Question: What do these guys have in common?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Occidental College
1

<p>Answer: Occidental Football</p>

<p>Jack Kemp, Jim Mora (both Class of 1957) and Vance Mueller '86 all played football at Occidental. Our college is a 1600-student liberal arts institution located in northeast Los Angeles.</p>

<p>Kemp as a professional player, Congressman, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and 1996 Vice Presidential Candidate...
Mora as Oxy's head coach from 1964-66, a college and professional assistant coach, head coach of the USFL-champion Philadelphia and Baltimore Stars, and from 1986 to 1996, head coach of the NFL's New Orleans Saints, and now the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts...
Mueller as a fourth-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Raiders in 1986 and for six years a solid contributor to his club's offensive unit and special teams...
Now, for another quick quiz...</p>

<p>Their names may not be household words, but that doesn't diminish our pride in former Occidental Football players Curt Page, Jon Finstuen and Louis Hook. Like Kemp, Mora and Mueller, these graduates have parlayed Oxy's special blend of athletics and academics into postgraduate careers as diverse as the Tiger playbook.</p>

<p>Page, a 1989 magna cum laude honor student who is a graduate of Harvard Medical School, says, "For a young person faced with the prospect of attending college, it's critical to consider life after graduation. If you're an athlete, it's especially important to think about the types of attitudes and skills you'll need to excel in life. Occidental provides an excellent environment for developing creative and insightful academic thinking. On the football field, working hard every day with a group of motivated and intelligent guys makes for an experience you will never, ever forget."</p>

<p>Finstuen, a 1985 grad, survived two cuts at the 1986 L.A. Rams training camp before earning his M.A. at Stanford in 1987. "Football at Oxy is as intense as the school's
classroom experience," he says.</p>

<p>Hook, a 1980 graduate who received his M.B.A. from Harvard in 1984, says that the best aspect of Occidental Football "wasn't the high glamour you find at big schools, it was interpersonal things like teamwork and friendships."</p>

2

<p>8-year-old Ben Affleck met his future partner in crime, Matt Damon, who lived a few blocks away in Cambridge. The two had more than little league in common; they both also wanted to become actors. </p>

<p>Affleck and Damon attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School while taking drama lessons, and auditioning and answering casting calls while studying. </p>

<p>The bosom buddies parted ways when Damon went to prestigious Harvard, and Affleck attended the Occidental College Eagle Rock, where he studied Middle Eastern studies. Affleck never made it as far as graduation.</p>

3

<p>Barack Obama Upon finishing high school, Obama went on to study at Occidental College, then later Columbia University in New York City, majoring in political science. After graduation, he moved to Chicago and took up community organizing. He left Chicago briefly to study law at Harvard University, where he became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.</p>

4

<p>“If you’re a scientist or are thinking about medicine, the professors at Occidental will not only give you a rigorous education, they’ll give you the support you need. You really get something special there.”</p>

<p>-Cullen Taniguchi ’98, Rhodes Scholar, M.D./Ph.D. student, Harvard University
Our science students pick Occidental for several reasons: a rigorous liberal arts education, close interaction between students and faculty, and superb research opportunities. Our faculty has been nationally recognized for combining top quality research with exceptional teaching. We are in the top 10 percent of private undergraduate institutions whose alumni receive doctorates in the sciences. Our students consistently fare well in competitions for fellowships and scholarships and go on to attend some of the top graduate schools in science and medicine.</p>