The NCAA News - Briefly in the News

July 21, 1997

The membership of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics is up, but N4A President Ron Brown says that growth alone isn't enough.

Brown, noting that the association has few members from Divisions II and III, wants to begin an aggressive campaign to recruit members from all levels of the NCAA membership. At the moment, he says, no national programs exist to address the academic-support needs of Divisions II and III student-athletes.

"We want to encourage those professionals working in academic-support centers and learning centers at every level of institution to access the experience, research and knowledge base about the student-athlete population that our membership has available," he said.

Brown, assistant to the vice-chancellor and provost and director of academic support services for student-athletes at the University of Pittsburgh, said the N4A is interested in identifying individuals who work in academic support with the general student population at Divisions II and III institutions rather than just professionals who work only with student-athletes.

The N4A recently conducted its annual national conference in Phoenix. In other actions at the meeting, the N4A:

* Agreed to strengthen its efforts to improve student-athlete welfare.

* Determined that it will revisit a 1987 study conducted for the NCAA by the American Institutes for Research to determine if the overall experience for the student-athlete has improved over the last 10 years.

* Agreed that it will seek to become more involved in outreach activities by working with local high-school counselors and pupil-services groups to conduct workshops on NCAA initial eligibility and the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse and to assist with the development of community- and school-based academic-support programs.

Golden memories

Baylor University track and field coach Clyde Hart has had many standout competitors through the years, but since he left high school, Michael Johnson has had only one coach: Clyde Hart.

Recently, Johnson showed his gratitude for Hart's role in his development with a special gift -- a mismatched pair of shoes.

One was a purple shoe that Johnson wore when setting the 200-meter world record in the Olympic trials, and the other was one of the gold shoes Johnson wore when he shattered the 200 record with a 19.32-second time in the Olympic finals.

"He told me, 'Coach, we did this together,' Hart told Sports Illustrated. "You get one shoe and I get one shoe."

Hart said it was the nicest thing any athlete has done for him in his 34-year career as a head coach.

Staying power

Charles E. Young, who was the youngest University of California chancellor in history when he was appointed to the UCLA post in 1968, retired recently after nearly 30 years at the helm of California's largest university.

The Los Angeles Daily News noted Young's involvement in UCLA's growth with an interesting statistic: Of the 343,624 degrees awarded at UCLA since its founding in 1919, 224,713 have Young's signature on them. His signature is on 75 percent of the diplomas of the university's living graduates.

Young served as a member of the NCAA Presidents Commission from 1988 to 1993.

-- Compiled by David Pickle

News quiz

Answers to the following questions appeared in June issues of The NCAA News. How many can you answer?

1. Which Division I cabinet in the new governance structure was the first to hold a meeting? (a) Business/Finance Cabinet; (b) Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet; (c) Championships/Competition Cabinet; (d) Strategic Planning Cabinet.

2. Which school has won five Division I Women's Golf Championships during the 1990s? (a) University of Arizona; (b) Arizona State University; (c) San Jose State University; (d) University of Texas at Austin.

3. Which school won the first National Collegiate Women's Rowing Championships? (a) University of Washington; (b) Brown University; (c) Princeton University; (d) University of California, Berkeley.

4. True or false: Complaints filed June 2 by the National Women's Law Center allege failure by 25 universities and colleges to distribute scholarship dollars proportionately to men and women as required under Title IX.

5. Which school won its sixth straight Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships team title? (a) Louisiana State University; (b) University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; (c) University of Texas at El Paso; (d) University of Southern California.

6. True or false: NCAA women's basketball attendance has more than tripled since the sport has been sponsored by the Association.

7. Which group in the current NCAA governance structure held its final meeting during June? (a) Council; (b) Presidents Commission; (c) Executive Committee; (d) Administrative Committee.

8. Which school set a record in 1996-97 for most team championships in one academic year? (a) University of California, Los Angeles; (b) University of California, San Diego; (c) North Dakota State University; (d) Stanford University.