Pacific Athletics In The News

Here is the latest edition of our media links highlighting the world of Pacific Athletics...
FROM MOLOKAI TO FOREST GROVE: The Sept. 11 issue of the Molokai (Hawaii) Disaptch did a feature on homegrown product Kelsy Takashima. The sophomore is having another great year in her second season on the Pacific volleyball team.

PACIFIC INDEX: The Pacific student newspaper covered a number of topics in their Sept. 17 issue. Stories included the quest to find a home field for Pacific football, including negotiations for use of Lincoln Park, a brief fall sports preview and an interview with men's basketball with Ross Bartlett on his decision to return for one more hoops season while starting grad school in Pacific's School of Graduate Psychology.

HISTORIC: The "Water Under The Bridge" column of the Daily Astorian (a this day in history piece) makes reference to a football game between the then Badgers and Oregon Normal School (now Western Oregon) to be played in Astoria in 1934. The two teams played after a high school game between Astoria and Ilwaco (Wash.). "Very few colleges play more spectacular football than Larry Wolfe's Oregon Normal team or Anse Cornell's Pacific University eleven," the article said. The game proved to be a defensive struggle with the Badgers and Wolves playing to a 0-0 tie.

FOOTBALL RAMPS UP: Friday's (Sept. 25) Honolulu Advertiser highlights a trip by Head Football Keith Buckley and Director of Athletics Ken Schumann to Hawaii in efforts to recruit and fundraise for Pacific's new football program. The two have spent the week in the Islands looking to spread the word about the team and attract players for the Fall 2010 start. It's a natural recruiting ground as roughly 25 percent of Pacific's undergraduate student body is from Hawaii. Also note the video clip with Buckley on the right side of the page.

TAKING THE "B.S." OUT OF BCS: Not directly related to Pacific athletics, but a cool story about a Pacific University student who has developed a computer program that, she says, better predicts a Division I-BCS champion than the current Bowl Championship Series computer indices. Maggie Wigness has created a computer algorithm that she says is more accurate at predicting winning football teams than the BCS. Wigness will present her program at this weekend's New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports at Harvard University.

FOND FAREWELLS: As the late Paul Harvey used to say, "This is partly personal." Two close colleagues of mine, Barb Richey and Billy Merck, are leaving Pacific University for the next chapters in their live. Richey, Pacific's associate vice president for marketing & communications, leaves after two years on the job. She spearheaded the process of Pacific's recent branding initative, including the development of the University's new logo. Barb leaves to return to the Spokane, Wash., area, where she lived before coming to Pacific.

Merck departs after a a little over a year as the University's director of media relations. Billy built the foundation for Pacific's media efforts as the first full-time PR person the school has had in almost 10 years. He leaves to teach classes at both Portland Community College and Clark College (Billy holds a Ph.D. in literature). Both have been tremendous supports to me in our mission to further the word about Pacific athletics. I will miss them both dearly. Read more about their departures in this Pacific Index article.