Linda Sharp

Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Linda K. Sharp announced her resignation as Women’s Basketball Head Coach at Concordia University Texas. Sharp has held this position since the beginning of the 2001 season. As head coach of women’s basketball at Concordia since 2001, Sharp has had a 87-87 record. Sharp also celebrated a career record of 496-271 after 27 years coaching NCAA women’s basketball.

A 1973 graduate of Cal State Fullerton University, Sharp was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in June 2001.

Sharp began her college coaching career in 1975 when she served as the assistant women’s basketball coach at the University of Southern California (USC) while also coaching women’s basketball at Modern Day High School. In 1976 Sharp was hired as the first full-time women’s head basketball coach, and the first female head coach hired at the University of Southern California.

Sharp coached at the University of Southern California from 1976-1989, where she achieved a 271-99 record and led her teams to four NCAA Final Four appearances, including back-to-back National Championship squads in 1983 and 1984. Sharp coached some star-studded teams during her time at USC including such players as Cheryl Miller and Cynthia Cooper.

After leaving USC Coach Sharp coached at Southwest Texas State University from 1989-1997 where she won 138 games and lost 85 in eight seasons. She ranks among the Top 50 All-Time among NCAA coaches in wins (409) and winning percentage (.718) for her twenty one years at USC and SWT.

Sharp has coached at the WNBA level as well. She coached the Los Angeles Sparks in 1997, during the WNBA's inaugural year. Sharp then assisted her former pupil at USC, Cheryl Miller with the Phoenix Mercury in 2000. Coach Sharp became the Head Coach of the Phoenix Mercury during the remainder of the 2002 season after Cynthia Cooper resigned the position.

Sharp has coached at every level with the exception of the NCAA Division II and Junior College women’s basketball levels.

Detroit Shock

Shock take care of Finals rookie Silver Stars to win third WNBA title in a sweep.

RIP Paul Newman

January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008

Don Haskins

Don Haskins the Hall of Fame coach credited with helping break color barriers in college sports in 1966 when he used five black starters to win a national basketball title for Texas Western, died Sunday. He was 78.

Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed, a singer who became a good ol' boy actor in car chase movies like "Smokey and the Bandit," has died of complications from emphysema at 71.

ONEXONE

ONEXONE is a non-profit foundation committed to supporting, preserving and improving the lives of children at home in Canada, the United States, and around the world. Through an annual campaign, ONEXONE is dedicated in helping create a world where children can live safely and with dignity.

Kathie Lee Gifford

Happy Birthday to Kathie Lee Gifford, she turns 55 today!

Stand Up To Cancer

Here we stand, on the verge of unlocking the answers that will finally conquer the devastation that is cancer.

We now understand the very biology that drives cancer. With knowledge gained from the mapping of the human genome, we can now target the genes and pathways that are involved in turning normal cells into cancerous ones. We are on the brink of possessing a toolbox full of new, advanced technologies just waiting to be adapted to benefit patients. Right before us, so close we can almost touch them, are scientific breakthroughs in the prevention, detection, treatment and even reversal of this disease.

For the first time we can envision the possibility of stopping cancer in its tracks. But just when science is on the verge of giving us the breakthroughs that can end cancer, the will and the funding to do so are disappearing from the national agenda and from our collective consciousness.

Cancer takes one person every minute. One life in a moment. They are our brothers, our sisters, our fathers and mothers, our husbands and wives, our best friends, our children, ourselves. Every day in America 1500 people die and yet the means to save them are literally within our reach. To wait any longer for someone else to save our lives and the lives of those we love is unforgivable.

Inspired to act by our own personal experiences with cancer, we recognize that we can no longer rely on the current system alone to give us the breakthroughs we need. So, we are calling on the public to help take matters into our own hands, investing in a revolution that will change the way scientist and clinicians work to understand and treat these diseases. Stand Up To Cancer is more than a rallying cry. It is a galvanizing force created to urgently move cancer research forward.

This is where the end of cancer begins: when we unite in one unstoppable movement and Stand Up To Cancer.

How?

Working with the top experts in cancer research, Stand Up To Cancer is forging a new way to develop breakthroughs that will end cancer. We’re putting together the best and the brightest minds in cancer research – those on the edge of accomplishment – investing in their projects and taking the bureaucratic obstacles out of their way. We are building interdisciplinary “Dream Teams” of scientists, clinicians, technicians and other experts, who will focus on a specific cancer problem. We’ll track their progress in real time, so that everyone who invests can see how their participation is creating real change.

Funds will be administered by the American Association for Cancer Research, the largest scientific organization in the world focusing on every aspect of high-quality, innovative cancer research. Together with their scientific Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee, comprised of world-class scientists across several disciplines and patient advocates, the most promising projects will be identified.

