More women advancing from locker room to board room

It's a concept that many in athletics have long thought to be true for men: success on the field can translate into success in the business world. And now a new study suggests that the road to the boardroom may begin in a locker room for women, too.

According to a recently released study of executive women, more than four out of five female executives played sports growing up, and most of those women say lessons learned on the playing fields have contributed to their success in business.

This is according to a survey released earlier this month by Oppenheimer Funds, a mutual fund company, and its parent group, the MassMutual Financial Group. The research was conducted in association with the photographic exhibition of "Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?"

The nationwide random poll of 401 senior women business executives was conducted by an independent market-research firm, and it found that 82 percent of the women executives surveyed reported playing organized sports after grammar school. Eight-one percent said they currently participate in some kind of sport or exercise now.

"Importantly, they credit sports with teaching them skills and lessons that have advanced their ability to succeed in the workplace," said Frances B. Emerson, senior vice-president of corporate communications at MassMutual.

Of respondents who played sports after grade school, 86 percent of them said sports helped them to be more disciplined; 81 percent said sports helped them to function better as part of a team at work; 69 percent said sports helped them to develop leadership skills that contributed to their professional success; and 68 percent said sports helped them deal with failure.

Also, 60 percent of the respondents said women who participate in sports make more productive employees.

"There are lessons to be learned on a softball diamond or basketball court that are unavailable in a business school lecture hall," said Janet Wyse, manager of advocacy programs at Oppenheimer Funds. "It's no coincidence that top businesswomen tend to have played sports."

Deadline nears for regional conferences

Division III athletics administrators have until February 28 to submit forms nominating student-athletes for the new NCAA Student-Athlete Regional Leadership Conferences.

Made possible by the Division III Initiatives Task Force and modeled after the annual NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference, two regional conferences for student-athletes will debut next year. For more information, contact Dallas Pride or Lori Thomas.

From Grove City to the NFL's Steelers

It's about 57 miles from Grove City, Pennsylvania, to Pittsburgh, but it seems farther than that from Division III Grove City College to the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers.

R.J. Bowers, a former football student-athlete at Grove City, completed the transition from the Wolverines' 3,000-seat Thorn Field to the Steelers' 64,450-seat Heinz Field last month when he scored his first career NFL touchdown.

Bowers' TD came on a third-and-one play when he scampered up the middle for a 21-yard score that helped the Steelers defeat the Cleveland Browns, 28-7.

Bowers was activated by the Steelers on December 21 and played in three games, rushing for 84 yards on 18 carries.

Bowers holds the NCAA all-divisions record for total career yards with 7,353, set in 2000. While at Grove City, the Division III all-American set eight NCAA all-division records, including the record for career touchdowns with 92.

3 x 2 - scoring = amazing equation

Kalara McFadyen, a 5-6 junior point guard at the University of Memphis, recently recorded a triple-double without attempting a single basket.

In Memphis' 91-56 win over the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, McFadyen pulled in 10 rebounds, dished out 12 assists and tallied 10 steals for the first Conference USA triple-double devoid of any points.

While no one is sure if this is an NCAA record, it's clear that it is an unusual and amazing accomplishment. Neither the NBA nor the WNBA have ever had a triple-double recorded without a single shot taken by the player.

McFadyen was named co-conference player of the week.

Number crunching

Looking back

Golden relationship?

With the 2002 Olympic Winter Games going on in Salt Lake City, many current and former NCAA student-athletes are carrying their country's flag in competition.

But whether some NCAA sports exist primarily as a feeder system for the Olympics is an issue that has been under the microscope for many years.

In the early days of the Olympics, the NCAA often had disagreements with the Amateur Athletic Union and the American Olympic Committee, an AAU-dominated organization that nominated and selected U.S. Olympic team members. The NCAA also was at times critical of the Olympics organization in the United States, even proposing in 1972 to withdraw the Association as a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The NCAA called for a reorganization of the USOC, which led to the Amateur Sports Act, a federal law passed in 1978 that reorganized the USOC and appointed it as the coordinating body for all Olympic-related athletics activity in the United States. The act also specified that the USOC had no power over college sports or over other organizations such as the NCAA.

The sometimes stormy relationship between the two organizations began to quiet, however, when the NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee was established in 1991 as a liaison between the NCAA and the USOC, as well as between the NCAA and Olympic sports' national governing bodies. Over the years, the committee has put forth numerous proposals for rules changes intended to benefit student-athletes -- who sometimes also are Olympic athletes.

"I think we were able to accommodate elite athletes, without compromising the experience that is collegiate athletics," said University of Iowa Athletics Director Bob Bowlsby, a former chair of the Olympic Sports Liaison Committee.

Over time, as more legislation was recommended and passed, there was an acknowledgement by many NCAA members of the Association's role in developing Olympians.

"I think we realized that we are the developing ground for Olympic athletes," Bowlsby said. "In certain sports we're the primary developing ground and in other cases we're the sole developing ground -- whether we want to be or not. And the creation of successful elite athletes, while certainly not our mission per se, can hopefully be a desirable byproduct."