WSSU prepares to face Edward Waters' option

Winston Salem, North Carolina -- Winston-Salem State's defense will see something it hasn't seen all season when Edward Waters visits Bowman Gray Stadium today. It will see an option-type offense, which could present problems.

"They are an option team," coach Connell Maynor of the Rams said of the 2-4 Tigers. "We look forward to the challenge because it's going to be tough facing an option team. It's assignment football, and guys can't guess — so they'll have to know their assignments…."

Kickoff is set for 1:30. The Rams, 7-0 and ranked 11th in the Division II coaches' poll, clinched the CIAA's Southern Division title last week with a 63-7 rout of Livingstone. They'll step outside of conference play for a rare home game.

"This is only our third home game ...



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XU climbs to fourth on Champions of Character Scorecard

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana is in the top 10 for the second straight year on the NAIA Champions of Character Scorecard released last week by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

Xavier scored 91 points in 2010-11 to tie for fourth nationally with Biola University of La Mirada, Calif. Xavier climbed three places and four points from the previous year. NAIA members earned the Champions of Character Five Star Award by scoring at least 60 points.

Schools earned points in each of the following categories: character training, conduct in competition, academic focus, character recognition and character promotion. Institutions earned points based on exceptional student-athlete grade-point averages and by obtaining zero ejections during competition throughout the academic year. The scorecard process is based on the NAIA's flagship program Champions of Character, which emphasizes the five core values of integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship and servant leadership.

Cornerstone University of Grand Rapids, Mich., repeated as the NAIA leader with 103 points. Xavier's point total ranked first in Louisiana, first among Catholic universities, first in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference, first among HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) and first in the South. A year ago Xavier was second in the South but first in the other categories.

The GCAC was the only conference with three of the top 10 schools and four of the top 22. The GCAC's Tougaloo College of Tougaloo, Miss., placed eighth with 88 points, Talladega College of Talladega, Ala., tied for ninth with 87 points, and Edward Waters College of Jacksonville, Fla., tied for 18th with 85 points.

More than 80 percent of NAIA members — 220 in all — will receive the Champions of Character Five Star Award for 2010-11.

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS

Gary joins Xavier staff as athletics trainer

Tiffany Gary

NEW ORLEANS — Tiffany Gary has joined Xavier University of Louisiana as athletics trainer.

Gary's position is funded through an agreement between Xavier and Ochsner Health System's sports medicine division. She works primarily with the women's volleyball, women's basketball and men's and women's tennis teams.

Gary, a native of New Iberia, La., joined XU on Aug. 1 after working the past six years for Willis-Knighton Health System of Shreveport and Bossier City, La. During that time Gary was the athletics trainer for Bossier Parish Community College and the high school teams at Calvary Baptist Academy.

Gary also worked five years as assistant athletics trainer at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette — there she handled women's soccer, women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, football and baseball — and was a graduate assistant trainer at Clemson University, where she received a master's degree. Gary received her bachelor's degree from UL Lafayette.

She is certified by the National Athletic Trainers' Association and the Louisiana Athletic Trainers' Association.

Xavier's other athletics trainer, Melvin Wallis, remains on the staff and is in his fifth year at XU. Wallis will work primarily with men's basketball, men's and women's cross country and men's and women's tennis.

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS
VISIT: GCAC

Xavier University of Louisiana's Athletic Director Dennis Cousin oversees mix of academic and athletic success

Manning Architects' rendering of Xavier's Convocation Academic Center, which is 
under construction and is expected to be completed in late summer 2012.  The
 facility will include a 4,500 seat arena suitable for athletic and other large-scale events.

New Orleans, LA - Following 35 years in the Saint Tammany Parish school system, Dennis Cousin said when he accepted the job as Xavier's athletic director in July 2004 he never expected to last this long.

