National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - News and FeaturesThe NCAA News -- November 22, 1999 Six receive Silver Anniversary Awards Six former student-athletes who enjoyed prominent collegiate careers in basketball, football, softball, tennis, swimming, rowing and basketball while going on to succeed in various fields are this year's NCAA Silver Anniversary Award recipients. The award recognizes former student-athletes who have distinguished themselves since completing their college athletics careers 25 years ago. The award winners were selected by the NCAA Honors Committee, which is composed of athletics administrators at member institutions and distinguished citizens who are former student-athletes. This year's honorees are Dianne Baker, Texas Woman's University, softball, tennis, field hockey and soccer; Ulysses "Junior" Bridgeman, University of Louisville, basketball; Patrick C. Haden, University of Southern California, football; Lisa Rosenblum, Yale University, tennis; Capt. John Dickson Stufflebeem, U.S. Naval Academy, football; and John F. Trembley, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, swimming. These individuals will be recognized January 9 at the honors dinner during the NCAA Convention in San Diego.
Dianne Baker
During her undergraduate years, she was a four-year team member in softball and tennis, and a three-year member of the soccer, badminton and field hockey teams. In addition to playing those sports, she has coached many athletes at the collegiate level. She is among the winningest active coaches in NCAA softball history with a combined record of 596-345-2. Having coached 19 all-Americans and one Olympian, she was inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1998. Three years before, she was inducted into the Texas Woman's University Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame, and, in 1987, was inducted into the Stephen F. Austin State University Ladyjack Hall of Fame. One year earlier, she coached Stephen F. Austin to the NCAA Division II softball championship, which remains the school's only national championship, and was named NCAA National Coach of the Year in softball. As an undergraduate, she captained her team in the AIAW College World Series in 1975. A dean's list student, she won a combined 25 tournament titles and was runner-up 18 times in tennis and badminton, receiving Texas Woman's University's Outstanding College Athlete Award in 1975. Also a community leader, Baker has done volunteer work for various charitable organizations, including the Missing Children's Organization, Godtel homeless shelter, Toys for Tots, Regional Special Olympics, Children's Hospital in Dallas, Meals on Wheels, Adopt-A-Family, and the Denton Chapter of the American Heart Association, among others.
Ulysses "Junior" Bridgeman
While at Louisville, Bridgeman helped lead the Cardinals to a combined 72-17 record and two Missouri Valley Conference championships in three seasons, twice earning the MVC Player of the Year award, while garnering all-conference honors three times. Ranked 21st on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,348 points, the four-time dean's list student's uniform No. 10 is among those retired by the university. Widely considered the NBA's premier sixth man for much of his professional career; he led NBA reserves in scoring for three straight years. Also a basketball leader off the court, Bridgeman served four years as president of the NBA Players Association, three years as a treasurer and one year as a player representative. In 1985, he played a key role in arranging for NBA players to donate their all-star game checks to help fight hunger in Ethiopia. A social activist since leaving the NBA, he serves as a deacon in the Southeast Christian Church and has been a Board member of Vencor, Fifth Third Bank, Louisville Community Bank, the Walnut Street Capital Campaign and the local Boy Scouts of America chapter. He is a current member of his alma mater's Board of Trustees and also has been on the Board of Directors of Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer, continuing to assist in that group's fund-raising efforts. Since retiring from the NBA in 1987, Bridgeman started a career in restaurant management. He is owner/operator of several Wendy's restaurants in three different states.
Patrick C. Haden
Haden quarterbacked the Trojans to two mythical national championships in the 1970s, captaining the team in 1974. Southern California earned a Rose Bowl bid in each of his three years as a starter and he was co-Most Valuable Player of the 1975 game. In 1974, he won an NCAA Top Five Award and an NCAA postgraduate scholarship award and was a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete. In 1988, he became one of the six inaugural inductees to the GTE Academic All-American Hall of Fame, and in 1995 was inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame and the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame. Haden earned Phi Beta Kappa distinction and graduated magna cum laude, then won a Rhodes Scholarship. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Oxford University in philosophy, politics and economics in 1978. In 1982, he earned a law degree from the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. The 1978 National Football Conference Player of the Year, Haden played for the then-Los Angeles Rams of the NFL from 1976-81. A broadcaster with Turner Broadcasting and CBS before moving to NBC in 1998, Haden is a member of numerous corporate boards, as well as serving on the Board of Trustees for the Good Samaritan Hospital, Boys Town of Southern California, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Los Angeles and Lifesavers Foundation. He also is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Crippled Children's Society of Los Angeles, and is former chair of the March of Dimes Reading Olympics in Los Angeles and the Boys Life National Illiteracy Campaign, 1986.
