Story by Medal of Distinction Award Recipient - Rick Cluff '74
Submitted on 18 June 2010
Rick Cluff '74 Speaks to Graduating Students
Rick received his Medal of Distinction at the 2010 Faculty of Arts and Social Science convocation and addressed the graduates. The Huron University College Medal of Distinction was established to recognize individuals whose life achievements set an example of excellence and reflect Huron's arts and social science mission. Such achievements include noteworthy contributions to scholarship, to public service, to Huron University College, or to the local community. Previous recipients include Neil Hetherington, Joan Barfoot, and Jane Roy.
Thank you for the invitation to be here today; and thank you for your courage in handing a microphone to a broadcaster and saying, "Speak about whatever you want."
I am delighted to be with you today. I'm humbled - and I'm curious. Why me? If you had been at Huron while I was here and found out that I would be the gold medal graduate speaker 36 years later, you would probably be surprised - some people would be angry. Let's just say I was not the best student... nor was I the worst. I was average - the poster boy for "B's get - okay C's, get degrees."
I know there are many more deserving candidates...but since they're not here, and I am - what the heck.
I had the pleasure of meeting some of you prior to this afternoon's ceremony and as I looked into your eyes I saw a familiar reflection - I saw the faces of my classmates in 1974 when it was our turn.
During that last week before graduation, I remember walking through the Great Hall (which is my favourite place in the College) and wondering what was I going to do. Asking myself where would I be in say - 10 years. Would I be happy? Would I be wealthy? Would I be wise? (I guess one out of three isn't bad...I'm pretty happy.)
1974 - long before most of you were born. Back when a box of beer cost less than ten bucks, apple was just a fruit and telephones still had dials. I wasn't the first to ask those questions and I knew I wouldn't be the last. Many of you have asked yourselves those questions and are still looking for answers.
Well, I'm here today to tell you that uncertainty you feel - that doubt - never really goes away. The question is, how do you manage the uncertainty.
If I may - allow me to share a bit of my personal story - my uncertainty.
It might have been decades ago, but I still remember when I had to leave the protective embrace of these walls.
Armed with a freshly minted degree in Political Science, I thought about studying law...but soon realized the world didn't need another lawyer. And more importantly, I wasn't about to enlist for another three years.
I considered the priesthood...but had too many questions and too little time to repent for past sins. The Bishop was not amused. That didn't go anywhere.
I left here with little idea of what I wanted to do, full of uncertainty and self-doubt.
Oh, I had a job. I took a shot at business and began with the best of intentions. I was hired by Bell Canada as a management trainee, but soon realized I was the one who needed to be managed. That job lasted five months. It was their suggestion I leave.
The great playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote:
"A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."So my life to that point had been, at the very least, honourable! I had been doing something... even if it wasn't what my Mother had hoped. It wasn't what I wanted to do, either.
Unemployed but undeterred I pressed on. But to do what?
My father had worked in the entertainment business most of his life. Back in the 1930's he had his own radio program. He was a band singer and broadcast a daily 15-minute show of music and chat. When the Second World War broke out, he and his band enlisted and were part of the Air Force Show. In the 60's, when I was growing up, he was a music producer and mentor to young entertainers - kids (he used to call them) - like Gordon Lightfoot.
As I was thinking about my future and worried about what I should do, I could hear his voice in the back of my head saying, "If I can give you any advice, don't go into radio. There's no future in it. And for goodness sake, steer clear of the CBC."
During my years in school I had dabbled in radio, beginning in campus radio and then with part-time jobs in small commercial stations where I did everything from sweep the floors to playing Lawrence Welk records. It was fun but was it a career?
Unlike my Dad, I had an advantage...this place!!!
My time at Huron had prepared me for almost anything. It had given me a solid foundation upon which to build and I took that knowledge - combined with my interest in media - and decided to head back to school for a degree in journalism.
When I graduated I knew almost immediately I had discovered my career. I was a journalist, a paid observer in a field that is seen by the general public as being ranked just below 'used car salesman' and just above 'politician.'
