Ivy League grad publishes book for his late father
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Needham-based writer and educator Matt Robinson has long had a “thing” for mascots. “I will never forget going to the Brown-Harvard football games as a kid with my father,” Robinson recalls. “The game was never all that great, but I was captivated by the bear!” For many years, Robinson dreamed of following his father to Brown and becoming the Ivy League University’s mascot. After graduating high school, Robinson ended up following another path, but the love of the Brown Bear and other mascots stuck with him - so much so that, when it came time for the 20-year journalist to write his first book, the choice of topic was easy! “I had seen books in which one of the BIG 10, PAC-12 or SEC mascots take you on tours of their campuses,” Robinson recalls, “but I had never seen anything like that for the Ivy League. As I went to Penn, my wife to Dartmouth, and my dad to Brown, I already had familiarity with these schools, so I decided to write the book that I could not find.” The result is Lions, Tigers, and…Bulldogs?: An unofficial guide to the legend and lore of the Ivy League (Fighting Quaker). In this book, Robinson presents stories and legends about the League, including how the schools were selected, how the name came to be, etc. The book then visits each of the “Ancient Eight” campuses and offers fun facts about their notable faculties, graduates, and traditions. Though the idea for the book had been in his mind for many years, Robinson had always put it aside when a new writing assignment came across the transom. However, when his father was diagnosed with dementia in 2015, Robinson made a vow to the man who had introduced him to the Ivy League in the first place. Robinson’s book is available at www.lionstigersbulldogs.com, where alumni can also share stories of their own. “It was a labor of love,” Robinson says, “and a lot of fun!”
Rosh Hashanah/Fall 2019