"Honestly, I came here with the intention of staying maybe two or three years, and you look up and now all of a sudden, it's been seven years," Cousin recently said. In six seasons of competition under Cousin's stewardship -- the 2005-06 season was lost because of Hurricane Katrina -- Xavier's seven sports squads have combined for 27 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference or NAIA unaffiliated group championships and 20 appearances in NAIA Division I championships, an unprecedented run of success for the Mid-City school with an enrollment of 3,200.

That level of consistency is a point of pride for Cousin.

"When I took over, I wanted to elevate the status of our athletic program to that of our academics," the 65-year-old Cousin said. "When you think of Xavier, you think of the medical doctors and the pharmacists. My goal was to make athletics a part of our reputation."

While Xavier athletics were far from inadequate before Cousin's arrival, he has expanded the program's reach, leading the athletic department through Katrina's aftermath, reinstating women's volleyball in 2009, and acting as a key force in getting the new arena approved.

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VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
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XU degree for Olympic medalist — 71 years after enrolling

"It's a storybook ending. Can you believe it? Xavier really started my path in life. I learned academics there. I learned how to run. And I learned religion." — Herbert Douglas

NEW ORLEANS — Closure is coming this weekend for Herbert Douglas.

Douglas, 89 years old and Xavier University of Louisiana's only Olympic medalist, will receive an honorary degree during XU's 84th commencement at 10 a.m. Saturday at Lakefront Arena.

"It's a storybook ending," Douglas said. "Can you believe it? Xavier really started my path in life. I learned academics there. I learned how to run. And I learned religion."

Douglas arrived at Xavier in the fall of 1940 after being recruited to compete for future hall-of-famer Ralph Metcalfe's men's track and field program. Douglas excelled — in 1941 he set a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship-meet record of 23 feet, 11 inches in the outdoor long jump, and in 1942 he teamed with William Morton, Clarence Doak and Howard Mitchell to make Xavier the first HBCU (historically black college or university) to win a relay at the Penn Relays. The quartet won the 440-yard relay in 41.7 seconds.

But the demands of World War II forced Douglas to leave XU in 1942 after two years. His coach, Metcalfe, left Xavier after the fall 1941 semester to join the U.S. Army. Douglas returned home one semester later — not to enlist, but to help at his father's Pittsburgh parking garage.

"My father had been blind for several years and needed help," Douglas said. "He was losing employees to the military and to war-related industries. He had a 24-hour garage, and he could not find enough reliable workers. I wanted so much to stay at Xavier, but the circumstances just wouldn't allow me."

After the war Douglas returned to college — but at his hometown University of Pittsburgh, where he competed in football ("I scored a touchdown against Notre Dame," he said pridefully) and in track, where he set a school record in the long jump (24-4.88) which lasted 23 years. He received a bachelor's degree from Pitt in 1948 and a master's in 1950.

He long-jumped 24-9 to win bronze at the 1948 Olympics in London and plans to return to London for the Olympics next year.

Douglas joined Schieffelin & Company (now Schieffelin & Somerset) in 1963 where he became the third African-American to reach the level of vice-president of a major North American corporation.

"I have been blessed in so many ways," Douglas said.

Front row, left: Xavier University of Louisiana men's track and field standout
Herbert Douglas in 1942. Also in the front row is Edward Culp. In the back
 row, from left: Howard Mitchell, Clarence Doak, Coach Giles Wright and
 William Morton.  Wright replaced Ralph Metcalfe after the fall 1941 semester.

According to the U.S. Olympic Committee, Douglas is the fourth-oldest living U.S. track and field Olympic medalist. Three other medalists from the 1948 U.S. team — sprinter Cliff Bourland and shot-putters Jim Delaney and Wilbur Thompson — are older.

Also receiving honorary XU degrees Saturday will be businesswoman and philanthropist Camille Hanks Cosby, BET Holdings CEO and chair Debra Lee. Urban League CEO and former New Orleans mayor Marc H. Morial will be the keynote speaker.

The honorary degree is far from a take-him-off-the-shelf-and-dust-him-off moment for Douglas. Next Tuesday he'll be back at his alma mater for a dinner he helped plan as a centennial salute to African-American athletes at Pitt.

