Highlight show gains interest 'spike' with network choice

For the second consecutive year, CBS Sports has selected Spike TV to broadcast the official 2004 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship highlight shows.

Spike TV will air six programs nightly, March 25 through March 28 and Final Four weekend, April 3 and 5.

Spike TV has chosen College Sports TV (CSTV) to produce the shows, which will include game highlights, interviews, press conferences and features on participating teams and student-athletes. CSTV will produce the programs live from its New York studios during the first and second rounds and regionals and from San Antonio during the Final Four.

CSTV also will produce an additional series of four highlight programs during the tournament that will air exclusively on CSTV daily March 18-21.

Spike TV is available in 86 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. Since its launch last April, CSTV has televised more than 2,500 hours of original programming spanning 30 men's and women's college sports. The network also televises nine NCAA championships.

Freedom Forum names scholarship winners

The Freedom Forum, in conjunction with the NCAA, recently awarded eight $3,000 sports journalism scholarships to undergraduate students attending NCAA member institutions.

The one-year, nonrenewable scholarships were awarded to students who are entering their senior year of study during the 2004-05 academic year and who are majoring in journalism, sports journalism or have campus sports journalism experience.

This year's recipients are Brian Thomas Costa, George Washington University; Joshua Paul Wright, University of Idaho; David Michael Wiechmann, Texas Tech University; Brian M. Singler, University of Alaska Anchorage; Erik Douglas Heinonen, University of Oregon; Nate Grant Frandsen, Iowa State University; Chelsey Kay Thomas, Trinity University (Texas); and Christopher Evans Drexel, Arizona State University.

The scholarship program is specifically designed to foster the freedoms of speech and press while also promoting quality sports journalism education at the collegiate level and encouraging top students to work in the area of sports journalism after graduation.

Charles L. Overby, chairman and chief executive officer of the Freedom Forum said the scholarships are investments in the future.

"The NCAA is working to build the next generation, and we're pleased to help in that effort," he said.

The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. The foundation focuses on three priorities: the Newseum, an interactive museum of news in Arlington, Virginia; First Amendment issues; and diversity in journalism.

Davidson professor knows art of football

Davidson College art professor Shaw Smith played a key role in the Carolina Panthers' masterpiece of a season and Super Bowl XXXVIII appearance.

Since 1995, Smith has served as a member of Carolina's equipment team, investing up to 25 hours a week during the season fulfilling a range of tasks such as doing laundry, hauling water, waxing and polishing helmets and preparing uniforms. He also stood ready on the sidelines during games to react to any emergency that may arise.

A member of Davidson's faculty since 1986, Smith also serves in a similar role for the school's football squad, helping the equipment manager prepare for games, assisting on sidelines during contests and often traveling with the teams to away games.

Although Smith, who has been with Carolina since the team's first snap in the fall of 1995, admits he loves his work with the Panthers so much he'd do it for free, he said it isn't all fun and games.

"It's not just about having fun doing this," he said. "You work to get to the Super Bowl. That's why you fold hundreds of towels in the laundry room in Spartanburg, and drip sweat loading trucks in Charlotte in the heat. It's about winning, and this year we finally got the chance to win it all."

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

Western influence

When the NCAA Men's and Women's Skiing Championships head west to California next month, many strong teams from around the country will be competing for the team and individual titles. But history favors a team from the Western region of the United States to win the big prize of overall champion.

Skiing has been an NCAA championship sport since 1954, and in that time the vast majority of the overall champions have been from the West. Western teams have won or tied an overwhelming 44 years out of 50 times the championships have been held. Western teams also have placed as runner-up in 30 of the championships.

The University of Denver has the most wins with 17 and also has placed as runner-up seven times in the history of the championships. The Pioneers won the first four championships, from 1954 to 1957, and had a stronghold on the title from 1961 to 1967. After their win in 1971, Denver hit a dry spell until 2000, when the Pioneers again reclaimed the title.

Other Western schools with multiple championships are the University of Colorado, Boulder, with 15 wins (one of those a tie with Dartmouth College in 1976) and six runner-up titles, and the University of Utah with 10 wins and nine second-place finishes.

Besides Denver, Colorado and Utah, the only other Western school to claim the team title was the University of Wyoming, which won in 1968 and 1985.

The only Eastern schools to wear the championship crown were the University of Vermont and Dartmouth, with Vermont having five victories and Dartmouth having two (one being its tie in 1976 with Colorado). Vermont was the last Eastern school to win the championship, with its victory in 1994.

The only other Eastern school to finish as a runner-up, besides Dartmouth and Vermont, is Middlebury College, which came in second in 1961.