Good for him - nice story ending. I do remember Ron as a very good running back and if I recall correctly he had some nice spin moves.

I love this and, yes, I remember Ron Austin well from watching him electrify Aggie fans at The Toom. Congratulations to him!

I saw a story on the national news last night about an 88 year old woman in Maine who just got to go through the 2025 Maine graduation ceremony to be given her degree that she had actually completed in 1959. She was prohibited from going through the graduation ceremony in 1959 because she and her husband had just found out that she was pregnant and pregnant women were not allowed to go through the graduation ceremonies. Thank God for the women's rights movement for eventually getting these kinds of misogynistic rules put behind us.

So how is it that you thought you had a degree but didn’t? As i recall there was paperwork to fill out to walk.

This story sounds more accurate. Left school to pursue opportunity in CFL, so didn’t finish probably needed another quarter.
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-student-graduates-after-more-47-years

I would think that your parents would have told you that making negative comments on an otherwise very uplifting human story means that you were being a bad person and should not do it. Maybe no dessert and early to bed. Hey, this guy was an Aggie legend. I am so sad to see these silly comments coming about how he “should have seen the documents to get his degree” or “he left for the CFL early” hey guys this guy was a legend Aggie and do not dis him in any way.

What is negative about saying a guy, after he used up his eligibility left to see if he could play professionally?

I guess we are opting in.

Per Team Aggie Insider news letter:

A note from Athletic Director Rocko DeLuca

With graduation just around the corner, we are sending off our seniors into the world and already looking forward to the fall. As we plan for the continued growth of UC Davis Athletics, I want to provide some updates to you, our valued stakeholders. As you may have seen in the news, the House v. NCAA settlement has been approved and will bring significant changes to the structure of college athletics. While much of the national conversation is centered on high-revenue programs, I want to take a moment to share what this means for UC Davis—and how we’ve been preparing.

After thoughtful review, we plan to opt in to the revenue-sharing model beginning with the 2026–27 academic year. This timeline gives us the opportunity to continue building the financial and operational foundation necessary to deliver a system that reflects our values and long-term aspirations.

While the settlement sets an initial national cap of $20.5 million per institution, that figure is based on commercial revenue models that don’t align with programs at our level of competition. Our focus is on developing a sustainable plan that allows us to support student-athletes in a way that’s consistent with peer institutions in the West—particularly as we look toward future competition in the Mountain West. The extent to which we can do this will depend on growing our base of support and continuing the work already underway:

Restructuring our annual fund to drive broader, long-term philanthropic engagement and increased investment in NIL.

Expanding sport-specific and unrestricted giving through targeted campaigns and storytelling.

Creating new ticket programs focused on expanding our group of season ticket holders and driving attendance from the community.

Identifying new coaching and program endowments to strengthen stability and competitiveness.

Investing in student-athlete services through IGNITE and additional life skills, academic, and career development resources.

Enhancing our NIL strategy to increase clarity, community support, and third-party opportunities for student-athletes.

In addition, student-athletes will continue to participate in third-party NIL agreements with businesses and organizations, supported by a new national clearinghouse for transparency and oversight. This remains a vital area of opportunity, and we’ll continue to help our student-athletes develop the skills and relationships needed for meaningful and lasting success.

These are significant changes, but we’re not starting from scratch. We’ve taken proactive steps to prepare, and with your continued support, I’m confident we will navigate this transition in a way that upholds our mission and strengthens the student-athlete experience. We will be communicating more around our annual fund efforts later this summer but please do not hesitate to reach out directly to me or Chief Development Officer, Liz Gullett, emartinatucdavisdotedu, with any questions about what I have outlined above.

Thank you for all you do. We look forward to raising the bar for UC Davis Athletics and upholding Aggie Pride—together.

With gratitude and Go Ags!

-Rocko

He used about every possible way to say "we'll be looking for more money from more people." Fundraising-speak uses lots of fluff to say very little.

If this is so do-able, why only now implement it ? Like they can just snap their fingers + there's more money. Did they previously turn away some donors whom they will now contact? Dear strategic partner, we have enough money, so we don't need yours (maybe later).

“ I would think that your parents would have told you that making negative comments on an otherwise very uplifting human story means that you were being a bad person and should not do it.”

How dare you make any comment about my parents. You are either losing it or need a hobby.

