14 VIRGINIA

VARSITY TEAMS: 22 INTRAMURAL SPORTS: 24
FAMOUS ALUMNI: HERMAN MOORE, RALPH SAMPSON
EXTRA CREDIT FOR: COED SAUNA IN AQUATIC CENTER

Last year Virginia unveiled its $18.5 million Aquatic & Fitness
Center (AFC), 13 lighted tennis courts and a softball complex.
Since the late 1970s new gyms have popped up at UVA at a rate of
one a decade. So why is the Lawn, the sprawling greensward at
the heart of campus, still students' favorite place to run around?

Well, at a school rich in tradition, one ritual has in effect
become a graduation requirement--streaking the Lawn. Any night
will do for a 500-meter sprint in the nude from the Rotunda
steps to the statue of Homer (of Odyssey fame, not The
Simpsons), whose robed posterior you must kiss before dashing
back to fetch your clothes.

A dictum of university founder Thomas Jefferson is posted above
the check-in desk at AFC: GIVE ABOUT 2 HOURS EVERYDAY TO
EXERCISE, FOR HEALTH MUST NOT BE SACRIFICED TO LEARNING.
Students happily oblige, tossing Frisbees on the Lawn, swimming
at AFC or heading for any of four gyms spread out across the
campus. "Ninety-nine percent of all major facilities on U.S.
campuses are in a central location," says Mark Fletcher,
Virginia's director of intramural and recreational sports. "Our
philosophy here is to disperse them--to put them on different
street corners, so to speak."

Although Virginia is still recognized more for academics than
athletics (for the third year in a row it ranks as U.S. News &
World Report's top public university), the Cavaliers are strong
in men's soccer and women's basketball, among other sports. Last
year the men's and the women's lacrosse teams advanced to NCAA
title games, and the football team went to a bowl for the
seventh time in eight years. Students love the eclectic
intramural and recreational offerings, which range from
basketball to Swedish massage to Northern Chinese long fist, a
martial art. For those who prefer the call of the wild,
Charlottesville's surroundings offer enough outdoors to serve as
a backdrop for just about any half hour of ESPN's
Saturday-morning fare. Only 35 miles away in the Blue Ridge
Mountains is Wintergreen, where students enjoy discounts at what
Skiing magazine recently called "the South's single best ski
area."

Of course, if you're really in a primal mood, there's always the
Lawn.

--SHAWN COX

COLOR PHOTO: PETE SOUZA ON THE LAWN, STUDENTS HEED JEFFERSON'S CALL FOR DAILY EXERCISE [Students playing with frisbee on University of Virginia campus]