In Charlotte, Melissa Manware writes that after
deliberating for "about two hours," a federal jury in
Greensboro, NC, yesterday ordered DUKE UNIV. to pay $2M in
punitive damages and $1M in compensatory damages to '98
graduate and former K HEATHER SUE MERCER, who was reportedly
cut from the school's football team "because of her gender."
Duke officials said that the university will appeal
(CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 10/13)....The AP's Trudy Tynan wrote
that the NAISMITH MEMORIAL BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME "faces a
struggle with money and declining attendance." The five-
year "drain since it took on" a $103M Springfield, MA,
riverfront renewal project on the CT River "underscores a
misconception that success is a lock for big-time sports
shrines" (AP, 10/12)....In Toronto, Damien Cox writes that
the "ranks of ex-NHLers among active player-agents are
swelling these days, and some of the former players are
becoming among the most influential in the business,"
including NHL HOFer BOBBY ORR, who "made an enormous splash"
when he joined Boston-based WOOLF ASSOCIATES "several years
ago" (TORONTO STAR, 10/13)....The IDITAROD TRAIL COMMITTEE
is "taking bids again from people who want to ride with
mushers" at the start of the race. Bidding for seats in the
sleds "starts at" $500, but getting a ride with a "big name
musher ... will cost a whole lot more" (AP, 10/12).
