The leader of the agency that polices doping by Olympic athletes have been honored by the University of North Carolina General Alumni Association with a Distinguished Young Alumni Award.

Travis Thompson Tygart ’93, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., oversees a nonprofit organization that investigates Olympic athletes suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs; reaches out to young athletes and elite amateurs to educate them on making healthy, ethical choices; and funds research related to deterring drug use in sports.

After receiving a degree in philosophy at UNC, Tygart earned a law degree from Southern Methodist University in 1999 and became outside counsel to the agency when it was formed in 2000, shortly after the Sydney Olympics. He became USADA’s director of legal affairs in 2002 and CEO in 2007.

Besides high-profile investigations of athletes and organizations, such as the BALCO laboratory in San Francisco, the Jacksonville, Fla., native has testified before Congress several times about broader issues related to illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs and the pressures on those who want to compete fairly without jeopardizing their health or compromising their integrity. His testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2008 helped achieve Senate ratification of the UNESCO anti-doping convention, an international treaty against doping in sports.

Tygart returns to UNC at least once a year to speak to journalism, law and philosophy students on ethics issues.

Since 1989, the GAA’s Distinguished Young Alumni Awards have recognized alumni aged 40 or younger whose accomplishments have brought credit to the University.

Carolina Hurricanes’ coach Paul Maurice decided to remove captain Eric Staal from the team’s exhibition game against SKA St. Petersburg in Russia Monday in the second period as a safety precaution.

Hurricanes’ players and coaches were upset by what they believed were deliberate low blows by the Russian team, which defeated Carolina 5-3 in the exhibition game.

“It seemed like they were getting awfully close to his knees and there wasn’t enough concern out there,” Maurice said. “He’s a star NHL player and should be playing in the National Hockey League.”

Maurice said he expected a lot of fights and a lot of bs, and that’s just what happened.

The players, many of whom have played against Russians in youth and junior hockey, weren’t surprised by the rough play but they took exception to the hits to knees.

Staal, who came away with a cut under his eye, said that he received two low hits. “He kind of dove at my knees,” said Staal, who was lifted shortly thereafter. “I’m a big guy, I can take a hit, but when the guy lunges at your knee when you’re going full speed, you can blow an ACL.”

Several fights ensued after that as Hurricanes’ Jay Harrison and Joni Pitkanen were both tossed from the game.

Maurice said that the team bonded and built chemistry as a result of the game and its altercations.

The Durham Bulls were chosen as the favorite North Carolina-based professional team by Capital Sports readers in an online poll.

The minor league affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays got 57 percent of the vote compared to the second-place finishing Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL which got 21 percent of the vote.

There were not as many responses to this unscientific poll as last week’s poll about whether or not Butch Davis would be back next season as UNC’s coach. That plays into the common thought that this is a college sports area and that fans of pro teams often like teams outside of North Carolina so they weren’t inclined to vote.

Still, the results were interesting. In a separate poll, the Carolina Panthers of the NFL were chosen as the least favorite NC-based pro team with 36 percent of the vote. The next least favorite teams were soccer’s Carolina Railhawks and the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats which each got 27 percent of the vote.

The Railhawks didn’t get a single vote as favorite NC-based pro team while the Carolina Mudcats and Durham Bulls didn’t get a single vote as least favorite NC-based pro team.

Many fans of the Mudcats and Bulls enjoy the experience of going to the games but I doubt as many of their fans follow the players and standings as much as Hurricanes’ fans do. But that’s just an educated guess.

Ok, so the Carolina Panthers aren’t very good this year but they really had a chance to steal one in New Orleans… and they should have.

Despite being winless and using a rookie quarterback and being without injured Steve Smith, the Panthers were within John Kasay’s field goal range, just barely at the 36-yard-line, with time running out.

But then they ran a slow-developing, deep-in-the-backfield running play to DeAngelo Williams that lost four yards. Even then, at 57 yards, the Panthers had a chance to win it on a long field goal.

But the Saints predictably blitzed QB Danny Clausen who was sacked for another four-yard loss. The Panthers elected not to try a miracle 61-yard field goal attempt and failed on a fourth-down pass. Saints 16, Panthers 14.

It was right there for the Panthers as the Saints have not been playing like Super Bowl champs. The Panthers would have been better off running a couple of off tackle dive plays and try a 50-yarder than running those two slow plays that went backward.

It doesn’t get easier for the 0-4 Panthers as they play the 3-1 Bears next week without their star receiver Steve Smith, who is expected to be out with a high-ankle sprain. The Panthers have a bye week after the Bears game.

The talk was all about Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb coming back to Philadelphia to face his old team, the Eagles. But it was a first-quarter, 53-yard punt return by Garner’s Brandon Banks that was the key to the Redskins 17-12 win Sunday.

Banks, who is only about 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds, took a punt at his own 8-yard line and sped down the left sideline all the way to the Eagles 39-yard line setting up the Redskins’ first score of the game.

The Redskins scored another TD on a McNabb to Chris Cooley and held off the Eagles. John Riggins, former Redskins’ great and host of his own radio and TV program, said that Banks’ punt return was the key play of the game for the Redskins.

