What some fans are calling the best volleyball match they've ever seen (Penn State v. Nebraska) gives Mechelle a wonderful excuse to recall a time when two sport athletes were the norm.

Interesting side note: I wrote about Auburn basketball this week for ESPN.com (Auburn needs SOME good news now, right, with football being a big mess?) And I talked to Tigers coach Nell Fortner about her days playing volleyball as well as basketball at Texas in 1977-81. (Texas lost to Stanford in the first v-ball semifinal Thursday, if you weren’t watching.)

Fortner competed there in volleyball as a freshman and sophomore, and guess who her coach was in that sport then? The same woman who coached the basketball team, Jody Conradt. That’s the way things were in those days.