She was dressed for a Division 1 football game – and she was the first woman to do so.

Her love for the game started at an early age. The Alton, Illinois, native recalled playing football in the front yard with her 12-year-old brother and his friends when she was just 6 years old.

“If I was going to hang with these boys six years older, I had to show them up,” vanTonder said during a recent interview. “It made me more competitive and I played sports my whole life.”

Throughout the years she played soccer, swam competitively and even turned heads at her high school’s powder puff football game when she made a 30-yard field goal. The players urged her to try out for the team, but she was reluctant – worried of what others might think of a girl on the high school’s football team. She also had her sights set on a collegiate soccer scholarship.�� ��

She went on to play four years as a goalkeeper for the UofL women’s soccer team while studying engineering. During that time, she even spent a year on the women’s swim team when the program was at risk of being dropped. In the months that the seasons overlapped, she’d go straight from the pool to the soccer field, all, she said, for the love of the sport. But the immutable sense of regret from high school never left the back of her mind.

vanTonder’s collegiate soccer eligibility was over when she started working on her master’s degree at the Speed School of Engineering. With a final year of collegiate eligibility, and the encouragement from the women in the athletic administration, the Cardinal goalkeeper asked then head football coach, Ron Cooper, for a tryout in the spring of 1995. ��

“He was a little taken back, like ‘Is she real? Is this just for attention?’” vanTonder said.

Still unsure of the eager prospective kicker, Cooper asked her to show him how she would approach a football if she were kicking a field goal – right there in his office. A few days later, vanTonder made 12 of 14 extra-point attempts in 30 mph winds to earn a spot on the roster. ��

UofL football made national headlines because of vanTonder, who undoubtedly became a familiar face around Louisville.

“I would go to the gas station down by UofL and I remember the attendant saying ‘Aren’t you the kicker? Hey, go for it,’” vanTonder said.��

She was not dismissed, discouraged or disparaged. She was not told that she did not belong in that space.��

“I only received positive reinforcement from everyone that I met and ran into,” vanTonder said. “[I received]��so many letters from fans cheering me on. I really did have so much support from the community and even within the school.”

That’s not to say it was all smooth sailing. The equipment didn’t fit well, so she made it work. There were no women’s locker rooms at the stadium, so she changed in an equipment shed. She had to complete a summer co-op for engineering, so she attended voluntary workouts at 6 a.m.

“I think that showed [the team] that I was serious,” vanTonder said.

They took her in and treated her as the teammate she was. They’d adjust her sleeves and shoulder pads to make her oversized uniform look tighter as they explained that she needed to show off “her guns.”

“I have to give credit to the team,” she said. “They treated me like I was their little sister. I just felt like they took me under their arm and under their wing and looked out for me.”

Senior day came and the kicker had yet to see the playing time she, and a supportive fanbase, longed for. In the final quarter, the old Cardinal Stadium crowd chanted her name – a moment that still makes her tear up 25 years later.

“My teammate came over to me and said ‘go stand by coach, I’m going to score a touchdown and I want you to score the extra point,’” vanTonder said.

Although that opportunity never came, the support of teammates meant the world to the kicker.

“I’ve always said it didn’t end the way I wanted it to, but the experience was still probably the best experience of my life,” she said, holding back tears.

Although she didn’t see it this way at the time, vanTonder broke down barriers for women in sports. Simply following her passion led her to becoming the first woman to make and dress for a Division 1 football team. That feat allowed more women, like Vanderbilt’s Sarah Fuller, the first woman to score in a Power 5 football game, to shatter ceilings of their own.

“[Initially] I just did it for the love of it,” vanTonder said. “You realize that it’s bigger and you can represent your gender at the time to give people more opportunities down the road. It’s about representing the future.”

He shares the award with Kansas State’s Bruce Weber,��who also led his team to a 7-0 record and a gold medal.

