By Rebecca Renshaw

Sports statisticians are fascinated by streaks. For example, Joe DiMaggio’s 56- game hitting streak with the New York Yankees is often touted as the one baseball record that will never be broken.

So far, so good on that one.

Before Joltin’ Joe, however, there was another baseball record that the record-keepers swore would never be broken. That was the amazing accomplishment of Lou Gehrig (another Yankee), who played in 2,130 consecutive games between 1925 and 1939.

But Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles proved them wrong. He competed in 2,632 consecutive games over a 16-year span to eclipse the mark set by baseball’s “Iron Horse.”

At SIU, Tilden “Tim” Parks (a ’76 Saluki alumnus) has a little streak of his own going on.

In fact, Parks just might own the record for the longest streak in sports ever – by a fan, at least. Parks officially started keeping track of his Saluki sports attendance in 1978, and he’s proud to share that, to date, his unblemished attendance streak stands at 207 home football games and 519 men’s home basketball games. That’s no misses for 38 years. When this streak began, Jimmy Carter was president of our country – and gasoline sold for less than 85 cents a gallon.

“Believe me, there were a few times I didn’t think I was going to make it, with a couple of ice and snow storms we had throughout the years,” he said. “But I’ve always had a passion for sports, and for SIU.”

“One of my favorite memories was when the SIU football team won the Division 1-AA championship in 1983. That season, students took down the goalposts at McAndrew Stadium and carried them down Illinois Avenue.”

Over the last five decades, Parks has seen such greats as Joe Meriweather, Mike Glenn, Ashraf Amaya and Darren Brooks grace the basketball court at SIU Arena. In the SIU football stadium, he has witnessed such Saluki football legends as Brandon Jacobs, an NFL running back for the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers; Deji Karim, a running back who played for four NFL teams; Carl Mauck, a former NFL player and NFL coach; Bart Scott, an NFL linebacker; Sam Silas, a former NFL lineman; and Terry Lee Taylor, another former NFL player.

“I remember my dad bringing me to my first SIU basketball game back when I was in eighth grade,” he said. “From then on, I was hooked – on basketball, football and on SIU.”

Parks graduated from John A. Logan College in 1973, then transferred to SIU and graduated with a degree in journalism in 1976.

“The country was going through an interesting time during the 1970s, what with the Vietnam War and Kent State,” he said. “It was a great time to feel as if I was making a difference.”

It was Parks’ parents, especially his father, who encouraged him to go to school. As a first-generation student, Parks saw how hard his father worked. The senior Parks quit school in seventh grade at age 12 to go to work as a timber cutter. He also bought his first animal, a hog, for $15 when he was 12 years old. Park’s uncle was a cattle trader, which intrigued him, and he eventually became one of the most successful cattle brokers in Illinois. Like his father, Parks is extremely generous, philanthropic and quick to help people in need.

Parks recently established several memorial scholarships in honor of his parents. These scholarships are dedicated to helping student workers at Morris Library, the School of Journalism and Animal Science – and, of course, the Saluki Athletic Scholarship Fund.

So the next time you’re at a Saluki football or men’s basketball game, cup your hands and yell as loud as you can, “Are you here, Tim Parks?”

We know what the answer will be.

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Hannah K. Sweitzer’s photo of Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s iconic Paul and Virginia statue is the winner of the Student Center’s recent SIU ID Photo Contest.

Sweitzer, of South Wilmington, captured the fountain’s water dripping from the whimsical couple’s umbrella with stately Shryock Auditorium as a backdrop. The original statue was donated to the university by the Class of 1887 and moved to Stone Center after Old Main burned in 1969. A duplicate, cast in bronze, was placed back in the original location and it has stood there for nearly a half-century.

The class of 1965 decided in 2015 it wanted to make a lasting contribution to the university and led a fundraising effort to pay for a long-needed restoration of the bronze statue. Consideration was originally given to restoring and reinstalling the original statue but that wasn’t feasible. The 1970s bronze statue was refurbished by a sculptor and extensive renovation, tuck pointing and repairs of the fountain were undertaken. A recirculating pump and lighting were added.

