Elon College

As college students don their caps and gowns in a ritual to signal their transition into the "real world," commencement speakers try to offer up a few pearls of wisdom. Some deliver an unabashed pep talk; others vainly attempt to peer into the future. A few talk about personal experiences and try to divine a life's lesson. Most try to persuade students to cling to their youthful dreams while they get whiplashed by life's hard realities. Here are a few excerpts. Isabella W.

As college students don their caps and gowns in a ritual to signal their transition into the "real world," commencement speakers try to offer up a few pearls of wisdom. Some deliver an unabashed pep talk; others vainly attempt to peer into the future. A few talk about personal experiences and try to divine a life's lesson. Most try to persuade students to cling to their youthful dreams while they get whiplashed by life's hard realities. Here are a few excerpts. Isabella W.

Fountain Valley's Debbie Graham of Stanford and Steve Bryan of Texas were named Tuesday to the Rolex Collegiate Tennis All-Star Team. Graham and Bryan were named Tennis Magazine-Volvo Tennis college players of the year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn. Graham, a junior, has a 52-0 singles record and won the NCAA singles championship with six straight-set victories.

Chris Dufresne [Dec. 2] clearly is biased on behalf of the Pacific 10. In citing the Pac-10's 19-14 nonconference football record, he ignores that nine of those victories were over Georgia Southern, Middle Tennessee State, Boise State, Louisiana Lafayette, Rutgers, Nevada (twice) and Texas El Paso (twice). The Pac-10 lost the only four games it played against top-20 teams by an average score of 45-11 and lost as well to Idaho, New Mexico State and San Jose State. The Pac-10 will be lucky to go 2-3 in bowl games, capping off what any neutral observer would conclude to be a sorry season.

The Southern California College baseball team opens play in the NAIA World Series today when the Vanguards meet Phillips College of Oklahoma at 5 p.m. at Lewiston, Ida. The game is one of four first-round matchups at Harris Field on the campus of host and defending NAIA champion Lewis-Clark State College. Elon College (North Carolina) plays the College of St. Francis (Illinois) at 10 a.m., Dallas Baptist plays Southern Maine at 1:30 p.m. and Lewis-Clark plays Grand View College (Iowa) at 8.

There was a field-goal shootout in Corvallis, Ore., on Saturday between two former Valley boys. Jose Cortez of Oregon State, a Van Nuys High graduate, kicked field goals of 30, 55, 21 and 46 yards. Ignacio Brache of California, a Village Christian graduate, converted field goals of 29 and 45 yards, the latter coming with 11:01 left to give the Golden Bears a 20-19 Pacific 10 Conference victory.

The Atlanta Braves' controversial relief pitcher John Rocker got a hero's welcome Friday night in--of all places--Philadelphia. In the city in which fans once booed Santa Claus, cheered the temporary paralysis of Dallas Cowboy receiver Michael Irvin and only three days ago threw debris during an NBA playoff game, Rocker was embraced. Signs such as "You Can Rock Me John" greeted Rocker when he walked onto the field at Veterans Stadium at 5:42 p.m.

This isolated mountain hamlet is tucked away so deep in the Unaka Range that the Appalachian Trail runs along its main street, prompting local wags to claim more visitors arrive by foot than by automobile. "Technically, that's probably not true, but we do get between 2,000 and 3,000 hikers each year," said Elmer Hall, who puts up a number of these footsore folks in his two-story, seven-room inn.

Detroit Piston forward Grant Hill is the best bargain in the NBA, according to a system devised by Bloomberg news service. The system ranks the players in the key categories--from scoring to blocked shots--and then ranks them again by salary. Hill, who makes $7.5 million a year, got a rating of plus-20. Orlando Magic guard Darrell Armstrong ranked second with a plus-14 and Vancouver Grizzly forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim was third at plus-12. With a league-high $17.

With the feud between his two political counterparts escalating at every turn, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton took his caravan of buses on the high road Monday. But he kept a sharp eye on the rearview mirror for the specter of Ross Perot. Accompanied by his running mate, Tennessee Sen.

College: the final frontier. Academe's ivied halls and gleaming buildings are where great minds gather to discuss Plato, Nietzsche and . . . "Star Trek"? Twenty-odd years after the original "Star Trek" television series called it quits, a small armada of college students and instructors live campus life a la Trek.