It was 30+ years ago and I flew from Phoenix to Ontario, California for a Conference in Orange County.

It had been a terrific conference, and once over, as I headed back to Phoenix, I was boarding the plane (I had flown Southwest where it was general seating), and was just settling in, when a gentleman in his mid-30s was just getting seated with his family.

I greeted him, only to be verbally attacked for no justifiable reason, which left me an opening I immediately seized upon.

I noticed his SMU class ring, and asked him, “SMU? Great school!” He beamed towards me, taking great pride in his educational accomplishment.

(Keep in mind that until recently then, SMU had a legendary football team that brought back both its starting players and its starting lawyers every year.

In other words, the SMU football program was so absolutely filthy rotten to its core through its ongoing, repeated, chronic, and recurring program violations, resulting in it becoming the first-ever (and to this day ONLY) Division I NCAA school to receive the ‘death penalty’ in which all its 1987 games were canceled.

All 1988 games were also canceled because of the lack of ability to field sufficient experienced players on the field; that, and a host of other restrictions that went with it. The damage and the accompanying STIGMA from that remained with SMU, and took twenty (20) years to overcome.

Getting back to my cranky, snide fellow passenger across the aisle who had been nasty with me until I mentioned SMU before beaming, I replied, “Gee, with belligerent, seething hostilities coming from the likes of you, if you’re anything the likes of what SMU cranks out, it’s easy to understand WHY they got the death penalty!!”

He tried to get out of his seat. In telling him nicely to not even think about it, I advised him I was a United States Marine, and that it would not look good for his family to see him leave the aircraft in cuffs and chains; that he’d be best advised to sit down, buckle up, and look eyes front for the duration of the flight, which he did.

Some people — like that nosewipe — are simply born jerks.

We never saw each other again. ***