The celebration at the NCAA honors dinner January 9 wasn't just about past accomplishments, but about the future of intercollegiate athletics.

The NCAA's first awards banquet of the millennium featured speakers who emphasized the importance of maintaining a balanced life and how sports teaches the values inherent in both the student as well as the athlete.

Also noted during the evening was the changing face of intercollegiate athletics, the rise of women's accomplishments and the growing diversification of award winners.

"I was a Today's Top V award winner in 1975 when the winners were all men," said Pat Haden, who spoke on behalf of the Silver Anniversary Award winners. "It wasn't until 1982 that we took our blinders off and began to realize the incredible talents and contributions of female athletes. I'm proud to stand up here today with the female winners in this group. Today, as a father of a Division I female student-athlete, I thank people like them who paved the way for a generation of women to follow."

Haden, who enjoyed a prominent football career at the University of Southern California as well as with the National Football League's Los Angeles Rams, also congratulated the Today's Top VIII winners on their ability to maintain their pursuit of excellence in academics while accomplishing extraordinary achievements on the playing fields and courts.

"I want to congratulate the Top VIII winners for their accomplishments," Haden said, "but more importantly for their balance."

Theodore Roosevelt winner Roger Staubach also spoke to the overflow crowd at the San Diego Hyatt about balance, and how that balance can lead to a better appreciation of diversity.

"What stands out about Teddy Roosevelt is his balance -- his toughness and compassion," said Staubach, who quarterbacked the U.S. Naval Academy in the early 1960s and went on to star for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL. "You've got to have balance in your life. It's difficult because so often it's 'what's in it for me?' There's a side of us that's aggressive and competitive, and there's nothing wrong with that as long as there's a side that puts us in other people's shoes and has compassion and the ability to understand where somebody else is coming from.

"If the 'what's in it for me' side becomes dominant, it leads to not understanding people as far as their gender or the color of their skin or even their religion."

Staubach, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1963 and also played basketball and football at Navy, spoke of his concern for what he sees as a lack of respect in today's world, and said that he sees sports as an avenue that fosters respect, both for self and for team.

"I believe sports teaches you the ability to obtain that balance," the hall-of-fame quarterback said. "The NCAA is always fighting that balance as far as gender equity and the ability to balance athletics and education. Sports teaches you to appreciate someone other than just yourself."

Staubach is the 33rd recipient of the NCAA's highest honor.

Haden was one of six Silver Anniversary Award winners; the others were Dianne Baker, Texas Woman's University; Ulysses "Junior" Bridgeman, University of Louisville; Lisa Rosenblum, Yale University; Capt. John Dickson Stufflebeem, U.S. Naval Academy; and John F. Trembley, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

"A lot has happened over the last 25 years," Haden said. "The fall of the Berlin wall, the end of apartheid, mass marketing of personal computers, the emergence of the Internet, and the U.S. women's soccer team becoming the best sports story of 1999 -- once again reminding us who care so much about sports in this world how sports can uplift the human spirit.

"There is room in the collegiate scene for the pursuit of excellence in both athletics and academics. Both the Silver Anniversary Award and the Top VIII winners share the ideal of what the balance between rigorous academic work and fierce athletics competition can bring."

Haden stressed the need for preserving and improving "this wonderful asset we call sports."

"Sports can help teach us about the joy and spirit of cooperation, to sacrifice individual desires for a larger team goal, and also teach us graceful compassion without getting strung out on winning. Thanks to our teachers, coaches and athletics administrators at our respective institutions for providing an environment for us to search for and achieve balance in our lives where our accomplishments on both sides of the hyphen in the term 'student-athlete' are acknowledged and appreciated."

This year's Today's Top VIII included Michael Hunter Bledsoe, baseball, Vanderbilt University; Debbie L. E. Ferguson, track and field, University of Georgia; Brian D. Moorman, football and track and field, Pittsburg State University; Stephanie Nickitas, tennis, Uni-versity of Florida; Sally Northcroft, field hockey, Ball State University; Chad Pennington, football, Marshall University; Michael D. Ruffin, basketball, University of Tulsa; and Kelly L. Schade, softball, Simpson College.

Ferguson spoke on behalf of the Top VIII winners, quipping that it was readily apparent how proud each winner was of his or her school, "even if they weren't part of the selected few privileged enough to attend the University of Georgia."

Ferguson thanked the NCAA for providing student-athletes for the tools to attain their achievements. She also encouraged this year's class to continue to sacrifice their time and talents to improve their communities.

"Each and every honoree has made a conscious sacrifice and taken time to achieve the success we now enjoy," Ferguson said. "I challenge each and every one of us to continue to strive always for excellence, realizing this top award for academics, athletics and leadership hits at the heart of ethics and how it can be maintained in the sporting arena. We must continue to give of our time and effort to continue to influence others' lives in our communities. The more you help others, the more your life is enhanced."

Williams College's John E. Berry Jr., a two-sport student-athlete who gave up his final year of eligibility in football to donate a kidney to his older brother, was honored as the winner of the NCAA Special Award for Valor.

The award, which is presented only in years in which there is a worthy candidate, recognizes a coach or administrator currently associated with intercollegiate athletics or a current or former varsity letter-winner at an NCAA institution who, when confronted with a situation involving personal danger, averted or minimized potential disaster by courageous action or noteworthy bravery.

The donation that saved his brother, DeAngelo, from a lifetime of dialysis rendered Berry unable to compete in contact sports.

"This award is not a testament to the strength and mind or spirit that John Berry has, but is a testament to all the people who have extended a hand of kindness out there," Berry said.

"One thing I've learned in life is that any decision made with love is never truly hard. The kidney I gave my brother represents a stamp of love, the love I have for my brother and the love he always has shown me. A lot of people have asked me why I did this, and my answer is that it is the only thing to do, and I think any of us here tonight would make the same choice."