THE ROAD BACK: THE BEV KEARNEY STORY PREMIERES APRIL 18

THE ROAD BACK: THE BEV KEARNEY STORY PREMIERES APRIL 18

CSTV Original Production Chronicles Remarkable Story of Texas Track and Field Coach Bev Kearney's Heroic Recovery From Tragic Auto Accident


NEW YORK, April 14, 2004 - Bev Kearney, who had led the University of Florida and the University of Texas to NCAA Women's Track and Field Championships only to suffer life-threatening injuries in a fatal auto accident in December 2002, will have her remarkable story of recovery chronicled when CSTV: College Sports Television (www.collegesports.com) premieres The Road Back: The Bev Kearney Story Sunday, April 18 (2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT).

The Road Back: The Bev Kearney Story, a College Sports TV original production, presents an intimate look at Kearney, who suffered serious spinal cord and back injuries and paralysis in the 2002 accident. The crash took the lives of Muriel Wallace, mother of Michelle Freeman, a world-class runner when Kearney coached her at the University of Tennessee, and Ilrey Sparks, an academic adviser at Texas and former Olympic track star who Kearney had taken under her wing. Kearney endured three surgeries in one month but continued coaching from her hospital bed and later from a wheelchair. A landmark moment on her road back occurred when she was able to stand at the 2003 Texas Relays, just four months after the accident.

College Sports TV's April 18th special recounts Kearney's struggles growing up in a difficult family situation, and also details how that experience helped her as she selflessly has cared for Ilrey Sparks' four-year old child and Michelle Freeman since the 2002 tragedy.

The April 18th special features interviews with Kearney and assistant coach Dana Boone, as well as Sanya Richards, Nicole Denby, Raasin McIntosh and Sharetta Jones, members of Kearney's current team. Michelle Freeman is also interviewed, as are several medical personnel who played critical roles in Kearney's remarkable recovery.

In addition to the April 18th premier date, encore presentations of The Road Back: The Bev Kearney Story are scheduled for:

Friday, April 23 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT

Saturday, April 24 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT

Sunday, April 25 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT

schedule subject to change

The Bev Kearney File
Has coached Texas to four NCAA national championships since arriving in 1993, and also claimed one national championship at Florida in 1992

Has led the Longhorns to 16 of a possible 22 league titles since 1993

Has coached the Longhorns to an unprecedented 10 consecutive Top 10 finishes at the NCAA Outdoor National Championships

Has won 12 Conference Coach of the Year honors, as well as the 1999 NCAA Indoor Coach of the Year award

Has coached six Olympians, and student-athletes who have earned 27 NCAA individual championships and 292 All-America honors

39 Texas student-athletes have earned All-America honors under her watch

The Road Back Soundbites

Assistant Coach Dana Boone

"I remember seeing her in the hospital bed all bandaged up, and she just started talking about workouts, and what she wanted the people to do. Call the girls.' And I was just amazed. So it was a lot of cell phone calling and a lot of going to her hospital every day and writing the workouts out on a piece of paper or something like that. But it was truly amazing."

Bev Kearney

"I couldn't move, literally. I couldn't move myself. And I was looking up at the wall in my room and I saw a picture of Texas Relays. And I said I'm going to stand at Texas Relays. So I started telling everyone, I'm going to stand at Texas Relays,' and they were looking at me like hmmm, yeah, you might want to try rolling over first."

College Sports TV, the first 24-hour college sports network, is available to more than 20 million homes nationally on cable and satellite. The network is available on Time Warner, Adelphia and Insight cable systems, among others, and is also available on DirecTV (channel 610). For information on CSTV availability in particular markets, consumers can log on to www.cstv.com or call their cable or satellite operator.

CSTV is comprised of two primary business units: College Sports TV and CollegeSports.com. College Sports TV televises regular season and championship event coverage from every major collegiate athletic conference, in addition to nine NCAA Championships. The network also has a programming and marketing agreement with the U.S. Olympic Committee. CollegeSports.com, the most-trafficked college sports Web site, and its network of 150 official athletic sites for top colleges, universities and athletic associations, are the number one online source for college sports news, information, scores and analysis.

CSTV was co-founded by President/CEO Brian Bedol, Chairman Stephen Greenberg and Executive Vice President Chris Bevilacqua. Bedol and Greenberg co-founded Classic Sports Network, which they sold to ESPN and which is now ESPN Classic. Bevilacqua is a former senior executive with Nike Inc., where he headed the company's successful foray into the college market.

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Eric Handler
CSTV: College Sports Television
212-342-8760
ehandler@cstv.com