Facilities: The University of Iowa announced an $86.8 million renovation plan for its 70,000-seat Kinnick Stadium. The project, expected to be completed in August 2006, includes a new south end zone grandstand, new press box with a variety of premium seating options, renovated east grandstand and west grandstand concourses, new scoreboards, a new public address system and a new playing surface. The project will be funded primarily with revenue generated from a capital campaign expected to generate up to $15 for the project and the sale of private suites, indoor club seats and outdoor club seats in the new press box. Iowa Athletics Director Bob Bowlsby said the university already has received letters of intent for all 40 private suites expected to be included in the project and expects that demand for suites likely will require the creation of a waiting list.

Milestones: The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, baseball team opened its 2004 season by sweeping a nonconference doubleheader against Rider University March 7. The win in the first game gave Massachusetts head coach Mike Stone career win No. 500 and padded a career total that ranks him as the winningest active Division I head coach in New England. The doubleheader sweep gave Stone an overall record of 501-392-4, including a 447-302-2 slate at the helm of the Minutemen ... Stetson University baseball coach Pete Dunn recorded his 900th career victory against Florida A&M University March 6. He is in his 25th season as head coach at Stetson.

Miscellaneous: The athletics department at California State University, Fresno, held its first annual Organ Donor Awareness Day March 6 with a special ceremony honoring former all-America pitcher Lori Romeiro-Gardner. Romeiro-Gardner lost her six-year battle with liver cancer in November. She and husband Mark Gardner, who pitched for the San Francisco Giants and currently is a bullpen coach for the organization, were active volunteers with the California Transplant Donor Network. Organ donor cards and information brochures were available for Bulldogs' doubleheader against University of the Pacific (California). Romeiro-Gardner pitched at Fresno State in the mid-1980s and earned second-team all-American as a senior. She still holds the school record for consecutive no-hit innings (21 in 1984) and consecutive scoreless innings (60 in 1987) ... Loyola College (Maryland) has renamed its women's lacrosse field after former head coach Diane Geppi-Aikens, who died of cancer last June. Geppi-Aikens coached at Loyola for 14 years and posted a career record of 197-71. "Having her name up there has the girls taking something away with them every time they see it," Kerri Johnson, Geppi-Aikens' successor, told the Associated Press before the Greyhounds' first home game March 7 against Princeton University. "Her presence is there. It's the best award she's ever been given." The field had been named Curley Field in honor of John M. Curley Jr., a former trustee and community leader, but the Curley family requested it be renamed for Geppi-Aikens, who was a four-year starter for the Greyhounds' lacrosse team before graduating in 1984 ... Jackson State University will honor one of its legendary coaches when the school names its renovated track and field facility after Martin Epps. The naming ceremony will be April 20 before Jackson State's Blue Bengal Relays. Epps took over the school's track program in 1969 and led squads to several conference, regional and district championships. Epps also has been an assistant coach with the USA Junior Olympic team ... The Southeastern Conference will name the 2004 recipients of the Boyd H. McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Postgraduate Scholarship on April 6 in conjunction with National Student-Athlete Day. National Student-Athlete Day is held each April 6 to celebrate outstanding student-athletes who have achieved excellence in academics and athletics while having made significant contributions to the community. It is also a time to recognize those parents, teachers, coaches and school systems that make it possible for young people to find the balance between academics and athletics. National Student-Athlete Day was created in 1987 by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports and Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society, and presented by the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations. The SEC has presented the McWhorter postgraduate scholarships since 1986 to the league's top male and female scholar-athletes.

-- Compiled by Gary T. Brown