Make That Eight Sears Cups
Athletics director Ted Leland had better reserve his seat at Gaieties now. After all, he brought home the Division I Waterford Crystal Sears Directors’ Cup this past June for the eighth year in a row, making him an all-but-certain target at this year’s Big Game revue. Stanford captured the Sears Cup, awarded to the nation’s best overall collegiate athletics program, on the strength of four national championships (women’s volleyball, women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s water polo) and 22 top-10 finishes. The Cardinal ended the 2001-02 season with 1,499 points to runner-up Texas’s 1,110.5. Way to play.
Leveling the Field
Speaking of Leland, PhD ’83, the athletics director also has been named co-chair of the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics. The 15-member panel, which includes soccer star and Women’s Sports Foundation president Julie Foudy, ’93, will look at ways to strengthen enforcement of Title IX, the 1972 federal antidiscrimination law that seeks to level playing fields for women. The commission also will consider ways to expand opportunities to ensure fairness for all college athletes. Since Leland arrived in 1991, Stanford has won 42 national team championships, including 20 women’s titles, and Sports Illustrated Women has twice named it the top college for women athletes.
Men’s Water Polo Gets Some Exposure
And speaking of Sports Illustrated Women, that magazine had no difficulty picking a men’s team to put at the front of its annual Sexiest Men in Sports swimsuit issue in July/August. Yes, that would be the briefly clad NCAA-championship men’s water polo team, sporting University-issue Speedos. Coach John Vargas told the San Francisco Chronicle that he and other officials on the Farm discussed whether the magazine spotlight would be “tasteful” and concluded it would “bring some exposure” to the team. Indeed.
Unprecedented: Juniors Turn Pro
Would they or wouldn’t they? Questions flew during spring quarter; and in June, junior center Curtis Borchardt and junior swingman Casey Jacobsen told men’s basketball coach Mike Montgomery they would not be returning for their senior seasons. This is the first time Cardinal basketball players who were not academic seniors have entered the NBA draft with collegiate athletic eligibility remaining. Both were selected in the first round: the Orlando Magic took Borchardt with the 18th pick and traded him to the Utah Jazz; the Phoenix Suns chose Jacobsen with the 22nd selection. Jacobsen ended his Stanford career as the school’s third all-time leading scorer; Borchardt averaged 16.9 points per game his junior season.
