This is so damn sweet.

Everybody happy today? We just did what i thought we could do - put the smack-down on Duke. I sent the following in an email to all the starters on MSU the night before the Duke game :


Hey guys -

Ever wonder who The Spartans of Greece really were? I read the historical novel "The Gates of Fire" recently which tells of their most famous battle where 300 select Spartan Warriors took on an attacking Persian army of over 2 million in 480 AD.

Some quotes:

"Wherever the fighting is bloodiest, you may expect to discover The Spartans in the forefront. Remember, in warfare practice of arms counts for little. Courage tells all."

"Brothers, I'm not a king or a general. I've never held rank beyond that of a platoon commander. So I say to you now only what I would say to my own men, knowing the fear that stands unspoken in each heart - not of death, but worse, of faltering or failing, of somehow proving unworthy in this, the ultimate hour. Here is what you do, friends. Forget country. Forget king.
Forget wife and children and freedom. Forget every concept, however noble, that you imagine you fight for here today. Act for this alone: for the man who stands at your shoulder. He is everything, and everything is contained within him."

"What will they learn of us? Their shovels will unearth neither brilliant palaces nor temples; their picks will prise forth no everlasting architecture or art. What will remain of the Spartans? Not monuments of marble or bronze, but this, what we do here today."

SpartyOn!