Lisa Rosenblum
Rosenblum won the Ivy Group Championships three times, and was a three-time Seven Sisters-Ivy Group Championships winner, two-time Yale University women's tennis team Most Valuable Player and team captain, and a two-time winner in the Connecticut State Championships. Also active in other extracurricular activities as an undergraduate, she was a member of the Residential College Committee, which reviewed and selected all seminars given in the University's residential colleges in 1974-75 after serving as a member of Yale's Athletic Governing Board for a year. Rosenblum also was a member of the Elected Course of Study Committee, which included faculty, administrators and students who, collectively, reviewed all new courses at Yale. The senior vice-president for government affairs and education for Cablevision Systems Corporation is former commissioner and deputy chairman of the New York State Public Service Commission. She also has served as chair of the communications committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and led the state of New York's efforts on the telecommunications act in 1996. Rosenblum has been an advisor for telecommunications policy in the Czech Republic and Poland as part of the state department delegation and was a contributor to the National Governor's Association Report on Telecommunications in 1994. She earned a doctorate from the Connecticut School of Law and was editor of the school's law review. She has served as chair of the Federal Communications Commission's Board of Directors of the Universal Service Administration Company (overseeing the administration of Universal Servicing Fund) and represented the State Public Service Commission before Congress on the 1996 Telecommunications Act, pro-bono work.
Capt. John Dickson Stufflebeem
He has served as Commander, Carrier Air Wing 1, with combat operations in Bosnia and Iraq, and was Deputy Executive Assistant, Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C. Stufflebeem also served as Commanding Officer, VF-84, Operation Southern Watch over Iraq, and was a military aide to President Bush. A graduate of the Navy's Top Gun School, he was an Israel exchange pilot, and qualified as a Kfir (Israeli plane) pilot in 1985. Stufflebeem has been honored with the Legion of Merit (gold star in lieu of second award) and a Meritorious Service Medal. As a student-athlete for the Midshipmen, he was the punter for the football team for three years. His career average of 39.1 yards per kick still ranks fourth all-time at Navy. His best season came in 1975, when he posted a 40.6-yard average, still the fifth-best single-season performance in Navy history. He was a member of the National Football League's Detroit Lions while serving in the military reserve from 1975-78. Off the field, in 1974-75, he was Deputy Brigade Commandeer during Winter Set, one of the two highest leadership positions a midshipman could attain within the command structure of the then-4,500-member Brigade of Midshipmen. He held the same position during Commissioning Week in 1975. That same year, Stufflebeem won the Daughters of American Revolution Award for Leadership.
John F. Trembley
Before taking the Tennessee post, Trembley, as coach at Mercersburg Academy (Pennsylvania), established himself as the dominant high-school coach of the 1980s, turning out 123 individual all-Americans and producing Olympic team members for the United States, Philippines and Guatemala. His teams were seven-time national prep champions, six-time Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming champions, set 29 national prep school swimming records and registered a dual-meet record of 95-2. Before moving into coaching, the four-year letterman was a 20-time all-American and a staff member of Tennessee's 1978 national championship team. He either won or was a member of nine NCAA championship efforts and, in 1973, became the first swimmer to win five NCAA events in one year, taking the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard freestyle, and swimming on the Vols' national champion 400-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relay teams. He also set American records in the 50-yard freestyle, and the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relays. Trembley founded and served as president of the United Swimming Clinics; a program that has helped develop more than 13,000 swimmers worldwide. An active member of the Fairview Methodist Church, he also is a member of the Young Life Program. |
A five-sport letter-winner at Texas Woman's, Baker has served her alma mater as a senior kinesiology lecturer and head softball coach since 1995, after coaching and working as an athletics administrator at Stephen F. Austin State University from 1981-95.
The 1975 all-American led Louisville to the 1975 Final Four as a senior, then went on to a distinguished 12-year career in the National Basketball Association before embarking on a successful career in restaurant management.
Although he is now best known as a television sports commentator, Haden enjoyed a stellar collegiate playing career and won numerous academic honors before embarking on a successful professional football career.
The four-time New England Intercollegiate champion compiled a four-year 43-2 singles record, losing only once in tournament competition before becoming a leader in the telecommunications field.
A career naval officer, Stufflebeem will advance to the rank of rear admiral in summer 2000 after being nominated for the position by President Clinton. During his military career, the former football standout has held various other distinguished commands and has flown nearly 4,000 hours and logged more than 1,000 carrier landings.
The Tennessee swimming coach has produced student-athletes who have won 191 all-America honors, and set 72 school records and three American records in his 11 years. During that time, the Volunteers have posted a dual-meet winning percentage of .911 (82-8). In addition to the many victories in the pool, the Volunteers earned national all-academic team honors in 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1996. In 1993, the World Swimming Coaches named Trembley as one of three American finalists for the Coach of the Quadrennium Award.