The NCAA News - Briefly in the News

March 24, 1997

It's a Friday night. A brother and sister are throwing the first party of the season in their college apartment. Alcohol flows freely and spirits rise.

A fight breaks out, the police arrest someone, and people who don't know each other wake up in the same bed the next morning.

Although it sounds like a bad movie, it is an all-too-common occurrence at college campuses around the country. It also is a scene that Athletes for Sexual Responsibility (ASR) at the University of Maine, Orono, is trying to stamp out.

The scene occurs in "The Party," a 20-minute video written and directed by Maine student-athletes. The video features the party scene, but it also shows the next morning and the after effects of the bash.

Interspersed among scenes of the party are group shots of the members of ASR with Sandra L. Caron, the group's founder and director and an associate professor of family relations at Maine. She urges viewers to think about the scene, what it shows and what the characters could have done differently to avoid some of the problems.

"I always understood that drinking can have an impact on our behavior and our relationships," said Todd Williamson, a Maine football player and one of the ASR's student coordinators, "but the process of producing this video made me look at this issue from a different point of view and really showed me how big that impact can be."

Caron founded ASR in January 1990, and it has become one of the most successful peer-education groups of its kind. ASR has produced other videos on rape awareness and making responsible sexual decisions; in addition, Caron has made hundreds of public presentations on matters relating to sexual responsibility.

The ASR consists of 20 student-athletes, each of whom usually participates in the activity for one year. "They're willing to go above and beyond," Caron said.

Those interested in more information may reach Caron at 207/581-3138 or by writing Athletes for Sexual Responsibility, University of Maine, 5749 Merrill Hall, Room 12, Orono, Maine 04469-5749.

Gift to keep on giving

Much of the publicity directed at the Brown University athletics program recently has been of the controversial nature, mostly having to do with a Title IX lawsuit that has been appealed to the United States Supreme Court.

However, some good news recently came Brown's way with the announcement that Brown trustee Elizabeth Chace and her husband, Malcolm G. Chace III, plan to endow the head women's basketball coaching position with a $1.4 million gift to the university. Elizabeth Chace also is president of the Friends of Brown Women's Basketball.

The Chaces also said they would name the chair in honor of Liz Turner, a member of the basketball team, an academic all-American and an all-Ivy League forward.

"When I got the call from Mr. Chace telling me that he and Liz had decided to donate money to endow a chair post, I said: 'You guys are great. That's tremendous,' " Turner told The Providence Journal-Bulletin. "Then when he said that they decided to name it after me and asked if that was OK with me, I was shocked. Any time I'd ever heard of a chair, it was always named after a loved one of some professor or faculty member."

Chace told the Journal-Bulletin that she was motivated to provide the gift because of how difficult athletics fund-raising is, especially for women's sports.

"It's hard raising money for women's athletics," she said. "The women's athlete that you might go after to look for money at this point is very young, because organized women's athletics is not something that's been around for very long."

Long-distance volunteer

If they gave a "Volunteer Traveling the Longest Distance" award at the Final Four, Mitsuhiro Hirota would win it.

The hoops zealot will come from Tokyo and will help with communications for the event.

Hirota is passionate about his basketball. A story in the Indianapolis Business Journal detailed how he flew to Cleveland this year for the National Basketball Association All-Star Game. When he lived in Indianapolis, he attended nearly every home Pacer game. Last summer, he made three trips from Indianapolis to the Olympics to watch basketball.

As it happens, there is a method in his Final Four volunteerism: He is hoping to acquire experience that will aid with administration of the Asian Olympic qualifying tournament, which will be played in 1999.

-- Compiled by David Pickle

Milestones

Chaminade University men's basketball coach Al Walker reached his 100th career victory. Walker has compiled the wins at three levels of competition and in all three NCAA divisions.

Eastern New Mexico University men's basketball coach Earl Diddle recorded his 200th career win against Southwestern Assemblies of God College. Diddle is in his ninth season as the coach of the Greyhounds and his 12th as a collegiate head coach.

Indiana University, Bloomington, head men's basketball coach Bob Knight earned his 700th coaching victory March 5 with a win over the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Knight became the eighth Division I coach with 700 wins. The win brought Knight, who came to Indiana in 1971 after compiling a 102-50 record in six years at the U.S. Military Academy, to a career record of 700-256.

A victory by the University of Texas at Austin baseball team March 7 was the 2,500 collegiate win in the Longhorns' history. The total made Texas the first baseball program in NCAA history to reach the 2,500 win plateau.

Kathy O'Neil, head women's basketball coach at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell recorded her 200th career victory January 20 in a 66-57 win over the University of New Haven. In 12 seasons, O'Neil has registered a mark of 203-131, including 149-50 over the last seven seasons.

Wilmington College (Ohio) women's basketball coach Jerry Scheve captured his 100th career victory when the Lady Quakers knocked off College of Mount St. Joseph January 31. Scheve has compiled a 100-69 career record in seven seasons at Wilmington.

Head women's basketball coach Kevin Calabria won his 150th game as coach at Alvernia College February 12. Calabria has been the only coach of the program since its inception in 1989-90.

Jack McCloskey, head coach of the Alvernia men's basketball team, picked up his 100th win at the helm of the Crusaders January 25. The win brought McCloskey's record at Alvernia to 100-53.

Saint Michael's College head men's basketball coach Tom Crowley earned his 100th career victory February 11 when the Purple Knights defeated Saint Anselm College, 83-81. In seven seasons at St. Michael's, Crowley has a 100-84 record.