Casanova services
set for Monday
Several events Monday will honor the memory of Len Casanova, the Oregon athletics legend who died Monday night at a local nursing home.
A full Mass will be held in honor of the former Oregon coach starting at 10 a.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 1062 Charnelton Street.
After the Mass, a celebration of life service is planned for 1:30 p.m. at the Club at Autzen, on the south side of Autzen Stadium. Parking for the service will be available at the east parking lot, and those in attendance are asked to enter through the stadium’s south entrance.
Future services have been planned for next week in Ferndale, Calif., and Santa Clara, Calif., but details are not available for those services.
Casanova’s family has asked that remembrances come in the form of donations to the Len Casanova Athletic Scholarship Fund at Oregon.
SI ranks Ducks high
In the latest issue of Sports Illustrated, released Thursday, the prominent national magazine ranked Oregon 20th in a list of “America’s Best Sports Colleges.”
The Ducks received recognition from the magazine for the success of their football and basketball teams, as well as the recent renovation of Autzen Stadium. The list ranked all 324 Division I schools based on a variety of factors, including success in prominent sports, range of club and intramural sports, type of recreational facilities and booster support.
Oregon was fourth among Pacific-10 Conference schools behind Stanford (second overall), UCLA (11th) and Arizona (18th).
Add accolades
The Oregon Athletic Department received the CHAMPS Program of Excellence award for 2001-02 at the NCAA Athletic Director’s Association conference in Dallas on Thursday.
The Ducks were honored for the University’s “Scholastic excellence, Outstanding character, Athletic achievement and Responsibility to self” program — nicknamed SOAR. The program, which isn’t mandatory but is available to all Oregon athletes, aims to improve services for student athletes, including academic services and community-outreach services.
Oregon was one of three schools to achieve the honor for last year, and is one of 27 schools overall to win the award since its inception in 1997.
— Peter Hockaday
