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Story category: sports
Athlete/Novelist
Story air date: Friday, February 29, 2008
An accident in her teens left Arley McNeney with only partial use of her legs, but it led her to success in wheelchair basketball. That experience provides the background for the University of Illinois graduate student’s first novel entitled "Post." McNeney played with Canada’s national wheelchair basketball team, which won a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics. Now, her novel is shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize in the "best first book" category. AM 580’s Michael Koliska spoke with McNeney off the court during the National Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Champaign.
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disability • literature • people • sportsRose Bowl '47
Story air date: Thursday, December 27, 2007
The upcoming rose Bowl between Illinois and USC will carry on a tradition that's more than six decades old. In 1947, Illinois played in the first Rose Bowl to pit the champion of what was then called the Big Nine against the Pacific Coast Conference champion (now called the Pac 10). Radio was still the nation's dominant broadcast medium, and it covered not only the game itself but the buildup and the aftermath. Recordings of those broadcasts have been stored in the University of Illinois Archives ever since. Matt Ehrlich takes us back 61 years to when the Fighting Illini headed west looking for respect.
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Story categories:
history • sports • University of IllinoisRacing for Recognition
Story air date: Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Disabled people in Africa face significant discrimination. But this is changing in Ghana, where as part of a long-term effort, a wheelchair athlete at the University of Illinois is helping Ghanaian athletes with disabilities (left to right: Emmanuel Boateng, Patrick Obeng and Ajara Busanga) prepare for next year's Paralympics in Beijing. AM 580's Michael Koliska has their story.
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disability • sports • University of IllinoisFrom the Rink to the OR
Story air date: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Debi Thomas has swapped her ice skates for scrubs. The former figure skating World Champion and Olympic Bronze medal winner now works at Carle Clinic in Urbana. As a figure skater, she was a specialist in triple axels. Now as an orthopedic surgeon, Thomas specializes in hip replacements. She tells AM 580’s Michael Koliska she doesn’t miss the life of a figure skater.
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Story categories:
health care • people • sportsUrbana Man in the PRC to Hone Kung Fu
Story air date: Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Each day China opens itself to thousands of visitors -- some on business, others on vacation. Still others come to China because there's no better place to learn their careers. AM 580's Tom Rogers is in China -- and last week he traveled into the interior to visit an Urbana man who's come to hone his craft.
