There still aren’t that many desis on the field in U.S. sports. However, that hasn’t stopped us from being an important part of the game. We’ve mentioned young Paraag Marathe in the 49ers front office. Over the weekend Sunil Gulati was elected the head of U.S. Soccer:
U.S. Soccer’s membership elected long-time U.S. Soccer executive Sunil Gulati as president of the U.S. Soccer Federation by unanimous consent on Saturday at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Gulati succeeds Dr. S. Robert Contiguglia, stepping down after two successful four-year terms. Gulati, who ran unopposed in the election, has served as U.S. Soccer’s vice president since 2000.
“I am honored to serve our membership in this capacity and look forward to helping to continue to guide our sport through the most prosperous period in our history,” said Gulati. “Across the past decade, a platform for this sport has been built that did not previously exist, and we now have an opportunity in the coming years to achieve more for soccer in the United States than anyone could have ever envisioned 15 or 10 or even five years ago.” [Link]
Gulati has spent many years in the trenches, including in the front office of the New England Revolution. It is no fluke that he was elected to this position.
Gulati, a native of Allahabad, India, has played a major role in the development of U.S. Soccer since the early 1980’s and is currently U.S. Soccer’s Executive Vice President. Previously, amongst a number of roles, Gulati has served as Managing Director of National Teams, Chairman of the International Games Committee, Chairman of the Technical Committee and Managing Director of U.S. Soccer’s Project 2010. [Link]
In addition to his soccer job, Gulati is also a professor in the Economics Department at Columbia University. I happened upon a website where students get to rate their professors. This is what they have to say about Gulati:
# Ratings: 5
Average Easiness: 1.8
Average Helpfulness: 4.2
Average Clarity: 4.6
Hotness Total: 0
Overall Quality: 4.4
Also check out our frequent commenter Kush Tandon’s picture. These two must be long lost brothers 🙂
I am seeing double
fixed.
Like a typical desi, Paraag has inserted himself in the front office rather than the playing field. However, there was a part-desi guy who actually played for the 49ers in the Nineties. His name was Sanjay Beach, born of an African American father and Indian mother from Jamaica. Kinda’ like Tiger Woods with an Indian rather than Filipino twist.
Sanjay, our only desi football player, had the dubious distinction of playing the most Kamikaze and hence, undesi position, in football, that of a kick returner. Too bad his parents didn’t urge him to become a quarterback, or at least a doctor. For those of you who have remained football-free so far, kick returner is the guy who waits in the backfield for the ball kicked by the opposing team (when the opposing team is handing back the ball), catches the ball and then runs into enemy territory with an utter disregard for life and limb. If he is unlucky, he gets mauled within a few yards of his run. If he is lucky, he gets mauled after 10 or 20 yards. Once in a great, great while, he hits the motherlode and is able to run all the way to the enemy’s end zone completely unmolested. That’s a touchdown! Let’s raise our beers to Sanjay Beach, the first and perhaps the last desi kick-returner.
I thought Mr. Bean was my lost brother too.
Kush — I guess that makes you Mr Bean’s “evil twin”. Sort of like The Anti-Bean 😉
Front office of the Niners? Looking at the current state of the Niners, that’s not something to brag about, desi representation or not.
MM, word of advice. I’ve banned people from this site for lesser offenses than dissing my 9ers. 🙂
Abhi, Are you going to be all angry when your favorite NFL team uses their first draft choice to pick AJ Hawk from your favorite college team?
How’s that first round pick from last year doing – Alex Smith 🙂
Hawk will get picked up before the 9ers pick. I actually like the NFL better than college football (opposite of most) so I can forgive the fact that Hawk is a Buckeye.
9ers have the pick no.6. You are probably right about Hawk going in the first 5 picks though. He smoked the combine and then surpassed that performance at the the Buckeye pro day.
I actually like the NFL better than college football (opposite of most)
You are probably in the minority. I think a lot of the NFL players are over paid whiners. I generally support the Colts but dont really care that much about the NFL. I still watch it anyway as I have too much time 🙂
“….Kinda’ like Tiger Woods with an Indian rather than Filipino twist”
Tiger Woods is actually part Thai (though I remember reading somewhere that his parents are now divorced.) His mother, Kultida, is as Thai as you can get.
I had Gulati as a prof undergrad at Columbia back in the day, the man is hilarious. The ratings for him were way off, he is funny, brilliant, and a really nice guy.
There was a recent desi backup QB for Michigan State last name Patel, and a desi OL playing for Oregon State who might have actually hit the field, but I’m not sure of that or his name.
I’m very happy to report that based on the recently concluded Spring practice sessions in Columbia, SC, Gurminder Thind (6’4 290lbs) born in Mississauga, Ontario to practicing Sikh immigrants from India has locked down the starting LT for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. A desi will be protecting the blindside of Steve Spurrier’s signal callers in ’06.
Is any of the Sepia Muntiny bloggers gone start a post about the Super Bowl which is in 25 hours as of right now.