SPORTS RE-ADDED AT FAMU: At a packed Gaither Gymnasium Friday, Florida A&M University Interim President Castell Vaughn Bryant announced that the varsity sports programs that had been dropped earlier this year due to financial concerns _ men's golf, men's tennis, men's and women's swimming and diving _ would return to competition this school year. Bryant made the move official during the university's annual Homecoming Convo-cation. "With the identification of a university budget surplus," Dr. Bryant said, "the decision has been made to restore the four sports to competition this school year." Reports are the budget surplus totals $8 million. Bryant determined that there was enough auxiliary "non-tax" funds in the surplus to absorb the cost of the sports, according to a press release from the school. Interim Athletic Director E. Newton Jackson said after the convocation that the institution has indeed "made a formal request of the NCAA to sponsor the four sports during the 2005-06 school year." The return of the four programs would bring the total number of intercollegiate sports offerings by Florida A&M to 18.

ANOTHER HOF FOR BLOUNT: Pro Football Hall of Famer Mel Blount is having his name added to another Hall of Fame. The former Southern University standout who epitomized the term "shut down cornerback" as he roamed the right side of the vaunted Pittsburgh Steelers secondary on the way to winning four Super Bowl titles, has also made a name for himself in the cutting horse field where he is classified as a non-professional competitor. Last week he was inducted into the Cowboys of Color Museum Hall of Fame (www.cowboysofcolor.org) in Fort Worth, Tx.

Blount has ridden cutting horses since 1970 after first watching them at an arena when he played college football at Southern in Baton Rouge, La., and has earned more than $125,000 at National Cutting Horse Association shows. Last year, he earned $44,101 after he and a cutting horse named High Brow Doll finished third among non-professionals at the Fort Worth-based NCHA World Championship Futurity, the industry's equivalent of the Super Bowl.

Blount said learning to be a competitive on the football field helped him thrive in the cutting horse arena. "In football, you're doing your job in front of 75,000 live bodies in a stadium, and you have millions of other people watching you on TV," said Blount, 57. "So, to ride into a herd of cattle in front of 5,000 people is kind of minuscule in comparison. As a football athlete, you have pride, meaning that you want to do the best that you can. I'm the same way when I go into the arena riding a cutting horse. I'm not intimidated by who else is in the class."

After he retired from football, Blount competed in the celebrity cutting classes at the Futurity in the early 1990s. In 1999, he competed in non-pro classes at the Futurity and finished in the money. After the top-three finish in last year's non-pro title race, Blount said he's aiming to win the same class at the 2005 Futurity, which runs Nov. 23 to Dec. 11 at Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum.

"Mel has not been just a celebrity guy - he's a real horseman," said Pat Steenberge, a former Notre Dame quarterback whose Granbury-based public relations firm helps market the NCHA. "He's a class guy who has done everything incredibly well." Blount has also earned respect from his zeal to nurture youth. He has established boys youth homes in Vidalia, Ga., and Claysville, Pa., near Pittsburgh. He established the Pennsylvania home shortly before retiring from pro football and lives there. He said he's close to opening another home in Georgia.

"I came up having to work for everything that I've attained," said Blount, the youngest of 11 children who grew up on a Georgia farm. "I've had people who have helped me along the way, so I think you have to give back. In this country, you see a lot of unfortunate people, and it seems like the only time that we respond is when there's catastrophic circumstances like Hurricane Katrina. "But if somebody did a little bit every day, it would make our world a whole lot better."

© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.

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