“It definitely an honor,” . “And also, it shows what type of staff we had. I was very fortunate to be able to work with Cori (Close) and Natasha (Adair) the past two years. And then the players, obviously you don’t get such an award without having an outstanding staff and a good team.”

“Jeff Walz and Bruce Weber guided our 2019 USA men’s and women’s U19 national teams back atop the gold medal podium,” said��Jim Tooley, USA Basketball chief executive officer. “USA Basketball is grateful for their leadership and commitment, and we are proud to recognize them for their tremendous efforts.”

As head coach at the University of Louisville, Walz led his team in 2018-19 to a 32-4 record and the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.

Additionally, UofL Head Football Coach Scott Satterfield��has been selected the 2019 Atlantic Coast Conference Football Coach of the Year.
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Satterfield, who becomes the first Louisville football coach to earn ACC Coach of the Year honors, led the way in balloting among a select panel of 46 media members and the league’s 14 head coaches. He��received 23 votes, followed by Virginia’s Bronco Mendenhall with 17 and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney with 15.

“I’m certainly thankful and honored to be recognized as the coach of the year in the ACC, especially in the conference I grew up watching as a kid,” . “I’m proud of my coaching staff who worked so hard to change the culture of this program and put our players in a position to succeed. “
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“Lastly, I’m grateful to be able to coach a great group of players who worked so hard since we arrived here last year, and bought into what we are trying to do here at the University of Louisville.�� I’m so excited to lead this program into the postseason in a few weeks.”

After an impressive six-year run as the head coach at Appalachian State, which included three-straight Sun Belt Conference championships, Satterfield took over a UofL program that went 2-10 overall and 0-8 in the ACC in 2018.

Satterfield guided the Cardinals to one of the more impressive turnarounds in league history, becoming only the second school in the ACC to go 0-8 in league play the previous year to improve to 5-3 the following year. The five-game improvement also was the best among Power 5 programs this season.

Satterfield is one of six coaches in NCAA history to win coach of the year honors at one school the previous year and follow it up with a second consecutive award at a different school the following year. Jim McElwain of Florida was the last coach to do it in 2014 and 2015.

His mom, Mary Beth Norton, that Allen has talked about the opportunity “for weeks.”

“The diagnosis doesn’t put a cap on what is possible, and that’s what’s exciting for us,” . “This is Allen getting to show who he really is.”��

Allen is also predicting a UofL upset over the defending national champions.��

Kickoff is at noon at Cardinal Stadium.��

The month of October features events that celebrate so much of what makes the University of Louisville a special place. Here’s a tour of events from Oct. 14 to Oct. 26 that applaud our , our diverse and our work in the area of with a little something for everyone.

Let’s begin with the J.B. Speed School of Engineering and its annual Oct. 14-16, featuring free events for students, faculty and staff. It all begins with “Donuts for Diversity” on the front lawn of the Speed Building (or in the lobby in the case of inclement weather) Oct. 14, followed later by “We Are Speed” photos (“Diversity in a Snap”) and a dine-and-dance event focusing on black and Latinx culture.

Indian food and henna tattoos are on tap for Oct. 15 in the Belknap Academic Building (noon to 2 p.m. and 4:30-6 p.m.). That evening, a friendly competition from 4-6 p.m. in Sackett Hall will highlight “Women in STEM Trivia Night.”

Learn more about the LGBTQ community while making tie dye shirts and enjoying rainbow popsicles at “Tie-Dyeversity” Oct. 16 in the Duthie Center, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

To wrap up the events Oct. 16, , alumnus and founder of the award-winning Interapt IT services firm, will be the keynote speaker at the Diversity Jubilee, a 5:30 p.m. buffet dinner in the Student Activities Center multipurpose room. Interapt is recognized nationwide and internationally for its unique paid IT workforce training program that focuses on serving underemployed and unemployed individuals in rural and urban areas, as well as veterans.

