For those who have not read this in today's Tennessean, I wanted to share it with you.

Aaron W. Todd: Basketball at MTSU: Relive the glory
By AARON W. TODD

Having taught at MTSU for 40 years, it goes without saying that I have a special feeling for the students at a university campus. I always felt supporting athletics was just another way to be involved with our students.

Recently, I was diagnosed with aggressive, incurable brain cancer. The median life expectancy, assuming aggressive treatment, is 12 months. I am going to fight like crazy against this disease, but at the same time, I am thinking about what unfinished business I might attend to in my remaining time.

This is where you the reader comes in. At least one more time, I wish to see Murphy Center filled with fans from around Middle Tennessee like it was back during the 1970s.

Thirty years have passed since the men's basketball attendance record of 11,600 was set at Murphy Center against Austin Peay in 1974. With the help of Athletic Director Boots Donnelly and Bill Lansden, associate director of fund raising and marketing, we have initiated ''Operation: Full House'' to smash that record at 7 p.m. Thursday against arch-rival Western Kentucky.

You might not be a fan of MTSU athletics, and that is OK. We won't have Dick Vitale or any of those big network people in attendance. But you will be supporting a good state university, which educates many of your neighbors in Middle Tennessee, and my guess is that you would probably have a good time for very little cost.

I taught chemistry at MTSU and occasionally had students question why they had to study something they felt was irrelevant like Shakespeare. I would tell them in the bigger picture of life, one can never be completely sure what was important. Just dive in, give it your best effort, and somewhere down the road, it might make sense.

Over the past three decades, MTSU has had some great basketball players, including Sleepy Taylor, Jimmy Martin, Jerry Beck, Rick Campbell and Tim Cisneros. I remember when MTSU played and beat UT and Georgia in back-to-back games in the NIT Tournament.

I'll never forget the games MTSU had with Austin Peay when Fly Williams was playing. Those games were as entertaining as any college basketball game in the country. The size and enthusiasm of the crowd were a major reason those games were great.

You can help by getting every person you can to attend the game