ments of African Americans
as they struggled to find
equality on the baseball
field. Visitors learned about
Andrew Rube Foster, who
formed the Negro National
League in 1920; Jackie
Robinson, who broke the
color barrier when Branch
Rickey, a Major League
Baseball executive, signed
him to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947; and
Emmett Ashford, the first
black umpire in the major
leagues. The American
Library Association, the
National Endowment for
Andrew “Rube” Foster started the
Negro National League in 1920.
the Humanities and the
National Baseball Hall
of Fame sponsored the
exhibit.
TU hosted related events
which included a presentation by Martha Ackmann,
journalist and author of
Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone
the First Woman to Play
Professional Baseball in
the Negro League and
talks by David Zang, TU
professor of kinesiology,
on the thousands of black
baseball players who,
despite being segregated
by law, made significant
achievements on the field
in their own league.
Weather or Not
Stormy weather can
never dampen the university’s spirit. Last January,
TU received its StormReady
Supporter certification
from the National Weather
Service and the Baltimore
County Office of Emergency Management.
To earn its certification,
TU demonstrated storm
preparation planning,
education and awareness.
Specific qualifications
include establishing a
24-hour warning point
and emergency operations
center; creating a system
to monitor local weather
conditions; and developing a formal hazardous
weather plan.
MBA a Winner
The 2012 edition of U.S.
News & World Report’s
Best Graduate Schools
recognizes the Towson
MBA program. A joint
venture with the University
of Baltimore, the program
has been co-located in
TU’s College of Business
and Economics and UB’s
Merrick School of Business
since 2006.
This MBA has a growing
reputation for its high-quality faculty, flexible
scheduling and wide array
of specialized content
designed to meet the needs
of regional employers. It is
also the only area program
that offers students the
choice of on-campus and
online classes.
Picking a Pro
When it comes to evaluating football players at
the NFL scouting combine,
perhaps the league should
just punt.
Two studies show that
the numbers from drills and
an intelligence test that
the league uses to assess
NFL hopefuls don’t add up
when it comes to predicting a player’s performance
on the field.
Experience in the game
is what should count on a
gridiron resume. ”Past performance in college is the
more important predictor,”
says John Michel ’99, TU
assistant professor of management, and a co-author
of both studies. He points
to TU’s own Jermon Bush-rod ’07, offensive tackle for
the Saints, as “someone
who played really well in
college” and continued to
do the same in the NFL.
“Past performance
in college is the
more important
predictor.”
—Assistant Professor John Michel
Michel along with Brian
Lyons, California State-Fresno, Brian Hoffman,
University of Georgia and
Kevin Williams, SUNY-Albany, conducted two
studies to measure how
data from the combine—
the four-day job interview
the NFL conducts each
year—stacks up against
job performance in the
league.
Their most recent study,
published in April in Human
Performance, looked at
640 players drafted from
2002 through 2004. It
found that good
scores on fitness tests at the combine did not predict performance in
the NFL as well as past
performance in college did.
In other words, players
who are best at running
a 40-yard dash, bench
pressing 250 pounds or
high-jumping, among other
physical tests, do not make
the best blockers, tacklers,
rushers or passers.
