BOWLING GREEN — It was the kind of dream day that Derek van der Merwe never could have imagined.
And we’re not talking about the impossibly perfect October weather, though that was pretty nice, too.
No, we mean van der Merwe’s introduction Tuesday as the 15th athletic director at Bowling Green State University.
It all once would have seemed as foreign as the land in which he came of age.
Van der Merwe was born in South Africa, where his father was a pastor who fought against Apartheid, his mother a missionary. He was raised with love and music, and became an expert violinist.