Jan. 10, 2003
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Current Notre Dame volleyball coach Debbie Brown and former Irish football All-American Ken MacAfee are two of six individuals who will receive the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award Sunday night at the annual NCAA Honors Dinner in Anaheim, Calif. The NCAA Honors Committee in November announced the six Silver Anniversary recipients for 2003. The Silver Anniversary Award recognizes former student-athletes who have distinguished themselves since completing their college athletics careers 25 years ago.
The honorees for 2003 are:
- Debbie Brown, University of Southern California, volleyball, women’s volleyball coach at the University of Notre Dame.
- Dale Kramer, Carleton College, track and field and cross country, certified financial planner.
- Kenneth MacAfee, University of Notre Dame, football, oral and maxillofacial surgeon.
- Ann Meyers Drysdale, University of California, Los Angeles, basketball, volleyball and track and field, television broadcaster.
- Harold Warren Moon, University of Washington, football; television broadcaster.
- Gifford Nielsen, Brigham Young University, football and basketball, television broadcaster.
Representing the University of Notre Dame at the awards dinner (held in conjunction with the annual NCAA Convention) will be director of athletics Kevin White (he will present the awards to both Brown and MacAfee), NCAA faculty representative Fernand “Tex” Dutile, senior associate athletics director Sandy Barbour and associate athletics directors Missy Conboy and John Heisler.
The award winners were selected by the NCAA Honors Committee, which is composed of eight athletics administrators at member institutions and nationally distinguished citizens who are former student-athletes. The members of the NCAA Honors Committee are: Harry Carson, president, Harry Carson, Inc.; Eugene F. Corrigan, commissioner emeritus, Atlantic Coast Conference (and a former director of athletics at Notre Dame); Clyde Doughty Jr., athletics director, New York Institute of Technology; Jack Ford, ESPN news anchor/correspondent; Jo Ann Harper, athletics director, Dartmouth College; Susan Hartmann, Faculty Athletic Representative, Ohio State University; Karen L. Johnson, director of institutional research, Alfred University; and Valerie Richardson, assistant commissioner, West Coast Conference.
Potential candidates are nominated by NCAA member institutions and selected by the committee. Here are complete biographies of the two award winners from Notre Dame:
Debbie Brown
University of Southern California
Volleyball
Women’s Volleyball Coach, University of Notre Dame
Brown has led her team to NCAA appearances in 16 of 18 seasons as a head coach, including the last 11 straight with Notre Dame, and has captured BIG EAST Conference crowns seven of the last eight years. A 2002 Olympic Torchbearer, she was NCAA District I Coach of the Year in 1997 and a three-time BIG EAST coach of the year. She also was the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Mideast Regional Coach of the Year in 1992-93.
Brown also coached six seasons at Arizona State University, where she was named Pacific-10 Conference coach of the year in 1986. Brown has amassed a 417-185 career record and a 300-102 record at Notre Dame. Also active in coaching on the national level, Brown was an assistant coach for the U.S. bronze medal team at the 1990 world championships and assisted the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.
The 1977 collegiate player of the year led Southern California to a 72-1 record during her career. She was a six-time United States Volleyball Association (USVBA) first-team all-American, a two-time collegiate all-American, and a two-time Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women all-American. She competed at the 1974 World Championships and was a member of three USVBA national champion teams, most recently in 1986. Brown was recognized by USA Volleyball as an all-time great player in 1995.
A member of the USVBA board of directors, she was an Olympic committee athletes advisory council member from 1980 to 1984 and president of the AVCA in 1995-96. She also is a member of the AVCA all-America selection committee.
A motivational speaker and coach at national banquets and camps organized by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Young Life, she also serves as a volunteer for Christmas in April, a home-rehabilitation program in South Bend, Ind.
Kenneth MacAfee
University of Notre Dame
Football
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
A 1997 inductee to the College Football Hall of Fame, MacAfee was MVP on the 1977 Notre Dame team that was named wire-service national champion. That season’s Walter Camp player of the year, he finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting. A three-time All-American, he finished his career ranked third among all-time Notre Dame receivers. He played in the Hula Bowl and Japan Bowl college all-star games in 1978.
A first-round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers, he played two years there and a partial season with the Minnesota Vikings before suffering a career-ending injury. A recipient of the Moose Krause Chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Distinguished American Award in 1992, he also received the Earl Banks Hoyt Award for annual excellence in teaching, which is awarded to a junior faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1990 and 1992. He received a Distinguished American Award from Notre Dame in 1992.
MacAfee has been a member of the Massachusetts Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and the Massachusetts Dental Society, as well as a fellow for the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons since 1994.
He has received multiple faculty appointments at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and as a clinical associate professor at the Harvard University School of Dental Medicine, where he has taught since 1995. MacAfee has received appointments from more than eight different hospitals and has served as an attending oral and maxillofacial surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital since 1995. He has written 13 journals, six abstracts, three books and several articles related to oral and maxillofacial surgery.
A United Way overseas health volunteer, he is an active member of Physicians Fighting Cancer, Homes for the Homeless and Northern Home for Wayward Children, as well as a spokesman for Delaware Valley AIDS Awareness Program.