Editorial

HITTING THE LONG BASKET: SOUTHEAST SPORTS AND THE UNITED WAY

This article comes from our electronic archive and has not been reviewed. It may contain glitches.

Those who organize the Area Wide United Way just can't sit still. Having just completed a highly successful 1993 campaign in which $506,000 was raised, the United Way forces gathered this week and announced a goal for the 1994 drive: $550,000.

The goal is an ambitious one, $50,000 higher than the previous endeavor. Still, officials must feel confident in the community's response to United Way efforts. During a year when flooding occupied the attention -- and drained financial resources -- from many people in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, the 1993 campaign ended on schedule and $6,000 above its aim.

Because of the United Way, a couple of dozen area agencies are helped in carrying out their missions of assistance and education, benefiting not only individuals but the community. We foresee another successful campaign in 1994.

Southeast Missouri State University basketball games always provide a favored brand of entertainment locally, but Monday's game at the Show Me Center was especially memorable. One of the university's best basketball players ever, Carl Ritter of Bell City, was honored at halftime of the Indian game with the retirement of his jersey number, 32.

Though playing before the days of the three-point shot, Ritter's school record of 1,916 career points remains intact after 31 years. Named twice as an All-American during his playing career at Southeast (from 1959-63), Ritter's name still graces the Indian record book in several scoring categories.

As prolific as he was as a player, he matches those talents now as a gentleman. His speech accepting the honor was gracious and moving, full of thanks for family members and the university. In a final flourish during the ceremony, Ritter was handed a basketball and, every eye in the place on him, calmly sank a shot from the top of the key, the most pressure-packed attempt of the evening. We applaud Ritter's accomplishments as an athlete and the university's recognition of them.

Another university sports hero collected well-deserved recognition recently. Marvin Rosengarten, at Southeast 29 years as a student-athlete, coach, athletic director and athletic fund-raiser, was present last weekend when the school dedicated a new training facility that bears his name.

The $600,000 facility, paid for by private donations, is state of the art with regard to sports medicine and weight training. It is an important part of the school's commitment to Division I athletics, serving not only to better train athletes in all sports but to stand as a recruiting tool; it puts Southeast on a more even footing with its competition in attracting quality athletes to university teams.

Rosengarten track and cross country teams at Southeast were known for excellence. The building that now carries his name on campus should help promote that same attribute.

Among Southeast athletes of a younger variety, the university's Indian and Otahkian basketball teams have some players that are making names for themselves on the national level.

Curtis Shelton, a senior guard on the men's squad, leads the Ohio Valley Conference in three-point shooting with an accuracy rate of almost 54 percent. This accuracy also has ranked him among the top five three-point shooters in all Division I schools. Going into Saturday night's game on the road against Tennessee State, Shelton needs just 22 points to become the 16th player in the school's history to score 1,000 points.

On the women's team, Julie Meier, just a junior, tops all Division I players nationally in three-point shooting accuracy, hitting nearly 53 percent of her shots. Helping her team to a 9-6 record, she has made 47 of 89 three-point attempts going into Saturday's Otahkian game against Tennessee State.

Still in the early going of experience in Division I competition, Southeast has found a positive thing to build on with the performance of these two players.