"All the heavy hitters will be there," Douglas said. "Hugh Green, Tony Dorsett, Roger Kingdom, Larry Fitzgerald, Charles Smith . . . and Bob Costas will be the emcee."

Officials at the Penn Relays, Douglas said, want him to help plan a fundraising dinner within the next year. And there will be more projects.

"When will he really retire? That's a good question," said Douglas' wife, Minerva. "I would say never. He's like that (Energizer) bunny. He just keeps going. He finishes one thing, and then he moves on to another. He gets involved in a lot of things."

Douglas swims every other day in an indoor pool at his Philadelphia condominium. "I can't walk or jog for exercise any more because of my knees," he said. "But I'm doing fine for a guy my age."

The trip to New Orleans and Xavier will be the first for Douglas since 1992, when he attended the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. He and the other honorary recipients will attend a baccalaureate Mass and honors convocation Friday evening at The Barn, then convene to Dooky Chase restaurant for a much-anticipated meal with Xavier officials.

"That's some good Creole food," Douglas said. "You know, Dooky Chase opened the year I got to Xavier, 71 years ago. I couldn't afford it then."

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS

Two 27-game winners put XU in elite groups in 2010-11

NEW ORLEANS — What does Xavier University of Louisiana have in common with Connecticut, Duke, North Carolina and Notre Dame?

All five colleges had men's and women's basketball teams that won at least 27 games during the 2010-11 season.

The list isn't much bigger than that. Xavier was one of three NAIA Division I members to reach a pair of 27s — Azusa Pacific and Texas Wesleyan were the others — and NAIA Division II's Davenport and Indiana Wesleyan also achieved it. No schools in NCAA Division II or III had a pair of 27-game winners.




U.S. four-year colleges with 27-game winners in men's and women's basketball during 2010-11.

So that brings the total to nine out of more than 1,200 four-year U.S. colleges which sponsor men's and women's teams.

"That's an amazing list," said Dennis Cousin, Xavier's athletics director. "It's not a long list, and that's why it's great to see Xavier on there. I know our coaches and athletes worked very hard this season. Any positive recognition is good for them and for Xavier."

Although Xavier's basketball teams have combined for nearly 50 20-win seasons, this was the first time that both reached 25 victories in the same season. It's the seventh time in Louisiana history that a college had a pair of 25-game winners and the fourth time for a pair of 27s.

Among Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Xavier is the first with a pair of 25-game winners since Norfolk State in 1994-95. Norfolk State is the only other HBCU with a pair of 27-game winners, accomplishing that in 1993-94.

U.S. four-year colleges with 27-game winners in men's and women's basketball during 2010-11 College Affiliation Women's W-L Men's W-L Azusa Pacific NAIA I 33-5 29-6 Connecticut NCAA I 36-2 32-9 Davenport NAIA II 29-6 37-1 Duke NCAA I 32-4 32-5 Indiana Wesleyan NAIA II 28-8 29-6 North Carolina NCAA I 29-8 28-9 Notre Dame NCAA I 27-7 31-8 Texas Wesleyan NAIA I 30-4 28-6 Xavier NAIA I 27-7 27-6

Louisiana four-year colleges with 25-game winners in men's and women's basketball during same season College Season Women's W-L Men's W-L Xavier 2010-11 27-7 27-6 LSU 2005-06 31-4 27-9 LSU 1999-2000 25-7 28-6 New Orleans 1986-87 25-7 26-4 LSU 1985-86 27-6 26-12 Louisiana Tech 1984-85 29-4 29-3 Louisiana Tech 1983-84 30-3 26-7

Four-year HBCUs with 25-game winners in men's and women's basketball during same season College Season Women's W-L Men's W-L Xavier 2010-11 27-7 27-6 Norfolk State 1994-95 25-5 27-6 Norfolk State 1993-94 27-4 27-6

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS