NCAA Sportsmanship Award winner to speak at ECU

Mallory Holtman, who helped carry an opposing team’s injured player around the bases for a homerun, will speak at ECU Oct. 23.

NCAA Sportsmanship Award winner Mallory Holtman will speak on sportsmanship, character and leadership at 6 p.m. Oct. 23 in Wright Auditorium at East Carolina University.

Holtman achieved national recognition in 2008, during her senior softball season at Central Washington University. During a pivotal late-season conference game, Western Oregon’s Sara Tucholsky hit a home run with two runners on base.  However, when rounding first base Tucholsky missed the base.  As she returned to touch the base, Tucholsky tore her anterior cruciate ligament in her knee, fell to the ground and was unable to complete running the bases.

Holtman

Holtman and teammate Liz Wallace carried Tucholsky around to each base to complete the homerun, which proved to be the game-clinching run. The act garnered national television appearances on the Ellen Degeneres Show and ESPN as well as media coverage in The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.

Holtman was hired by her alma mater as head coach of the softball team in 2010.

Her presentation, “Because Nice Matters,” will focus on doing the right thing, even when circumstances are difficult or challenging.

The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by Greek Life, Campus Recreation and Wellness, Student Involvement and Leadership, the Department of Kinesiology and Dowdy Student Stores.

For additional information, contact David Gaskins (gaskinsd@ecu.edu) at 328-6387.