Jenny Benson, coach of the women's basketball team at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, made an unusual sacrifice for her team this year. At the beginning of the season, she told the Nanooks that if they made it to the NCAAs, she would let them shave her head.

Well, Benson held true to her promise. When the Nanooks made it to their first NCAA tournament, off went the hair -- definitely a chilly proposition this time of year in Alaska, of all places. But Benson insisted the players follow through.

"I said I'd do this way at the beginning of the season if we made the playoffs, and I've been preparing myself because I really believed we were capable of doing it," Benson said.

The Nanooks went to the NCAA West Regional, defeating California State University, Bakersfield, in the first round. The team lost to Seattle Pacific University in the second round, concluding a 20-9 season.

In addition to being the first NCAA tournament appearance for the team, it also was the first 20-win season for the Nanooks, who may need to get Benson a hat.

Don't blame Jay Caligiuri, a junior third baseman at California State University, Los Angeles, if he was a little worn out after the Golden Eagles' game against Point Loma Nazarene University.

Caligiuri hit four home runs in his four at-bats on his way to a five-for-five, seven RBI performance as Golden Eagles defeated their NAIA opponent, 14-10.

Caliguiri's four homers broke the California Collegiate Athletic Association single-game home-run record and made him just the 13th player in NCAA Division II baseball history to hit four homers in a single game. The last person to do so was Joey Urbanek of Arkansas Tech University, who accomplished the feat February 23, 2000.

This winter, the Atlantic 10 Conference launched a new league marketing program with an on-campus basketball competition.

The program developed by Philadelphia-based Action Sports America was designed to create excitement for the conference basketball tournaments and exposure for conference corporate partners during the basketball season.

The program consisted of a conference-wide series of contests to determine the No. 1 non-varsity co-ed two-person basketball team among the league's 11 universities.

Events at each school attracted 50 to 100 participants and about 200 spectators. Winners of the campus preliminaries then competed during halftimes of basketball games, with the winners from each campus earning an all-expenses-paid trip to Philadelphia for the Atlantic 10 postseason tournament. The ultimate winners of the contest -- Christine LeBlanc and Eric Banzer-Lausberg of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst -- were decided at the tournament.

"We wanted to generate awareness with the student body of our men's and women's championships," said Jeff Long, director of corporate sponsorships for the Atlantic 10.

"In addition, this concept will help further incorporate our sponsors into what the Atlantic 10 has to offer."

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes

April 1998 -- Division I lifts all restrictions on the fourth coaching position in basketball, thus eliminating the last of the employment restrictions associated with the restricted-earnings position other than those related to recruiting activities. The Board of Directors also approves a proposal that allows student-athletes to earn up to $2,000 in employment earnings. (The NCAA News, April 27, 1998)

April 1994 -- The Western Athletic Conference announces plans to add six institutions -- Rice University, Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University of the defunct Southwest Athletic Conference, and the University of Tulsa; the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and San Jose State University. The additions boost WAC membership to 16 schools, the largest in Division I-A. (The NCAA News, April 27, 1994)

April 1986 -- The first meeting of the NCAA Presidents Commission includes a discussion of freshman ineligibility, particularly in football and men's basketball, as a way to strengthen academic integrity. The group also considers whether the amount of aid available for actual educational expenses should be increased, and the possibility of reducing costs of institutional athletics programs. (The NCAA News, April 9, 1986)

April 1979 -- The NCAA Executive Committee recommends that at least 100 member institutions must sponsor a sport in order for a National Collegiate Championship to be established or maintained. Any division with 50 members sponsoring a sport would be able to vote to establish a championship in that sport.

Also, the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee votes not to adopt a shot clock. The committee cites a rules questionnaire in which coaches overwhelmingly voted against such a measure, in addition to being against making zone defenses illegal. Committee Secretary-Rules Editor Edward S. Steitz said much of the clamor for a shot clock arose after a game in which Duke University led the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 7-0, at the half. "But that was just one of thousands of games," Steitz said. "And because of the unusual score, it's the one that gets all the publicity."