Track and Field

Emily Lepley ’07 won the women’s 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Division III Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Wartburg College in May. Lepley, from Lewistown, Pa., is the second Crusader female to win a national championship, following Janee Shaner ’01 who won the javelin in 1999. She is the first Susquehanna track athlete – male or female – to capture gold since Mike Spangler ’88 won the 400 meters for the third straight year in 1988 and joins Jeff Walden ’88 as a national champion in the 400 hurdles.

Lepley ran 1:01.20 in the finals – the third-fastest time in Division III this season. “I was just planning to run all-out from the start, there really was no strategy,” said Lepley. “I was surprised (to win).”

WEB EXTRA: http://www.susqu.edu/Sports/teams/WTrackField/default.htm

Basketball

Blanchard Named Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar

Skyra Blanchard '05 has been honored by Black Issues in Higher Education magazine as a first-team selection in women's basketball for the 2005 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholars Awards. She joins nine other student-athletes – including five from NCAA Division I schools – on the 10-player first team, and is one of just two Division III players among the 32 named to one of the three teams.

Black Issues in Higher Education established the Sports Scholars Awards to honor undergraduate students of color who have made achieving both academically and athletically a winning combination. To be selected as a Sports Scholar, students need to compete in an intercollegiate sport, maintain a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.2 and be active on their campuses or in their communities.

Blanchard, of Lewisburg, Pa., was named second-team All-Conference as she averaged 8.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game from her starting center position to rank second in the conference in rebounding and 44th in the final NCAA Division III statistics. She finished sixth in the league with a team-best 2.36 steals per game.

WEB EXTRA: http://www.susqu.edu/sports/releases/Spring05/blanchard.htm

Murray Sperber to Deliver Schmidt Lecture

Acclaimed author and nationally-recognized expert on the subject of college sports and culture Murray Sperber will deliver the third annual Edward S. and A. Rita Schmidt Lectureship in Ethics at Susquehanna University on Thursday, November 3 at 7:30 p.m. He will speak about the relationship between ethics and sports. In particular, he will discuss unethical behaviors that undermine and challenge the integrity of professional and big-time college sports.

Sperber, who holds the Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, is a professor emeritus of English and American Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. His most recent book is Beer & Circus: How Big-time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education. He is also the author of College Sports Inc.: The Athletic Department vs. the University and Shake Down the Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football. In addition to appearing on many national TV and radio programs, including PBS's “The Lehrer Newshour,” ABC-TV’'s “Nightline,” and CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes,” Sperber frequently contributes op-ed pieces to The Chronicle of Higher Education and other publications, including The New York Times.

Made possible through the generosity of Edward R. Schmidt ’69 in honor of his parents, The Edward S. and A. Rita Schmidt Lectureship in Ethics brings distinguished scholars and leaders to Susquehanna to address a topic of current, vital interest and importance in the field of ethics. The event is free and open to the public.

“Crusader” Origins

DID YOU KNOW that Susquehanna University's nickname “Crusaders” was adopted in the 1920s when a new athletics director, Luther Grossman, inaugurated a new athletics policy at the university?

In The Story of Susquehanna University, authors William S. Clark and Arthur Herman Wilson write that in the early 1920s, “the school, to some extent, became embroiled in the ‘scramble for supremacy in intercollegiate athletics.’ After the First World War the university was influenced by the great emphasis, throughout the nation, placed upon sports. Football became a big business. There were few colleges in the country whose athletic program could be honestly referred to as amateur.”

Grossman, however, was determined that Susquehanna field football teams which were truly representative of the student body and, furthermore, that an extensive intramural program be developed to offer all students some opportunity to engage in athletic competition.

The historians Clark and Wilson continue: “Stoney McLinn, sports editor of The Evening Public Ledger of Philadelphia, wrote: ‘Susquehanna's Crusaders. That’s what they are calling the football team of the university … Why Crusaders? Well, Susquehanna has determined to put its athletics on a strictly amateur basis. Sports for all and sports for sports’ sake is their motto.’”