News Briefs

Rice football coach Ken Hatfield was honored at an Aug. 15 ceremony by the Touchdown Club of Houston with the 2002 I.W. Marks Touchdowner of the Year Award.

Started in 1966, the Touchdowner of the Year Award is given to a person for extraordinary contributions and outstanding achievements reflecting honor and sportsmanship to the game of football over a lengthy period of time. Former winners include Texas Football magazine founder Dave Campbell, Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, SMU running back Doak Walker, Texas coach Darrell Royal, Texas A&M and Alabama coach Paul ”Bear” Bryant, Rice football coach Jess Neely and Rice lineman Weldon Humble.

Among those who roasted and toasted Hatfield were Spike Dykes, former Texas Tech football coach and last year’s Touchdowner winner; the Rt. Rev. Claude Payne, Episcopal bishop for the diocese of Texas and a Rice graduate; former University of Houston coach Bill Yeoman and a former Touchdowner winner; University of Tennessee athletic director Doug Dickey, who gave Hatfield his first college assistant coaching job at UT; Rice athletic director Bobby May; and astronaut Mike Bloomfield, who was a linebacker on Hatfield’s first team at the Air Force Academy.

The Touchdown Club was begun in 1966 and has sponsored the Touchdowner award every year since. The club also has sponsored the Bayou Bucket Luncheon honoring the Rice and University of Houston football teams every year that they have played since 1972 — one year after the teams first met on the football field. The club also created the Bayou Bucket Trophy, which is awarded on the field to the winning team immediately after the yearly contest.

The club is a nonprofit, community-service organization dedicated to the promotion of football at all levels. In April, the Touchdown Club donated $20,000 worth of weights and weight equipment to Reagan, Sterling, Booker T. Washington, Forest Brook and Smiley high schools.

The club also has an annual scholarship luncheon, where more than $35,000 have been awarded during the last three years.
For more information on the Touchdown Club, visit the organization’s Web site at < www.touchdownclub.org >.

Free prostate cancer screenings offered
…………………………………………………………………

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is looking for a few good men — 2,000 to be exact — to take advantage of free prostate cancer exams in September.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer among men in the United States, and the chance of being diagnosed with it increases with age.

Eligible candidates for this opportunity are men ages 50 to 70 (or 45 to 70 for African-Americans or individuals who have a family history of prostate cancer) who have not had prostate cancer.

The free screening will be offered