After four long years of hard work, it has finally all paid off for Oregon’s Ben Butterfield. The fifth-year senior has been placed on scholarship by Oregon football coach Mark Helfrich. The former walk-on from Sherwood, Oregon plays defensive back for the Ducks after being converted from wide receiver, his primary position, last season. Butterfield has had an interesting career with the Ducks. During his sophomore year in 2011, he appeared in the first nine games before suffering a season-ending knee injury. In 2012 Butterfield returned to the field, making the most of his limited time; he recorded ten tackles and both forced and recovered a fumble through the course of the season. The interesting thing about Sherwood is that he isn’t the first member of his family to make this journey. His older brother Brian also walked on to the team, earning a scholarship as a redshirt junior in 2009, the year Butterfield joined the team.
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The Oregon cross-country runners are in for a lot of traveling this upcoming season. The Ducks unveiled their 2013 schedule Thursday, which features only one meet at home. The lone meet at home is the eighth-annual Bill Dellinger Invitational held at the Springfield Country Club. Oregon opens the season in Portland for the Portland State Viking Classic. They will then travel across the country for the program’s first ever trip to Boston for the Boston College Invitational. The regular season will close for the Ducks with the NCAA pre-nationals in Terre Haute, Ind. The most important meets are after the regular season, including the Pac-12 championships, the NCAA West Regionals and the NCAA championships. The Ducks have also lined up three scored dual meets against rival in-state teams; Portland, Portland State and Oregon State.
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The nickname, the Hornets, has finally been returned to its rightful home in Charlotte. The NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved changing the Charlotte Bobcats name back to the Hornets for the 2014-15 season. The brand recently became available once again when the New Orleans Pelicans officially gave it up earlier this year after their own name change. The original Charlotte Hornets had great success in their market, leading the NBA in attendance for seven consecutive seasons. Then the team was moved to New Orleans in 2002, and the Bobcats were brought into the league as an expansion team in 2004. Bobcats’ owner Michael Jordan has been pushing to return the Hornets name back to Charlotte since he took over as owner in 2010. There is much excitement in Charlotte with the return of the team’s original name. According to team officials, 2000 season ticket holders went to a downtown party, quickly turning it into a celebration over the name change.