National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - Briefly in the NewsJune 17, 1996
Mom's degree a team effortWhen Kent State University softball player Angela Walter participates in graduation ceremonies in December, her mother, Cheryl Walter, will be at her side -- receiving her own degree. Angela, who recently completed her senior softball season, is scheduled to graduate in December with a degree in human movement. Mom Cheryl is expected to receive a degree in computer science/business organization at the same time. Cheryl, who has taken classes at Kent on a part-time basis for nine years, is motivated by Angela, who received honorable mention on the 1996 Mid-American Conference all-academic team with a 3.130 cumulative grade-point average. To help put herself through college, Cheryl has worked two jobs that average a total of 60 to 70 hours a week. Because of her hectic schedule, she doesn't have time to get professional tutoring in algebra, a course in which she admits she struggles. So, Cheryl turned to her daughter's friends for help. Angela's roommate, Lori Yhelka -- who has served as a graduate assistant for the Kent track team -- and Kent softball pitcher Jennie Allerding have served as tutors from time to time.
Captains collect shoesMore than 1,000 pairs of athletics shoes donated by U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen were distributed to the Annapolis, Maryland, homeless and disadvantaged recently through the city police department's community relations division. The shoes were collected by the Naval Academy Athletic Association and varsity team captains, who made the presentation to the community with Navy director of athletics Jack Lengyel. The project, originated by Lengyel, was coordinated by Brigade Operations Officer Dawn Corcoran with the assistance of captains of Navy's 29 intercollegiate athletics teams.
It's never too late ...Fifty-six years and 11 children later, Anne Harmon proved that it is never too late to complete your college degree. At 78, Harmon -- wife of Pat Harmon, the historian for the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame -- recently received a bachelor's degree in social studies from the College of Mount St. Joseph. Anne was 30 hours shy of completing her degree 56 years ago when she married Pat. The Harmons got busy having children -- 11 in all -- and Anne delayed finishing the degree. In 1994, she decided she had put it off long enough and enrolled at Mount St. Joseph. One of the first classes she took was English literature, where students were seated alphabetically. Anne was seated next to a young man by the name of Patrick Harmon -- one of her 20 grandchildren. When she earned three A's her first semester, Anne's children gathered around and gave her a quarter for each of those grades -- just as she had done for them many years before. Husband Pat, 80, told the College Football Association publication Sidelines that Anne was a very supportive wife during his 35 years as the sports editor of the Cincinnati Post and his 11 years with the Foundation and Hall of Fame. "She did all the work raising these kids, while I was trying to be a sportswriter, and now she's the champ. She earned it."
The University of Kentucky national-champion men's basketball team appeared at a developmental golf camp for young girls recently.
The camp was designed to promote interest in women's golf and to encourage early involvement in the sport.
Wildcat players emphasized that they started playing basketball at a very early age, but many of them had not started golf until the morning of the camp. The difference in their ability levels in the two sports was an obvious illustration of the need to begin participation in a sport at an early age.
Campers were told about the increasing number of scholarships available in women's sports for girls who prepare to compete at the collegiate level.
-- Compiled by Sally Huggins
Trinity University (Texas) has completed construction of a state-of-the-art track and field facility in the 3,000-seat E. M. Stevens Stadium at a cost of $550,000. The facility includes an eight-lane, 400-meter, all-weather polyurethane track; four long-jump/pole-vault runways and pits; a shot-put sector; a discus/hammer throw net and sector; a javelin runway and throwing sector; and an area for high-jump and steeplechase competition.
Texas Woman's University broke ground this spring on a $17 million academic facility, the Movement Science Complex, that will house intercollegiate athletics and the department of kinesiology. It is expected to be completed for fall 1997. The complex will contain 140,000 square feet on three floors and will have a multipurpose gymnasium -- featuring 1,800-seat bleachers that can be expanded to 2,700 seats -- that will be used as the competition arena for gymnastics, basketball, volleyball and recreational sports. The complex is being built where tennis courts previously were located, so new courts will replace the track on the east side of the campus next to the golf course. A new softball complex will be built adjacent to the new tennis courts.
The University of North Carolina, Charlotte, dedicated its newly completed Irwin Belk Track and Field Center in April. The $4 million facility has permanent seating for 4,000 with the possibility to add temporary seating to expand to 20,000 seats for large events/championships. The center has a 400-meter, eight-lane track with an infield that will feature an international-sized soccer field.
Westminster College (Missouri) will begin construction this summer on a field sports facility that will include athletics department offices and weight-training and locker rooms. The 11,400-square-foot building is expected to cost $910,000 and to be the first component of a larger field house or sports complex to be constructed after the college's capital campaign is concluded around 2001.
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