The NCAA News - Briefly in the News

October 13, 1997

The Marist College baseball team received a cram course in history September 28.

Not only did the group meet with Rachel Robinson, the widow of Jackie Robinson, but it also had an opportunity to talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin.

The team assisted in honoring Robinson with the Val-Kill Medal, which is awarded by the Eleanor Roosevelt Center. Val-Kill was Roosevelt's home in upstate New York.

Robinson was honored for her work through the Jackie Robinson Foundation to provide educational and leadership opportunities for minority students nationwide through four-year scholarships and support networks.

Goodwin -- the author of "No Ordinary Time," a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt -- is a noted historian and the author of a book on the Brooklyn Dodgers that has just been published.

Moving up the ladder

University of Iowa football coach Hayden Fry recently coached his 400th game (and won his 225th) with a 63-20 victory over Iowa State University September 20.

Only four coaches, none of whom is active, have coached more games at the Division I level, and soon, that number will be three.

Fry, 68, will pass Jess Neely when he coaches his 403rd game October 18 at Michigan.

Amos Alonzo Stagg coached the most games (548), followed by Pop Warner (457) and Bear Bryant (425).

Fry previously coached at Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas.

"I've been in a battle every individual year of my coaching career to keep my head above water," Fry told The Omaha World-Herald. "I haven't been fortunate like a lot of coaches to take over a program that was winning and had a great tradition. Every place I've gone, I had to fight for my life to get the program to respectability, then to get it into a competitive level, and then to get them to win, then to get them to win with consistency -- which is the most difficult part."

Unbreakable record

Eric Vann of the University of Kansas knows how to assure himself of a place in the NCAA football record book for eternity.

Vann bolted for a 99-yard run October 4 against the University of Oklahoma, matching an accomplishment that has been done only four times in Division I, most recently in 1977 by Kelsey Finch of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Speaking of long-distance feats, quarterback Chad Pennington of Marshall University had the longest pass completions in Division I-A for games played the weekends of September 6 (90 yards to Randy Moss), September 13 (89 yards to LaVorn Colclough) and September 20 (84 yards to Llow Turner).

-- Compiled by David Pickle

News quiz

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

1. Which Division I-A school has the toughest 1997 football schedule, based on the NCAA's annual preseason survey? (a) University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; (b) University of Florida; (c) University of Michigan; (d) University of Washington.

2. The Association's 1997-98 budget anticipates approximately a 25 percent increase in which of the following categories? (a) royalties revenue; (b) legal expenses; (c) initial-eligibility certification costs; (d) all of the above.

3. Which of the following NCAA membership totals decreased this year? (a) active membership; (b) affiliated membership; (c) corresponding membership; (d) total membership.

4. Three participants in which sport are among the 10 finalists for this year's NCAA Woman of the Year award? (a) basketball; (b) gymnastics; (c) rowing, (d) swimming and diving.

5. Which sport posted the biggest gain in participation in the National Federation of State High School Associations' most recent survey of high-school athletics participation? (a) girls' soccer; (b) boys' soccer; (c) girls' swimming and diving; (d) girls' volleyball.

6. True or false: The most recent report of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research reveals that there were no fatalities attributable directly to participation in the skills of college football during 1995.

7. Which conference's institutions received the largest total of distributions from the NCAA Division I revenue-distribution plan in 1997? (a) Big Ten Conference; (b) Atlantic Coast Conference; (c) Big Twelve Conference; (d) Pacific-10 Conference.

8. True or false: Divisions II and III are scheduled as of September 23 to consider a total of 26 legislative proposals at the 1998 NCAA Convention in Atlanta.