THE LAST BBQ OF THE CENTURY WAS A HIT
--Bruce Konners

12/25/1999

The 1999 Christmas Day Bar-b-que was a fabulous success as it lived up to its pre-event hype. A 30 year time span of Pilams were represented, led off by Stan Newmark, pc ’57. Doug Skoke, pc ’85, flew in for the event from Los Angeles, setting a new BBQ long distance record, eclipsing the mark held since last year by Doug Garfield, pc ’77.

Matt and Dana Adler did a great job getting the house ready. Matt’s entire street was blocked off. This came about do to a letter writing campaign led by Dana’s mother, Joanne. Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Gloria Katz attended the event and seemed pleased. With the street blocked off, the kids, and there were tons of them, were able to run all over the place. We had a bounce house and an obstacle course set up. The obstacle course was about 25 feet high, someone even said they could see it from Interstate 95, a few miles away!

There were several newcomers and surprises amongst the turnout this year, including Jeff Sloman, pc ’76, NBC ’78 and BSA ’79. “Slo” was in attendance with his wife, Pilam little sister Hayley Friedman. Hadley Englehard, ’85 Nosebowl quarterback, ’87 NBC and former Rex, also was a crowd favorite. Hadley, who flew in from Atlanta, was with his girlfriend. Hadley is fast becoming one of the nations elite sports agents. He recently signed Gators Jacquez Green and Willie Jackson.

Brad Ackerman, pc ‘81 and family arrived early. Brad was dressed pretty sharp, unlike his days at UF. Matt Adler asked if he was attending a polo match after the BBQ. Mark Bochner and family were there. Mark spent most of the party chasing his child. Who could ever imagine?

Jon Lieberman and his new wife, Andrea Brody of Channel 6 news, had a good time.

Barry Schinder, pc ’83, Marc Ginsburg, pc ’75, Steve Horwitz, pc ’76, Jeff Richman, pc ’77, Eric Stein, pc ’75, Dale Cohen, pc ’79, Kiki, pc ’79, Dave Fried, pc ’83, Marc Lowell, all of the Taylor brothers and Alan Pincus, both of pc ’80, were also there.

Of course, the usual BBQ suspects, who have made this event a classic, were in attendance, including Kop, Moke, Zuh, Steiner, Elkin, Band, Wechsler, Abish, Weinstein, Kahn and Schwartz. There were many others also, but I can’t recall everyone at this moment.

Danny Applebaum, who lives immediately next door to Matt, managed to come over for a few minutes.

Kenny Mayer, Tep’s star receiver in the 1984 Nosebowl, was there. As well as Steve Stolberg, who stayed for the entire party. The event was not without controversy, however. David Stolberg, former Chancellor of Tep, and currently my across the street neighbor and the business partner of Matt Adler, did not attend. Even though he received personal invitations from both of us, choosing instead to go to the Miami Seaquarium. We were puzzled as to the thought process in making this decision, but we believe it is consistent with his history. After all, how else do you explain his choice of Tep over Pilam? We suspect, though, the real decision was made by his wife, Amy, who seems to have an aversion to anything having to do with Pilam. This came about sometime in the early 1980s, during her tenure at UF.

In any case, we hope to see the Stolberg’s, as well as everyone else, at the first BBQ of the new millennium. Mark your calendars now, December 25, 2000, 11 a.m..  See you there!

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