What about Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne?

By GARY LARSON
Mille Lacs County Times
Posted 11/27/02

Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne (Ind.) is a four-year school that offers its approximately 10,000 students programs from both the University of Indiana and the University of Purdue.

"Students can choose from a full range of classes that are offered by both Indiana and Purdue," said Doug Noll, an enthusiastic ambassador for IPFW at Fort Wayne. "When a student earns a degree here itís the same as if he or she wouldíve attended Indiana or Purdue.

"And, Fort Wayne is a great town."

Fort Wayne, located in northeast Indiana, has a population of about 185,000.

Noll is the menís basketball coach at IPFW. He plans on spending a lot of time with Milaca senior center Eric Bergstrom, who signed a letter of intent to attend IPFW last week.

Previously, Noll was head coach at Spring Harbor University, Mich., and Grace College at Warsaw, Ind. His 1992 Grace team won a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national title while his Spring Arbor teams were ranked No. 2 and No. 4 nationally in the NAIA during his seven years at the school.

Noll, whoís in his fourth season at IPFW, is now in charge of taking that school into National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I status in menís basketball.

"Itís a big move for the school but itís one that weíre very excited about," said Noll.

This season, the Dons (as in Mastodons) have Division I schools like Butler, Nevada-Las Vegas, Utah, Nebraska, Oregon State and New Mexico on their schedule. Next seasonís slate includes Purdue, Miami of Florida, Washington State and Iowa State.

And, Noll is working on scheduling the University of Minnesota. Last weekend, the IPFW womenís team played at Minnesota.

"Weíd like to be able to take Eric back to his home state and play in Williams Arena," said Noll.

Last season, IPFW had a 7-20 record, playing an independent schedule. Among the setbacks was a 12-point loss to Big Ten powerhouse Michigan State.

"Weíve taken the hard road and are playing considerably more Division I schools than required to maintain Division I status," said Noll. "But, we feel to become successful we have to play as tough of a schedule as we can. We feel weíre making good progress."

IPFW is hoping to move into a conference sometime over the next two years. The possibilities include the Mid-Continent Conference and the Horizon Conference.

"That would stabilize part of our schedule and allow us to compete for a conference title," said Noll.