The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- June 7, 1999

Notes

Facilities: Bucknell University announced an $11 million pledge for a new multipurpose athletics center from Kenneth G. and Elaine Langone, whose names will adorn the new facility. The new athletics center will include a state-of-the-art 50-meter pool, a 6,500-square-foot fitness center and will replace the 60-year-old Davis Gymnasium. The total estimated cost of the athletics center is approximately $23 million. With the Langones' pledge, the university has raised about $17 million toward the goal.

Sports sponsorship: University of California, Irvine, undergraduate students, after four days of voting, approved a referendum that will bring back baseball and add two women's sports. Baseball will return after being dropped in 1992 as a victim of campus-wide budget cuts. The Anteaters baseball program had existed since 1970 and won NCAA Division II titles in 1973 and 1974. The program, along with the rest of the school's intercollegiate athletics teams, moved to Division I in 1977. The two women's sports that will be added are water polo and one other sport to be determined. The additions will ensure that UC Irvine remains in compliance with gender-equity requirements. Women's water polo will begin in 2000-01 and baseball and the other women's sport will begin in 2001-02.

Associations: The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the Eastern College Athletic Conference, Hockey East, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association have joined to form the Ice Hockey Collegiate Commissioners' Association (IHCCA). The five conferences are the only conferences that currently sponsor Division I men's ice hockey. The IHCCA was created to promote all aspects of Division I men's ice hockey, including sportsmanship, in-season and postseason marketing, public relations and broadcasting opportunities. Phil Buttafuoco, commissioner of the Eastern College Athletic Association, will be the inaugural president of the IHCCA.

Milestones: Bob Morgan, Indiana University, Bloomington, 900 victories in baseball. Morgan reached the milestone in a 14-2 win over Valparaiso. He is the 28th coach to reach the 900-win plateau. Morgan has coached for 23 season, 16 at Indiana ... With a 2-0 win at East Carolina, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, softball coach Donna Papa earned her 500th win of her 16-year career. She is now 504-308-2 in 14 years at North Carolina and two at Susquehanna. Her record with the Tar Heels is 468-293-2. Papa, a 1979 graduate of the University of Connecticut, has twice earned Atlantic Coast Conference coach-of-the-year honors. The Tar Heels finished the 1999 season 40-22, marking the third time one of Papa's North Carolina teams has earned 40 or more wins in a season ... The University of New Orleans reached the 1,000-victory mark in baseball in a double-header sweep over Arkansas State University May 8. In 30 years, the Privateers are 1,002-664-1.

-- Compiled by Gary Brown