That’s hard to argue as it gave the Redskins the momentum early which lasted until the last few minutes when the Eagles made it close.

Banks made the Redskins’ squad at the first of the year but was placed on the practice squad until Sunday when he made his NFL debut in fine fashion.

“I feel good, but I still feel like I should have scored on that play,” Banks said. “But you know, we won so that’s all that matters at the end of the day, so I’m happy.”

In practice during the week leading up to the game, Banks played the roles of Eagles Michael Vick, who was injured during the game, and DeSean Jackson.

Few could have imagined that he would have made an impact in the real game. Banks also ran a few plays at wide receiver.

Banks, who went undrafted out of Kansas State, was a two-time all-conference football selection at Garner High School and was named to the USA Today’s All-USA high school track and field team in 2006.

North Carolina scored four touchdowns in the second half after falling behind 17-14 to defeat East Carolina 42-17.

The Tar Heels struggled in the first half with missed opportunities and penalties. Twice quarterback T.J. Yates overthrew open receivers who had beaten the ECU secondary for what would have been touchdowns. A roughing the kicker call on UNC’s Bruce Carter negated excellent field position in ECU territory and restarted a Pirate drive that ended in a touchdown to make it 14-7 ECU.

But the Tar Heels managed to tie the score at 14-14 late in the first half when UNC’s Da’Norris Searcy intercepted a pass and went in from 47 yards out. Searcy, who had been scrutinized under the recent investigations, was cleared to play for the first time earlier in the week.

In the second half, the Tar Heels started to wear down the smaller Pirates, especially with rushing yardage. Carolina held the ball for 22 of the 30 second-half minutes and scored on three straight possessions after UNC’s Casey Barth missed a 37-yard field goal. The Heels went from being behind 17-14 to going up 35-17.

Shaun Draughn scored his third touchdown of the game on a 13-yard cutback run in the last minute to put the finishing touches on the 42-17 victory.

Draughn ended the game with 137 yards rushing while Johnny White bettered him with 140 yards. It’s the first time in six years that two Carolina runningbacks have rushed for more than 100 yards in a game.

East Carolina got up early – on its second drive – as Dominique Davis threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Lance Lewis to culminate a long drive where Davis went eight-for-eight.

UNC came right back to tie the score on its next drive when Yates hit Jheranie Boyd with a 25-yard scoring strike on third-and-10.

ECU went up 14-7 on a trick play where receiver Dwayne Harris threw a 40-yard TD to fellow receiver Joe Womack.

Searcy’s interception tied it at the half before State took a 17-14 lead in the third quarter. Carolina took the lead for the first time at 21-17 when Yates found Dwight Jones running a crossing pattern for 13 yards and a touchdown. The big play in the drive was a 32-yard pass play from Yates to Zach Pianalto.

Three rushing touchdowns later by Draughn, the game was over.

“If you can run the ball,” UNC coach Butch Davis said, “it keeps the other team’s offense off the field and tires the other team out.”

Davis also said it was key that the Tar Heels did not turn the ball over and picked off three passes. In addition to Searcy’s key interception, UNC’s Kevin Reddick and Gene Robinson intercepted tipped passes.

ECU coach Ruffin McNeill, aka Weebles, agreed that the turnovers were costly. But he said that other mistakes also hurt the Pirates. “Penalties hurt us – that’s an understatement – and it put us in some tough situations,” he said. The Pirates were penalized 13 times for more than 100 yards whereas the Heels were penalized 10 times for 80 yards.

As Carolina was steamrolling in the second half, the adversity built but McNeill said he needs to teach the team to just play the next play. He said the team is “young and talented and they’re going to make some mistakes.”

East Carolina finished with a respectable 347 total yards but that’s 100 fewer than the Pirates have averaged plus they only managed 64 on the ground. Carolina racked up 444 total yards with 263 on the ground and 181 through the air.

UNC improves to 2-2 while ECU falls to 2-2.

Random Thoughts: East Carolina was every bit as good as UNC until the Pirates wore down. Coach McNeill has done an excellent job of getting his offense to buy into his passing, quick-playing offense. The defense is simply too small and inexperienced to help the offense much at this point though. McNeill has the Pirates playing better than I thought they would at this point in the season. While they are 0-2 against ACC teams, they are 2-0 in their own conference and will be a force.

Durham Bulls play-by-play announcer Neil Solondz did a commendable job as the ESPN3 announcer for the game. He has a good voice and seems to know the two teams fairly well. He did have the “huh?” moment of the game however when he said that an ECU runner had “a negative gain of two yards.” That would be a two-yard loss to you and me.

His sidekick, commentator Jay Taylor, wasn’t nearly as good. He had too many “duh” moments to mention but the one I liked the most is when he said the ECU defender wouldn’t have been called for interference if he had turned around and not touched the receiver. Ah, duh.

It was nice that Time Warner Cable broadcast the ESPN3 game to its viewers in the state. Otherwise, the game would have only been available through online streaming video. Unfortunately, technical difficulties cut the first few minutes of the game.

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