Austin College Women’s Water Polo qualified for the NCAA Division 3 National Championship tournament by winning the College Water Polo Association (CWPA) title last week. Pomona Pitzer (CA) is the #1 seed and will host the tournament in California. The #2 seeded Roos will face #3 seed Whittier College (CA) on Saturday, May 7th.
Whittier College is the alma mater of former President Richard Nixon, whose presidency ended abruptly in the wake of scandal. Nixon’s firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” received such blowback that the President was forced to replace him. Nixon probably hoped his replacement, Texan Leon Jaworski, would more pliable. He was wrong.
Jaworski picked up where Cox left off in 1974, and subpoenaed White House recordings on behalf of the prosecution. Nixon resisted, and the case eventually reached the Supreme Court. SCOTUS ruled for Jaworski in U.S. v. Nixon, arguing that a President’s desire for secrecy did not extend to potential criminality. The tapes revealed criminal conspiracy, which led to the President’s resignation.
Less than one year after Nixon’s departure, Leon Jaworski delivered the 1975 commencement address at Austin College. At the time of the Jaworski graduation speech in Sherman, Nixon was back home in California preparing for interviews which would later become the subject of the movie Frost/Nixon. Those interviews took place not far from Whittier College. Nixon, a former Whittier athlete, spent his final days in California. Jaworski did the same in Texas.
Hey, today is the May 4th Anniversary of Kent State. Go get ’em in California AC Women’s Water Polo! Tin soldiers and Nixon’s alma mater’s coming. Hit the water(gate), dig deep(throat), fire those shots like a smoking gun, and bring home a national championship for Austin College.
