SMU Receives Sportsmanship Award
Oct 31 | Football
Oct. 31, 2006
DALLAS (AP) -- The SMU football team was honored with a national sportsmanship award Tuesday night for helping the Tulane football team in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last year. The Awards and Recognition Association presented the team with the first ARA Sportsmanship Team Award.
Spike Dykes, former Texas Tech coach and ARA sportsmanship award selection panel member, presented the award to SMU athletic director Steve Orsini between the first and second quarters of SMU's game with UAB.
SMU hosted fellow Conference USA member Tulane for three weeks after Katrina. SMU helped arrange for the Tulane team to stay at a hotel near the SMU campus, opened their weight room and practice field and even shared their recruiting files with Tulane coaches after many of Tulane's recruiting files were destroyed in the hurricane.
"When I read about it I thought it was the most unbelievable thing I heard," Dykes said. "It seems cosmopolitan, but it's a big deal. You're talking about hosting a team of over 100 people."
ARA annually recognizes a collegiate football player for good sportsmanship on and off the field with its ARA Sportsmanship Award, but the selection committee made a special exception for SMU.
