The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- May 10, 1999

Beightol, Erwin receive initial NCAA sportsmanship award

Being a good sport in intercollegiate athletics is no longer only its own reward.

The NCAA recently established a new honor for acts of outstanding sportsmanship, and its recipients will be known as the NCAA Outstanding Sportspersons of the Year.

The first honorees are Allison Beightol, a senior guard on the Randolph-Macon College women's basketball team, and Jarrett Erwin, a sophomore multisport competitor at Rice University.

The award honors student-athletes who have, through their actions in the competitive arena of intercollegiate athletics, demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sport, including fairness, civility, honesty, unselfishness, respect and responsibility.

"Though sportsmanship often is expected of NCAA student-athletes, it nevertheless is important that we recognize and support such behavior," said Robert J. Minnix, chair of the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct and associate athletics director at Florida State University.

Beightol and Erwin will receive their NCAA awards at the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance (CTSA) summit and awards luncheon June 29 in Washington, D.C.

The NCAA is a founding member of CTSA, an alliance that includes 10 amateur, professional and Olympic sports organizations. Sportsmanship winners from other CTSA member organizations also will be honored at the awards luncheon. The CTSA summit, "Sports Culture in the New Millennium," will be sponsored by USA Today and held at the Freedom Forum.

The NCAA's Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct Committee selected Beightol and Erwin from a group of eight finalists chosen from more than 180 nominees.

"We were pleased with our first year's nominations and hope that NCAA athletics administrators will continue to be on the lookout for outstanding acts of sportsmanship so that we might expand the pool next year," Minnix said.

Nominated student-athletes must have committed specific exemplary sportsmanship-like acts. In addition, they had to be enrolled as of September 1998, be a member of an intercollegiate athletics team during the 1998-99 academic year and be in good academic standing.

During this inaugural year for the award, NCAA institutions were allowed to nominate as many individuals as they wished for the award. In the future, institutions may nominate only one male and one female student-athlete. Two winners (one from each gender) then will be chosen from each NCAA division.

Following are sketches of the two winners, as well as of the other six finalists.

Allison Beightol
Basketball
Randolph-Macon College

Beightol, a 5-foot, 3-inch guard, was chosen for her act of sportsmanship on the basketball court.

During a highly competitive conference contest, Beightol stopped play during a Randolph-Macon fast break to alert officials of a Roanoke College player who was injured in the backcourt. The player was able to receive quick medical attention for an injury, but the opportunity to score on the fast break was lost.

Also in the same game, the opposing coach decided to briefly insert an injured senior into the game since it was senior night. Beightol reminded her teammates to be careful of the injured player.

Jarrett Erwin
Track and field
Rice University

Erwin, who plays football and participates in track and field for the Owls, committed his outstanding act of sportsmanship last spring during a track meet.

Erwin threw the javelin, and one of the officials mistakenly recorded an incorrect measurement that was very much in Erwin's favor. When Erwin heard the measured distance of the throw, he approached the meet referee and asked him to correct the mark. The correction cost Jarrett second place in the meet and a trip to the NCAA championships.

Had Erwin not gone to the official, the mark would not have been changed.

Clive Bentick
Basketball
Canisius College

During the waning seconds of the team's final home game of the season, head coach Mike Macdonald inserted seldom-used freshman Bentick into the game. Bentick immediately made a steal, then gave up the ball and the open lane to a senior walk-on who hadn't made a basket in his career at Canisius. The senior made the break-away layup, the only field goal of his college career, with 12 seconds remaining in the game.

Debbie Ferguson
Track and field
University of Georgia

Ferguson, a favorite heading into the NCAA Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships, sought out and consoled a rival after the rival suffered a pulled hamstring in the semifinals of the 200-meter dash. The rival had to miss both the 100-meter and 200-meter finals, but Ferguson consoled her and encouraged her to return in top form to compete against her the next year.

Hap Hines
Football
University of Georgia

Hines, a standout placekicker, took time out after several of his team's victories to console and give moral support to his counterparts on opposing teams -- teams that lost to Georgia only after failed potential game-winning field-goal attempts. Hines often could be seen offering support to his opponents before celebrating with his own team.

Carrie Long
Track and field
Purdue University

On her second of three attempts as she tried to qualify for the NCAA Division I Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships in the high jump, an official mistakenly credited Long with a passing jump she had not made. The height was high enough to qualify Long for the championships, but Long approached the official and corrected the error, leaving herself with only one more chance to qualify. Long succeeded on her final attempt.

John C. Smith
Soccer
Utica College

During a regular-season home contest against a rival school, defenseman Smith assisted a rival rather than join in a fight. With less than one minute remaining in the second half and the score tied, an opponent went down with severe leg cramps. No one on his own team stopped to help him, as a fight had broken out on the opposite side of the field. Smith walked away from the fight, went to the injured opponent, whom he did not know, and engaged in a partner stretch with him to relieve his cramped legs. The rival student-athlete recovered enough to finish the game.

Kelli Werling
Basketball
Indiana University-
Purdue University at Indianapolis

Several times over the past year, Werling was a peacemaker when a conflict arose during a contest. On one occasion when one of her teammates experienced a conflict with an opposing player, Werling took it upon herself to make peace with the player.

Throughout the game, Werling continued to exchange positive dialogue with her, thus avoiding further conflict.