The vast majority of the approximately $57,000 in funding for the two-fold project came from the Class of 1965 with support and labor provided by Plant and Service Operations, according to Brad Dillard, director of Plant and Service Operations. The project, completed on time and on budget, has enhanced the appearance and energy efficiency of the statue and fountain while preserving it for future Salukis to enjoy, officials said.

The project includes restoration of the Class of 1887 sculpture as well. A sculptor is currently working on that statue and it will return to Stone Center when the restoration is complete.

Sweitzer, a senior speech communication major, received a $100 University Bookstore gift certificate as her prize for submitting the winning photo. The Paul and Virginia statue photo will appear on all official campus ID cards issued after Jan. 17, 2017.

Students submitted nearly 150 scenic campus photos via Instagram or email for the competition.

By Rebecca Renshaw

If you talk to Dr. Kevin Dorsey for more than a few minutes, you’ll recognize that his life passion is reflected within the mission of SIU School of Medicine, which he led for 14 years. That mission is “to assist the people of central and southern Illinois in meeting their health care needs through education, patient care, research and service to the community.”

Dorsey, who has been with the school since the early 1970s, says it was founded to improve the health of central and southern Illinois residents.

“We recruit and admit students from those regions, educate them and hope that, after they complete their training, they will return back to central or southern Illinois because the people in those areas need physicians,” he says.

Dorsey’s other commitment is to total community health.

“I’m pretty passionate about community health and service,” he says. “It’s just not enough to create physicians to go back to our Illinois communities. We must get out into the community to improve poverty and education and housing. Social determinants of health are critically important.”

He says the new generation of doctors will make a difference.

“Our students are great,” he says. “They are more committed to social justice, they have a strong conscience and they want to do good in the world. We need to enable their success, which is why I decided to initiate the SIU School of Medicine ‘Alumni Class Challenge.’ ”

As his parting act as dean and provost of the School of Medicine, Dorsey issued an SIU School of Medicine “Alumni Class Challenge” in 2015. He challenged each class to collectively raise at least $25,000 to endow a scholarship in honor of their class. Matching grant funds totaling $500,000 would be available to double the gifts or pledges received by Dec. 31, 2015.

The result was a resounding success. Most notably, gifts in honor of Dorsey’s leadership established the J. Kevin Dorsey Endowed Scholarship. This is the School of Medicine’s largest endowed scholarship fund, and it will assist several students each year for generations to come.

The need for the scholarships might be a surprise to some, but not to Dorsey.

“One thing you must understand about our students is that, coming from central and southern Illinois, they are in the lower parental income brackets,” he says. “However, medical students across the nation tend to be from the top 20 percent in parental income.

“When you look at the average indebtedness of an SIU School of Medicine graduate, he or she comes out with an average accrual of roughly $180,000 in debt. That figure is significantly higher compared to other medical schools that can offer huge scholarships to students. The Alumni Class Challenge will help more students with more scholarships to assist them in their medical studies.”

Dorsey came to SIU School of Medicine as one of its founding faculty members, arriving with a Ph.D. in biochemistry and teaching the first two classes in the school’s history. Dorsey then became a student in the third class and obtained an M.D. degree from SIU. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in rheumatology at the University of Iowa before returning to southern Illinois to practice rheumatology.

“While I had obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin and a postdoctoral fellowship in cell biology at Johns Hopkins a few years before, I recognized that a career in bench research just wasn’t going to do it for me,” he says. “I wanted to directly and immediately make a difference in people’s lives.”

As the end of his tenure as dean and provost in December 2015, more than 2,600 medical students had graduated from the School of Medicine.

The school offers an M.D., a master’s degree and doctoral degree in various biomedical sciences, including a master’s degree for physician assistant students, as well as advanced training in clinical specialties (17 residencies and 13 fellowships). There also is a small number of SIU students each year who pursue combined degree programs in law and medicine, or in medicine and public health.

When asked what he wants his legacy to be, his answer is simple: “I tried to fulfill the mission.”

Reflecting on his parting gift as dean and how others could contribute, Dorsey says, “Whatever anyone can contribute – whether it is time, talent or resources – all of it is valuable and important.”