The Daily Campus - Sports

Sports

The Sports Department, which staffs approximately 20 writers, is credentialed to all on-campus and several off-campus UConn sporting events. With the emergence of UConn as a powerhouse in the world of collegiate sports, the Sports section has taken off in popularity in recent decades.

The Sports Department covers as many sports as its staffing level allows. It always covers men's basketball, woman's basketball and football. It also has regular beat writers for men's and women's soccer, field hockey, men's and women's ice hockey, lacrosse, baseball, softball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track/cross country, men's and women's swimming & diving, golf, rowing and club sports. When staff allows, many sports will have two beat writers. Basketball and football always have multiple beat writers.

The budget for the Sports Department is the highest of any of the sections. This allows beat writers to travel to important away games and tournaments, especially for the larger sports such as basketball and football. Writers have covered the men's and woman's basketball teams throughout the NCAA tournament, from Washington D.C. to San Antonio; Tampa, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; Phoenix and Fresno, Calif. Beat writers reported on location at all 10 of UConn's basketball titles - men's (1999, 2004 and 2011) and women's (1995, 2000, 2002-2004, 2009-2010). A writer also traveled to the Maui Invitational in 2005, which UConn won. Two beat writers were sent to Detroit for UConn's first bowl game in football, the 2004 Motor City Bowl, as well as UConn's bowl appearance in the 2007 Meineke Car Care Bowl. Following the UConn football team's Big East championship in 2010, three reporters were sent to Glendale, Ariz. to report on the school's first BCS bowl appearance in the 2011 Fiesta Bowl, in which UConn was defeated by heavily favored Oklahoma. The Daily Campus published a special extra for the Motor City Bowl victory over Toledo, as well as the Maui Invitational title. Recently, The Daily Campus has published numerous commemorative jackets, including one published on the anniversary of Jasper Howard's death, one previewing the UConn football team's critical game against South Florida that clinched the Big East championship, one previewing the outdoor hockey game played at Rentschler Field and several throughout the men's basketball team's run to the Big East and National Championship in 2011.

While mainstream sports success is a thing of recent vintage, The Daily Campus has covered sports since almost the very beginning, back when the paper was still referred to as The Lookout. In the December 1900 issue of The Lookout, an editorial ran stating "It is in the opinion of the students that basket ball could be introduced into our college sports." Basketball was indeed started at the school in 1901 and The Lookout covered the first game, writing "It may be justly said that the first attempt at C.A.C. at basket-ball was a success." The Lookout reported again, a year later, when the first woman's basketball game was played - "The college girls started in with a vigor amazing to behold, and soon Miss Koons soon made a pretty throw into the basket from the field."

The Daily Campus Sports Department was involved in two national stories during the 2002-2003 school year. The first, in November 2002, occurred when sports columnist Matt Burke wrote a column titled "Memorial's goalposts must go." The UConn football team was closing out their season with a game against Kent State and with a new, off campus, stadium opening next year Burke wrote "...I am imploring you, the student population, to tear down those goalposts at the conclusion of Saturday's football game, win or lose." UConn won the game, and when hundreds of students spilled on the field to take down the posts, police with attack dogs had encircled the goalposts. Students rushing the posts were pepper sprayed and beset by dogs. The one student to make it to the posts was handcuffed and taken into police custody. The violent incident made national headlines, and Burke's column, whether the impetus or not, was featured prominently, on shows such as ESPN's Pardon the Interruption.

The following spring The Daily Campus again made national headlines. The UConn women's basketball team had set a collegiate record for 70 straight victories before losing to Villanova on March 11, 2003 in the Big East championship. In the postgame press conference, a reporter from a New Jersey paper began by asking UConn head coach Geno Auriemma what he would do to make sure the loss did not linger through the NCAA tournament. After Auriemma answered the somewhat-blasphemous question with an equal amount of sarcasm, The Daily Campus beat writer Amanda Alnutt asked a similar follow-up question.

Alnutt: What are you going to do to make sure that it doesn't happen ?

Auriemma: You ask a lot of questions that really piss me off. You're too young to ask those questions. Older guys can ask me questions that piss me off. You're too young. You see, this is just a f---ing game. It's not the end of the world. But every question you ask is like, 'We should cancel the season now because we lost.' Relax.

Alnutt: You don't think you need to do anything to prepare your team for that? They just lost and now they have to go into the NCAA tournament?

Auriemma: So what does every game have to do with the rest? We lost a game today. We just won 70 straight. Did that have anything to do with this one?

The clip was replayed on ESPN's SportsCenter repeatedly in the days following and was featured prominently, on shows such as ESPN's Pardon the Interruption. Auriemma received plenty of criticism for his handling of the situation. Auriemma would later meet with Alnutt personally and apologize and also wrote about the incident in his autobiography, remarking that he wished he had spoken to her privately instead of chastising her in front of the press.