PIONEER BOWL SUSPENDED:

The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) have suspended the Pioneer Bowl for 2008. The game was scheduled to take place in Columbia, S.C. on December 6, 2008 at Charlie W. Johnson stadium. The Pioneer Bowl will resume in 2009 at a date and time to be determined.

The bowl game features representatives of the SIAC and the CIAA and began in 1997. The SIAC leads the series between the two conferences 8-2 with Tuskegee participating in eight of the games. The CIAA was established in 1912 and the SIAC in 1912 and are the two oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities athletic conferences.

BENEDICT COACH RECOVERING:

Benedict head football coach Stanley Conner is progressively recovering and listed in stable condition after suffering a heart attack during last Saturday's game against Kentucky State.

After feeling ill just before halftime, Conner was taken into the Tigers' locker room by the team doctors and athletic training staff. Once in the locker room Conner said he was having chest pains. What was originally thought to be dehydration turned out to be a light heart attack.

As game-day protocol, Emergency Medical Services were stationed in the end zone of the field and Conner was immediately transported to Providence Hospital which was only a five-minute drive from the stadium.

Conner was treated and is still undergoing tests, however, he expected to be released this week.

Conner, is a native of Mobile, Ala., and is in his second year at Benedict after a successful career as an assistant at Alabama A & M. He played college football at Jackson State and later in both the USFL and the Canadian Football League.

Conner is married with two daughters is said to be resting comfortably with his family at his side.

Hall of Fame football coach W. C. Gorden headlines a group of honorees for the 2008 SWAC Alumni Association Legends Reception, which will be held Dec. 12 at the Doubletree Hotel in Birmingham, Ala., beginning at 6 p.m. CT.

Gorden, the winningest football coach in Jackson State history, was inducted into the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame last summer.

Other Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are James Brooks, a former Jackson State three-sport athlete and assistant football coach at Alcorn State; the late James Oliver, former men's basketball coach at Alabama State, and the late Samuel Taylor, former football, basketball and track and field coach at Prairie View. The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to individuals for their contributions to the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Awards, the inaugural Charles "Chuck'' Prophet Award will be presented during the Legends Reception. The award honors the memory of longtime Mississippi Valley State Sports Information Director and Athletic Director Chuck Prophet, a founding member of the SWAC Alumni Association, who died last summer. The award will go to an employee of a SWAC member school whose loyalty, dedication and support of athletics at his school and on the conference level exemplifies Chuck's spirit.

The evening will also include a Roast for former Alcorn State and Southern University football coach and athletic director Marino "The Godfather'' Casem sponsored by the SWAC Alumni Association and the Birmingham Chapter of the Alcorn State University National Alumni Association. Proceeds will go to the Marino H. Casem Scholarship at Alcorn State and the SWAC Alumni Association Scholarship Fund. Tickets for the Roast are $60 each and can be purchased by contacting Alvin Moore, President of the Birmingham Alcorn State Alumni Chapter at 205-798-8964 or 205-222-1044 or by e-mail at amprint@aol.com or by contacting SWAC Alumni Association President Roscoe Nance at 703-481-0084 or by e-mail at scomobile@aol.com.

© 2008 Azeez Communications, Inc.

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