National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - Briefly in the NewsJune 10, 1996
He's in tune -- on and off fieldRecords keep Lawrence Johnson of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, busy these days -- both in the recording studio and on the athletics field. The Tennessee senior set the U.S. record in the pole vault with a vault of 19 feet, 71/2 inches in May and followed that performance by capturing first place in the pole vault last week at the 75th annual Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. When he isn't thinking about pole vaulting, he is composing music and writing lyrics for Soja, a Knoxville-based pop group. "The lyrics I write and songs I compose are more mellow, easygoing," Johnson told USA Today. "I have a contrast, I guess, to the energized version of myself on the track." Johnson taught himself to pole vault and to play the piano. As a student at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, Virginia, Johnson turned to pole vaulting because the track and field team had a surplus of hurdlers. He studied videos of world record-holder Sergei Bubka. As for music, Johnson learned to listen to a composition and then sit down and figure it out on the piano without benefit of a score. At Tennessee two years ago, Johnson was a promising decathlete who made a breakthrough in the vault by clearing 19-11/2. But injuries soon followed -- an encounter with a pole vault standard that damaged tendons in his foot late in his sophomore season and then a series of hamstring and quadriceps pulls last year. The injuries gave Johnson time to compose -- and to think. He decided to drop his idea of leaving college and competing professionally on the European circuit. "It would have been premature," he said. "Knowing now what I didn't know then, to think I would have been able to handle it was very immature." For now, Johnson has his sights set on an Olympic gold medal in Atlanta. And composing music for Soja, which is making some demos.
MAC honors mediaThe Mid-American Conference celebrated its 50th anniversary last month by inducting nine charter members of the newly formed MAC Media Hall of Fame. The inductees combined have spent nearly three centuries covering MAC athletics. More than 1,200 people, as well as 200 MAC greats who returned for the two-day celebration, attended the induction of radio and print personalities. The inductees are: * Dave Carr, who provided play-by-play coverage of Bowling Green State University football and basketball on WFOB Radio for 30 years. * Harry DeVault, an assistant sports editor of the Record-Courier in Ravenna, Ohio, for many years who recently completed his 32nd year of covering Kent State University athletics. * John Fountain, play-by-play voice of Eastern Michigan University football and basketball for 30 years. * Jerry Keil, the voice of University of Toledo athletics for three decades through 1994 and currently an announcer for the MAC radio network. * Ron LeMasters, sports editor of the Muncie (Indiana) Star, who has covered Ball State University sports for 32 years. * Morry Mannies, sports director at WLBC Radio in Muncie, who recently completed his 40th year as the play-by-play voice of Ball State football and basketball. * Jack Moss, sports editor of the Kalamazoo Gazette, who began covering Western Michigan University athletics in 1948 and still covers basketball on a regular basis. * Persh Rohrer, who as a young reporter at the Athens (Ohio) Messenger covered the first MAC football game ever played -- between Ohio University and Case Western Reserve University. He spent most of his 47-year career at the Record-Courier in Ravenna covering Kent athletics. * Dick Schorr, who recently completed his 30th year as the lead announcer of Ohio games on the Bobcat network.
Buckeyes on the roadThe Ohio State University men's basketball team is part of a contingent of 35 Ohio State representatives visiting South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda this month to explore educational partnerships and the exchange of ideas with developing universities there. The basketball team will be one part of the educational and administrative team accompanying Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee (an NCAA Presidents Commission member) and other administrators -- including assistant vice-president and athletics director Ferdinand A. "Andy" Geiger and educators from the agricultural, nursing, law, business and humanities communities. The groups will visit the two branches of the University of Natal and the University of Zululand. Head coach Randy Ayers and his team will visit South Africa and Zimbabwe, while Gee's group will visit South Africa and Uganda. The basketball team will play exhibition games and conduct clinics at Wynberg Military Base at Cape Town, at Natal and at Johannesburg during the two-week trip. The clinics, some specialized for coaches and advanced players but most of which are developmental for the children, are expected to be especially important and well-received because the Ohio State players and coaches will be going into the homelands, to places like Soweto, to conduct them. Ohio State's executive vice-president, David Williams, said the tour grew out of a visit by a university delegation to South Africa in 1994. "Subsequently we have had a number of people go back and forth," Williams said. "The University of Natal has sent some people over here, and now it is time to really start exploring, implementing and exchanging educational ideas. That's why President Gee is going along." The basketball team was allowed 10 practice days beginning May 28 in preparation for the trip. The contingent will include Ayers and five players. -- Compiled by Sally Huggins
Answers to the following questions appeared in May issues of The NCAA News. How many can you answer?
1. Which team posted a championships-record score in winning this year's National Collegiate Women's Gymnastics Championships? (a) University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; (b) University of California, Los Angeles; (c) University of Georgia; (d) University of Utah.
2. Which sports were represented by this year's winners of the Walter Byers Scholarships? (a) men's basketball and women's lacrosse; (b) football and women's golf; (c) baseball and women's basketball; (d) men's ice hockey and women's volleyball.
3. True or false: Under program changes approved recently by the NCAA Executive Committee, the pool of student-athletes who will be eligible for the student assistance fund will grow from about 37,000 to about 61,000 (depending on the number of student-athletes receiving financial aid who also can demonstrate financial need)
4. What school has won more than half (16) of the 27 National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championships that have been contested? (a) University of California, Los Angeles; (b) University of Hawaii, Manoa; (c) Pennsylvania State University; (d) Lewis University.
5. Which two Division I-A conferences will be represented by one individual on the Division I Board of Directors in the restructured Association? (a) Big Ten and Big 12 Conferences; (b) Big West and Mid-American Conferences; (c) Pacific-10 and Big West Conferences; (d) Big East and Mid-American Conferences.
6. Which country will host the Haka Bowl, a postseason football game pitting the third-place finisher in the Pacific-10 Conference against an at-large opponent? (a) Australia; (b) Japan; (c) New Zealand; (d) United States.
7. True or false: The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) currently has a membership of fewer than 200 institutions.
8. What school has the most players on the all-time College World Series team that recently was selected? (a) Oklahoma State University; (b) University of Texas at Austin; (c) University of Southern California; (d) California State University, Fullerton.
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