Status, performance
key for all-Americans
ALL-AMERICANS from page 1
American.
Nebraska is in region VII of nom
ination, with Colorado, Iowa, Kansas,
Missouri, Montana, North and South
Dakota, Wyoming and the Canadian
provinces of Alberta and
Saskatchewan.
Three teams of academic All
Americans are named for every sport
sponsored by the program. Only two
teams are named for football, and
three candidates from each school are
named for a general men’s and
women’s all-around team.
In addition to academic and ath
letic achievements, information on
the nominee’s extracurricular activi
ties and volunteer work are provided
to the Committee of Sports
Information Directors of America
participants.
From there, who becomes an aca
demic All-American depends on the
individual voter.
Anderson, who takes part in
regional voting, said she looked for
athletes with a high GPA in their
senior year.
“When I’m voting in the first
round and I see a senior 4.0, that real
ly tells me something,” Anderson
said. “To me, if you make it through
your senior year with a perfect GPA,
you deserve to be recognized.”
The System
The All-Americans
Athletes and their
tutors
Learning Disabilities
The Sports Major
Corruption in the
System
Isolation and Its
Counterparts
Athletes After Graduation
The Social Scene for Athletes
Athletes as Role Models
A Day in the Life
The Academic/
Athletic Tradeoff
Gameday
” You ’re talking
about a lot of
different sports
that are thrown
into the same
category. It’s very
difficult to be
selected. I’ve
always felt that
was wrong.”
Jay Dirksen
NU cross-country coach
Two of Nebraska’s most recently
recognized academic All-Americans
provide a good example for distin
guishing between academic and ath
letic achievement.
Football players Mike Brown and
Brian Shaw were both named acade
mic All-Americans in December.
Brown, a Business
Administration major with a 3.4
GPA, was named to the first team
while Shaw, a 4.0 animal science and
agricultural economics major, made
the second team for the second year in
a row.
Why the different teams?
“Mike has a great GPA but the
thing is, he’s had a heck of a year,”
Shaw said. .
ShawLstarted in about half of the
games tfis season, sharing time at
linebacker with Tony Ortiz. He had
23 tackles this season.
In contrast, Brown started in
every game and was an named to All
Big 12 and All-American teams. He
led the team with 96 tackles and
seemed to have a knack for making
the big play whenever the Huskers
needed it. Defensive Coordinator
Charlie McBride called Brown “the
best player he’s ever coached.”
Still, Anderson said she hoped
Shaw would have made the first team.
But, as both play at different posi
- - ; '
Celebrating
100 Years of
GraduateJ % i
Education/ 1
Research and
Creative Activity
at the
University of .
Nebraska-Uncoln Nebraska.
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA- LINCOLN
Inaugural Symposium
Reflecting on the Contributions of Graduate
Education, Research and Creative Activity
Thursday, January 27,2000
2-5 p.m. • Kimball Hall
Speakers: Robert Knoll, NU professor emeritus of English; Karen
Kune, NU professor of art; James Olson, historian and president
emeritus of the University of Missouri; Kennedy Reed, NU graduate
and an atomic physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Labora
tory; and Clayton Yeutter, NU graduate, former president of the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture,
1989-91.
All Events Free and Open to the Public
n University of Nebraska-Uncoln
NU is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution.
_ __ _ Heather Glenboski/DN
HUSKER FOOTBALL PLAYERS Brian Shaw and Kyle Vanden Bosch are both First-Team GTE Academic All-Americans.
The university holds the NCAA record for the most All-Americans ever with 164 athletes.
tions, they faced different competi
tion.
At Shaw’s position, only one of
three players had a 4.0 GPA - Texas
Tech’s Keith Cockrum, who had a
triple major of information systems,
finance and economics.
But Iowa State’s Dave Brcka (3.88
in biology) and Butler’s Mike Goletz
(3.93 in chemistry), both seniors, did
not.
Brcka had 48 tackles and played
in eight games, four fewer than Shaw.
Goletz had 47 tackles and was a
repeat award winner.
In reality, though, Shaw has a bet
ter chance of making the list than
many NU athletes on campus.
All student-athletes who pass the
program’s initial requirements are
nominated unless they are on teams
which fall under the all-men’s or all
women’s category, Anderson said.
Anderson said she nominated any
athlete who met the basic qualifica
tions for the program and played on a
sport recognized by GTE with a spe
cific All-American team.
With the all-men’s and all
women’s teams, Anderson, allowed to
chose only three candidates, must
make some hard decisions.
Anderson said nominating these
three athletes is the worst part of what
is generally a fun job.
* “YoU'Can’t even (nominate) one
per sport,” Anderson said. “I don’t
like that rule at all.”
While these teams are intended to
be a catch-all for the wide variety of
sports recognized by the NCAA, they
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are not limited to small, relatively
unknown sports or ones that have
lots of members.
For example, track and field -
one of the largest sports on campus
- is thrown into the spring all-men’s
and all-women’s teams.
Jay Dirksen, Nebraska’s cross
country coach, said track and field
was probably one of the largest pro
grams at Nebraska and home to
some very committed student ath
letes. The cross-country team,
Dirksen said, finished last year with
an average GPA of 3.67, which is
well above many other sports on
campus.
But, Dirksen said, being recog
nized by GTE is hard because so
many athletes must compete for so
few spots.
“You’re talking about a lot of
different sports that are thrown into
the same category. It’s very difficult
to be selected,” Dirksen said. “I’ve
always felt that was wrong.”
Dick Lipe, chairman of the
Committee of Sports Information
Directors of America, said expand
ing the program to include more
sports would be unlikely anytime
soon.
“It’s been discussed in the past,”
Lipe said. “In the near future, I
would probably say no.”
He said costs are the main rea
son the program will probably remair
its current size.
GTE, he said, currently funds the
recognition of 684 athletes, with the
program’s costs mainly going tc
awards and publicity. GTE represen
tatives could not confirm the specific
cost of the academic All-Americar
program.
Overall, Anderson said, choosing
academic All-Americans comes
■ Football (77)
■ Men's At-Large* (21)
M Softball (20)
9 Volleyball (18)
fj§ Women's At-Large* (17)
a Baseball (7)
a Women's Basketball (8)
* At-Large includes all other sports at UNL
O-Parentheticals equal actual number of players
Source - Millsport
down to a demonstration of things
such as academic excellence, success
and a strong reputation.
But, she said, reputation is defi
nitely what makes a candidate stand
out.
“You’re going to vote for some
one you’ve heard of,” she said. “If
they’re nominated and they’re one of
the best players in the country, they’ll
make it.”
a
