Bear Briefs

Missoula Loves Sports—Missoula recently was named the best sports city in Montana by Sporting News. The magazine also ranked UM’s home community 168th best in the nation for loving sports. Among other Montana cities, Bozeman was ranked 203rd in the nation, Great Falls was 359th, Helena was 371st and Billings was 374th. Boston, Philadelphia and Detroit were named the top three cities. To be included in the rankings, a city must have at least one NCAA Division I basketball team, a minor league baseball team or a score in other select categories.

From Griz to Ducks—University of Montana head men’s basketball coach Larry Krystkowiak spent part of his summer coaching the Beijing Ducks, a professional Chinese Basketball Association team in Milwaukee, Wis. The event is sponsored by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce China Council and the Milwaukee Bucks. Krystkowiak was invited to coach the Chinese team by officials from the National Basketball Association. Also coaching the Beijing Ducks with Krystkowiak is John McLeod, the former head mentor of the New York Knicks. The Beijing Ducks are owned by the Shougang Corp. — China’s fourth largest steelmaker — and are one of 14 teams in the CBA, founded in 1995.

Welcoming Students—Each year UM hosts Welcomefest, a program that allows administrators, faculty and staff to greet new students and their families. These volunteers also help students move into their residence halls, direct traffic and provide information. More than 100 UM employees participate, each wearing their Week of Welcome T-shirts. This year the Welcomefest gang plans to help out Aug. 23 and 27. For more information, call Molly Molloy at (406) 243-2332.

Top Scholarships—Thirty-two exceptional incoming UM freshmen have been awarded prestigious Presidential Leadership Scholarships. These scholarships recognize outstanding talent, academic performance and contribution to the community. The students receive a four-year tuition waiver plus an additional $5,000 to $7,500 per year. This year’s scholarship winners were chosen from a field of 321 qualified applicants. The University’s 2005 Presidential Leadership Scholars from Montana are Matthew Roberts of Bigfork; Svein Newman and Siri Smillie of Billings; Emma Petroff of Bozeman; Robert Coleman of Browning; Peter Betcher of Choteau; Hannah Greene of Clancy; Ashley Bailey of Forsyth; Tiffany Wilson of Fort Benton; Matthew McCleary of Great Falls; Brittany Lind of Harlowton; Emily Tutvedt of Kalispell; Edward Miller of Lolo; Heather Bergman, Morgan Eichwald, Heidi Gaskill, Leslie Hughes, Emily Martens and Faith Morrison of Missoula; and Bridget Farr of Sidney. Twelve Presidential Leadership Scholars will be coming to UM from other states.

NASA Mission Extended—A NASA review panel recently announced it will extend the mission of the space agency’s Terra environmental satellite for three years. That’s good news for UM’s Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, which crafted software for Terra and its sister satellite, Aqua. “This means we can continue our work to monitor the Earth’s surface through this mission for several more years,” said Steven Running, NTSG director and a UM professor. “We can still get a lot of new science out of this old hardware.” The $1.3 billion Terra satellite is an orbiting stethoscope that provides daily checkups on the Earth’s health. It scans the entire planet every one to two days. Running said the latest funding will extend the mission through 2009. More information about NASA environmental satellites and science can be found at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/.

Time to Enshrine—Become a permanent part of the UM-Missoula campus by having your name — or another special person’s — engraved on a brick in Centennial Circle. Centennial Circle was established in 1993, when UM celebrated its 100th birthday. Paved with red bricks, the circle surrounds Rudy Autio’s landmark grizzly bear statue, located on the western edge of the Oval. With its classic Main Hall and Mount Sentinel backdrop, the circle is a favorite place for picture-taking. Centennial Circle Bricks cost $150 each and may be engraved with names or brief messages. For more information, go online to http://www.umt.edu/urelations/bricks.htm.