Colleges History

Not long ago, Chapman University was the kid snoozing in the lecture hall, unmotivated and without prospects. If anyone outside Orange County had heard of Chapman, it was usually because of its World Campus Afloat, a cruise ship that used to take students on semester-long trips. But the ship was let go in the 1970s to help pay debts.

College basketball gets its first big matchup of the season Friday evening when national powers Connecticut and Michigan State play at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. It's the first regular-season game to be played by college teams in Europe and appropriately leads into the Veterans Day weekend at one of the most important military installations the U.S. has overseas. Ramstein, which is home to the U.S. Air Force's 86th Air Wing, also serves as a NATO command center. The No. 14-ranked Spartans and unranked Huskies will play in a converted hangar before 3,000 troops.

The city's first high school and college, St. Vincent's College, which became Loyola Marymount University, has hopscotched around Los Angeles, occupying six sites in 130 years. It may have been the city's first glimmer of its ecumenical future: The wife of a rabbi raised money for a Catholic college in an age when relations between the two creeds were chilly. The post-Civil War era saw widespread religious prejudice in America.

Robert Woods sticks a hand in front of Marqise Lee's face. He yanks on his shoulder pads, pushes him from behind. With Coach Lane Kiffin regularly opining that Lee will be the greatest receiver in USC history, Woods' post-practice actions might hint at frustration boiling over. Instead, he's helping his younger teammate improve, offering game-style distractions during a passing drill. "That's where the leadership comes out," Lee says. Woods and Lee could be on track to set a new college football standard for receiver tandems.

An address by a Xerox corporate vice president on Feb. 1 will start Black History month activities at the Claremont Colleges. A. Barry Rand, who is also president of the U.S. marketing group for Xerox, will discuss "Business and Education as Partners in Empowering the New Majority as Leaders" at McKenna Auditorium on the Claremont McKenna campus at 7:30 p.m. The address is free and open to the public.

College basketball gets its first big matchup of the season Friday evening when national powers Connecticut and Michigan State play at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. It's the first regular-season game to be played by college teams in Europe and appropriately leads into the Veterans Day weekend at one of the most important military installations the U.S. has overseas. Ramstein, which is home to the U.S. Air Force's 86th Air Wing, also serves as a NATO command center. The No. 14-ranked Spartans and unranked Huskies will play in a converted hangar before 3,000 troops.

Holy time warp! Has it really been 21 years since the "Dynamic Duo" sprung from the comic books onto our televisions screens? Indeed it has. And Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana will be rekindling fans' memories Saturday night with "A Tribute to Batman & Robin," a joint presentation of the community college's telecommunications department and "A Night With the Stars," a firm whose president is the Boy Wonder himself.

Continuing its trend toward recruiting high-performance, mid- size models, Cal State Northridge on Tuesday signed Damien Morbley to a basketball letter of intent. Morbley, a 6-foot-6, 195-pound forward, is, by the numbers, the top player ever produced by Orange Coast College. Morbley finished his two-year junior college career as the school's career rebounding leader with 646. He was second on the all-time scoring list with 1,150 points.

Pete Maravich, college basketball's all-time scoring leader, died in Pasadena Tuesday morning, after collapsing during a pickup game at a church gym. Maravich, 40, was pronounced dead at 9:23 a.m. at St. Luke's Hospital in Pasadena, after hospital emergency room personnel had tried for 50 minutes to revive him. His death was attributed to a heart attack.

Troy Davis gave a sellout homecoming crowd of 44,941 plenty to cheer about Saturday as he ran for 378 yards--the third-best rushing mark in major-college history--and four touchdowns to lead Iowa State past Missouri, 45-31. Davis, a 5-foot-8, 190-pound junior, carried 41 times and scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 40-yard run in the fourth quarter. He also scored on runs of one, 38 and 30 yards as Iowa State (2-2 overall) won its Big 12 opener.

Pat Summitt, the winningest coach in college basketball history, is stepping down as the University of Tennessee's women's coach, the school announced Wednesday. Summitt, who was diagnosed less than a year ago with early-onset dementia-Alzheimer's type, will take the title of "head coach emeritus. " She will be replaced by Holly Warlick, who has served as Summitt's assistant for 27 seasons. "I've loved being the head coach at Tennessee for 38 years, but I recognize that the time has come to move into the future and to step into a new role," Summitt said in the university's statement.

After one of the most tumultuous off-seasons in college football history, USC finally gets back onto the field Thursday night. Staff writer Gary Klein looks at the issues facing the 14th-ranked Trojans and new Coach Lane Kiffin as they prepare for their opener at Hawaii: Pass or fail Matt Barkley, USC's sophomore quarterback, has 12 starts under his belt, along with a slimmer waistline that resulted from a Kiffin-mandated diet and...

Not long ago, Chapman University was the kid snoozing in the lecture hall, unmotivated and without prospects. If anyone outside Orange County had heard of Chapman, it was usually because of its World Campus Afloat, a cruise ship that used to take students on semester-long trips. But the ship was let go in the 1970s to help pay debts.

Saturday's college football day-night deluxe won't be the first time USC and UCLA have played critical nonconference games in the Southland on the same day. Perhaps you've forgotten Oct. 9, 1920, the afternoon the Trojans dusted Caltech, 46-7, at Bovard Field, while the second-year cub team over at UCLA was getting waxed by Occidental at Moore Field, 21-0.

Troy Davis gave a sellout homecoming crowd of 44,941 plenty to cheer about Saturday as he ran for 378 yards--the third-best rushing mark in major-college history--and four touchdowns to lead Iowa State past Missouri, 45-31. Davis, a 5-foot-8, 190-pound junior, carried 41 times and scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 40-yard run in the fourth quarter. He also scored on runs of one, 38 and 30 yards as Iowa State (2-2 overall) won its Big 12 opener.

The city's first high school and college, St. Vincent's College, which became Loyola Marymount University, has hopscotched around Los Angeles, occupying six sites in 130 years. It may have been the city's first glimmer of its ecumenical future: The wife of a rabbi raised money for a Catholic college in an age when relations between the two creeds were chilly. The post-Civil War era saw widespread religious prejudice in America.

If history is the great teacher, and if someone were to look back at it for insight on Saturday's San Diego State-Brigham Young game for the Western Athletic Conference championship, that person would find . . . Not much of a trend. SDSU and BYU have played twice for the WAC championship. Those situations were identical to the one this week. Both games were in San Diego. And both games were the last conference games of the season.

Saturday's college football day-night deluxe won't be the first time USC and UCLA have played critical nonconference games in the Southland on the same day. Perhaps you've forgotten Oct. 9, 1920, the afternoon the Trojans dusted Caltech, 46-7, at Bovard Field, while the second-year cub team over at UCLA was getting waxed by Occidental at Moore Field, 21-0.

Continuing its trend toward recruiting high-performance, mid- size models, Cal State Northridge on Tuesday signed Damien Morbley to a basketball letter of intent. Morbley, a 6-foot-6, 195-pound forward, is, by the numbers, the top player ever produced by Orange Coast College. Morbley finished his two-year junior college career as the school's career rebounding leader with 646. He was second on the all-time scoring list with 1,150 points.

Don James, the 60-year-old Washington football coach who resigned Sunday, bowed out after achieving one of the great coaching records of modern American football. His 178 victories was eighth on the list of active coaches, and only Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden have won more bowl games. While it was widely expected that James' program would be penalized by the Pacific 10 Conference, there was good reason for the shocked reaction Sunday in Seattle to James' resignation.