VMI Cadet. April 10, 1987

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VOLUME LXXVM Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, April 10,1987 NUMBER22
Krynski Wins
Silver Medal
by: Ernie
"The Hammer" Sacco
Thds year's National Cham-pionship
took place in Reno,
Nevada with VMI sending three
boxers. Unfortunately, because
of a nose injury to heavyweight
Jeff Barnes and 156 Iber Mike
Corson's eye injury only Ken
Krynski, at 180 lbs., was able to
compete. Ken, Class of 1989, in
his second year of boxing, took
the Silver Medal in a bout he
probably could have won.
Friday, April 3, Ken fought in
the semi-final bout against B.O.
Solu of California. Ken, a stand-up
boxer with good power, was
able to easily out box and out
punch his opponent who, after
the first round, seemed to be
looking for an easy way out to
win a clear decision. The other
180 lbs. semi had Steve Schafin
of Air Force Academy stop Joe
Salluzzo of Lock Haven in the
first round, knocking his tall op-ponent
down with body shots
and causing Salluzzo's corner to
stop it. Schafini .is a vicious
right hand puncher, strong and
aggressive, and had beaten Ken
on points in the New York show
last fall. Still Ken with his
superior boxing skill and foot
work had an excellent chance to
beat him, however, this wasn't
to be.
The finals on Saturday night
provided some excellent fights.
Dick Hoffman of Navy, who
beat Krynski in the Regional
finals last year at 172 lbs., took
his third National title in an
awesome display of punching
power. The first round of the 180
lb. final began well for Ken as
he boxed, moving in and out and
scoring with combinations tak-ing
the round. However, in
round two Keynski stopped his
movement and elected to punch
with his hard hitting opponent,
going against one of boxing's
oldest rules, never punch with a
puncher. Schafini began putting
his punches together and a right
hand caught Ken somewhat off
balance, putting him down for a
brief count. Ken, who was not
really hurt (he has a good chin
as he has taken many of my
right hand bombs in sparring),
nevertheless gave up his advan-tage
by staying flat footed and
punching, was caught again
late in the round. Schafini,
punching to the head and body,
continued his attack in the third
round and the referee stepped
in and stopped the bout because
of the 4th standing-eight count
against Ken. Ken wasn't really
hurt but collegiate rules state
that the recipient of four stand-ing
eights be deemed unfit to
continue. If Ken had kept up his
boxing and moving as he did in
the first round and he had prac-ticed
in sparring with me, he
may have pulled out the win. In
any case Ken fought an ex-cellent
fight and has two more
years to win his own National
Title, something I know he will
strive for and firmly believe he
will achieve.
Navy was the big winner at
Nationals winning the team title
with six champions. Includ-ing
Roger Stanton at 147
Steve Fernandez at 119, Dick
Huffman at 172, Tom "Packy"
Murphy at 190, who decisioned a
slug^sh yours truly in the
Regional finals, and Jeff
Barnes victim Mike Parillo who
scored an easy victory over a
hapless Air Force
Heavyweight. At 156 Tony Flet-cher
won the title in a good bout,
but Mike Corson would have
more than held his own with any
of the finalists at this weight.
They must wait until next year
and the team coming off his
year's strong showing can only
get better.
Biggs Lecture Overview
by: David A. Martin
Dr. Martin Blumenson,
author of several books about
General George S. Patton, Jr.,
visited VMI last Monday in
order to give a lecture in keep-ing
with the leadership and
command theme of the Biggs
Lectures thus far. Dr. Blumen-son
graduated from Bucknell
University with a Masters
Degree. He continued his
education at Harvard Universi-ty,
receiving his second
Masters. He later attended the
Army War College and several
other institutions. He taught at
The Citadel and the Merchant
Marine Academy. Dr. Blumen-son
served with Patton's head-quarters
in Luxembourg early
in 1945. Thus, he had the ap-propriate
background to give an
interesting and informative lec-ture
about leadership, using
Patton as a guide.
Dr. Blumenson drew upon his
latest work for his speech.
Patton-The Man Behind the
Legend: 1885-1945 offers an in-teresting
perspective of (j^n.
Patton. From both the book and
fifty-five minute lecture, one
learned that Patton lacked con-fidence
throughout his career
as a leader.
A very candid and lively
speaker. Dr. Blumenson said
that "leadership and General
Patton are synonomous." Pat-ton
gives a lesson to us all, for
he overcame dislexia. Blumen-son
masterfully used Patton's
disability and fine tuned it into
an excellent example of a pro-blem
we all face as potential
leaders: overcoming oiu* own
fears and problems. Anyone
can overcome their inhibitions
to excell, if the desire is great
enough.
Dr. Blumenson continued on
to say that ethics and leader-ship
have nothing to do with
each other. He showed his ex-pertise
on the field of leadership
by leaving General Patton and
drawing on an example from
Napoleon. Napoleon, said Dr.
Blumenson, was not always an
ethical individual, but yet,
became a great leader.
Dr. Blumenson gave high
praise to VMI, bringing to mind
the fact that General Patton at-tended
VMI to begin his
military career. Said Patton:
"VMI is the best thing that ever
happened to me." Blumenson
called it a thrill to be able to
study and live where Patton
did.
Again using Patton as a
model. Dr. Blumenson gave
three valuable leadership
traits: guts, imagination, and
objectivity. Discipline, defined
by Patton as "instant, cheerful,
unhesitating response" was
another trait also stressed
highly-motivation, spirit, and
savvy are then offshoots of
discipline.
Finally, Dr. Blumenson said
that we should live up to our
ideals and reach for the best (as
potential leaders). Patton, a
controversial leader, tried to
excel as best he could, a point
which the speaker wonderfully
illustrated. The parallel was
made, even if unknowingly, bet-ween
Patton and VMI cadets.
Dr. Blmnenson proved to be an
excellent choice for a speaker.
1987
Champaign
by:H. Craig Walker, Jr. '87
Recently, the Class of 1987
was presented with a challenge,
a challenge that could set a
precedent for future Annual
Giving nationwide.
In VMI's history, there have
only been three classes to
achieve 100% participation in
Annual Giving. The Class of '27
leads all classes by reaching
this percentage seven con-secutive
times. Followed by '35
and '36 with one time each.
The Class of 1987 hopes to join
the ranks of these classes, and
to also set a precedent for those
to follow. The Class of 1987
hopes to become not only the
youngest class in the history of
VMI to attain 100% participa-tion
in Annual Giving, but (ac-cording
to statistical informa-tion
in Washington, D.C.) also
the youngest class in the Na-tion.
The total goal for the class
is set at $1,987.
The Foundation represen-tative,
Greg Cavallaro '84,
presented the challenge to
(continued on page 7)
CORRECTION
The S.D.I, discussion referred to in our article of 27 March as
avoiding controversy was the privately supported program
given in the fall. The 1986 S.D.I. Symposium did present sharp
debate on the issues.
New Staff Takes Over!
Inside:
Aids Commentary Page 3
Sugar Ray Page 4
Big Weekend Preview Page 6