“This fun week of activities at the Speed School is designed to cheer on and empower our diverse population,” said Emmanuel Collins, dean of the Speed School. A full schedule of events can be found .��

Next up will be a chance to learn more about UofL’s efforts toward responsible environmental, social and economic stewardship during Sustainability Week, which is Oct. 17-25.

Events begin Oct. 17 with the annual and the Josh Smith Sustainability Award Ceremony, 5-8 p.m., at the Red Barn.

Justin Mog, assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives, will bring his perspective from a decade of working at UofL when he gives a talk, “Business-as-Usual Is Killing Us! The need for institutional weirding in the age of global climate weirding.” There are two opportunities to attend: Oct. 18, noon to 1 p.m. in Kornhauser Auditorium 103 on the Health Sciences Center campus, and Oct. 21, noon to 1 p.m., in Ekstrom Library W104 on Belknap Campus.

On Oct. 23, UofL’s 12^th Annual Campus Sustainability Day Fair will be held in the Humanities Quad, featuring booths and information about what UofL and community organizations are doing to advance sustainability.

For a full schedule of activities, visit the UofL Sustainability Council website .

Homecoming Week wraps up the month Oct. 21-26 with a full slate of activities.

At the on Oct. 24, the university is honoring Executive Director of Admissions Jenny Sawyer as the 2019 Alumna of the Year. Sawyer is the start of many of the relationships between students and the university. She maintains many of those relationships through students’ collegiate careers and often serves as a mentor after graduation.��

Along with Sawyer, the Alumni Awards will recognize 13 Alumni Fellows from the university’s colleges and schools while celebrating UofL’s past, present and future.

Alumni, students, faculty, staff and community members are joining forces during the week for , a week of service in the city. The week features volunteer opportunities at sites around Louisville as well as donation drives.

Cardinal supporters can “Raise Some L” during the annual UofL Day of Giving on Oct. 22 and 23. Beginning at 6:02 p.m. on Oct. 22, for 1,798 minutes, Cardinals everywhere will come together to celebrate who we are and raise money to fund essential areas of need across campus. If you don’t know the significance of 1,798 minutes, check .

Other events for the week include the for the Classes of 1968 and 1969 and the Homecoming football game against Virginia.

For a full schedule of events, including student activities, visit the page.

Have fun, love the Earth, be safe and Go Cards!

It’s what makes University of Louisville’s athletics department’s partnership with raiseRED – the largest, on-campus student-led philanthropic campaign that fights to end pediatric cancer – an all-around victory.

The deal centers around a plan called Flight 23, which provides students admission to every home regular season home game for all 23 sports, including football and men’s and women’s basketball, for $10 per month.

Athletics is donating $2 to raiseRED for every Flight 23 member that attends a home football game (up to $10,000 total) and $1 to raiseRED for every member that attends a home men’s basketball game (up to $20,000 total).

can be purchased online through each student’s .

In previous years, athletics has donated a portion of funds for every student season ticket purchase referred by raiseRED, which focuses year-round efforts on supporting research and funding of the UofL Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology.

Last school year, raiseRED fundraised a record $682,483, a figure that could be surpassed with the new partnership.

Though the partnership dates back to at least 2016, last year’s successful single-game initiatives between athletics and raiseRED signaled opportunities for continued growth.

On Jan. 31, Louisville’s women’s basketball welcomed 11-time national champion Connecticut to the KFC Yum! Center for raiseRED Student Night. Head coach Jeff Walz and provost Beth Boehm agreed to donate $10 each to raiseRED for every student in attendance. By the end of the night, the Cardinals knocked off the Huskies and raiseRED was on the receiving end of a $10,000 check. Earlier that year, men’s soccer and athletics marketing teamed up to donate $1,000 to raiseRED in appreciation of the organization helping drive student attendance to the match.

Athletics will continue its student night initiatives with raiseRED during the fall and winter seasons leading up to the Dance Marathon, which is held annually in February.��

“We are very thankful for our partnership with athletics,” said Cole Hetzler, raiseRED’s university outreach coordinator. “It speaks to the community that we have here at UofL, and how we all support each other.”

