Actions do indeed speak louder than words, at least when it comes to sportsmanship. The NCAA Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct Committee acknowledged that adage in its selection of the 2004 Sportsmanship Award recipients.

Chanda Gunn, a women's ice hockey student-athlete at Northeastern University, Danny Gathings, a men's basketball student-athlete at High Point University, and the Mesa State College football team were chosen as honorees for the annual award.

The honorees also will be recognized by the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance, an NCAA partner group composed of professional, collegiate, high-school and Olympic organizations.

The NCAA Sportsmanship Award recognizes student-athletes who have distinguished themselves through good sportsmanship and ethical behavior. For the first time in the award's five-year history, conferences were invited to submit a male and female nominee. Eligible student-athletes had to display characteristics of sportsmanship, demonstrate proper and ethical behavior in daily participation in intercollegiate athletics competition, demonstrate good citizenship outside of competition, and be in good academic standing.

Gunn, the national female winner, along with Gathings and the Mesa State College football team, the male co-winners, were selected from submissions from 44 NCAA Divisions I, II and III conferences.

Northeastern's Gunn, the 2004 Humanitarian Award winner as college hockey's finest citizen and three-time finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award for the nation's top collegiate women's ice hockey player, is as well-known for her on-ice skills as for her skill in consistently showing concern for others. Gunn raised $1,000 for a Niagara University women's ice hockey player who was diagnosed with throat cancer in addition to being a hospice volunteer. She also devoted time as a coach for an under-12 hockey team, established an Inner City Youth Hockey Program, and worked to provide hockey instruction to underpriviledged children in Boston.

Dave O'Brien, director of athletics at Northeastern, said it was easy to nominate Gunn for the sportsmanship award.

"Chanda has demonstrated during her entire time here with us that she's always looking out for someone else," he said. "The activities she's involved in with young kids -- always trying to find ways to bring kids to Northeastern activities to expose them to a university setting both academically and athletically -- jumped out as important endeavors."

An MVP gift

Gathings distinguished himself as a team player and a leader, guiding High Point to the championship game of this year's Big South Conference tournament. With a win, the Panthers not only would have laid claim to the conference championship but also an automatic bid into the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

Although the Panthers came up short in the title game against Liberty University, Gathings was named the tournament MVP. Gathings, however, believed that Liberty's Larry Blair, who scored a career-high 29 points in the championship game, was more deserving of the honor. Gathings traveled to Liberty on his own and presented Blair with the award.

Kyle Kallander, commissioner of the Big South, described Gathings' act as totally selfless.

"I think the biggest lesson in this is to do what's in your heart," Kallander said. "In this day and age in athletics, where you don't see nearly enough publicity about acts of good sportsmanship, I thought it was a tremendous gesture."

Not by technicality

Regardless of the sport, easy wins are rare come playoff time. But the Mesa State football squad had a prime opportunity to grab one when it faced the University of Central Oklahoma during the NCAA Division II Football Championship last November.

With the contest knotted at zero in the first quarter, Mesa State notified officials that the entire Central Oklahoma team was wearing illegal equipment (wrong-sized cleats), and play was halted. By rule, any players wearing unauthorized equipment would be disqualified, and as a result, the Bronchos would have to forfeit or the players could be allowed to exchange the illegal equipment for something within the rules.

A victory would have given the Mavericks a pass into the quarterfinals and home field for the next round of play. But after a long discussion, Mesa State decided to allow Central Oklahoma players to change their cleats. The Mavericks wanted to win on the field, not by a technicality. Play resumed, and when time expired, it was Central Oklahoma that walked away with the victory, not Mesa State.

Joanna Kreps, senior woman administrator at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, said the league was proud of the way Mesa State players represented the league and their school.

"We've really tried to focus on sportsmanship and cleaning up the game," said Kreps. "So I really wasn't surprised (at Mesa State's decision). I think they made the decision we thought they would. We're proud, too, because we feel like we've made some progress on sportsmanship."

Woody Gibson, chair of the Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct, said he also was proud of the recipients.

"I believe the acts of our award recipients exemplify the type of sportsmanship we want to see from student-athletes and coaches throughout the nation," he said. "I also want to emphasize the great job the conferences did in submitting nominees. Their enthusiastic participation made this successful. I think the NCAA Sportsmanship Award is gaining the momentum it deserves."