George Drake '56, professor emeritus of history at Grinnell College and member of the school's Athletic Hall of Fame, has culminated a project he calls "a labor of love" with the completion of the 100-page soft cover book No Ordinary Conference, an introspective history of the Midwest Conference.

Drake teamed with 2001 Grinnell graduate John Aerni to provide a unique look at the league's history through interviews with Midwest Conference student-athletes and unprecedented access to league minutes.

The book includes the accounts of numerous student-athletes and chronicles over 80 years of history from the league's formation through the men's and women's conference unification and beyond. No Ordinary Conference also features a 34-page photo gallery of some of the conference's all-time great athletes, coaches and administrators. The Midwest Conference office is making the book available to the general public at a discounted price for a limited time only (a small number of copies may be available at full price after the ship date). Orders are expected to ship in September.
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Grinnell College graduate Heather May '92 has qualified for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the women's marathon.

The race, hosted by the Boston Athletic Association, will be contested Sunday, April 20, 2008. That is the day before the 112th running of the Boston Marathon. May qualified for the Trials with her time of 2 hours, 45 minutes, 52 seconds run at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon on Oct. 22, 2006. She is one of 142 women who qualified for the race.

May's story is interesting in the fact she did not begin running until she was 28 years old. However, she quickly developed an aptitude for the marathon distance. She has run seven career sub-three-hour marathons, and will be competing in her second Olympic Trials in 2008. She was named Indiana USATF Female Distance Runner of the Year in 2004.

May received her bachelor's degree in theater from Grinnell College in 1992, and her PhD in theatre and drama from Indiana University in 2007. She is currently assistant professor of theatre at Auburn University. She is married to Kelly Walker.

Although inclement weather interrupted portions of the weekend, several members of the Grinnell College Athletic Alumni returned to campus to celebrate alumni weekend from Thursday, May 31 thru Sunday, June 3, 2007.

On Friday morning, several members took part in the annual Alumni Honor G Luncheon located in the new Pavilion of the Joe Rosenfield '25 Center. They enjoyed a meal and fellowship and were also able to sit back and listen to each coach reflect back upon this past year.

Many of those same members made their way to the Grinnell Golf and Country Club later in the day for a coach's reception. The reception was originally scheduled to follow the golf scramble; however, inclement weather forced play to be cancelled. Former Pioneer alumni were able to sit back and enjoy fellowship with each other as well as with the coaches.