VEXED ABOUT ‘VOLLYBALL’

By Joel Wass

Editor-in-Chief

Crawling in a hole to die would have been a drastic measure, but I’ve never been so close to actually acting on that clich?. Seriously, who forgets the ‘e’ in volleyball?

The man who arrogantly runs his head shot in this paper every week, that’s who. And where did he forget said vowel? The cover, that’s where.

For you first-time readers (although you didn’t need to read our paper to see the glaring error; you just had to glance at the front page), the word volleyball was spelled ‘vollyball’ on the cover of 8,000 copies of The Eyeopener last week-in 20-point font, no less. I’ve been repeatedly told not to dwell on the error – I’ve also been repeatedly called a bonehead – but not dwelling on things is harder for me than, say, spelling words correctly.

Of course, if you are reading this right now, the spelling error era has mercifully ended (assuming it hasn’t happened again) and a new edition is now on display in Ryerson’s hallways. Embarrassment over, right? Wrong. Just one floor above the aesthetically altered first floor of the library lie the Ryerson Archives.

While many students struggle to stay awake during Ryerson history classes, the people working in the archives (Claude and Shirley, both of whom are among the nicest of the nice) proudly preserve Ryerson’s history.

Among the many documents collected are past copies of the Ryerson newspapers? – apparently there is more than one on campus. While the ‘vollygate’ scandal and myself are destined to live in the archives in infamy, many live there in, uh…famy?

Among the most famous is Ryerson sports Hall of Famer Joe Dell’Aquila (and what do you know, he’s highlighted in this week’s feature story).

Thirty years ago, Dell’Aquila (boy did I need help spelling that one) dominated the Canadian amateur wrestling world like no other at Ryerson before or since. Back when every show on television could have been referred to as ‘that ’70s show,’ Dell’Aquila was a national champion and an Olympian in his sport.

His accolades would have dropped from the Ryerson radar quicker than the word ‘Polytechnic’ following the demise of Ryerson’s wrestling team in 1988, but thanks to the archives, the Ryerson sports legend (a rare breed if there ever was one) lives on in a collection of clippings.

So if you get a spare minute or two, or twenty, I highly recommend visiting the Ryerson Archives. Even if reading old newspapers isn’t your thing, you can always look at old minutes from past academic council meetings.

OK that was a weak sales pitch, but trust me, there is some interesting stuff up there.

Alright, that’s it, I’m done ranting about the archives and my inability to spell well (that’s right, those who can’t spell, rhyme). Now please, go read the rest of our – error-free, I’m sure – papr.