Sept. 18, 2003

Fighting Illini fans will get the opportunity to recognize the 2003 NCAA men's tennis champions this Saturday, Sept. 20 at the Illinois-California football game in Memorial Stadium when the players and staff receive their NCAA Championship rings in a special ceremony. They will also be able to witness NCAA singles champ Amer Delic receiving his Big Ten Athlete of the Year award at the game.

Those awards are just part of what is planned for this celebratory weekend. The annual alumni match will take place Saturday morning, starting at 8 o'clock, at the Atkins Tennis Center.

A number of Illinois Tennis alumni will be on hand for the festivities, including Nathan Zeder ('02), Jakub Tepley ('98), Lee Bishop ('51), Jeff Laski ('00), Gavin Sontag ('98), Alex Muresan ('02), Steve Hill ('54), Charly Crawmer ('94), Brian Dillman ('90), Mike Meyer ('86), Jon Zych ('94), Ryan Clark ('93), Greg Philiotis ('85), Alex Hobson ('03), Webb Hayne ('75), Rod Schroeder ('72), Rick Wack ('72), Todd Black ('82), Mike Kosta ('02) and Cary Franklin ('00).

"This is a great event," said Head Coach Craig Tiley. "The best part of the weekend is just seeing everyone again. It's the one time of the year that everybody gets together. This also affords our players the opportunity to talk with the alumni and learn what life is like after college. It's a lot of fun for me to see what everyone has been doing since they were in college, to hear what they are doing professionally and how their lives are going."