Up Front | Sports

March 2000: Vol. 79, No. 2

Compton had to give up baseball because it was too hard on his old heart. But golf suits him to a tee.

Erik Compton knows you gotta have heart

In the final tournament of the fall season, Erik Compton, a redshirt freshman from Miami, fired a school record 203/13-under par to win individual honors in only his fourth collegiate golf tournament.

The event was the prestigious Rolex/Golf World Invitational played in Hilton Head, S.C., and in the course of breaking the 15-year-old school record Compton helped the Bulldogs win the team title over a field which included U.S. Amateur champion David Gossett of Texas and Georgia Tech standouts Bryce Molder and Matt Kuchar.

GRISHAM VISIT NO MYSTERY TO BASEBALL TEAM

They went at it for more than an hour . . . America's most successful writer of legal thrillers going insult-for-insult with Georgia's new baseball coach—and amateur comedian—Ron Polk. The roast was all in fun, and when the dinner-with-Grisham event was over, Polk had paid for a lot of the sprucing up he's been doing over at Foley Field. The two men may seem like unlikely friends, but they've been close since Grisham, a die-hard baseball fan, was a student at Mississippi State and Polk was coach of the powerful MSU team. Polk produced several future Major Leaguers (Will Clark, Rafael Palmeiro, Bobby Thigpen) at MSU, and Grisham told a Classic Center audience that his old Starkville buddy is the right choice to revive Georgia's baseball fortunes. "What you're about to have here," said Grisham, "is a great baseball team and a whole lot of fun." To improve attendance, Polk will field "the only all-girl ground crew in baseball!" Something's working, that's for sure. Season ticket sales, which sagged to 32 in '98, have passed the 500-mark. At MSU, Polk sold 5,000.
Kent Hannon

For a freshman to play this well is unusual, but Compton's heroics are even more meaningful when you consider that he is a heart transplant recipient.

At age 12, Compton was diagnosed with congestive cardiomyopathy—where the heart becomes enlarged and weak. His only hope for long-term survival was a transplant, and while he waited for that miracle to happen he had to give up baseball because it put too much strain on his old heart.

Solution: take up golf.

Compton got a new heart—from a 16-year-old girl who was killed in a car accident. He now takes 10 pills a day to lower his immune system so his body will not reject the new heart. For Compton, the chance to live a full life and compete in sports again is something he never takes for granted.

"Before the Rolex tournament, I worked on putting and actually switched to an upright putter," says Compton. "That was the biggest difference. I was helped by having both of my parents there and by just telling myself over and over, 'I am playing golf. How can this get any better?'"

Compton was the No. 1-ranked junior at 18, and one of the most country's most-sought-after college recruits.

He signed with Georgia and now shares the responsibility for defending the NCAA title that Golf Dogs won in 1999. For a lot of young stars this kind of pressure might be distracting or unnerving. But given what he went through to get to this point, it's easy for Compton to keep things like competitive pressure in perspective. After college, he wants to play on the PGA Tour—but for a reason few people can truly appreciate.

"I hope that in some way I live life to the fullest so the heart's donor can take this journey with me," he says. "I hope I am doing everything she would have wanted."

—Alex Crevar

Top VIII Award a doggone habit

Ferguson earned a school record 19 All-American track titles. But her work in the classroom and in the community is what made her one of the top eight student-athletes in the country.

Sprinter Debbie Ferguson has been chosen as a recipient of the NCAA's Top VIII Award, which honors eight distinguished college athletes who have excelled in athletics, academics, and leadership.

With the entire country's male and female athletes to choose from, it's a real tribute that the NCAA selected Ferguson because that gives UGA three Top VIIIs in a row. Matt Stinchcomb (football) was honored in '98, and the late Lisa Coole (swimming) in '97.

Ferguson, a four-time NCAA champion, won a silver medal in the '96 Olympics and a gold at the '99 World Championships. She is a Presidential Scholar and a member of the Alpha Epsilon Delta pre-med honorary. She participated in the Clarke County mentor program, and did volunteer work for the homeless shelter and Adopt-A-Highway programs.