July 29, 2004
Columbia, Mo. - Greetings from Columbia! Since we are in the midst of the summer, I would like to touch on a number of topics in this month's column.
We recently received some exciting news from Co-SIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America. Every year this organization rewards deserving student-athletes with the distinction of Academic All America. This past year, seven Missouri student-athletes reached that status. That places Mizzou in a tie fourth in the nation, for number of Academic All Americans. Nebraska led the country with nine. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University tied for second with eight. Missouri and Dayton University were next.
It's hard to imagine, but we are under 40 days to kickoff of the 2004 Missouri football season. It is a season that will open with high expectations from our fans and the media. As Gary Pinkel gets ready to open his fourth season at Mizzou, most preseason publications have placed his team among the nation's top 25. Junior quarterback Brad Smith is on virtually every "watch-list" for the most coveted award in college football, the Heisman Trophy. He's also on the short-list of contenders for the Davey O'Brien award, given annually to the best quarterback in collegiate football. Linebacker James Kinney is on the "watch-list" for the Butkus Award, and senior tight end Victor Sesay is included on a similar list as a candidate for the John Mackey Award, which goes each year to the nation's top tight end.
Fan interest is as high as it has been in my six years at Missouri. Season tickets and individual game tickets are selling at a reasonable rate. Arkansas State, Ball State, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and arch rival Kansas will all visit Faurot Field during the 2004 campaign. You can order your tickets by calling 1-800-CAT-PAWS, or online at www.mutigers.com. Last year, our team was selected to play on national television nine times. With two appearances already guaranteed (Sept. 9 at Troy State and Nov. 27 at Iowa State), we anticipate approaching that number again this season.
Construction continues on Mizzou Arena, which is scheduled to open in October. The project continues to move forward both on time and within budget. In fact, you can follow the progress by visiting our website at www.mutigers.com. You can get a view from inside the building by clicking on to the "Webcam" icon.
There is plenty of excitement surrounding the first season in this fabulous new facility. Our development staff recently completed its seat selection process with our donors. We have sold over 9000 season tickets, which is an increase of more than 2000 from our final year at the Hearnes Center. There are still a limited number of season tickets available. We also plan on holding 100 tickets for each game. These tickets will go on sale a couple of hours before tip-off. The seat selection also resulted in several new donors to the Tiger Scholarship Fund. The Tiger Scholarship Fund is the engine that helps drive our machine at Mizzou, providing books and tuition to our more than 500 student-athletes. You can become a member for as little as fifty dollars a year. Simply call 573-882-0704 for more information.
The summer months have produced a couple of significant results of which we are tremendously proud. Former Tiger Derrick Peterson ran a personal-best time of 1:45.08 to finish third in the 800-meter run at the U.S. Olympic Trials, earning a spot on Team USA for the summer games in Athens. The Jonesboro, Ga. native is a 2000 graduate of the University of Missouri. Good luck Derrick!
The second event took place on the golf course. Moberly native Denise Knaebel won the 66th Missouri Women's Amateur Championship. Knaebel, who will be a junior at Mizzou this fall, shot a final round two-under-par 70 to beat defending champion Ellen Port by five shots. She also recorded the "shot of the day" in the final round with a hole-in-one on the par-3 13th hole at the Country Club of Missouri. Congratulations Denise!
Mizzou was well represented at the recently completed Olympic Trials. The following all were current and former student athletes who completed for a coveted spot on our United States Olympic Team:
Track & Field Christian Cantwell Eldon, Missouri Shot Put Derrick Peterson Jonesboro, Georgia 800 Meters Timothy Dunne Jerome, Idaho 800 Meters Fiona Asigbee Walford, Iowa Heptathlon Michelle Moran Wildwood, Missouri Heptathlon Janae Strickland Houston, Texas Shot Put Ray Hughes Leasburg, Missouri 3000-Meter Steeplechase Swimming Rebecca Wolfe League City, Texas 200 Meter Butterfly
As always, I would like to take the time to say "thank-you" for reading this column. If you have any questions or comments about these topics, or anything else related to Mizzou or college athletics in general, please feel free to contact me anytime by e-mail, at aldenm@missouri.edu.