Ron Daniel This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Lexington Herald-Leader | 03/13/2005 | Faraway fan goes extra mile to tune in UK

   www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldlea - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/13/2005   Last Visited: 3/13/2005

   Kentucky fan Ron Daniel has seemingly been everywhere and done everything to keep informed about his beloved Wildcats.
   
   As a member of the United States Agency for International Development, he's helped improve agricultural production in such countries as Tanzania, Zaire, Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Haiti and, presently, Egypt.
   
   His means of keeping up with the Cats is about as varied.
   
   Daniel has listened to games on short-wave radio. Or, when necessary, read week-old accounts in the International Herald Tribune. He's gotten videotapes from his family in Kentucky. He's reserved a hotel room in the only place in town with a satellite feed.
   
   During a power outage in Haiti, he watched games in a hotel ("until they ran me off for being a disturbance") because it had alternative power and a dedicated satellite feed. Plan B was to impose on friends who had electricity in their part of town.
   
   Daniel was back in the United States for Kentucky's play in this year's Southeastern Conference Tournament and today's Selection Sunday. He'll watch both from ex-Cat Kevin Grevey's restaurant in suburban Washington D.C.
   
   Daniel, a native of Elizabethtown, may not have enjoyed any game more than UK's Mardi Gras Miracle at LSU in 1994.
   
   He had been living in Petionville, Haiti, for more than a year. There was sporadic electricity because of the U.S. embargo. "There was some little tiff over President Jean-Bertrand Aristide being deposed by the military," he said.
   ...
   Daniel, who earned an undergrad degree in Agriculture from Murray State in 1978 and a Master's in Agriculture Economics from Auburn in 1980, had a brush with basketball celebrity while in Zaire.
   
   "I played a lot of pickup and organized league basketball with and against some of the players on the Zairian national team," he said. "They introduced me to Dikembe Mutombo as a great defensive player with no offense."
   
   The U.S. Embassy called and asked Daniel to help the University of Maine recruit Mutombo.
   
   "I invited Deke over to my house to watch a UK game and mentioned the pitch from the University of Maine," Daniel said. "Deke said he wouldn't mind getting some basketball shoes from them, if they could deliver, but that he was planning to go to Georgetown University."
   
   Within three weeks, Mutombo was off to the United States to join the Georgetown team.
   
   "The headline in the local Zairian paper read, 'Zairian Treasure Stolen,' " Daniel said.
   
   Daniel will return to Cairo the week before the Final Four. After two more months in Egypt, he's scheduled to be re-assigned to Washington D.C., where he will be the Senegal Desk Officer.
   
   He can retire in November, but he hopes to return to Africa from time to time over the next few years to help with agricultural issues.
   
   Meanwhile, Daniel has never attended a UK game in Rupp Arena. Given his background, that might be a most mundane experience.