LehighWeek Volume 12, Issue 15

              Happy Holidays
Next issue, January 12
Volume 12, Issue 14
LehighWee/c
The campus digest for innovation, news and events with SouthMountaineer
Sports Update
Women's basketball wins
two games
See SouthMountaineer   8
December 8,1998
Peter G. Beidler
Peter Beidler to
address Commencement
Peter G. Beidler, the Lucy G.
Moses Distinguished Professor of English and winner of
two national teaching
awards, will give the
Commencement
speech on Sunday,
Jan. 10. The cer:
emony, at which 440
students will receive
bachelor's, master's
and doctoral degrees,
begins at 2:30 p.m. at
Stabler Arena.
A Chaucer scholar,
Beidler specializes in
medieval British literature, American literature, and contemporary Native American literature. In his
address, he will encourage graduates to seek the
unusual and take risks, in order to create an interesting life
story for themselves and become "authors of their own
lives."
Seeking the unusual has
been a trademark of many of
Beidler's courses since he
joined the faculty in 1967. In
one course, students renovated and sold a house near
the university while reading
works by Thoreau and other
authors and keeping diaries.
Students in a course on Indian literature visited a reservation in Arizona and wrote
articles for the tribal newspaper. Creative writing students
interviewed fiction editors at
Redbook magazine and submitted the stories to the magazine. Freshmen went on a two-
day wilderness trip and wrote
about their feelings and experiences.
Beidler was named the National Professor of the Year by
the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in 1983. In 1995,
he earned the Robert Foster
Cherry Award for Distinguished Teaching at Baylor
University (Waco, Texas). In
1987-88, he served as a
Fulbright Professor of English
at Sichuan University in
China.
12-1 best season since 77
All good things
must come to an end
R. J. Ryan '99 (number 84), runs to set up
a first down on the
nine yard line in the
final minutes of
Lehigh's game
against Massachusetts. See South
Mountaineer for
complete story.
Rob Upton
Rob Upton
Ed Kransky, (standing at podium), United States Basketball League director of operations,
addresses the media during the press conference that the Valley's new franchise, the Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs, will begin play at Stabler Arena next April. On the screen is a game
featuring the New Jersey Shorecats, another team owned by Jennings.
Stabler new home for
USBL's ValleyDawgs
With no end in sight to the
present NBA lockout, some
basketball fans wonder how
long they will have to wait
to see professional basketball again. If the lockout
cancels the season, Lehigh
Valley fans will only have to
wait until April, when the
Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs
make their debut at Stabler
Arena.
"This is an area rich in
basketball tradition and I
think the community will
embrace a USBL [United
States Basketball League]
franchise," ownership group
member Jim Jennings said
at a press conference Dec. 2.
"We can't wait to see the
ValleyDawgs tip it off in
1999."
The ValleyDawgs will
play their home games at
Stabler, but will have a Valley identity, practicing in
Allentown and having its
offices in Easton. The team's
logo features a dog wearing
sunglasses flexing his
muscles. Its colors will be
navy blue and golden yellow.
The River City Sports
Company, which consists of
Quad Star Inc., a New Jersey-based company,
Jennings and several other
investors, will own the
team. The group also runs
the New Jersey Shorecats,
an expansion franchise in
the league last year, which
averaged a league-high
2,000-plus fans per game.
Jennings met with Stabler Arena director Richard Fritz and, says Fritz,
"a quiet conversation turned
into genuine interest."
Jennings will serve as
president of the team; Mike
Sweet will serve as general
manager; Bill Jennings will
serve as assistant G.M.; and
Joe Heyer will direct public
relations.
The USBL, which bills itself as "The League of Opportunity," plays its games
in April, May and June.
Alumni who have gone on
the NBA include Anthony
Mason, Mario Elie, Avery
Johnson and Charlie Ward.
League director of operations Ed Krinsky announced that, in addition to
the new Lehigh Valley franchise, the league would add
teams in Brooklyn, the
Bronx and the Bahamas,
pending the outcome of continued talks.
For more info on the
league, visit their website at
www.usbl.com.
-Jeff Bachman
LEHIGH
University
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