Howard and Beverlee Schnellenberger will serve as
ambassadors at large for Florida Atlantic University. Photo by Thom Smith
By Thom Smith
“You gon’ retire?” former University of Kentucky quarterback Bob Hardy asked his old teammate Howard Schnellenberger.
“Just changing jobs,” the old tight end answered.
After more than half a century in the game, with Super Bowl titles as a Miami Dolphins assistant and a national title at University of Miami, he retires from his job as the first head football coach at Florida Atlantic University with the knowledge that his was always a class act. That will continue as he and wife, Beverlee, assume new duties as FAU’s ambassadors at large.
Yet for Schnellenberger, 2011 had to be a year of mixed emotions. His football team won only one game. But the school did build a grand football stadium (Let’s call it “Howard’s House”). His counsel was not sought during Athletic Director Craig Angelos’ search for his successor — former Nebraska defensive coordinator Carl Pelini.
If Howard was hurt, he masked it at the final coaches’ breakfast in the stadium the day before the final game. The crowd was the largest ever for a breakfast, but some who had been involved in the initial effort to bring Howard to Boca were angry that they, too, were ignored.
FAU President Mary Jane Saunders only met Pelini a week before the appointment was announced. She did say an advisory group vetted the final decision. “There was an awful lot positive and no negatives,” she said.
Scuttlebutt back in Lincoln, Neb., however, is mixed. Social media is rife with Carl lovers and Carl haters. Time will tell, but the new coach obviously has done his homework — “I want this university; I wanted this job” — to the extent that he even correctly pronounced Boca Ra-TONE.
Schnellenberger met briefly with Pelini as he moved boxes from his old office: “I told him very directly I was not going to help him in coaching, that I would not second guess him in any way … that my loyalty is to the university and to him and don’t ever come to me for advice, because I refuse to give advice to head coaches. As ambassador-at-large, I intend to support his football program and him personally.”
At the end of the breakfast, Schnellenberger thanked fans, friends, administrators, players and, finally, Beverlee. He expects to spend more time walking with her on the beach in front of their Ocean Ridge home.
“I guess I’ll have to get rid of my old football shoes,” he said, “… and get some beach shoes.”
But Howard can keep his coaching shoes at least until Jan. 21 when he leads the south team into FAU’s stadium for the first Battle of Florida, the first collegiate all-star game featuring players only from Florida. His opposite? None other than ex-FSU Coach Bobby Bowden. The weeklong festival is sponsored by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission and includes a beach tug-of-war with NFL cheerleaders, a bowling tournament, and a Gin Blossoms concert at Mizner Park Amphitheatre. Game tickets range from $15-$60. (www.thebattleofflorida.com)
If you want art and culture, Palm Beach and West Palm Beach aren’t quite up to snuff. Judging from the 2012 Muse Awards, recently announced by the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, southern Palm Beach County is the place to be. The year’s top art or cultural program was the Morikami’s Bon Festival. The Boca Raton Museum of Art was named the top arts and cultural organization with a budget more than $500,000, and the Palm Beach Poetry Festival at Delray’s Old School Square (coming Jan. 16-21) was the best under $500,000.
Artist and educator Steve Backhus, outreach program manager for the Milagro Center in Delray Beach, whose “unique and tailored programs teach young people how to discover their individual creativity and reach their highest potential,” was named the outstanding arts educator, while FAU art professor Carol Prusa was honored with the Herbert Ubertalli Award for Visual Arts. So there!
For tickets ($300) to the Muse Awards gala dinner and show Feb. 9 at the Kravis Center, call 472-3340.
You’ve seen them on the big screen, but now the Boca Museum of Art offers you the chance to see them big — up close and really personal — with Martin Schoeller: Close Up. The Munich-born photographer, who once served as an assistant to Annie Leibovitz, has perfected the art of the extreme close-up. If you thought Jack Nicholson was terrifying in The Shining, catch Schoeller’s portrait … or the graying Robert De Niro, the beautifully craggy Judi Dench, the globular Magic Johnson, the baggy Henry Kissinger.
The show runs Jan. 18 to March 18 in tandem with a collection by Italian photographer Patrizia Zelano. Its title: Natura Morta (Still Life).
On Jan. 28, the tried and true George Snow Scholarship Fund will kick off its 30th anniversary with its 19th Caribbean Cowboy Ball at Red Reef Park on Boca Raton beach. Party starts at 6 p.m. It is not black tie. Tickets ($150) help provide the more than $4 million in scholarships awarded since the fund was established. In 2010, the fund supported 74 students with more than $400,000 in aid. 347-6799.
Sebastian
At the Delray Beach Public Library, things aren’t always quiet. It has made noise; it has no choice. The library, founded in 1913 by a women’s club, is not supported by taxes. Its mission is supported by donations, grants and an active fundraising program, one of which is coming up Feb. 3 and can be quite loud. That’s because Laugh with the Library, Chapter 6, at the Delray Beach Marriott, is a night of comedy, cocktails and supper by the bite. Last year’s event raised more than $40,000 for programs and materials for children.
Headlining this year is Sebastian; WPEC Channel 12 news anchor Suzanne Boyd will emcee. For tickets ($150), call 266-0775.
On the horizon:
Jazz, Bossa & Blues is/are back on Wednesday nights at The Bridge Hotel beginning Jan. 11 with the Beatriz Malnic Quartet. Of special note: Tito Puente Jr. on Feb. 29.
Copeland Davis returns to his collegiate roots at FAU with Byron Stripling on Jan. 15 to headline the Florida Sunshine Pops show.
Speaking at FAU’s Alan B. Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency: former Secretary of State and U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright, at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Carole and Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium. $35. (800-564-9539).
Like the Energizer Bunny, Henrietta de Hoernle just keeps going … and going … and going …
The Countess, as she is best known, may have turned 99 in September, but she’s hardly slowing down.
Just about any building in Boca that doesn’t have Mizner in its name bears a de Hoernle tag. Scads of charities, schools and community organizations have been affected by the philanthropy of Henrietta and her late husband since they arrived in 1981.
The latest gift was to HomeSafe, a countywide program that provides shelter and assistance to victims of child abuse and domestic violence.
De Hoernle’s $100,000 grant will provide support for two fill-time residential cottages for abused and abandoned young boys at HomeSafe’s Boca campus.
Thom Smith is a freelance writer. Find him at thomsmith@ymail.com
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