NACDA names McLendon postgraduate award winners

The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics has announced recipients of the fourth annual John McLendon Memorial Minority Postgraduate Scholarship award.

Each of the recipients will receive a $10,000 grant to pursue postgraduate studies in athletics administration. The recipients from NCAA institutions are: Alisse Ali-Christie, University of California, Davis, Native American studies; Paige Benjamin, University of Washington, accounting; Brian Moore, University of Georgia, sports studies; and Brandon Taylor, North Carolina A&T State University, physical education.

Ali-Christie, a two-year co-captain of the UC Davis tennis team, was a 2001 NCAA Leadership Conference participant.

Benjamin, who also earned an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, played volleyball at Washington.

Moore served as an intern in Georgia's athletics academic unit and was a student assistant in the development and sports communication offices.

Taylor, who plans to attend graduate school at Ohio State University, is a member of Kappa Delta Pi International Teacher Education Honor Society.

Nominees for the McLendon scholarship are required to have a minimum grade-point average of 3.000 (4.000 scale), have senior status and have demonstrated leadership qualities on an institutional or community level.

The award honors John McLendon, the first black coach selected to lead a program at a predominantly white school. He was head men's basketball coach at Cleveland State University from 1966 to 1969.

One-day haul crowds school's trophy case

It was a great day to be a Jaguar. The varsity athletics teams of Southern University, Baton Rouge, took home four conference titles May 4, winning Southwestern Athletic Conference crowns in baseball, softball, men's track and field, and women's track and field.

The softball and baseball contests were on campus, and a surge of fans moved from the softball field to the baseball field to cheer on the baseball team after the softball team won its title.

"Awesome day," said Floyd Kerr, Southern University's athletics director. "Great day. Our coaches have done a fantastic job. Some of the championships we weren't expected to win, but we won anyway. That's the beauty of it."

While the baseball team notched its third straight conference title and the softball team was a second-seed in its division of the conference, the track titles were complete surprises. The men's track team was plagued with injuries and the women's team was inexperienced, but both took home wins, with the women unseating two-time defending conference champion Alabama State University.

The four titles in one day actually gave the Jaguars 10 of the 17 SWAC titles since they had brought home conference crowns in women's golf and men's and women's tennis earlier.

An academic who's who on first

When the Kent State University softball team faced Cleveland State University this spring, job recruiters might have taken note.

In the first inning, Cleveland State senior pitcher Lindsay Gervais faced off against Kent State senior first baseman Lea Dorto. Dorto reached on a fielder's choice, but that's not what anyone will remember about this matchup between valedictorians.

Gervais carried a perfect grade-point average with a major in psychology and a minor in communications. She is co-valedictorian of the Cleveland State class of 2003 and a four-time recipient of Cleveland State's Athletic/Academic Excellence Award. She posted a 3.28 earned-run average this season and carries junior eligibility because of an injury suffered last season.

Dorto matched Gervais' perfect GPA in computer information systems, earning Beta Gamma Sigma honors as 2003 co-valedictorian of the Kent State Business Management School. Dorto also won the Mid-American Conference Presidential Award and was inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma athletics/academics honor society.

Dorto hit .268 with 10 doubles and 24 RBIs this season and was named to the MAC first team.

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes

Number crunching

Looking back

When the famous were freshmen

The 1971 NCAA spring championships will be remembered for the freshmen who won titles. No fewer than four frosh won major individual titles, while a host of others made the spring of '71 the best freshman showing since the NCAA established eligibility for first-year players in 1968.

Golfer Ben Crenshaw of the University of Texas at Austin was one of the young titlists, winning medalist honors at the University Division Golf Championships, while Jimmy Connors of the University of California, Los Angeles, won the singles title at the University Division Tennis Championships.

Crenshaw carded a stretch of four birdies in five holes on the back nine of the final round to wrap up medalist honors and help his Texas team, which included fellow future PGA star Tom Kite, to the team title over the University of Florida.

Connors beat Stanford University's Roscoe Tanner, also destined for fame as a professional, in the final match despite a flare-up of bursitis in both shoulders.

Other freshmen who excelled in 1971 were Stan Stopa of Louisiana State New Orleans (now the University of New Orleans), who won medalist honors in the College Division Golf Championships, and Bob Chappell of the University of California, Davis, who took the singles crown at the College Division Tennis Championships.

Another freshman, first-baseman Jerry Tabb of the University of Tulsa, was named the most outstanding player at the College World Series, and frosh Gordon Minty of Eastern Michigan University was the lone double winner at the College Division Track and Field Championships .