President Barack Obama welcomed the Florida Gators to the White House and congratulated them on a second national championship in football in three years.
Obama on Thursday welcomed the Gators to the East Room and said their excellence on and off the football field is worthy of praise. Obama said being a champion doesn't end when the clock runs out and noted that the team volunteers 400 hours each year.
Obama said it showed strong leadership that the team played hard together and works in their communities.
In a moment of levity, Obama said he still supports a national playoff system instead of the current bowl system. But the president also said he's confident the Gators could've defeated any team out there.
The Gators upset the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners, 24-14, in the BCS National Championship in January.
The Gators are the first championship team to be recognized at the White House during President Obama’s three-month reign as U.S. leader. About 225 players, coaches and staff have made the trek to the nation’s capital.
The University Athletic Association will pay for the group’s travel, but trip planning was not complete as of Monday afternoon and therefore final expenses could not be calculated.
The UF football team’s trip to the White House two years ago after its 2006 BCS title cost $96,000, according to a December 2007 Orange County Register report.
It hasn’t always been run-of-the-mill for UF teams in D.C.
Former UF forward and current Chicago Bulls starter Joakim Noah caused quite a stir regarding the Gators basketball team’s trip to the White House after its first NCAA title in 2006. Noah almost didn’t go on the trip because of disagreements with some of then-President George W. Bush’s foreign policies.
“I didn’t want to go because I don’t particularly agree with the president and his views and what he stands for,” Noah told the New York Times in March 2007 regarding the trip. “But at the same time, I felt like after talking with coach Donovan, I didn’t want to put that negative publicity on the team. And I feel like I love this country. I really do. I don’t want to disrespect it. If I was in an individual sport or something … maybe I wouldn’t have gone.”
Charles Woodson played college football at the University of Michigan for the Michigan Wolverines. In 1997, Woodson led the Wolverines to a national championship. He is the only primarily defensive player to have won the Heisman Trophy.
Woodson became the starter after the second game of his freshman season and played in 34 straight games. In addition to playing cornerback, he returned punts and occasionally played as a wide receiver.
In his junior season in 1997, Woodson became the third Michigan player to win the Heisman Trophy, joining Tom Harmon (1941) and Desmond Howard (1991). Woodson received 282 more voting points than runner-up Peyton Manning. He was the first and is still the only primarily defensive player to win the prestigious award.
Woodson led the Michigan Wolverines to an undefeated season and a share of the national championship in the same year.
Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others were killed by a suspected drunk driver Thursday, a shocking end to the life of a rookie who made his season debut with his father in the stands, throwing six scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics.
The team postponed Thursday night's game with Oakland, the final one of their season-opening series.
Nick Adenhart was a passenger in a silver Mitsubishi Eclipse that was broadsided in an intersection about 12:30 a.m. by a minivan that apparently ran a red light, police said.
The minivan driver fled the crash on foot and was captured about 30 minutes later. Police identified him as Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, of Riverside, and said he had a suspended license because of a previous drunken driving conviction.
Preliminary results indicated Gallo's blood-alcohol level was "substantially over the legal limit" of .08 percent, police Lt. Kevin Hamilton said.
Gallo was interviewed by investigators before he was booked in jail Thursday on three counts of murder, three counts of vehicular manslaughter, felony hit-and-run and felony driving under the influence of alcohol, Hamilton said.
Adenhart died in surgery at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center. Henry Nigel Pearson of Manhattan Beach, a 25-year-old passenger in the car, and the driver, 20-year-old Courtney Frances Stewart of Diamond Bar, were pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Stewart was a student at nearby Cal State Fullerton, where she was a cheerleader in 2007-08.
A small but steady stream of somber fans came to the stadium Thursday to add flowers to a makeshift memorial on the pitcher's mound on the brick "infield" outside the stadium entrance.
A poster among the bouquets read, "No. 34, You are one more Angel in heaven." Scribbled on a baseball was, "Now you play for another Angels team."
It hasn’t always been run-of-the-mill for UF teams in D.C.
