The NCAA News - Briefly in the News

October 26, 1997

Chadron State football team posts win, tackles drunken driverThe Chadron State College football team may have to get a job on television's "Stories of the Highway Patrol."

The team did more than defeat Mesa State College, 42-0, during its September trip to Grand Junction, Colorado. It also helped remove a drunken driver from Colorado's highways.

The football team, coaches and athletic trainers travel to and from games in a bus, two vans and a Suburban. The occupants of the smaller vehicles carry walkie-talkies so they can communicate with each other.

Shortly after the group headed back east on Interstate 70 after the game, the van that was in the back of the entourage called the others to report that a drunken driver in a white pickup was driving erratically and preparing to pass them.

The other drivers looked back to see the pickup weaving back and forth through traffic, nearly leaving the road at times. It narrowly missed one of the cars behind them, and it clipped off a couple of mile-marker posts.

The other Chadron State drivers slowed down and pulled into the right lane and shoulder as the pickup zipped past.

As it continued down the road, the pickup ran off the road and drove with its right wheels in the dirt shoulder several times. Finally the pickup slowed, but no one dared pass him.

A Chadron State athletic trainer made a sign with her notebook paper warning other eastbound motorists that there was a drunken driver ahead.

One of those motorists had a cellular phone and alerted law-enforcement personnel of the situation.

Then at Parachute, Colorado, about 50 miles east of Grand Junction, the pickup turned off. The two Chadron State vans speeded up and pulled behind him. When he stopped at a stop sign, players and assistant coaches hopped out of the vans, grabbed the driver and pulled him from the pickup.

"There was no doubt that he was drunk," said Don Watt, Chadron State athletic trainer. "He couldn't even stand up. He had a case of beer on the seat beside him."

After about five minutes, a Parachute police officer arrived, followed shortly by a highway patrol officer and an ambulance.

After the driver was handcuffed and taken away, the law enforcement officials interviewed the Chadron State group.

To the officers' delight, one of the coaches captured the entire incident with the video camera used to tape the football game.

World Cup of Football

The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) will be assembling a team of college all-stars to travel to Palermo, Italy, next summer to compete in the first World Cup of American Football.

The tournament will be held in June 1999, and organizers have asked the AFCA to select the coaches and players who will represent the United States. Gene Stallings, who retired from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, in 1996, will coach the U.S. team.

Other countries competing will be Australia, Canada, Finland, Japan, Italy, Mexico and Sweden.

The U.S. team is expected to be a squad made up of 45 players who complete their football eligibility in 1998.

The tournament will be the first event staged by the recently founded International Federation of American Football, which was created to serve as the governing body for amateur football worldwide.

Can you top this?

Courtney Shealy, a student-athlete at the University of Georgia, will have a busy day October 30 when Georgia competes at the University of Florida.

Shealy will swim in a backstroke race, a freestyle race and a relay, and she also will suit up for the volleyball game and play middle blocker.

If any other Division I NCAA member institution has had a female student-athlete compete in two different sports on the same day, Georgia assistant sports information director Sandi Karchmer would like to hear from you. Please contact her at 706/542-6544 or via e-mail at karchmer@sports.uga.edu.

Assaults prompt insurance

While some rowdy fans are simply annoying, others are violent and take their frustration out on the officials.

In one more indicator of how rough it is to be an official today, the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) announced that it will begin providing assault insurance as part of its benefit package for members.

NASO president Barry Mano noted that there has been a significant increase in the level of physical confrontations -- with officials being spat upon, shoved, stabbed and even shot at by fans coaches and players who, he said, "have lost perspective of what sports are about."

When officials are assaulted, they often suffer injuries requiring medical treatment, and they also may have legal issues and financial concerns.

The insurance program provides NASO members with legal consultation, pays medical bills and replaces lost game fees in the event that injuries from an assault prevent the official from working future games.

All NASO members -- which include officials from the professional level all the way down to youth leagues -- are eligible.