The Association paused during its Centennial Convention to recognize 18 current and former student-athletes during a January 7 ceremony at the Murat Theatre in Indianapolis.

The Honors Celebration for the NCAA’s 100th anniversary changed from its usual dinner format to a series of discussions that allowed attendees to hear from each of the Today’s Top VIII and Silver Anniversary Award winners in a question-and-answer session led by emcee and former NCAA award winner Jack Ford.

Other former NCAA award recipients Kara Lawson, Calvin Hill and John Wooden returned to introduce this year’s honorees. As in the past, each Inspiration Award recipient offered remarks, as did the 2006 Theodore Roosevelt Award winner Robert K. Kraft, business executive and owner of the New England Patriots.

Kraft accepted the Association’s highest honor from Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts, where the Patriots were hosting a first-round playoff game. Kraft congratulated the other award recipients and said he was humbled, honored and blessed to receive the award.

“It was flattering to learn that someone from my alma mater considered me worthy of such an honor, especially considering the distinguished class of past recipients,” said Kraft. “Reflecting well on Co- lumbia University has always been extremely important to me, and to be the first graduate of the university to be so honored is a source of great personal pride.”

Kraft earned two letters as a member of Columbia’s football team before an injury shortened his playing career. The 1963 graduate of the school is chair and CEO of The Kraft Group in addition to owning the Patriots since 1994.

“The lessons learned from competing in intercollegiate athletics have lasted a lifetime and given me an understanding of the importance of teamwork, mental toughness and personal perseverance,” Kraft said. “Team sports teach you how to get along with people by breaking down stereotypes and artificial barriers created by different types of social and economic backgrounds.”

Today’s Top VIII recipients honored during the evening were Samantha J. Arsenault, swimming and diving, University of Georgia; Sarah Dance, swimming and diving, Truman State University; Carter Hamill, cross country and track and field, Amherst College; Nick Hartigan, football, Brown University; DeMeco Ryans, football, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Richelle Simpson, gymnastics, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Christine Sinclair, women’s soccer, University of Portland; and Jamie Southern, softball, Fresno State University.

Ford quizzed each recipient on a range of topics, such as the importance of giving back to the community and serving as role models. In response to a question about achieving academic and athletics success, Brown’s Hartigan said it was a matter of bringing the same level of intensity to each pursuit.

Southern from Fresno State added, “I’d be lying if I said I don’t have more than one role model. When we go through the stages of our athletics career, we start off working to be that successful athlete. As we get older we look to those who have the values and morals that our parents instilled in us. Now, being at the top level in my sport, I look to veterans on the team. I hope that there are young girls out there now who look to me as a role model.”

The six former student-athletes being honored as Silver Anniversary Award winners were Val Ackerman, basketball, University of Virginia; Danny Ainge, basketball, Brigham Young University; Charles E. Davis, basketball, Vanderbilt University; Terry Schroeder, water polo, Pepperdine University; Mike Singletary, football, Baylor University; and Susan D. Wellington, swimming and softball, Yale University. Ford also asked them about community outreach, as well as the relationships between student-athletes and coaches.

When asked about why she felt it was important to give back, Yale’s Wellington said because she can and she should.

“I got to stand on the shoulders of some incredible pioneers, and because I got to stand on those shoulders, I got to be a student-athlete at Yale. I want for every girl that same chance,” she said.

Inspiration Awards went to Raul Altreche, a current student-athlete at Amherst, John Doar, a former basketball student-athlete at Princeton, and Lois  Taur-

man, a former four-sport student-athlete at Bellarmine.

In accepting his award, Altreche encouraged the audience to remember those who took a chance on them, and for them to take chances on others.

Doar, who was a lawyer with the Office of Civil Rights in the 1960s, said that in recognizing him, the award recognized thousands of unnamed black citizens who were involved in the civil-rights movement.

“Those people are the real heroes, and they are primarily responsible for what happened,” he said. “We worked and worked and worked. Then the Voting Rights Act of 1964 passed and the world changed.”

A two-hour version of the 2006 NCAA Honors Celebration was shown on ESPNU January 10, January 11 and January 15. ESPN2 will broadcast a one-hour show January 31 at 3 p.m. Eastern time.