“Unfortunately, even the strongest and most conditioned athletes are susceptible to suffering ACL tears,” said a University of Louisville sports medicine specialist and sports team physician. “The ACL is an elastic ligament��that can succumb to injury, not only in the face of trauma, but also during non-contact plays.”

Immediately following ACL tears, athletes usually experience swelling, pain and weakness in the knee. The injury often requires surgery to repair and a formal physical therapy program.

While Wentz will miss the Super Bowl because of the season-ending injury he experienced in December, Pohlgeers advises that lower body exercises can help prevent injury to the stabilizing ligament in the knee by building and maintaining strength and stability in the lower extremities.

Improving balance, following safe running and jumping techniques and incorporating closed chain exercises – which include squats, lunges and leg presses – into an athlete’s training program can dramatically reduce the prevalence of ACL tears, Pohlgeers said.��

Brandon Ally, PhD, and researchers at the UofL Center for Sports Cognition have demonstrated that elite college and professional football defensive players have a greater ability to show steely focus, shielding their actions against interfering information on the field. Ally, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery, has looked at the speed with which elite defensive players read a play and close on offensive threats.

In research recently accepted in , Ally and his colleagues compared reaction times in NCAA football players with non-athletes. The athletes and non-athletes show similar reaction times to simple stimuli. In an experimental task requiring the subjects to respond in the same direction as a series of five arrows, again there was no difference between NCAA football players and non-athlete controls.

However, when the center arrow is pointed in the opposite direction of the four other arrows (which were all moving in the same direction), the NCAA football players respond to the direction of the center arrow much more quickly than the non-athletes.��

“This means that football players are more proficient at shielding motor response execution speed from the interfering effects of distraction than non-athletes,” Ally said. “On the field, this will translate to the ability to more quickly spot key movements amidst the visual chaos of the offense and respond with decisive action.”

Jackson received 2,144 total points in the final voting tally, handily beating out fellow finalists Deshaun Watson (Clemson, 1,524 points), Baker Mayfield (Oklahoma, 361 points), Dede Westbrook (Oklahoma, 209 points), and Jabrill Peppers (Michigan, 208 points).��

During this year’s football season, Jackson became the first player in FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) history to gain 1,500 yards rushing and 3,300 yards passing in a single season. He became the sixth player in FBS history with 20 rushing TDs and 20 passing TDs in a season.��

Jackson is also the first player in FBS history to record more than 400 yards passing and 175 yards rushing in a single game (versus Syracuse on Sept. 9). ().��

The Heisman Trophy is the latest honor earned this year by the Boynton Beach, Florida,��native, who has also received the Walter Camp Player of the Year and the Maxwell Award College Player of the Year, as well as the ACC Player and Offensive Player of the Year.��

Check out Jackson’s Road to the Heisman from Louisville Cardinals Athletics below:��

In 2014, Du-Caines won a highly competitive, 3-year $394,000 grant from NASA to study the variability of tides in the atmosphere between earth and space.

“We want to be able to better forecast weather in space,” Du-Caines says. “The variability of tides is a piece of the puzzle we have to solve to be able to accurately predict day to day weather in space.”

Du-Caines says forecasting weather in space is about as accurate as forecasting weather on earth 50 years ago.

As part of the study, Clemson’s Oberheide is analyzing satellite data to see if it validates the model UofL’s Du-Caines is using to understand the variability of tides (a kind of large-scale wave similar to the Jet Stream) in space. The research is important, according to Du-Caines, to more clearly predict when storms or bad weather above the earth’s atmosphere might impact GPS, power grids, suborbital flights or satellites.

Du-Caines says she and Oberheide are more concerned about their research than what will be happening on the football field.

“We just laugh about it,” Du-Caines says, “though I wish we (UofL) would have won last year!” ������