University parents are invited to take the opportunity to enjoy four hours of free time with their significant others while the UP onsite daycare watches their children on Parents Night Out, Friday, February 7, from 6-10 p.m. This service is provided by Vermont Hills Family Life Center daycare/preschool. The cost is $30 per child and $40 for two children and includes dinner for the kids. Proceeds benefit the UP daycare/preschool house. For more information or to sign your kids up contact Cala Richman, director, at (503) 283-9688 or calar@vhflc.com.
01-27-2014
Pilot Athletics News
Mark your Calendars for Saturday, March 1 and make plans to join the Pilots and other fans to wish women’s basketball coach Jim Sollars a happy retirement. Sollars has announced that this season, his 28th, will be his final year as the head coach for the Pilots. Let’s give Coach Sollars the send-off he deserves at his final game, Pilots vs. Saint Mary’s, on March 1 at 2 p.m. in the Chiles Center.
The women’s basketball team returns to the Chiles Center this week for two home West Coast Conference Games, hosting San Francisco on Thursday at 7 p.m., and Santa Clara on Saturday at 1 p.m. For more information, please visit Portlandpilots.com. For tickets, visit the Pilots Box Office or call 7525.
Pilots athletic director Scott Leykam announced last Thursday that Brent Crouch has been named as head coach of the University of Portland volleyball program. Crouch has spent the last four seasons at Saint Mary’s College, most recently serving as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator for the indoor program and head coach of the sand volleyball program. For more information contact athletics at 7117 or go to www.portlandpilots.com.
Teaching & Scholarship Awards
The Committee on Teaching and Scholarship is accepting faculty nominations for the 2013-2014 Teaching Award and Scholarship awards, according to committee chair Lauretta Frederking. The awards are an opportunity for the University community to celebrate publicly two of its own for outstanding achievements in teaching and scholarship. The committee will accept nominations until noon on Friday, January 31, by e-mail to tas@up.edu. Submission of supporting materials by nominees will be due by noon on Friday, March 21. Visit the Teaching and Scholarship website for information regarding the nomination process and materials that will be needed (www.up.edu/academicsenate/tas/). Contact Frederking at tas@up.edu for more information.
TIAA-CREF Reps Visit, Feb. 18-20, March 4-6
University employees’ TIAA-CREF investment counselors, Yasemin Under and Braden Danielson, will be on campus a number of times this spring for individual financial counseling sessions. A TIAA CREF representative will be on campus for one-on-one counseling sessions on February 18, 19, and 20 as well as March 4, 5, and 6. Go to www.tiaa-cref.org/schedulenow to schedule an appointment today. Call TIAA-CREF at (886) 928-4221 or Andy Sherwood at 8981 for more information.
From Our Past: Mauro’s 1,000th Pilots Game
On January 27, 2001, the late Mauro Potestio attended his 1,000th Pilot basketball game. The event also marked the 759th consecutive home game Potestio had attended. Suffice it to say that Mauro was and shall most likely remain the most avid Pilot athletics fan of all time. He passed away on Saturday, February 5, at the age of 86.
Potestio, with his dapper attire and signature bowtie, was probably best known for his absolute devotion to the men’s basketball team. While he is noted here mostly for his 1,000th game, Mauro attended 898 consecutive home games, a streak that spanned 62 years and 12 different presidential administrations. The streak began and ended with victories – a 53-48 win over Pacific Lutheran on December 8, 1949 and a 85-70 win over nationally ranked St. Mary’s on January 29, 2011. Mauro was heavily involved with the University athletic department, serving in various positions for more than 40 years. He was the scorekeeper for the men’s basketball team for 26 years after being asked by former Pilots head coach Jim “Mush” Torson. From 1980 to 1988, Mauro served as sports information director, after which he became the men’s head golf coach, a position he held from 1988 to 1997. In 1993, he led the program to its only West Coast Conference golf championship in school history. Among his many passions was collecting as many Frank Sinatra records and souvenirs he could lay his hands on. He sure would have loved to have been at this year’s home court victory over Gonzaga, but then again, in many ways he was.
For more University history, see the University Almanac at up.edu/almanac.