Vikings coach Brad Childress returns to his high school in Aurora, Illinois to give the commencement address this weekend. His theme will be the “journey” of life.
Labor negotiations are going on with Star Tribune newsroom employees. Don’t be surprised if salaries remain among the best in the country for daily newspaper reporters but the number of employees is cut.
It was 20 years ago that the Minnesota North Stars, with the first pick in the NHL Entry Draft, chose Mike Modano. He turns 38 next month and had an outstanding playoff with the Dallas Stars who lost in the Western Conference finals to Detroit. Modano scored five goals and had seven assists in 18 games. He owns a long list of North Stars/Stars records.
Former Twins pitcher Frank Viola will be the manager of the Leesburg Lightning in the Florida Collegiate Summer League, according to my friend Dave Wright, senior editor at August Publications in Minneapolis. This is a wooden bat league similar to the popular Northwoods League that includes teams from Minnesota.
The 2008 U.S. Women’s Open coming to Interlachen June 23-29 will be the 35th USGA championship to take place in Minnesota. California and Minnesota are the only two states to have hosted the 13 different USGA championships including the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens.
Ticket information is available at www.2008uswomensopen.com. Kids 17 and under are admitted free with a ticketed adult. An adult may bring up to nine children free of charge.
ESPN2 will have a preview show about the Open from 5 to 6 p.m. on June 25. ESPN will provide coverage June 26 and 27, and NBC on June 28 and 29.
Former Gophers Lewis Garrison and Mark Smith are co-directors of football operations for a skills development camp that will be working with youth and high school age players. The camp begins June 16 and Garrison wrote in an e-mail that “to our knowledge this will be the first of its kind in this area.” More information is available at www.bcsacademy.com/skills-development-camp.cfm.
For a fourth consecutive year, Winona State has won the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) All-Sports Award with 94 points, 15.5 points ahead of second-place Wayne State College. Minnesota Duluth and Winona State are the only two schools to win the NSIC All-Sports Award in its nine year history. Winona State won four titles during 2007-08, football, men’s basketball, men’s golf and women’s soccer. Coach Mike Leaf’s men’s basketball team participated in a third consecutive NCAA Division II national championship game, winning the 2006 and 2008 national championships.
For the 32nd consecutive season, Big Ten Conference men’s basketball programs led the nation in attendance, according to numbers released by the NCAA. The Big Ten ranked first among all conferences with an average of 12,978 fans per game/session, 838 more than the SEC at 12,140. The NCAA’s final attendance numbers and rankings include both regular season and conference tournament attendance.
The Gophers averaged 12,987 fans per game during the regular season, the highest per game average since 1999-2000 (13,767). Minnesota, in Tubby Smith’s first year as coach, averaged over 2,000 more fans per game last season than in 2006-07.
The Big Ten had five schools among the country’s top 25 in average attendance, with two programs among the top 10. No other conference placed more than four teams among the top 25. Wisconsin led the Big Ten, ranking seventh nationally with an average of 17,190 fans per game. Indiana finished No. 9 with a 16,876 average followed by No. 11 Illinois (16,618), No. 12 Ohio State (16,587) and No. 17 Michigan State (14,759).