National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - Briefly in the News

October 20, 1997

Volleyball video goes on Net

In the "that's cool" department, the computer engineers and the athletics department at Christian Brothers University have teamed up to produce live audio and video of some Christian Brothers women's volleyball games.

The production quality is not the best, but the Memphis Commercial-Appeal reports a significant upside: Anybody with a computer equipped with a sound card, Internet access and a 28.8K modem can access the broadcast.

The address is http://www.cbu.edu. The videoplayer software is freeware that's available at the site.

Juan Carlos Olabe, the chairman of the electrical engineering department, told the Commercial-Appeal that he believed that Christian Brothers was the first university to broadcast live audio and video of a college sporting event.

If so, historically minded folks may wish to note that the first such broadcast occurred October 4 against the University of Central Arkansas.

The newspaper reported that the electrical engineering department uses four inexpensive home video cameras during the games. A computer and digital audiomixer are placed on the sidelines. A signal is sent to an encoder that compresses the images and sound, which then go to a computer server at CBU. At that point, viewers may access it at the Internet address.

The picture quality is fuzzy, and the images are small, but they were acceptable for Phil and Shelley Milton, who were able to watch their daughter, Marya, play in the Central Arkansas game. The game was in Memphis, while the Miltons were at home in Alaska.

"We couldn't get real good images because of our network connection," Shelley Milton told the Commercial-Appeal. "It was frustrating at times, but every now and then we could pick out Marya and point out this inch-high person."

Too much emphasis?

A survey appearing in USA Today says that 44 percent of all men and 48 percent of all women believe the emphasis on college sports is overemphasized.

Among college graduates, however, the figure is 62 percent.

A place to be seen

USA Today reports that a new trend on the restaurant scene may be officially licensed college sports cafes.

This week, the Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe opens in Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeye logo will appear on everything from menus to bottled water, the newspaper reports.

The Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe will not sell food alone. About 20 percent of its sales will be in merchandise (more if customers buy the $500 leather jackets the way they buy hamburgers).

The royalty for Ohio State will be about four percent of the sales.

Coast to coast

Congratulations to the National Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Association, which now services colleges and universities with soccer officials in all 50 states.

The NISOA has been in existence since 1964 and has more than 4,000 members now.

Compiled by David Pickle

Facilities

A planned 16,000-seat expansion of the University of Virginia football stadium will bring the capacity of Scott Stadium to 60,000 seats. Half of the $50 million project will be paid by a $25 million gift from alumnus Carl W. Smith. Smith was a Virginia football lineman during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Wingate University broke ground October 9 for a $3.5 million campus football stadium. The facility will be built on 26.5 acres on the north side of the campus. The field will be named for John R. Martin, a Wingate trustee who donated $500,000 to the project.

Penmen Field, the long-time home of New Hampshire College soccer and lacrosse, underwent major renovation over the summer, including the addition of light stanchions to allow for night games. During the 1997 season, the men's soccer team has three night games scheduled and the women's soccer team has two night games slated.

A Wittenberg University sports legend was honored when a softball field was named for Betty Doughman Dillahunt. Dillahunt, a 1946 Wittenberg graduate, was a teacher, coach and women's athletics director at the university for 36 years. She excelled in softball, field hockey, tennis and golf. During her tenure at Wittenberg, Dillahunt coached nine sports before retiring in 1982.

Wittenberg also dedicated the $1 million David B. and Georgiana S. Albright Tennis Complex in September. The facility was made possible by a gift from Mrs. Albright in memory of her husband. Both were 1940 graduates of the university. The project includes 12 courts -- six lighted -- featuring a Dynaflex surface. Two sunken center courts have space for temporary seating for tournaments.

The new indoor practice facility at the University of Oregon will be named for Edward W. Moshofsky, a 1943 Oregon graduate and football athlete. Expected to be completed in spring 1998, the facility is part of a larger project that includes two outdoor practice fields and a soccer field. The 117,000-square-foot structure will serve as the indoor home for the football, soccer, softball, golf and track programs at Oregon.