Podcast Companion – “Sean Tufts and Buffs4Life”

CU at the Game Podcast, Episode 1: “The First Days of the Karl Dorrell Era at CU”, can be found here. The Companion to that Podcast, “CU Coaching Changeovers” with links to stories on the firings and hirings of CU football coaches over the past 40 years, can be found here.

CU at the Game Podcast, Episode 2: “Interview with Rick George”, can be found here. The Companion to that Podcast, “The Guy Who Wrote the Letter“, can be found here.

… The CU at the Game Podcast is now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play and other fine podcast distribution sites. Please feel free to subscribe (and leave a good rating!) wherever you like to download your favorite podcasts!

Buffs4Life

The mission statement for the Buffs4Life organization is straightforward: “We provide a support system that ensures  
That NO University of Colorado Athlete Alumni shall suffer alone”.

Since 2005, the Buffs4Life Foundation has been dedicated to honoring the memory of Anthony Weatherspoon “Spoon”, a former CU Boulder student athlete, through a legacy of giving, partnership and support to former University of Colorado athletes and their families.

Linked by a thriving partnership between the Buffs4Life Foundation, former CU Boulder student-athletes, like Anthony Weatherspoon, and supporters like you, we are building a unique support system for the present while promoting a promising bridge to the future.

The Buffs4Life Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, focuses our outreach in these primary areas:

  • The annual Buffs4Life Family Weekend: Supports former athletes in need while promoting generational ties between former student-athletes and the community.
  • CU Alumni: Our support and partnership with all University of Colorado alumni to reinforce our network of giving.

Buffs4Life weekend

As we speak, the Buffs4Life fund-raising weekend, June 28th-29th, is on. Here is an email President Sean Tufts sent out on April 3rd:

Dear Buffs4Life Family,
As an update to our email from March 18, we are still hopeful that our 2020 Buffs4Life Family Weekend will take place as scheduled (June 28 & 29). Based on the new federal guidelines just released, we feel like we will have a firm decision by the end of this month.
We just wanted to take this time to say Thank You for your continued support. In these uncertain times, one thing has not changed, and that is the need to support each other…Buffs Supporting Buffs! Because of your kindness and generosity, we have the ability to continue providing services and resources to Buffs in need. 
In addition to financial assistance, we strive to help in other ways. Many resources are available, such as the Buffs4Life Crisis Line (CLICK HERE). Whether you can help financially, or by providing a resource during these difficult times, know that every bit helps.
It’s been such an honor to see how Buffs have come together to help each other. We look forward to continuing to support our Buffs4Life Family.
As we continue to monitor and follow guidelines put in place by the CDC as it pertains to COVID-19, we will send an updates as they become available.
Buffs Are One!
Sean Tufts
President

If you are interested in participating in the golf tournament/fun run weekend, donating to Buffs4Life, or just finding out more information about the organization, the Buffs4Life website can be found here.

62-36!

In our interview, Sean and talked about the 2001 Nebraska game, a 62-36 victory which is a highlight for many Buff fans (and the demarcation line of the beginning of the end of the Nebraska dynasty for Cornhusker fans).

The game story, “No. 14 Colorado 62, No. 2 Nebraska“, from the CU at the Game Archives can be found here.

Here are some highlight videos …

Sean’s tackle of Nebraska Cornhusker quarterback Eric Crouch on the first play from scrimmage comes at the :25 second mark of this video …

Here is a highlight video of the 2001 season. The same Tufts’ tackle can be seen from a different angle, below (at the 26:45 mark of the video), and you can see why Sean was worried that the officials might have called a face mask penalty on the play. “If you watch it now, you see that I spin around a couple of times after tackling him. Well, I grabbed his face mask. I stuck my hand in, right at his collar … so my celebration was kind of muted, because I was looking for flags.”

Sean is also interviewed in this video, talking about the third quarter rally by the Cornhuskers (interview starting around the 31:45 mark).

Big 12 Championship

This just in … Sean Tufts (like the rest of us) developed a healthy dislike for Texas. So winning the Pac-12 championship, in what was basically a road game against the Longhorns (game played in Dallas), was sweet … “That (Texas) team was stacked, from a talent perspective. A lot of that team went onto to the NFL … It was a David and Goliath scenario …”.

The game story for No. 9 Colorado 39, No. 3 Texas 37, can be found here.

Here are the YouTube highlights from the game:

Donald Strickland’s fourth down stop takes down Kansas State

Sean mentioned having a healthy respect for Kansas State while he was at Colorado. One game he mentioned in particular was the 2002 game in Boulder, a 35-31 upset win over the 13th-ranked Wildcats.

Two of the big plays of the game were a 94-yard pass completion from quarterback Robert Hodge to Jeremy Bloom, which stood as the longest pass play in CU history until the 2019 Nebraska game (see below), along with a fourth-down stop inside the CU five yard line by defensive back Donald Strickland.

Both plays can be seen here …

And just for fun … 

The 94-yard touchdown pass from Hodge to Bloom stood as CU’s longest play from scrimmage for 17 years, until Steven Montez and K.D. Nixon did Hodge and Bloom two yards better …

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