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'BLO IT RIGHT BY 'EM: Breaking Ground On the Internet

4. TRENT EDWARDS

Trent Edwards, Stanford’s starting quarterback in his sophomore season—he red-shirted as a freshman—joins our all-star team after taking No. 1 USC to the brink of defeat (31-28) a week ago. Coincidentally, Edwards formed one-half of a lethal Edwards-to-Edwards combination with The Crimson’s star wideout Brian Edwards in high school in Los Gatos, Calif.

And while he’ll actually face off against Powers-Neal and Stovall in South Bend this week, he is their online brother, and will exchange pleasantries with them at some point on Saturday.

That’s the way thefacebook.com works.

5. JOSH CHILDRESS

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Arguably the athletic crown jewel of thefacebook.com’s vast social network, Childress ran the infamous “ignore play” on my friendship invitation, leaving it pending in purgatory till this day.

But besides being an apparent jerk, the former Stanford Cardinal was selected sixth overall in the 2004 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks after a stellar junior campaign, and resembles an afro’d Scottie Pippen.

Understandably, many of you may be wondering if this is the real Josh Childress. Well, I argue that it is. Other Stanford basketball team members Justin Davis, Jason Haas and Matt Haryasz are also on thefacebook.com. And, sources tell me, Childress has one Harvard friend—the Crimson’s own David Giovacchini, whose brother Tony played ball for the Cardinal.

If this isn’t enough, consider that in an effort to confirm his identity, I sent the following message to Childress, who surely checks the site in between buying new cars and houses:

“Hi Josh, I’m from The Harvard Crimson. I just noticed that you were on thefacebook.com. One question: given your status as a prominent athlete in America, has there been any one motivating reason for you to register with this website?”

The response?

Nothing.

Bottom line: poke Josh Childress.

All right, so maybe I haven’t yet sated your rabid fandom. Maybe you expected more. Michael Jordan, after all, has not yet signed up with his North Carolina alumni e-mail account.

But you have to admit that things are coming full circle. Consider this: the first telecast sporting event ever was an Ancient Eight baseball game between Princeton and Columbia in May of 1939.

Where else but an Ivy League school would the next big step in the media of fan-athlete interaction be born?

That was rhetorical.

—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu. His column appears on alternate Fridays.

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