Ohio Valley Conference leadership has new look for 2003-04

This year's summer meetings for the Ohio Valley Conference definitely will earn a prominent place in the conference history books.

For the first time in the league's 56-year history, two women will lead the way for the OVC.

Sherry L. Hoppe, president at Austin Peay State University, was elected president and chair of the board of presidents. Eastern Kentucky University President Joanne K. Glasser was named vice-president and will be vice-chair of the board.

This is believed to be the first time in NCAA history for two women to hold the top leadership positions in a Division I conference.

For both Hoppe and Glasser, trailblazing is nothing new. After completing a one-year interim term, Hoppe was named president at Austin Peay State in January 2001, becoming the first woman to head a four-year Tennessee Board of Regents university. Hoppe, who has been OVC vice-president for the past two years, formerly served as president at Roane State (Tennessee) Community College.

When Glasser accepted the presidency at Eastern Kentucky in October 2001, she became the first woman to do so. She had been executive vice-president at Towson University, where she oversaw fund-raising, public relations, marketing and alumni relations.

Donor group honors Marquette coach

Trey Schwab, men's basketball special assistant at Marquette University, has been named as co-recipient of the Dr. James S. Wolf Courage award recognizing his work in building organ-donor awareness.

Presented annually, the award is given to an individual outside the transplant and donation community who has played a significant role in raising the public's awareness on a national level of organ and tissue donation.

For his part, Schwab not only conducted dozens of media interviews on the subject, but he also served as a spokesman for National Donor Day in April. Also, in December, he arranged a donor-awareness night during the Marquette basketball game against the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

The cause is an extremely personal one for Schwab. In September 2001, he fell ill with what eventually was diagnosed as ideopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung disease. Although since then he has undergone six surgeries and received experimental drug treatment, his only hope for long-term survival is a lung transplant.

The Wolf award honors the founder of the Coalition on Donation, who also is the retired chair of Northwestern Memorial Hospital's division of transplantation.

Baylor athlete lacked hours, not experience

When Baylor University football student-athlete Weldon Bigony left the school in 1941 to enlist in the Naval Air Corps during World War II, he was just 24 credit hours shy of completing his bachelor's degree.

Like his mother, who returned to school in her 70s to earn a teaching certificate, Bigony returned to Baylor 60 years later to finished his last eight courses.

During the school's May 17 commencement exercises, Bigony, at the age of 82, was presented with a degree in business administration.

The subject of stories in USA Today and People and a May 16 "Forever Young" segment of NBC's "The Today Show," Bigony is a retired pilot. He volunteers at nursing homes, hospitals and prisons, and also is a competitive race walker. He is scheduled to enter the 1,500-meter and 5-kilometer races during the National Senior Games in June.

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

From the June 30, 1993, NCAA News:

The latest NCAA graduation-rates report shows raters for the entering class of 1986-87 six percent higher than the first three previous classes the methodology tracked. The news is significant since the 1986-87 class is the first to operate under Prop 48, which imposed stricter eligibility standards.

* The NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse makes final adjustments before becoming operational August 1, 1993.

* The NCAA Special Committee to Review Financial Conditions in Intercollegiate Athletics submits its report to the NCAA Presidents Commission. The report's 18 proposals single out football and basketball more than any other sport. But the report warns that "NCAA legislation, no matter how well crafted, cannot make all institutions comparable, nor can regulations fundamentally affect how institutions choose to fashion their support of men's and women's programs." Among the proposals are reductions in the number of official visits in football and basketball, elimination of off-campus housing for football teams before home games and reduction of off-campus recruiting and evaluation.

The NCAA Gender-Equity Task Force meets to complete work on its final report that will be submitted to the NCAA Council in August. The group's preliminary report was mailed to the NCAA membership in May. Five members of the task force announce they do not fully agree with the preliminary report and plan to address areas of disagreement.

Joy Reighn (now Joy Solomen), who will chair the Division III Management Council from 2001 to 2002, is named the director of the men's and women's athletics programs at Rowan University.

The Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics reforms to monitor the NCAA's search for a new executive director to succeed Richard D. Schultz, who resigned May 11.