Macik, Allen are hardly alone at top Miles Macik is certainly making his presence felt at the Detroit Lions training camp, catching a late touchdown pass in the team's first pre-season game. While an Ivy Leaguer who succeeds in the pro ranks is relatively rare, there are more than you might think. Whether Macik makes the Lions or not, Penn and the Ivy League will be well-represented in the NFL next year. Ex-Quaker lineman "Touchdown" Joe Valerio, who has made a name for himself by catching several scoring passes on tackle-eligible plays, enters his sixth season with the Kansas City Chiefs. However, the longest active Ivy football player is Nick Lowery -- by a mile. The ageless kicker out of Dartmouth, now a New York Jet, enters his 18th season. Other notable ex-Ivy Leaguers looking to make a career of football are Jay Fiedler, the ex-Dartmouth quarterback who asked to be cut from the Philadelphia Eagles in order to sign with Cincinnati and Yale's Chris Hetherington, who is being converted from quarterback to fullback in Bengals camp. Princeton's Keith Elias (back-up running back with the New York Giants) and Jason Garrett (back-up quarterback of Dallas Cowboys) have good chances of returning to their teams. When it comes to baseball, one school leads the way. Dartmouth, despite a single league title in the last 25 years, can currently boast three former student/athletes who have appeared on major league rosters in 1996. The only other Ivy Leaguer to reach The Show this season was ex-Penn outfielder Doug Glanville, who spent seven weeks with the Chicago Cubs before being sent down two weeks ago. Catcher Brad Ausmus, now with Detroit, and Mike Remlinger, once a regular rotation member with San Francisco, who pitched a few innings for Cincinnati are both former Big Green stars. The most successful Hanoverian, however, is Mark Johnson, a power-hitting first baseman with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Johnson has racked up a .303 average (through August 4) along with 11 homers in limited action. He has a long way to go, though, before he reaches the marks of a certain former Columbia first sacker -- Lou Gehrig. Only two Ancient Eight hoops stars graced NBA rosters last season. Yale's Chris Dudley, a rebounding specialist famous for his inability to make a foul shot, is in the middle of a multi-million dollar contract with the Portland Trail Blazers. The other was Penn great Jerome Allen, who watched plenty of basketball from his seat on the Minnesota Timberwolves bench. Allen, as well as ex-Penn teammate Matt Maloney, will be in NBA camp this fall, despite leaving the T-Wolves at the end of his one-year contract. Of all the major sports, the Ivy League is best represented in the NHL, despite the failure of Penn and Columbia to field teams. Joe Nieuwendyk, a Cornell alum, is the biggest star produced by the conference since Ken Dryden. The big-scoring wing now plies his trade for Dallas. Other products of Ivy League schools are Harvard's Ted Drury (Ottawa forward), Ted Donato (Boston forward), and Don Sweeney (Boston defenseman), in addition to Yale's Randy Wood (Dallas defenseman). The re-birth of American professional outdoor soccer in the form of Major League Soccer has not gone without Ivy representation. Ex-Princeton star Chris Unger has cracked the line-up of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, and Jesse Marsch is with DC United. Brown's Greg Lalas is on the Tampa Bay Mutiny. But the best-known ex-Ivy soccer star is former Dartmouth midfielder Andrew Shue. In truth, the Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder's play has not been impressive, but in his day job, he plays a mean Billy on Melrose Place, and that has attracted plenty of media attention. On top of all these big league stars are numerous performers in minor leagues around the country, evidence that for a non-scholarship league reknowned for academics, the Ivy League holds a large place in this country's sporting life.
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