The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss To Celebrate National Student-Athlete Day Wednesday
4/5/2005 | Athletics
April 5, 2005
OXFORD, Miss. - Numerous events around the nation will mark April 6, 2005, as the 18th annual National Student-Athlete Day, including activities sponsored by the University of Mississippi's Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support and their Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
Ole Miss will kick off the celebration on Wednesday with the National Student-Athlete Day banquet at 7 p.m., at the Gillom Sports Center. The event will recognize over 100 Rebel student-athletes for their many achievements in the classroom and in the surrounding community. Awards being presented at the banquet include the Chancellor's Cup, which goes to the men's and women' teams with the highest cumulative grade point average for the spring and fall of 2004. Other awards include the CHAMPS Cup for community service.
Curtis Weathers, former Ole Miss football student-athlete and NFL standout, will be the guest speaker of the event. Currently, Weathers is the principal at Memphis Academy of Health Sciences Middle School, a Tennessee Charter School.
The commemoration will continue on Friday, when Ole Miss student-athletes will host over 250 Oxford Elementary fourth grade students on campus. The fourth graders will take campus tours with Rebel student-athletes, compete in team-building activities, and listen to various speakers, including head football coach Ed Orgeron and current student-athletes Armintie Price (women's basketball), Kendrick Fox (men's basketball), Jason Cook (football) and Natasha Phillips (rifle). The event is designed to show local youth the student-athlete experience at Ole Miss.
National Student-Athlete Day honors student-athletes and the network of instructors, coaches, administrators, and schools that make it possible for young people to strike a balance between academic and athletic achievement. The day, established by the National Consortium for Academics & Sports and Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society, is co-sponsored by the NCAA.
Richard Lapchick, Director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society, said "Over the last fifteen years, National Student-Athlete Day has grown to enormous proportions with over 315,000 student-athletes being honored nationwide last year alone."