Association puts first visual touch on centennial celebration

 The NCAA unveiled logos for the 2005 Women's Final Four and the 2006 Men's Final Four, as well as the Association's centennial logo during a ceremony last month.

The 2005 Women's Final Four and 2006 Men's Final Four will be held in Indianapolis at the RCA Dome. The 2005 Division I women's national championship marks the first time Indianapolis has hosted the event. It will be the fifth time the city has hosted the men's championship.

Also during the September 28 ceremony, the NCAA announced that the Women's Final Four will return to Indianapolis in 2011. Butler University and the Horizon League will serve as the hosts.

In 2006, the NCAA will recognize its centennial. The year-long celebration will kick off with the 2006 NCAA Convention in Indianapolis, where the Association's national office has been headquartered since 1999.

It will be the second time the NCAA has hosted the Convention in Indianapolis. The membership gathered in the city for the first time in 2002.

"The focus of our centennial celebration will be to commemorate 100 years of intercollegiate athletics, focusing on 100 years of the student-athlete, in a manner that honors the past, highlights the advocacy and reform initiatives of the present and provides a look into the future," said NCAA President Myles Brand.

Rockford brings soccer pitch to Iraqi children

In a small effort that could generate big returns, the Rockford College athletics department recently donated a dozen soccer balls to be given to Iraqi children by United States Marines as a gesture of goodwill.

Rockford alumnus Dan Jaworowski brought the idea to attention of school Athletics Director Kristyn King after he read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how the Marines were successfully using the balls to help bond with the Iraqi people. The story described how one Marine unit's efforts to pass out oral hygiene products and powered milk were rebuffed until American soldiers tossed out the soccer balls.

King said Rockford was glad to be able to do something to show support for the American forces stationed in Iraq.

Television and football celebrate 65th anniversary

Although it might be difficult for today's college football fans to imagine a time when they couldn't simply flip on the television to catch their favorite team in action, last month marked the 65th anniversary of the first televised college football game.

The history-making game featuring Fordham University and Waynesburg College at Triborough Stadium in New York City was telecast on NBC September 30, 1939. The contest also was heard on WNYC radio.

Because the broadcast signal extended only for about a 50-mile radius, the game could not be seen in Pennsylvania, where Waynesburg is located. But those who were gathered around the estimated 1,000 television sets in the New York metropolitan area at the time saw Waynesburg's Bobby Brooks open the scoring three plays into the game with a 63-yard touchdown run.

They also saw the Rams quickly recover and go on to collect a 34-7 victory.

That Saturday afternoon in 1939 was not the first time the Waynesburg squad had been part of a milestone in college football history. In 1929, the Yellow Jackets squared off against Duquesne in the first night football game in Pittsburgh.

_{-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra}

Number crunching

Looking back

10 years ago

Here's what was making NCAA news in October 1994:

* Led by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, a coalition of nonrevenue-sport coaches associations blankets the U.S. Congress with a position paper on gender equity and how it has affected nonrevenue sports at the intercollegiate level. Included with the position paper is a survey in which lawmakers are asked to indicate their support, or lack thereof, for current gender-related developments in intercollegiate athletics. The coaches associations want a hearing with officials from the Office for Civil Rights, and they hope to impress upon OCR officials that the bureau should be just as concerned about preserving opportunities for the growing number of male student-athletes who are being told their institutions are dropping a sport as it is about enforcing equal opportunities for women.

* The NCAA Presidents Commission Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct meets in Boston to discuss sportsmanship-related issues. The CEO-led discussions produce several themes, including the notion that because Division I programs are responsible for being as fiscally self-sufficient as possible -- and because such self-sufficiency is not likely without winning -- that winning becomes the primary incentive and in turn sportsmanship becomes a lesser, even conflicting, priority. Committee members also agree that it is unreasonable to expect ethical development from student-athletes if they are not truly part of the student body.

* The NCAA Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Committee recommends a new system of selecting divers from zone meet to participate in the Division I championships. The new system is a placement-priority qualifying system from zone meets based on individual events rather than a combined score for two. Advocates say the system eliminates "combination-scoring" qualifying and should help place the best divers in each event into the NCAA championships.

* Doug Woolard, former associate athletics director at Washington State University, is chosen as athletics director at Saint Louis University. Woolard replaces Deborah A. Yow, who left the institution in August to become the athletics director at the University of Maryland, College Park.