But I have no regrets. My life's path has taken me on an adventure that wasn't planned - but followed. I followed my heart and if you do that you will never go wrong.
I have enjoyed wonderful opportunities and have seen and done things I could only dream about when I was your age.
I have met Kings and Princes. I have interviewed Presidents and Prime Ministers. I have crossed between East and West Germany when there was a Berlin Wall and I have stood at the border, looking across the DMZ between North and South Korea.
I have enjoyed cocktails with Her Majesty, conversed with Muhammad Ali and have Don Cherry's personal cell phone number. I gave Michael Buble his first air play and have had the privilege to cover some of the greatest athletes in the world. I have been to eight Olympic Games and this year was honoured to carry the Olympic Torch. I am a member of the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame and I have piloted the Goodyear Blimp!
And through it all I remembered Huron, and have been thankful for this place a thousand times over because none of it would have been possible had it not been for the time I spent here.
In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't listen to my Father - and I know he would be too.
Some of you will be surprised by what I am about to say.
A Liberal Arts degree trains you for nothing... but prepares you for everything.
Research suggests your generation will be a transient work force. You will have a variety of career opportunities and a number of different employers. Gone are the days of lengthy careers and the golden watch for 25 years of service.
You will forced to adapt. Encouraged to experience new things, and you will continue to learn. And "yup" - some of you might even be fired.
There will be great joy in your life. There will be sadness. There will be triumph and there will be disappointment. You will make mistakes and some people will call them failures. But you will also enjoy great success and 'YES', the uncertainty will continue.
You've spent some wonderful years at Huron. It's been your home, your security blanket, your clubhouse, your family, and now you're leaving.
How successful you are will depend in large part on what you have accomplished here.
Let me quote from one of my favourite writers - and I hope one of yours - Dr. Seuss, who said:
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go."
The degree you earn today is not an automatic passport to success. It tells the world you are intelligent and have the capacity to learn... and it should give you more confidence as you go on to face your uncertainty.
You are the lucky ones. You are graduating from the best liberal arts university college in the country. A college recognized around the world for its quality of education and its legacy of graduates - many of whom have made enormous contributions to society. Today you join that group and are now - and will forever be - a member of the Huron family.
Look around you.
Some of the people here today you might never see again - appreciate them.
The life you lived within these walls is gone but will never be forgotten - be grateful for it.
And look to your family - your parents in particular - and say "Thank You"... for everything.
However before we say "So Long" I want you to do something for me.
For the past ten years Dr. Ramona Lumpkin has guided our college as our Principal. Sadly, this is her last convocation - she's leaving us in September. I ask you, the Class of 2010, to please show Dr. Lumpkin your appreciation and wish her well as she goes on to pursue other challenges.
Let me close with a quote from Mark Twain.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."Don't be sad it's over - be grateful it happened. Don't fear the uncertainty - manage it. And never stop learning!
Well done Class of 2010!
God Bless You.
2010 MEDAL OF DISTINCTION AWARD RECIPIENT - Rick Cluff
Rick Cluff has been the host of CBC Radio's popular morning show, "The Early Edition", since September of 1997. Prior to that, Rick's voice was well-known as an award-winning sports commentator and journalist. He has appeared as a host, reporter or commentator on a number of different CBC Radio and Television programs.
Leaving sports to return to news and current affairs was actually a return to his roots for Rick. He began his career with CBC Radio in 1976, as a reporter/editor in the national radio newsroom. Two years later he moved to the national sports department for what was supposed to be a "temporary" assignment. That temporary assignment lasted 20 years, during which time Rick traveled the world reporting on the accomplishments of Canadian athletes at home and abroad.
He has always been a student of the political process which served him well during his years covering amateur sports, especially the Olympics Games. Rick has reported on eight Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games, the Masters, Canadian, British and U.S. Open golf championships, the Superbowl, Grey Cup and Stanley Cup championships, as well as many individual sports world championships from the South Pacific to the Arctic Circle. In 2000, Rick was made a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Rick has a degree in Political Science from Huron University College and a degree in Journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa.