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(04/01/02 10:00am)
*This article appeared in the 4/1/02 Joke Issue*On Saturday night, Penn athletic director Steve Bilsky officially announced that synchronized swimming will become Penn's 34th interscholastic sport beginning in the winter season of 2003.
(03/22/00 10:00am)
Still, there was no way that Rendell was going to miss the Penn men's basketball team's NCAA Tournament first round game against Illinois this past Friday. The notorious Penn fanatic wasn't just there to lend support to the Red and Blue either -- he was there to say goodbye. "I'm also here to see what might be Matt and Michael's last game in college," Rendell said at his seat during halftime at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. "I hope it isn't, but I definitely want to be here if it is." The departure of the Quakers' senior backcourt was reason enough for Rendell to make the trip to Dixie last weekend, and it should also give Penn fans a reason to pause and reflect on what this means for Fran Dunphy's program. Michael Jordan and Matt Langel have been the foundation of the Quakers team almost since the duo first put on their Penn uniforms. Jordan was Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 1996-97, playing in 26 games and starting 19 of them. Langel was somewhat slower out of the gate -- but just barely. He started 11 contests, earning Ivy Rookie of the Week honors twice and averaging 24 minutes. Their careers began with promise, and now, after 107 games together in the lineup, these roommates and close friends are going to have to clean out their Palestra lockers. What does this mean for Penn? Well, although it sounds trite, it means different things for different people. You can't just jettison an outrageously athletic point guard with 1,604 career points and a 6'5" off-guard with the range of an ICBM and hope to hop right back into action. For coach Dunphy, it looks as if Jordan and Langel's exit translates into a good bit of sorrow and, perhaps, lasting friendships. "Part of the peril of this profession is that you borrow these guys for four years, and then they're gone," Dunphy said. "They might say that they're happy to leave the nest as it were, because they don't have to put up with me on a daily basis. That's just what happens in our jobs. They've been great kids to coach. Every day's the same with them; they'd just give you everything they had?. We will become much better friends now that they depart from our program." On the basketball end of things, Jordan and Langel were the unquestionable go-to guys for the Quakers. When the clock wound down, the game was on the line and the team was in the huddle, every fan in the Palestra knew for whom the play was getting diagrammed. Earlier this season, when Penn was floundering with a 3-6 record, the Quakers took on Lafayette. The game went down to the wire, and Jordan sunk a 17-footer with .6 seconds left on the Palestra clock to lift the Red and Blue to victory. As he celebrated on the court, the Penn fans who had made it back from Christmas break early felt a singular satisfaction -- the game had been in the hands of their go-to guy, and he came through. Last February 9, when the Quakers buckled and fell to Princeton, 50-49, it was Langel who took the last shot, a short-range jumper on a feed from Jordan. The attempt hit too much rim to fall, but, nonetheless, there was a sense that one of the guys in whose hands you wanted the ball got a chance. And although this fact made the taste in fans' mouths no less bitter that night, there was still mild solace in Langel's good look. So the Quakers will be without an obvious shooter in the clutch next season. Perhaps Geoff Owens and Ugonna Onyekwe will emerge as aces-in-the-hole of a somewhat different variety in the post next season. Or maybe David Klatsky will emerge as a standby from the perimeter. The possibilities are manifold, and that's the point. Without Langel and Jordan, it's not at all clear how Penn will adjust. This season alone, the duo accounted for 812 points, which was 42 percent of Penn's total offense. That sort of production is dauntingly difficult to replace. In addition, as has been their trademark, Jordan and Langel did the extra things that you often don't expect from a pair of guards. Both averaged over four rebounds per game in 1999-2000. Apart from Klatsky, Penn retains none of the backcourt players that garnered significant playing time this season. That leaves the Quakers with basically two options. The first of which is that Penn should expect to be more of a big-man oriented squad in 2000-01. Owens towers above any other Ivy center except for Princeton's Chris Young, and Rookie of the Year Onyekwe is fast approaching stardom with his un-Ivy feats of airborne fancy. The other option is that new talent emerges at guard. Klatsky is a virtual shoo-in at point, but not much else is certain. Fellow freshmen Duane King and Harold Bailey may make their potential actual early in the year. New recruits might make a splash. Pretty much anything can happen -- anything except replacing Jordan and Langel with ease, that is. Two like those don't come around often.
