Iraq; we’ll take care of your family.’ The sad reality is that this now takes away one of our safe places.”

Wallace and other pastors in the area have a tough task ahead, answering all the “why” questions that follow an event like this. Wallace, at least, can speak from the place of one who has battled adversity in his own life, having overcome dyslexia to earn his degree in religious studies from Baylor in 1984, then a master’s at Southwestern Theological Seminary before completing his doctorate from Baylor’s Truett Seminary two years ago. He has served as pastor at FBC Killeen since 2000 and also is a member of the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ Executive Board.

Sic ’em, Pastor Wallace, for your service in time of need!

Nov

2009

Football and volleyball wins, plus Lady Bear’s dunk, highlight successful weekend

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Athletics

Nick Florence When your school can rake in a road conference win for football, a road win over a ranked opponent for volleyball, and the first of what’s sure to be many dunks for a freshman Lady Bear, I think it qualifies as an exciting Saturday.

Football made waves Saturday afternoon, as the Bears upset Missouri 40-32 in Columbia, thanks in large part to freshman quarterback Nick Florence’s program-record 427 yards passing (video highlights here from Baylor Athletics’ Facebook page). As you may remember, Florence (named Monday the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week) began the year as the Bears’ third-string QB; anyone who doubts the program’s talent level has improved should try to think back to the last time Baylor had such depth. Baylor needs to win two of its last three games to earn a bowl appearance; the Bears host Texas this Saturday (11 a.m., FSN), then play at Texas A&M next week before wrapping up the regular season Nov. 28 vs. Texas Tech at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington (tickets still available).

Not to be outmatched, the 20th-ranked Baylor volleyball team pulled out a tight match in College Station Saturday night, defeating No. 23 Texas A&M for the program’s first road win over a ranked opponent since 1999. The Bears are now 20-6 on the season (their most wins since ‘99) and poised to return to the NCAA Tournament later this month.

That same evening, in the No. 4-ranked Lady Bears’ exhibition against Incarnate Word, 6-8 freshman Brittney Griner put down an emphatic dunk (video highlights here) during a 25 point, 11 rebound, 5 block performance that earned a simple ESPN headline: “Griner dunks for Baylor.” She’ll need to repeat the performance in a regular season game to officially become the seventh woman to dunk at the college level, but the 6,262 fans in attendance for the exhibition were rewarded with seeing her first game-action dunk in a Baylor uniform. Given her abilities, there will be many, many more over the next four years — and that’s just one part of her overall game, as the Associated Press noted in this feature.

Sic ’em, Baylor athletics!