This ESPN article highlights the rivalry between the Nanooks and the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves. I hope the prestige of the rivalry keeps up, considering that the Governor’s Cup as we know it is gone. (I really don’t think that playing back-to-back games in each place will draw the fans like it used to).

The first four Nanook hall-of-famers have been named.

Matt Emmons, Milo Griffin, Randy Pitney, and Joe Tremarello were named.

Emmons is the former rifler who took a gold medal in the prone 50 meter shoot in 2004 (and famously missed out on another gold by shooting the wrong target. A funny story about that, in the fall of 2004 a comedian was at UAF and joked about that: “This guy’s in the Olympics and he shoots at the wrong target!” or something like that. The room went silent. And somebody piped in “he goes (to school) here.” She was sortof embarrassed). He, along with another rifle alum Jamie Beyerle, will compete in the 2008 Olympics.

Griffin played men’s basketball in the ’60s and held (and still holds) many records for the Nanooks. His no. 44 jersey is the only player’s jersey that the Nanooks have retired. His all-time scoring record stood for 36 years until Brad Oleson broke it in 2005.

Randy Pitney was on the rifle team before coaching the Nanooks for 15 years. He recruited both Emmons and current coach Dan Jordan, and coached the team to three national titles before serving as Athletic Director for a bit.

Tremarello played basketball for the Nanooks in the ’50s, and coached the women’s basketball team in the 90s.

This is a new one to me.

Many people know about the dispute with the UND and the NCAA because UND’s mascot is the Fighting Sioux. Under the NCAA rules (I believe, I don’t have the correct wording) schools with potentially offensive ‘nicknames’ or ‘mascots’ had to get permission from, say, the Sioux, or the Illini, or the Utes, Seminoles, etc. UND hasn’t complied and is fighting like hell.

This article on indiancountry.com talks about that dispute, and lists other potentially offensive school mascots, including– you guessed it– the Nanooks.

The Nanooks, as far as I know, have never been on the NCAA’s list for offensive names…

I wonder if he knows that “Nanooks” are not a tribe of Eskimos (or Indians, for that matter). Do we need permission from the Polar Bear gods? Was he being stereotypical by assuming (and we know what that does) that because it sounds like a Native word, it must be a tribe?

The Nanook Athletic Department as a whole (meaning the student-athletes) had its highest cumulative GPA ever this season. The students cumulatively hit the 3.21 mark. Although, the press release is a little confusing, as it says 3.21 first, and later says they tied the record of 3.27, set last spring. Either way, that’s pretty good.

And definitely Kudos to the kids who hit 4.0s. In some departments, it’s not too hard to hit 4.0s (I’ll be honest, liberal arts aren’t THAT hard), but some of them are in the sciences and engineering fields, which I’d say take much more work. Combining that with being on the road sometimes three days a week, makes it amazing that they can keep their grades that high.

According to the Western College Hockey Blog, the NCAA released its Academic Progress Rates (APR) for the ‘06-’07 season. Apparently, no schools were penalized.

UAF’s APR is here, although since hockey is the only Div. I sport we have, it’s the only thing listed on there. I really have no idea what any of the numbers mean (besides the percentiles, those are easy enough), so if you have any inkling as to what they mean, feel free to let me know.

Interestingly enough, with my post about the NHL’s talks with NCAA coaches and AD’s about recruiting players who are still freshmen or sophomores (or even juniors), Forrest Karr pointed out that besides just making schools have to spend more money on recruiting players to replace them, it also interrupts their academic progress scores. I found some other interesting stuff on that subject, but I’ll save it for a time after finals week :).

According to this article in the Ft. Mills Times, Rebecca Konieczny, from West Yellowstone High School, will join the Nanooks’ ski team next year. Konieczny placed 20th at Junior Nationals in 2007.

Today’s editorial in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner questions again the way that the Athletic Department is run.

The All-Sports banquet will be held on May 2. See the release for information on tickets. $38 each, at the Westmark.

Marketing and promotions assistant Sheena Cummings was awarded a stipend to attend the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) national conference this summer.

See the story on ABC and from the athletic department.

This piece from sports editor Bob Eley questions the direction the Nanook athletic department is going in many, many ways. At the end, it seriously questions the circumstances surrounding Doc DelCastillo’s resignation. He indicates that, since no one “on the hill” is talking, the News-Miner will have to take the Freedom of Information Act route. I have to agree with his section on DelCastillo, and the Sun Star is also taking the FOIA route as well; however with just a few weeks left in the semester, we will be lucky if it gets to us in time.

I can’t really describe the article; it touches a lot of stuff. It’s really good, read it.