Miscellany
The women’s Final Four NCAA basketball championships in 2000 will be held in Philadelphia at the Spectrum.
The University of Pennsylvania and St. Joseph’s University will be co-hosts for the games, March 31 and April 2, 2000.
At Atlanta, some of the best swimmers in the world jump into the new Olympic pool for the first time today, but it will be an empty starting block, figuratively speaking, that could overshadow the 1995 Pan Pacific swimming championships.
There will be 350 swimmers from 24 nations at the event, however, China, whose athletes are suspected of systematic doping, was not invited.
Voting as a unit, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand succeeded in keeping China out of the Pan Pacifics, as a protest against what is seen as ineffectual testing procedures by FINA, the international governing body of swimming, and as a protest against China’s apparent disregard for anti-doping rules.
At Greenville, S.C., a judge ruled the state gets to keep Shoeless Joe Jackson’s will in its archives, and two charities won’t be able to sell it for the baseball great’s valuable signature.
Jackson, who was banned from the game for his part in the 1919 World Series “Black Sox” scandal, rarely signed things, and estimates were that the signature on his will could be worth more than $100,000.
The American Cancer Society and American Heart Association claimed the will belonged to them because Jackson’s wife, Katie, named them as beneficiaries.
Defending Ivy League champion Penn is favored to retain its title for a third straight season, according to a football media poll released at the league’s annual media day.
At South Bend, Ind., a rainstorm forced Notre Dame’s media day inside where coach Lou Holtz said the biggest worry is in the team’s secondary, which is critical to the team’s success but where there have been problems in the last few years. Irish cornerback Bobby Taylor gave up his senior year to play in the NFL, and he is not a player that is easily replaced, Holtz said. Especially when the replacement, Ivory Covington, is 5-foot-10 and weighs about 160 pounds.