Modified On March 20, 2005
From an AP story on Friday night’s Vermont victory over Syracuse in the NCAA playoffs:
WORCESTER, Mass. – He is the Shecky Green of the Green Mountains, a Catskills comedian temping as the Catamounts coach who already has taken Vermont farther in the NCAA tournament than it ever had gone before.
And now, Tom Brennan is one step away from the round of 16 and an even bigger audience for the off-beat, off-kilter, occasionally just awful anecdotes and one-liners that have made him one of the biggest stars in a state that normally shuns them.
We like to keep track of all the references to Greene in the media and the culture. Often people will ask us if the magazine is about Shecky Greene. We say, yes, and no. It is named after Greene only in that his name (his first name, really) has become a generic term, synonymous with one who likes to crack wise. And, in addition to pointing up yet another Shecky reference, this particular item has the additional benefit of tweaking our own Tommy James, whose beloved Orangemen fell victim to Greene, er… Brennan’s Vermont squad.
Note to AP: You spelled Shecky Greene’s last name wrong.