Back in the day, a young man named Brian Littrell planned to go to Cincinnati Christian University, then known by its previous name, to study music and youth ministry.
But then his cousin formed a band. They were called the Backstreet Boys.
Littrell didn't go to CCU. He got the rich-and-famous contract.
Now as a solo artist he's made the crossover, but in the opposite direction of most. He's in Christian music. And still claiming CCU as his would-have-been college of choice.
We tip the SWNID hat to Brian Littrell, CCU's most famous Un-Alumnus, wish him the best in his new endeavor, and thank him for the free publicity.
7 comments:
Additional Restoration Movement ties: Littrell was in a teen choir at the Southern Acres Christian Church and even dated a CCU alumnus who will remain nameless to protect her privacy [I swear, it wasn't my wife].
I've always heard that local boy George Clooney thought about attending CCU until he got an opportunity to move west and appear in a very special episode of The Facts of Life. And the rest, they say, is history. Wouldn't he be the more famous non-alum?
i heard CBC on klove the the littrell interview
If Littell is CCU's most famous un-alum, who is the most famous alum?
I would say Rich Mullins and CCU kicked him out for conduct unbecoming. Afterwards, he became.
For the record, Rich wasn't exactly "kicked out," certainly not for "conduct unbecoming." He just never finished a four-year degree. If he was not allowed to return, it was because of lack of satisfactory academic progress, and that would last only for a semester or a single academic year. But why stay in school when you don't really want to be there and have other opportunities? This is why 55% percent of American students who start college don't have a bachelor's degree six years later.
We personally recall Rich's attendance at a commencement where he was awarded an associate's degree. Without arduous checking of records, we'll stand by our imperfect memory.
We also claim with due pride to have been a Rich Mullin's side man. One year in Winds of Praise, the CCU concert band, Rich played tympani. We played clarinet. The results were historic, probably some of the finest music every played. Too bad no one recorded it.
We know that some Rich acolytes like to romanticize his conflicts with the administration at CCU in the 1970s. Being personally acquainted with faculty, administrators and students at the time, I draw the distinct conclusion, supported by the testimony of multiple sources, that the so-called clash between Rich and The Man were pretty pedestrian and uneventful.
So...just curious...was that a tympani/clarinet feature number?
SWNID:
"Conduct unbecoming" was meant in a general sense, not a specific (sexual) sense. Sorry for the confusion.
in the world of folk music where rehearsed knowledge of non-mainstream artists is the badge of pride, ccu has another former student making waves--mindy smith. her album is unbelievably good.
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