National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - Briefly in the News

September 22, 1997

Women's hall becoming reality

Sponsors say that a hall of fame exclusively for women's basketball has a site, an architectural plan and mementos pouring in.

Ground-breaking for the facility, which will be constructed in Knoxville, Tennessee, is set for November, and the grand opening is planned during March 1999.

"It is going to be fantastic," author Patsy
Neal, an AAU all-American and Pan-American Games player in the 1950s and '60s, told The Associated Press. "When I played, we never dreamed of anything like this."

Sketches of a 30,000-square-foot, glass-and-concrete building with rounded ends and a monument of a large basketball were unveiled September 10. Sponsors say $3.5 million of the $7 million to $8 million needed has been raised.

"I think you are going to find it is a very dramatic view and a very inspirational site," said Gloria Ray, executive director of the Knoxville Sports Corp., which is driving the effort.

The site, donated by Knoxville philanthropist Pete DeBusk, is on a 2.2-acre hilltop overlooking the Tennessee River.

Pat Summitt, women's basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is pushing the project.

"When you understand what this building is all about," she said, "you are going to be just as excited and have chills just like I have chills."

The hall will honor the past, celebrate the present and promote the future of the sport, Summitt said.

"When your little girl is growing up, she is not going to say, 'I want to become a high-school player or a Lady Vol or an ABL or WNBA player.' She is going to say, 'I want to someday be in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee.' "

Taste of recruiting

Pat Summitt recently received the Governor Ned McWherter Award of Excellence, which is awarded to a Tennessee citizen who has demonstrated persistence to his or her profession, a commitment to work and a pursuit of excellence.

She received the honor at Martin Methodist Church in Pulaski, Tennessee, a town that will forever produce bittersweet memories for the legendary Tennessee basketball coach.

The good memory for Summitt, according to The Nashville Banner, is that Pulaski is where she recruited Sheila Frost, who was a star player on Tennessee's first two women's basketball championship teams in 1987 and 1989. The bad memory is the "distasteful" way she had to recruit Frost.

"Every time I think of Pulaski," Summitt told the Banner, "I think of Sheila Frost. I had never been to Pulaski and might never have been to Pulaski had it not been for Sheila. I have lots of friends there now.

"(But) the first time I went down there, her mom made me pumpkin pie. I went to her house, and Mrs. Frost said she had spent the day doing something special for me, that she had made me a pumpkin pie. Well, I absolutely hate pumpkin pie.

"But she asked me if I liked it, I said, 'Suuuurrre.' And because I showed such enthusiasm, she cut me a big piece. I ate every bite.

"It was worth it."

Can you top this?

Adam Levin, sports information director at Bates College, wants to know if any institution has had an athlete who was a captain in three sports as a junior.

Wendy Zimmerman, a Bates junior, is cocaptain of the field hockey, swimming and diving, and women's lacrosse teams.

Those who know of athletes who have been captains of three sports in the same year may contact Levin at Bates College, 141 Nichols Street, Lewiston, Maine 04240, or through the Internet (alevin@abacus.bates.edu).

On a roll

Greg Payne, a senior kicker for Catawba College, has established an NCAA Division II football record by kicking 15 consecutive field goals.

The previous record of 14 was held by Keith Kasnic of the University of Tennessee, Martin, and Kurt Seibel of the University of South Dakota. Payne has not missed a field goal since the fourth game of the 1996 season.

Payne is a man of streaks. The American Football Coaches Association all-America selection made his first three attempts in 1996, missed his next five and then hit his next 13. He made two against Tusculum College to begin the 1997 season, including a 46-yarder that set the record.

Give him credit for drama, too. The last kick hit the crossbar and bounced over.

-- Compiled by David Pickle

Facilities

The University of Virginia plans to use most of a $25 million donation to expand seating in the school's Scott Stadium. The donation by alumnus Carl W. Smith will enable Virginia to add 16,000 seats to the stadium, bringing the capacity to 64,000 in time for the 2000 season.

Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales is completing a $7 million sports and recreation center and the renovation of Billera Hall, the college's original gymnasium, which was built in 1969. The 85,000-square-foot sports center will contain an indoor track, three-court gym with an all-purpose floor and state-of-the-art fitness center. Outside Billera Hall, which is host to Allentown basketball and volleyball contests, a track and field facility is being added, as well as new soccer and softball fields.

Ithaca College renamed its Upper Terrace Diamond Doris Kostrinsky Field in honor of the former Ithaca faculty member and coach. Kostrinsky coached field hockey, softball, basketball and golf during her tenure at the college. An alumni softball game followed the naming ceremony, matching a team of alumni from the 1990s coached by current softball coach Deb Pallozzi against a 1970s and '80s team led by Kostrinsky.

The University of Dayton will honor former basketball coach Don Donoher by naming the school's new basketball facility for him. Donoher is Dayton's all-time most-victorious coach, coaching the Flyers from 1964 to 1989 to a record of 437-275. The center originally was to be named the McHale Center after John McHale, whose $1.25 million gift initiated the project. But McHale, who attended Dayton midway through Donoher's career there, asked that the center be named for Donoher as the epitome of "the very character of the university."

Muhlenberg College is using an anonymous $325,000 gift to build a new on-campus soccer stadium. The stadium, phase one of Muhlenberg's fields project, features a new sod/sand injection grass playing surface, lighting, and reconfigured press box with bleacher seating for about 2,000 people. Phase two will include a new lighted football stadium with a multiuse surface and eight-lane all-weather track, as well as a new on-campus softball field. Phase two is scheduled for completion in fall 1998.

A new wooden floor has been installed in P. H. Kuyper Gymnasium at Central College (Iowa). The floor, which cost more than $100,000, replaces a tartan game floor that was installed when the building was constructed in 1970.