10/4/2004

Contact: K.E. Schwab -- 724-738-2199; e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu

FORMER NFL PLAYER TO SPEAK TO SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY MEN

             SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Don McPherson, former National Football League quarterback and current executive director of the Sports Leadership Institute at Adelphi University, visits Slippery Rock University Oct. 11 to help launch a campuswide initiative titled “Man2Man” that encourages men to be proactive in preventing violence against women.

          McPherson will meet with various men’s groups and sports teams throughout the day. Members of Man2Man will attend a private reception in the Russell Wright Alumni House, then hear McPherson’s “Accept the Challenge” free, public lecture at 7 p.m. in Swope Music Hall.

    The campus organization, developed by Dr. Robert Watson, vice president for student life, is working to teach men how to treat women, teach societal norms regarding relationships and to teach how to be a better man because of this education. The organization’s philosophy is that “real men” treat women as equals and provide for the education of other men to do the same.

          After retiring from professional football in 1994, McPherson turned his attention to anti-violence activities and joined Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society and was named co-director of Athletes in Service to America. The program goal was to expand Sports in Society’s programs nationally, and in its first year, chapters were established at four colleges and funded by an Americorps grant.

          Athletes in Service, launched in 1995, continues to train former college student athletes to conduct community service programs. Program participants are trained to provide workshops in conflict resolution, cultural diversity, gender violence prevention and academic tutoring. In 1996, McPherson was named director of Sport in Society’s Mentors in Violence Prevention Program, a gender violence prevention program designed to encourage men to take a proactive position in the effort to stop men’s violence against women. In particular, MVP was designed to address male student athletes and encourage their involvement in campus programs.

          McPherson has been a member of numerous advisory panels and has been called on by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Women’s Sports Foundation, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Family Violence Prevention Fund, California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Higher Education Center, U. S. Department of Justice and the U. S. Department of Education.

 PN, PgN, WPN,  PR