Hockey foes set to take it outside in Michigan's 'Cold War'

Ice hockey game attendance records are sure to tumble in October when Michigan State University hosts the University of Michigan in sold-out Spartan Stadium.

The ice surface, provided by Los Tres Papagayos, a company based in Van Nuys, California, will be frozen using a series of aluminum plates and chilled with a 281-ton refrigeration unit. The portable ice surface then will be installed on top of a layered platform and lit by portable lights.

Michigan State suspended ticket sales to "The Cold War" after only nine days when 61,000 were sold. The capacity of Spartan Stadium is listed around 72,000, but the school needed to hold 10,000 seats for Michigan State students and additional requests from season-ticket holders.

"This is unbelievable," said Clarence Underwood, Michigan State athletics director. "I never imagined selling 61,000 tickets in nine business days. It's amazing how the fans have embraced this event. There's no doubt it will become one of the signature moments in Spartan history."

The records that are expected to fall include the college ice hockey game attendance mark of 21,576 from the 1984 Michigan State-Michigan Technological University Great Lakes Invitational championship game at Joe Louis Arena. Also falling may be the world ice hockey attendance record of 55,000, set during the the 1957 World Championships in Moscow when the U.S.S.R. took on Sweden.

The game also will count in the regular-season standings of the two teams, which are perennial rivals in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. For "The Cold War," however, the two teams and two schools are coming together to promote hockey in Michigan.

"This is a celebration of hockey in the state of Michigan," said Michigan State men's ice hockey coach Ron Mason. "We have had the support of the (Detroit) Red Wings and youth hockey and every other aspect of hockey in the state. We hope we can display college hockey at its highest level and give everybody an opportunity to come and see us play. I think we have the best game in the world."

Deadline nears for CHAMPS/Life Skills

NCAA member institutions that do not participate in the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills program but wish to do so have until August 6 to submit an application for the program.

No fee is required to participate in the program, but institutions must identify a full-time staff member as coordinator and provide the financial resources for the representative to attend the program orientation held February 11-14, 2002, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

The NCAA provides materials, resources, program models and an annual continuing-education conference for life skills coordinators. Also, institutions participating in CHAMPS/Life Skills are eligible to apply for student-athlete participation in the NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference.

For more information, call or e-mail Tim Clark, NCAA education outreach program coordinator, at 317/917-6222 or tclark@ncaa.org.

Scholarship recipient to 'Stay in Bounds'

Paula Renee Scott, a recent graduate of Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, is the first recipient of the Charles and Sharon Usher Scholarship, a $5,000 award administered by the NCAA Foundation.

Scott will study graphic design at Ivy Tech State College.

Number Crunching

Dominant over time

Despite being upset by Denison University at the 2001 Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, Kenyon College still holds the record for most titles in a women's team sport. The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, won the Division I women's soccer crown to close within one of the Ladies' total.

NCAA titles/women's team sports

Kenyon women's swimming and diving -- 17

North Carolina women's soccer -- 16

Abilene Christian women's indoor track and field -- 12

Looking back

July 1982 -- A federal district court prohibits the Department of Education from investigating the athletics department at the University of Richmond because its program does not receive direct federal financial assistance. It is the first time a federal court has considered whether the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education has the authority to conduct Title IX athletics compliance reviews. The Department of Education claimed it was authorized to investigate athletics programs because of federal aid to the university through student-aid programs and library-resource grants that benefit the entire university and loans for dormitory construction. The court, however, said the department "should not in the future endeavor to investigate, regulate, coerce or intimidate colleges and universities with regard to programs or activities that do not receive direct federal financial assistance."

(The NCAA News, July 14, 1982)

"There is great concern that liberalized gambling laws might be instituted that would sweep up amateur sport in the process. One draws this conclusion when cities such as New York and Miami and other begin to consider casino gambling in an effort to solve particular problems. From casino gambling, what is the next step? Frankly, it appears to some of us that to prevent more liberal gambling laws is like trying to 'hold back the dawn.' It simply cannot be done. At the same time, those of us in college athletics administration feel it would be disastrous if gambling were legalized on college football and basketball games."

-- University of Michigan Athletics Director Donald B. Canham, from his June 26, 1975, testimony before the Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling.