The NCAA News - Briefly in the News

September 23, 1996

• Storm blows excursion away
• Game tickets for reading
• Facilities

Storm blows excursion away

Head coach Karen Fetsko and her players anticipated meeting unfamiliar opponents on the trip -- first in Fayetteville against Fayetteville State University and then in Raleigh against St. Augustine's College.

As it turned out, the only opponent that the Lady Vulcans actually faced originated in the tropics and was known as Hurricane Fran.

When the team left home September 5, reports were that Fran would hit land somewhere in South Carolina, most likely near Myrtle Beach. The Vulcans were about two hours outside of Fayetteville when the rains began.

Deciding that it would be wise to stop and find out exactly where the storm was, the team was told at a truck stop that Fran had come ashore in Georgia. The Lady Vulcans decided to press on.

"We got another 40 minutes into our trip down to Fayetteville when all of a sudden it got so nasty outside we couldn't continue," Fetsko said. The storm actually had come ashore near the North and South Carolina border and was rapidly tracking north to northwest.

The team first stopped in Wilson, North Carolina, where they saw a motel. The motel was full and the managers were not feeling accommodating, the coach said.

While Fetsko was in the hotel seeking shelter, the team members were waiting outside in the vans in the midst of the hurricane.

"We were scared," junior Dena Morrow said. "We were just sitting there in the vans watching this dog running around the parking lot and wondering what was going to happen to it."

Moving on down the road, the team quickly stopped again because of gale-force winds and rain.

"It was raining so hard," assistant coach Georgette Crawford said. "Every hotel we stopped at we saw the parking lots completely full and no-vacancy signs on the doors."

The Lady Vulcans found the Wilson fire department, where the firemen led them to a Red Cross shelter. At the shelter, team members had to fill out emergency sheets listing names, phone numbers and next of kin -- just in case.

After 10 long hours in the van, the team was very tired and hungry. At that point, the shelter provided emergency rations -- two cans of potato chips and three one-liter bottles of soda for the nearly 300 people there.

The night proved long. At 1:30 a.m., police told those in the shelter that cars were turning over in the parking lot, and at 2 a.m., the shelter lost power.

Early Friday, the Lady Vulcans abandoned their volleyball plans and set out for home, accompanied by Fran. As it traveled, the team could see the damage Fran had wrought.

"It was crazy. It was complete devastation," Morrow said. "There were trees, telephone poles and flooding everywhere. It (Wilson) looked like a ghost town."

The team reached Fredericksburg, Virginia, before seeking shelter again, as the backside of the hurricane was generating reports of tornadoes in the area. The Lady Vulcans finally made it back home around 5:30 Saturday evening.

Game tickets for reading

In conjunction with Champion International and the Miami Journal-News, Miami is sponsoring the "Champion"-ship Reading Program, which involves elementary school students throughout the Miami area.

The rules are simple. Each month, students are challenged by their principals to read a certain number of books. At the end of the month, children who have read the required number receive a coupon good for two free admissions to a Miami football or basketball game.

By December 20, the student from each of the school districts who has read the most books will receive the grand prize: tickets to the Miami-Kent State University basketball game February 1 for the student and that student's family and school principal, plus recognition at half time and a $500 check for the school library fund.

-- Compiled by Sally Huggins

Facilities

The University of Wisconsin, Madison, has begun construction of a $72 million on-campus multipurpose facility -- the Kohl Center -- that will serve as the new home for Badger men's and women's basketball as well as concerts, state high-school events, commencements and other special events. It is scheduled to open in January 1998. The building also is designed to accommodate the Badger ice hockey program. The facility is named for U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin, a 1956 Wisconsin graduate who donated $25 million toward the building's construction. The Kohl Center will seat 16,500 for basketball and 11,000 for hockey.

By fall 1997, Wittenberg University anticipates having one of the finest outdoor tennis facilities anywhere in Ohio and among Division III institutions, thanks to a $1 million gift from graduate Georgiana Albright. The gift is in memory of Albright's late husband, David Albright, who was chair of the Wittenberg board of directors for six years. Both Albrights graduated from Wittenberg in 1940. David Albright died in 1994. The facility will be named the David B. and Georgiana S. Albright Tennis Complex and will include 12 lighted courts featuring a Dynaflex surface, two sunken courts and space for seating. The 12 courts -- double the number at the current facility -- will allow Wittenberg to host conference and national tournaments.

Construction is underway at the University of Louisville on 45,000-seat Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. The stadium is being built on a 100-acre site adjacent to the south end of the Louisville campus that previously was occupied by a railroad yard. The Cardinals plan to open their 1998 football season in the new facility, which also will accommodate soccer, concerts and a variety of other events. More than 4,000 fans pledged nearly $15 million for lifetime seating rights in the initial phase of the stadium fund-raising effort in May 1993.