College sports to get television boost starting in February

College Sports Television (CSTV), previously known as the National College Sports Network, has announced a new name and plans to begin broadcasting February 23 from New York City.

In the last few months, CSTV has signed programming agreements with more than 22 college conferences that include more than 250 institutions. Among the conferences that have signed agreements with CSTV are the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Mountain West and Western Athletic Conferences and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

Programming plans include games, events and conference championships from up to 25 men's and women's sports on a year-round basis, including consistent weekly coverage of sports such as baseball, ice hockey, volleyball, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, wrestling, football and softball.

CSTV also will broadcast weekly match-ups through special agreements with the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, the American Volleyball Coaches Association and top conferences in Division I-AA football.

The network plans 24-hour coverage from its offices in the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex, a sports village built on piers that extend into the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan.

"New York City is a natural home for college sports television, given the city's role as a melting pot for alumni from virtually every college in America," said Brian Bedol, co-founder and CEO of CSTV.

When it goes live, the network will be the first cable network in New York City to have a street-level broadcast center accessible to the public.

Women's ice hockey has first officials boss

Robert Quinn, former supervisor of officials at the Eastern College Athletic Conference, has been named the NCAA's first coordinator of women's ice hockey officials.

Quinn will be responsible for coordinating all areas of women's ice hockey officiating, including evaluation, development and selection officials for NCAA championship competition (subject to approval from the NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Committee). With the rapid development of women's ice hockey, particular attention will be paid to recruiting and training new officials.

Quinn began his officiating career in 1975. He officiated in the ECAC and the Hockey East Association at many levels, including the Men's Frozen Four in 1984. After finishing his officiating career in 1987, Quinn served Hockey East as an observer for two seasons. In 1991, the ECAC tabbed him as the supervisor of the conference's men's and women's officials, a post he held for eight years. Quinn also served as the NCAA's video replay official at the Women's Frozen Four in 2002.

Offensive lineman also a guard off the field

Spence Baxter, a senior offensive lineman for Randolph-Macon College, jumped in to help when someone needed it this fall, even though that's no longer his job.

A former lifeguard, Baxter was dining at a restaurant in September with his father and his uncle, celebrating the Yellow Jackets' home victory over Catholic University. One of the restaurant patrons began choking, and the younger Baxter went over to help some other patrons who were administering the Heimlich maneuver. The man did not respond and lost consciousness.

When that happened, Baxter initiated CPR, giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while another person gave chest compressions. The pair performed CPR until an ambulance arrived and took the victim to the hospital.

Though Baxter has been a summer lifeguard for seven years, he had never had to use his training.

"If you're doing your job right as a lifeguard, it should never get to that point," he said. "I've had to fish little kids out of the pool, but I never had anyone who was unconscious."

In addition to his lifeguard training, Baxter also was an Eagle Scout, so it didn't surprise his family that he was willing to step in when someone needed help. "I didn't really think too much," the younger Baxter said of his role in saving the man's life. "There wasn't enough time. I just went over and got involved."

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes

Number crunching

Looking back

MOIC turns 15

While the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee (MOIC) wasn't established until 1991, its roots were set 15 years ago when the NCAA Administrative Committee appointed Kentucky State University President Raymond M. Burse in September 1987 to chair the Special NCAA Council Subcommittee to Review Minority Opportunities in Intercollegiate Athletics.

Burse's group was created to address the issue of opportunities for ethnic minorities, especially Blacks, in college athletics, including coaching, athletics administration, officiating, the NCAA committee structure and conference governance structures.

The group was encouraged to review the 1981 NCAA "governance plan" statement that pledged the Association to a concerted effort to provide opportunities for Blacks and other minorities to hold viable roles in the Association's administrative structure; and to consider means of developing minority talent for the future, including the possibility of internship programs.

Other members on the original subcommittee were Patricia D. Cage Bibbs, director of women's athletics at Grambling State University; NCAA Secretary-Treasurer Thomas J. Frericks, vice-president and director of athletics at the University of Dayton; Sandra T. Shuler, associate director of athletics at North Carolina Central University; B.J. Skelton, faculty athletics representative at Clemson University; Division III Vice-President Judith M. Sweet, director of athletics at the University of California, San Diego; Division I Vice-President Albert M. Witte, faculty athletics representative at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; and Charles Whitcomb, faculty athletics representative at San Jose State University.

Whitcomb later became chair when the MOIC became a standing committee in 1991, and was instrumental in helping the MOIC develop ethnic minority internship and postgraduate scholarship programs, as well as diversity awareness programs, the NCAA Fellows Leadership Program and the Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Males.