Basketball Teams Recognized at Trustees' Luncheon

April 19, 2002

April 19, 2002, Greencastle, Ind. - DePauw University's Board of Trustees, who are concluding their spring meeting on the Greencastle campus today, took time to recognize DePauw University's history-making basketball teams at a 12:30 p.m. luncheon. The audience gathered in the ballroom of the Memorial Student Union Building heard from men's coach Bill Fenlon, women's coach Kris Huffman (seen in photo at top), and senior players Joe Nixon and Katie Imborek.

The teams posted a combined 50-8 record this season, and both made it to the "elite 8" of the NCAA Division III basketball tournament. Besides DePauw, only the University of Oklahoma and the University of Connecticut had both their men's and women's teams make it to the tournament quarterfinals in any division. A video tribute to the teams was also debuted (see it here, it's also embedded below: [DOWNLOAD VIDEO: "Women's Team" 4800KB] [DOWNLOAD VIDEO: "Men's Team" 4000KB] ; also shown was the WXIN television feature on DePauw's Lindsey Rush: access the story and video here).

[DOWNLOAD VIDEO: "Student-Athletes" 311KB] "Some people want to go to a great school and compete for a national championship," Fenlon said. "We've got ten of those kids in this room right now."

The men's coach told of the hard work and sacrifice that it takes to succeed at the Division III level, where there are no athletic scholarships, shoe deals nor the potential for a pro career, and where those who participate in sports are truly student-athletes. (Joe Nixon pictured at left)

Huffman, the Division III Coach of the Year, says her team was motivated by the fact that it had "just missed out" of a tournament selection the past two seasons. Before this year's first game, Huffman recalls asking her players to [DOWNLOAD VIDEO: "They Did It" 278KB] "work as hard as you've ever worked before -- it'll guarantee you nothing, but it will give us a chance -- and they did that." (Katie Imborek is pictured at right)