The University of Kansas recently opened an addition to historic Allen Fieldhouse called the Booth Family Hall of Athletics to recognize all past Kansas alumni varsity athletes. The addition totals more that 26,000 square feet and carries a project cost of more than $8 million. Its primary mission is to display memorabilia of the school’s historic athletics programs, past and current. It also features meeting rooms and a retail store for Kansas athletics apparel. The facade of the hall is natural stone to match Allen Fieldhouse’s original stone. The architectural firm HOK Sport Venue Event designed the addition. “We really had to put our minds into that of the original architect to preserve the spirit of the building,” said HOK project designer Bob Krohn. “Our client was the university, but we also had to design for the student-athletes and the millions of fans who connect with Allen Fieldhouse as a core memory of their college experience. If anything, we preserved the fieldhouse’s presence. Even though it has a new face, the aura of Allen Fieldhouse still exists. If I were a player on an opposing team, I would still hate to play there.”
Milestones: Birmingham-Southern College men’s basketball coach Duane Reboul recorded career victory No. 400 with a 73-69 win over visiting High Point University February 11. Now in his 17th year, Reboul is the school’s all-time winningest coach with a record of 400-121 after the High Point win ... Duke University senior guard J.J. Redick scored 30 points against the University of Miami (Florida) February 19 to become the school’s all-time leading scorer in men’s basketball. Now with 2,557 career points, Redick passed current associate head coach Johnny Dawkins, who registered 2,556 career points from 1983 through 1986. Redick also is second on the Atlantic Coast Conference all-time chart behind Wake Forest University’s Dickie Hemric, who had 2,587 points.
Miscellaneous: Daktronics, Inc., has been named the official supplier of scorer’s tables for the 2006 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Final Fours. Positioned courtside, the fully digital scorer’s tables display real-time team and player statistics, colorful graphics, animation and video clips. “Several of our member schools have brought this technology on line over the last year with great success. We feel that the scorer's table displays will add greatly to our events as well,” said L.J. Wright, NCAA director of Division I men’s basketball. Daktronics began manufacturing large screen, full-color LED displays in 1997 ... The Ohio Valley Conference announced the first recipients of the league’s inaugural Team Sportsmanship Awards. Among the squads capturing the honor for the fall season were the women’s soccer and volleyball programs from Eastern Kentucky University, and the football and men’s and women’s cross country teams from Samford University. Voted on by the student-athletes and coaches of the respective sports, the team awards are bestowed upon the conference squads deemed to have best exhibited the standards of sportsmanship and ethical behavior as outlined by the league and the NCAA. Included in the areas for evaluation are the conduct of student-athletes, coaches, staff and administrators and fans. “Sportsmanship is a core value of the Ohio Valley Conference,” said Commissioner Jon A. Steinbrecher, “and the team awards are a primary means of celebrating those student-athletes and coaches who perform with distinction. Anytime you are recognized by your peers, it is truly an honor.” ... Liberty University won the first Big South Conference Quiz Bowl February 4 at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. Liberty recorded an 8-0 record in finishing ahead of Radford University, VMI, Charleston Southern University and High Point University. The tournament is among initiatives coming from the conference’s new Academic Consortium, designed to develop institutional relationships outside of athletics and explore ways to share programs and resources to the benefit of students and member institutions. In addition to the Quiz Bowl, the consortium is planning an Undergraduate Research Symposium among Big South member institutions in 2007 ... In honor of Black History Month, the University of Pittsburgh athletics department has produced a commemorative color poster that pays homage to the school’s African-American “Trailblazers.” The poster idea came after the school paid tribute to Bobby Grier, who 50 years ago became the first African-American to play in the Sugar Bowl (1956). “Bobby Grier’s participation was a landmark moment for Pitt and college football during the civil rights movement,” Athletics Director Jeff Long said. “When we started to reflect on our history we realized that Bobby Grier was one of many Pitt student-athletes who had been part of groundbreaking moments or achievements. We hope this poster will bring awareness and inspiration to our current generation of student-athletes.” Among those featured on the poster are Grier; Billy Knight, Pittsburgh’s first African-American basketball all-American and current general manager of the Atlanta Hawks; Lorri Johnson, the all-time leading basketball scorer — men or women — at the school with 2,312 points; 1980 Outland Trophy winner Mark May; and 1976 Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett.
