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News Nuggets, 10.18.03
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

U of L runs through Green Wave

LOUISVILLE — Eric Shelton rushed for 128 yards and scored three touchdowns for the second straight game to help Louisville beat Tulane 47-28 in a Friday night Conference USA game.

Michael Bush had two touchdown runs and Kerry Rhodes had two interceptions, returning the second one 33 yards for a score as the Cardinals (6-1, 2-1 C-USA) continued its best start since 2001.

Mewelde Moore, C-USA's career leader in yards rushing, ran for 123 yards and a touchdown and had 57 receiving yards for Tulane (3-4, 1-3). Moore's 180 all-purpose yards pushed him over 6,000 for his career. Moore also became the second player in Division I-A history to go over 4,000 yards rushing and 2,000 yards receiving, joining Stanford's Darrin Nelson.

The Cardinals piled up 500 yards against the nation's most porous defense.

Tar Heel gridiron legend passes

CHERRYVILLE — Charlie "Choo-Choo" Justice, a North Carolina running back who twice finished runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in the late 1940s and then played for the Washington Redskins, died Friday. He was 79.

Justice died at his home in Cherryville, family friend Hugh Morton said. Justice had been in declining health the last five years.

In four years at North Carolina, the star running back gained 4,883 yards running and passing, a record that stood for 45 years until quarterback Jason Stanicek topped it in 1994. Justice was on hand to congratulate Stanicek.

In 1948, Justice was second to Doak Walker of SMU in the Heisman Trophy balloting. The next season, Notre Dame's Leon Hart got the award ahead of Justice.

North Carolina went to the Sugar Bowl twice and the Cotton Bowl once with Justice. The Tar Heels lost all three games but went 32-9-2 while Justice was at the school.

In the 1950 College All-Star Game in Chicago, he gained 133 yards, 48 more than the Philadelphia Eagles collected as a team. He was named the game's most valuable player.

He played halfback for the Redskins from 1950-54. Justice was honored by the Redskins in 2002 as one of the team's 70 greatest players during its 70th anniversary celebration.

He was the first athlete inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

Justice is survived by his wife, Sarah Hunter Justice; a daughter, Barbara Crews; two granddaughters; and one great-granddaughter.

Funeral arrangements have not been completed.

Big East exit fee complicates BC's jump to ACC

Now that Boston College formally joined the Atlantic Coast Conference on Friday, the big question is when the Eagles will begin playing an ACC schedule.

Boston College and the Big East Conference have not reached terms for the school's departure. League bylaws require 27 months' notice to leave the conference, or schools face a reported $5 million exit fee.

Earlier this year, Miami and Virginia Tech left the Big East for the ACC and will begin play in the new league in 2004.

BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo said Friday he expects the move to come no later than July 1, 2006. The Rev. William Leahy, Boston College's president, said the school has filed a request in a Boston court seeking a determination of exit terms.

"That has to get sorted out," Leahy said at a news conference formally introducing BC as the ACC's 12th member. "Whatever the lawyers determine is certainly what Boston College will do in the way of an exit requirement."

Once that happens, the ACC will be set to hold a lucrative football championship game. The league is trying to get a waiver to an NCAA rule requiring 12-team membership to hold the event. The league plans an 11-team league next season.

Once Boston College joins, the ACC will create two six-team football divisions. One division will include Maryland, Clemson, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Florida State and Boston College. The other will include Virginia, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Duke, Miami and Virginia Tech.

Teams will play all five opponents in their own division, a primary rival in the opposite division and two other cross-divisional opponents on a rotating basis.

"We're just pleased that this has worked out and they will be coming," ACC commissioner John Swofford said. "We're set to move as 11 for a year or two if we need to. In the very near future, we'll be set to move as 12. So we're going to be prepared either way."

Swofford said the league would likely have enough time to plan a football championship game for next season if BC is able to join in 2004.

The decision came four months after Boston College was passed over in the ACC's initial expansion push.

Boston College and Syracuse were the Big East schools in the ACC's original plans -- along with Miami -- but were voted down in favor of adding the Hurricanes and Hokies. Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State voted against adding Boston College at the time.

But other pro-expansion schools in the ACC kept pushing for a 12th member due to the lack of a guaranteed football title game and scheduling headaches in a league with deep-rooted rivalries. On Sunday, the league's chancellors and presidents voted 9-0 to add the Eagles.

"Certainly we were very disappointed when we weren't selected in June, but you don't take things personally in our profession," DeFilippo said. "You do what's best for your institution, and that's what we did."

'Un-beleeevable' Wacker to get TCU tribute

The late Jim Wacker, a memorable coach in the annals of Texas Christian football, will be honored during a halftime ceremony at today's TCU-UAB game at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

Members of the Wacker family, including his wife, Lillian, will be in attendance for the ceremony, which will include a tribute on the videoboard.

Wacker lost a courageous battle to cancer on August 26 at the age of 66.

From 1983 through 1991, Horned Frog grid fortunes were in the hands of Wacker, who was a Texas college coaching legend after logging a pair of national championships at Division II Southwest Texas State and at Texas Lutheran, an NAIA school.

Wacker's first campaign at TCU produced only a 1-8-2 record, but he steered the Horned Frogs to a dramatic 8-4 turnaround in 1984 en route to a Bluebonnet Bowl date. TCU's bowl appearance was the school's first since the 1965 season.

Several national, as well as Southwest Conference Coach of the Year honors ultimately were awarded to the bubbly coach. He posted a 40-58-2 record during his nine-year stint with the Horned Frogs. Wacker ranks third on the school's all-time list in games coached and fourth in career victories.

Wacker will forever be known for coining the phrase "Un-beleeevable!" after one of the all-time sensational comebacks in TCU and Southwest Conference football history.

The Horned Frogs stunned Arkansas, 32-31, scoring two touchdowns and a two-point conversion in the final 10 minutes, despite battling a fierce fourth-quarter wind. Trailing 31-17 with only 10:19 to play and operating with two gimpy quarterbacks, the Frogs mounted back-to-back 80-yard scoring drives and capped the second with a two-point conversion with only 15 seconds left.

The victory, the first in Fayetteville for TCU in 29 years, was one of only two Frog wins over the Razorbacks during the past 25 years.

News Nuggets are compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member schools, and from Associated Press and other reports. Copyright 2003 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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