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Pat Caraher

Fall 2002

“D” is for Doba

“I missed those butterflies.” —Coach Bill Doba

Bill Doba doesn’t think the football turf is greener elsewhere. He likes his coaching job at Washington State University and living in Pullman, where “the only traffic congestion is on football weekends.”

When his cell phone rang, Doba was fighting the late afternoon I-5 freeway traffic. He explained to Washington State Magazine that he was en route to Seattle after a recruiting visit to Everett.

“Good recruits make good coaches,” he said.

Doba was the last addition to the Cougar staff when Mike Price was hired as head football coach in 1989. Now, 14 years later, he’s the … » More …

Fall 2002

Murrell to chart new basketball course

Sherri Murrell may need a pair of steel-toed shoes.

“I’m going to be kicking down doors of all the coaches in the Northwest,” said Washington State’s new women’s basketball coach.

Even before she was introduced at WSU in late March, she had been on the phone trying to improve WSU’s recruiting success in the region. Last season, only one Cougar player was from Washington.

Murrell’s first order of business after being hired was to contact each returning Cougar player and “embrace them.” She also wanted them to know she wasn’t coming to WSU to “clean house.” With four scholarships to fill and less than two … » More …

Fall 2002

Right on CUE

Today students are finding new ways to work collaboratively, across academic disciplines and distance, and often in ways not convenient before at WSU.

The hub of this activity is the new $32 million Samuel H. Smith Center for Undergraduate Education.  The “CUE” was designed to support “student-centered and interactive learning,” says Gary Brown, director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, one of four units housed in the five-story, 94,000 square-foot building.  Other units include the WSU Writing Program, the General Education Program, and the Student Computing Services lab. The building contains 20 classrooms of various sizes, while the SCS lab has 45 workstations, … » More …

Summer 2002

Lt. Col. Stinemetz wanted to convey his condolences

Word of CIA agent Mike Spann’s death November 29, 2001 in Afghanistan struck a chord with Washington State University graduate Lt. Col. Kurt Stinemetz (’76 Anthro.), U.S. Marine Corps. Spann was the first U.S. casualty in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan. Spann was killed in an uprising of Taliban prisoners being held for interrogation. His hometown was Winfield, Alabama, population 1,200.

Stinemetz oversees the Montgomery Military Entrance Processing Station 200 miles away from Winfield. Some 16,000 men and women in Alabama wanting to enlist in all branches of the military and National Guard annually pass through the facility.

Stinemetz and Spann shared a common … » More …

Summer 2002

Ehlo inducted into Pac-10 Hall of Honor

Former Washington State University basketball coach George Raveling once described Craig Ehlo (’86 Soc. Sci.) as “playing on the ragged edge of being out of control.” In other words, Ehlo made things happen. His full-speed-ahead approach on the court produced some turnovers, but also a host of steals resulting in easy baskets for the Washington State basketball team.

The former Cougar star was one of 10 inaugural basketball inductees into the Pacific-10 Conference Hall of Honor. The ceremony was held during the Pac-10 Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Staples Arena in Los Angeles in March.

Other inductees included coaching greats John Wooden (UCLA) and Pete … » More …

Summer 2002

Early leader of WSU’s Native American students

 

Ki Tecumseh learned to work within the system—or stretch it

“Indian people don’t consider themselves to be a minority people.” —Ki Tecumseh

Growing up on the Yakama Indian Reservation, Kiutus “Ki” Tecumseh, Jr. learned to put his finger up to the wind to test the direction it was blowing. In his ideas and actions, he also likes to test conventional thought. A longtime public relations specialist with the Department of Energy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he is soft-spoken and measured in his speech. But people tend to listen to what he has to say, more than how he says it.

For example, in the … » More …

Summer 2002

Forcing students to think critically

“Dr. McNamara wants you to take everything you know and figure out the solution on your own.” —Barbara Zawlocki

Rather than being “the expert” in the classroom, animal scientist John McNamara wants to shift that role to his students. Those in his non-ruminant nutrition course at Washington State University are expected to develop an “expert system” with computer program application. They must gather information in his and  other classes, from the library, and on-line. Then they must put the material together in a logical system and teach it to someone else.

The students learn by creating their own data base of information and by sharing … » More …

Summer 2002

“Adapt, improvise, overcome”

“They know the war on terrorism won’t go away, even when we finish in Afghanistan.” —Lt. Col. James M. Zuba

A four-by-two-foot map of Asia is tacked to a wall of Army Lt. Col. James M. Zuba’s office. Forty-five blue dots designate locations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia where his infantry unit spent 36 months from 1992 to 1995 searching for U.S. MIAs and POWs.

Earlier, he commanded rifle companies for seven months in Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Now he is now completing his 18th year in the Army, and his first as professor and chair of military science at Washington State University. He … » More …