How has this group devolved in to insults, either toward sac state, or eachother. This group is wearing me down to the point I don't get much enjoyment out of it lately. Grow up.

Oh, give me a break. Insults directed at Sac State are traditions that are at least twice as old as you. You're just now getting upset ? And don't give me any nonsense about how you thought the users of this message board were an elevated group who were above it.

This is a random free message board on the internet anybody can join. Scan the list of members. Take out the advertising bots, and more than half the people never or almost never post. The bar isn't set very high; we might as well be posting on yahoo. Yahoo article comments are much more fiery than this site ever gets. If the administrators here want to totally restrict who joins , what they say, and how they say it, they should close down this site and open a private Facebook group (free). In that way the exclusive kids club can truly exist in 2025.

69Aggie and Agalum just had a misunderstanding. It happens when all you have to go on is text and no good clues to a person's intent.

Agalum asked a fair question: how do you leave school merely assuming you have a degree ? The background info from Riveraggie hadn't been shared yet, so that's legitimate. Students, especially student-athletes, need to be checking with their academic advisors frequently; the most important time when graduation is approaching.

I didn't see any judgment on Agalum's part. I see the limitation of text playing a role in 69Aggie's assessment that it was intended as snark and therefore deserving of a scolding. And if I thought some internet rando were invoking my parents to do so I'd have some choice words too, probably much nastier words.

I have noticed a recent trend of declining civility (and posts rivaling PhD dissertation lengths), and I wonder if it is correlated with last years winning season and quite a few new board posters and changing board dynamics. I sure hope things don’t end up like the self-immolating EGriz board Montana has. Perhaps things will calm down when the season starts and we can all focus on the season. The wait 24 hour rule might be helpful in some instances.

That's a good point. Pre-season angst.. But it is entertaining!

As far as daily participation AST is near the top of the BSC, right up there with UM and MSU. A ways behind egriz as far as number of active posters. After UM, MSU and UCD....its a huge drop-off. Lately Sac has closed some of the gap.
AST is by far the most civil forum I've experienced, though.

Admin. has been 99.9% hands-off......we hope it remains this way. And I'm sure it will.

I've been a member of AST since the early days when it began. We are, for the most part by far, a very considerate and friendly Aggie fan forum and I hope it stays that way and grows in popularity and participation. I think it's good for the Aggie fan base to have a supportive fan forum where fans can discuss Aggie Athletics.

I read the Sac forum because I'm interested in what's happening with our long time rival but I would never join and post over there. Some of their members get nasty with each other regularly and call each other out. Our forum administrators would not allow that kind of stuff here and I'm 100% in support of that.

Insults directed at Sac State are a tradition that are at least twice as old as you. — yolohw

How old do you think I am? Anyway, thanks for reinforcing my point. Also, for what it's worth, although the forum is free to join, some of us chip in once a year for this paid service. So, free to join, but not free.

Well, the sac bee thinks that the Ron Austin story is worthy of a frontpage story. See today’s issue. Very positive. And I don’t have to say the Bee does not like saying nice things about UC Davis.so this is very nice for Ron Austin. Someone please cut and paste the Bee story as I am not able to do it.

I think when someone starts a reply with ‘give me a break’ followed by 5 paragraphs telling you your opinion is wrong kind of illustrates your point.

Sac State was founded in 1947 (78 years ago), so if Sac State nastiness is twice as old as you then dividing by two would get you 39. So I think you are no older than 39. If you are older than that you're welcome for the low estimate.

Donating to keep the board is voluntary. I took that into account when I said it was free.

Considering that for the most part only Sailorgabe and I have written any original posts of considerable length in the most popular threads lately (because we actually had a lot to say to each other about the topic), and he is not participating in this most recent string, I'm going to assume you are talking about me with your dissertation comment.

You know what ? I have to explain everything in great detail or someone will get horribly offended. Unfortunately they do anyway because well, limitations of text you see. I also have a lot to say. I know that's a big shift from the usual trend of 2-3 sentence posts and copied internet articles that usually are regarded as sage's wisdom around here.
I also don't care. If people can't handle long posts the admins should put in character limits.

Seriously, any of you all ( not directed specifically at you, NCagalum) who have a problem with the way I post or what I post just go ahead and report me to your precious admins. I'm not changing what I do just to placate the old guard.