(06/01/99 9:00am)
Lynnfield High School '98 Lynnfield, Mass. Over the past several years, Philadelphia -- known as the City of Brotherly Love -- has experienced a remarkable economic and spiritual renaissance whose momentum is headed in a positive direction as the new millennium rapidly approaches. In the early 1990s, Philadelphia was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and faced annual deficits of well over $200 million, poor city services, a falling population and a bloated bureaucracy, among other foreboding issues. People everywhere had essentially given up on the city that saw the signing of the Declaration of Independence and gave the world Rocky Balboa. During his time in office, Rendell --Ewhose second and final term ends on December 31 -- has submitted six years of balanced budgets, seen the construction of a huge downtown convention center and growth in city-based jobs, helped transform the historic Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and in his crowning achievement, landed the 2000 Republican National Convention. But more than anything else, people in the city and around the country have regained faith in Philadelphia -- an accomplishment that holds a special place in Rendell's heart. "Changing the way other people think about us, that I think is something that I'm extremely proud of," Rendell said in April. "But I would say the thing that maybe I'm most proud of is that I changed our own people's view of the city, the business community, the people who live here.? People believe in Philadelphia again. People are proud." It comes as no surprise that Rendell's innovative tactics have garnered him national attention. While Vice President Al Gore has dubbed Rendell "America's Mayor," President Bill Clinton proclaimed "there's not a better mayor in America than Ed Rendell" during a recent visit to Philadelphia. Visitors to the downtown area of the city see very noticeable differences from just a few short years ago. The streets are cleaner, crime is down and major corporations are helping to revitalize the tourism industry. In the past year alone, construction on a new downtown indoor Disney theme park began and the state legislature approved funding for two new sports stadiums for the Phillies and Eagles. Construction is also underway on the massive $245 million Regional Performing Arts Center, designed to increase the amount of performing arts space in Philadelphia. Rendell has also overseen a drop in crime in the nation's fifth-largest city. Last year, he brought in former New York City Deputy Police Commissioner John Timoney to oversee Philadelphia's police department and he has proceeded to reform the city's troubled law enforcement agency. After he turns over the keys to City Hall, Rendell -- who will likely be a leading candidate for the Pennsylvania governorship in 2002 and has been rumored as a possible vice presidential candidate on Gore's ticket -- is planning to teach an Urban Studies class at Penn, where he can frequently be seen at the Palestra attending Penn men's basketball games.
(10/27/98 10:00am)
Officials hope to merge Allegheny's medical school with Drexel. The Associated Press Two weeks after Drexel University trustees rejected an initial proposal to manage the Allegheny Health System's medical school, the same board yesterday unanimously approved a revised deal, with an eye to the eventual merger of the school with Drexel. The deal, announced at a press conference following the meeting, was considered a key to completing Tenet Healthcare Corp.'s proposed $345 million purchase of Allegheny's eight bankrupt Philadelphia hospitals. Drexel trustees rejected Allegheny's first invitation to manage the university on October 13, but Drexel President Constantine Papadakis said trustees consulted with experts who reassured them about what was involved in the health education field. Allegheny creditors also sweetened the deal by promising $50 million for Drexel's endowment. Papadakis said that would provide ''more cushion'' to make up for Drexel's ''lost opportunities'' during the time it would manage the school. Drexel officials have said the takeover would be a major drain on Drexel's ability to raise money for its endowment. Papadakis called the arrangement ''a marriage made in heaven.'' ''We feel that [Allegheny's] tradition of excellence in medical education will match our tradition of excellence in engineering and technical education, and will strengthen both institutions,'' he said. Under the 32-month agreement, the Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, which has 3,100 students, will operate as a non-profit institution. Drexel will be paid a management fee and expenses for running the school, but will have no financial risk from the arrangement and will look to merge the two institutions within 2 1/2 years. ''Drexel University is not undertaking this management agreement just for the sake of managing or collecting a fee. Our intent is to merge,'' Papadakis said. Later, Papadakis told about 300 Allegheny faculty and staff members at a meeting at the Center City campus that the new school must stop losing money, and he said some employees might lose their jobs. ''I don't promise you an easy way out of this,'' he said. ''You will have to be ready to make sacrifices. It took years to get to this state, to a bankruptcy. I want it to take not so many years to turn it around.'' Papadakis drew applause when he promised an organization run by ''people who know what they are doing'' and again when he said the new institution would not use the Allegheny name. The new name will be chosen later. Faculty members, meanwhile, pressed him for a role in the governance of the new school and for openness in decision-making. Papadakis said there was no ''quid-pro-quo'' support from the city and state other than ''the good will that flows from the fact that we have stepped to the plate'' to help save jobs and preserve such a venerable institution. Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation filed for bankruptcy in July, citing $1.3 billion in debt, mainly at eight Philadelphia-area hospitals. The acquisition of Allegheny's Philadelphia empire by Tenet, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based for-profit hospital operator, is slated for final review and approval November 5 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh. Tenet's winning bid September 29 was contingent upon finding an academic partner to manage the university.