Facilities: Temple University has named its baseball field after James “Skip” Wilson, who guided the Owls to two College World Series appearances, 14 NCAA postseason tournaments and 10 conference championships during his tenure. Wilson, 76, is the winningest coach in Temple history, regardless of sport. He compiled 1,034 wins in 46 seasons before retiring in August 2005. “It is fitting that the Temple baseball field will forever be known as Skip Wilson Field,” said Temple Athletics Director Bill Bradshaw. “His name was synonymous with Temple baseball for nearly a half century and future generations of Owl players will always remember the man that spent countless number of innings guiding the Cherry and White.” Wilson led Temple to College World Series appearances in 1972 (third place) and 1977 (eighth). He was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1994. He graduated from Temple in 1958 and earned a master’s degree from the school in 1961.

Conferences: Valparaiso University will become the Horizon League’s 10th member, effective July 1, 2007. Valparaiso President Alan F. Harre made the announcement on the university’s campus May 17. Harre, whose institution will move from the Mid-Continent Conference, said institutions in the Horizon League are much more geographically centralized. “The transition to the Horizon League means less time will be needed by our student-athletes as they travel to and from competition, and it means they will miss fewer classes. Shorter travel also means less fatigue and increased concentration in the classroom,” he said. Harre also said 61 percent of all Valparaiso alumni reside in the five states encompassed by the Horizon League, and 71 percent of the school’s students come from those five states. “In addition,” he said, “many of the alumni in those states are in metropolitan areas not served by our current conference affiliation, so a greater number now will have an opportunity to watch the performances of student-athletes representing their alma mater.” Valparaiso joins current Horizon League members Butler University; Cleveland State University; the University of Detroit Mercy; the University of Illinois at Chicago; Loyola University (Illinois); the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay; the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Wright State University; and Youngstown State University. The addition of Valparaiso marks the first membership change for the Horizon League since Youngstown State joined for the 2001-02 academic year. Valparaiso Athletics Director Mark LaBarbera said, “By becoming members of the Horizon League we give our student-athletes the opportunity to compete in a midwestern conference with a national reach. We will be renewing and strengthening relationships and rivalries that have historic significance to our student-athletes, our alumni and all of our constituents.” The Crusaders will begin Horizon League competition in 17 sports beginning with the 2007-08 academic year, competing for all but two of the league’s 19 championships (men’s and women’s golf). Located in the northwest Indiana city of Valparaiso, the university is geographically centered in the Horizon League and will add a third league member to the Chicago media market, as well as a second to Indiana, where the Crusaders will join longtime rival Butler.

Miscellaneous: The University of Illinois, Champaign, conducted a promotion recently called “the World’s Largest Softball Tailgate.” It is the third year for the promotion that transforms the school’s softball contest into a football tailgating atmosphere. A record crowd of more than 2,000 people attended this year’s event before the Illinois-Northwestern University game. The tailgate included a band, inflatable games, two hog roasts and judging for best tailgate food and most Illini spirit ... Two Patriot League head men’s basketball coaches — the U.S. Military Academy’s Jim Crews and the U.S. Naval Academy’s Billy Lange — went to the Persian Gulf recently as part of Operation Hardwood II, the second United Service Organizations (USO) and Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE) trip to the region. Crews and Lange joined Rick Barnes from the University of Texas at Austin; Mark Gottfried from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Tom Izzo from Michigan State University; Bobby Lutz from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Dave Odom from the University of South Carolina, Columbia; Kelvin Sampson from Indiana University, Bloomington; Tubby Smith from the University of Kentucky; and Gary Williams from the University of Maryland, College Park. “This is a great honor to be asked to participate in an event that gives back to the men and women who provide a great service for our country,” Lange said. “I’m so excited on so many fronts — to work with the troops, to visit the Middle East and work alongside many of the great coaches within our game today.”