Joe McKeown

Northwestern University Director of Athletics and Recreation Jim Phillips has announced that Joe McKeown, the head women's basketball coach at George Washington University the past 19 years, has been named the Wildcats' new head coach. McKeown's .745 winning percentage (509-174) ranks 13th among active NCAA women's coaches (minimum five years) and 12th all-time in women's coaching history (minimum 10 years). His 19 20-win seasons are tied for 16th place on the NCAA all-time list. McKeown leaves George Washington as the winningest coach in school history and in the Atlantic 10 Conference. In 22 seasons as a college head coach, McKeown has guided a team to postseason play 19 times. He guided the Colonials to 14 regular season or postseason Atlantic 10 crowns. In his 19 seasons at George Washington, McKeown compiled a 441-154 record, with his 1997 squad reaching the Elite Eight. On three other occasions, the Colonials advanced to the Sweet Sixteen--1995, 2007 and 2008. In his 15 NCAA trips with GW, the Colonials won their first-round tournament game 13 times. McKeown is a five-time Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year (1991, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2007) and two-time National Coach of the Year nominee (1995, 1997).
After spending three seasons as the head coach at New Mexico State, where he went 68-20 and appeared in two NCAA tournaments, McKeown came to George Washington in mid-September of 1989, inheriting a team that went 9-19 a year earlier. After his first squad went 14-14, McKeown quickly turned the Colonials into an elite women's college program with his teams averaging nearly 24 wins per year the next 18 seasons.

Willie Randolph

New York Mets manager Willie Randolph was fired because the losses and the speculation about his job were hurting the team.

Tim Russert

Tim Russert, one of the nation's most respected political journalists, collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack last Friday at the NBC News bureau in Washington, D.C. Russert was 58. He was survived by wife, Maureen Orth; son, Luke.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

NATIONAL FLAG DAY

I pledge allegiance to
the flag of the United
States of America and
to the Republic for
which it stands, one
nation under God,
indivisible, with
liberty and justice
for all

Heidi Collins

Happy Birthday to Heidi Collins of CNN.

A Memorial Day Prayer

Eternal God,
Creator of years, of centuries,
Lord of whatever is beyond time,
Maker of all species and master of all history --
How shall we speak to you
from our smallness and inconsequence?
Except that you have called us to worship you
in spirit and in truth;
You have dignified us with loves and loyalties;
You have lifted us up with your lovingkindnesses.
Therefore we are bold to come before you without groveling
[though we sometimes feel that low]
and without fear
[though we are often anxious].
We sing with spirit and pray with courage
because you have dignified us;
You have redeemed us from the aimlessness
of things' going meaninglessly well.
God, lift the hearts of those
for whom this holiday is not just diversion,
but painful memory and continued deprivation.
Bless those whose dear ones have died
needlessly, wastefully [as it seems]
in accident or misadventure.
We remember with compassion those who have died
serving their countries
in the futility of combat.
There is none of us but must come to bereavement and separation,
when all the answers we are offered
fail the question death asks of each of us.
We believe that you will provide for us
as others have been provided with the fulfillment of
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."



By Rev. Dick Kozelka (ret)
First Congregational Church of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN

Cancer Schmancer

Fran Drescher walks the "tawk" as she lends her unique voice on Capitol Hill. Her vision for the Cancer Schmancer Movement is to ensure all women's cancers are diagnosed in STAGE 1, when they are most curable. To this end, the Cancer Schmancer Movement will make right what's wrong with women's healthcare through political activism and education. This movement will alert our elected officials that the collective female vote is more powerful than that of the richest corporate lobbyist.

We have already been extremely instrumental in getting the Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act passed into law by unanimous consent in the 109th Congress. Now, we must ensure the bill gets funded. We also have several initiatives under way at the state and federal levels. In the state of California, we are launching a campaign to include the trans-vaginal ultrasound as part of every woman’s basic gynecologic exam while implementing a national campaign to create an FDA standard for women’s skincare products, which are presently unregulated and filled with carcinogens and suspected carcinogens.

Johnny Dawkins

Stanford University has named Johnny Dawkins as head coach. Dawkins becomes the 17th head coach in the history of the men's basketball program. During Dawkins' 11 years as a coach at Duke, the Blue Devils won a national championship in 2001, six ACC regular season championships, seven ACC Tournament titles, and posted an amazing 330-60 record, 142-34 in league play. For four consecutive seasons from 1999-2002, Duke finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in both national polls, marking the first time that has happened in college basketball history. Dawkins is a 1986 graduate of Duke with a degree in political science. He and his wife, Tracy, have four children: Aubrey, Jillian, Blair and Sean.

The Stephen Gaynor School

The Stephen Gaynor School, a non profit organization, provides a unique educational experience for children ages 5-14 with learning differences in a nurturing environment where children are helped to reach their academic potential. At Stephen Gaynor the pattern of academic failure is broken and children are taught to become successful learners with unlimited potential.

Tom Crean

Tom Crean, who averaged over 20 wins a season in nine years at Marquette and led the Golden Eagles to five NCAA Tournament appearances including the 2003 Final Four, has been named the 28th head basketball coach in Indiana University history. In each of his final seven seasons, Crean's team posted at least 19 wins and earned a postseason berth. Over those seven years, he compiled an aggregate record of 160-68 (.702).

Jody Adams

Jody Adams has been named the head women’s basketball coach at Wichita State. Adams, who was a point-guard on the 1991 National Championship team at Tennessee, comes to WSU from Murray State where she coached the Racers to the NCAA Tournament as a 14-seed in her first season as a head coach. MSU, which finished the season 24-8 and 15-5 in the OVC, dropped its NCAA opener Sunday night, 78-57, against third-seeded Duke.