Excerpt:
Ryan Meier, David Marquardt and John Hawkinson finished first, second and third, respectively, as Knox College won the Midwest Conference South Division Tournament by 17 strokes Sunday at Soangetaha Country Club.
Meier shot a one-over-par 145 to earn individual medalist honors at the two-day tournament. He opened with a two-over 74 as Illinois College hosted the opening round Saturday.
Back at Soangetaha, the Prairie Fire’s home course, Sunday, Meier fired a one-under 71. He edged teammate Marquardt, who shot a 149 (75-74). Knox finished one-two-three as Hawkinson carded a 152 (75-77) for third place. The three helped Knox shoot a 605 (304-301) to win the team tournament by 17 strokes……
Knox will next compete at the MWC championships, playing for an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Tournament. The three-day MWC tourney will be played starting Thursday at Aldeen Golf Club in Rockford
Knox has won 19 of the last 25 MWC team titles, including the 2006 championship. This is the first year the MWC champion will gain an automatic berth into the national tournament.
Read the full story in the Register-Mail.
Knox College alum Todd Monken takes wide receivers coaching position.
Excerpt:
How does a former Knox College quarterback end up on the coaching staff of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars?According to Todd Monken, who still holds a few Knox passing records from 1988, winning sure helps.
“Winning and coaching good players leads to good things,” said Monken, hired to head coach Jack Del Rio’s staff as wide receivers coach in February.
“I was fortunate at LSU to coach some very good players; we were successful and won some big games and had some players looked at in the draft;” said Monken. “Sometimes people will look at who is coaching them.”
An interview during the Senior Bowl clinched the pro job and took the former Knox QB to the NFL after coaching stops as an assistant at Grand Valley State, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan, Louisiana Tech, Oklahoma State and Louisiana State. Monken contributed to highly regarded passing attacks at nearly all those schools. News reports listed him as a candidate for the head coaching job at Louisiana Tech before he took the Jaguars job.
Read the story in the Register-Mail.
The New York Post notes Knox College’s increasing applications for admission in the wake of Stephen Colbert’s “feud” with the college.
Excerpt:
Officials at little Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., are laughing all the way to the bank after last year’s graduation speaker, Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert, helped spike admissions to the school.
Knox received a record number of applicants in the wake of Colbert’s commencement address last June, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The school received 2,500 applications for 340 possible spots, a 20 percent increase from the year before…. But Colbert is not happy with the college’s decision this year to follow him with Bill Clinton.
On his Comedy Central show, “The Colbert Report,” the comedian is threatening to burn his honorary Knox degree on the air if Clinton receives a similar degree.
Read the New York Post article.
Kourtney Cone has earned a Fulbright Fellowship to study sea turtles in Costa Rica.
Excerpt:
Knox College senior Kourtney Cone has been awarded a 2007 Fulbright Fellowship. Cone will conduct research on the retention of sea turtles in Costa Rica.
Cone is the thirteenth Knox student in the past 13 years to receive a Fulbright Fellowship. The award is among the nation’s most prestigious for international postgraduate study.
In her research, Cone will measure the yolk sack of the hatchlings that immediately swim out to sea versus the yolk sack of hatchlings released at different timed release intervals.
As a biology major, Cone says the best title for what she wants to do is conservation field medicine. “I have wanted to be a veterinarian since I was a kid, and my Knox experiences have fostered my interest in conservation and medicine.”
Cone has been accepted to the University of Illinois’ school of veterinary medicine but has deferred those studies for one year for the Fulbright study.
“The way the Fulbright Fellowship works, I am an ambassador for the United States. I want to work with the community and learn about its culture. The kind of lessons you don’t find in the classroom,” she said.
Read the Register-Mail story.
Bloomberg notes that President Bill Clinton has significantly increased his typical spring schedule.
Excerpt:
“Ex-presidents have about as much visibility as you can have, and Bill Clinton, being a damn good speaker, brings a double whammy,'’ for colleges, said Carlton Sedgeley, 67, president of New York speakers’ agency Royce Carlton Inc.
Clinton will make addresses in May and June at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, Vermont’s Middlebury College and Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.
Read the Bloomberg article.
The North Carolina Daily Tar Heel suggests that political speakers seem to be a trend.
Excerpt:
With graduation season drawing near, universities across the country are finalizing plans for prominent Commencement speakers.
Last semester UNC selected Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state, to deliver the spring address with a global perspective.
Other schools’ speakers this season are more markedly political, although university officials maintain that their invitations to speak are not political endorsements.
Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak at four separate Commencements this spring - at Knox College, Middlebury College, Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Knox College’s previous Commencement speakers include Stephen Colbert and Barack Obama.
“I don’t know if I would call it a tradition of political speakers,” said Karrie Heartlein, director of public relations at Knox College.
“I would say that it’s a credit to our students. They select our speaker.”
She said having a big-name graduation speaker is important for the capstone event of students’ college careers.
“We want them to have a positive Commencement ceremony, to have positive memories about their experience.”
Read the Daily Tar Heel story.
