Texas staff works to overcome loss suffered in accident

University of Texas at Austin women's head track and field coach Beverly Kearney is recovering from injuries sustained in a December 26 auto accident near Jacksonville, Florida. Kearney was critically injured in a one-car rollover accident that killed two people and injured three others.

One of those killed was Texas women's athletics academic counselor and former Jamaican Olympic track star Ilrey Sparks.

Kearney suffered extensive back injuries in the accident and underwent surgery that afternoon.

A seven-time NCAA Coach of the Year, Kearney is in her 11th season at Texas, where she has led the Longhorns to four NCAA national titles. Sparks was a former Olympic track and field standout and NCAA champion who had served as an academic counselor in the Longhorns' women's athletics academic support and student services department for seven years.

Texas Women's Athletics Director Chris Plonsky called Sparks "a tremendous mentor of young student-athletes with a great passion for her work. Threads of her work run through every athlete she's touched. As a former student-athlete, Ilrey herself excelled at the highest level. She then made it her profession and her life's work to give back to collegiate athletics by counseling and guiding young people as they attempted to go down the same path and achieve as she had during her collegiate career. This is such a profound loss for our athletics family."

Pittsburgh-Greensburg boasts a triple-double

Visitors to the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, athletics department may be wondering if their eyes are deceiving them.

With three sets of twins representing five of the 12 varsity sports at the school, folks really are seeing double.

The three sets of identical twins are: Bryan and Chris Gesinski; Dee and Jen Sutlic; and Maggie and Melissa Wess.

"I get confused myself sometimes," joked Athletics Director Dan Swalga.

The Gesinskis are in their second year together at the school. Both are members of the men's tennis team, while Bryan joined the soccer team for the first time this fall.

"It just worked out that way, for us to go to school together," said Chris Gesinski.

It didn't work out at first for Dee and Jen Sutlic, both sophomore multisport student-athletes, but they've been reunited this year. Dee spent her freshman year at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, so this is their first year together in college.

Dee plays volleyball and softball, while Jen plays basketball and softball.

"I really wanted to get back with my twin again," Dee said of her transfer. "It was hard being apart our freshman year."

Maggie and Melissa Wess, also sophomores, didn't like being apart last year either.

Melissa attended Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, but she transferred to Pittsburgh-Greensburg for her sophomore year, giving her the chance to play volleyball with her sister. Both are ranked among the leaders in the conference in defensive play.

"We really push each other to compete and work harder," Melissa said.

Perhaps the next step for Pittsburgh-Greensburg is triplets.

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes

Number crunching

Looking back

The NCAA adopted its first Television Plan at the 1952 Convention. The football package called for limited live television in 1952 and was intended to minimize the adverse effect of live television on attendance, spread exposure among schools by not allowing one team to be televised more than once per year, and market the product to the general public.

Attendance declined in 1952 and 1953, which did nothing to dispel the growing concern that television was providing an "electronic free ticket" and thus was decreasing fans' interest in attending games. But in 1954, television remained popular nationally while attendance finally increased. In fact, the 1954 rise would be the first of 20 consecutive.

A steady increase in rights followed. NBC bought the 1952 plan for $1.1 million, but 10 years later, CBS paid $5.1 million. In 1966, ABC acquired the rights for $7.8 million and kept the plan until the advent of cable television in 1982. By then, the network was paying $31 million annually.

The main provisions of the 1952 plan were:

Twelve Saturday afternoon dates shall be made available for "sponsored network telecasts."

There will be only one game telecast nationally on each of the 12 dates, except that small-college games of regional interest may be added or substituted by local stations.

The 12 games in the series shall be "widely distributed geographically with respect to their points of origin."

Games other than those in the series may be telecast only with the specific approval of the NCAA Television Committee.

A member college may appear on television only once per season.

No member college shall be obligated to televise any of its games, home or away.

Sponsors shall be "organizations of high standards that meet traditional college requirements of dignified presentation."