GORDON ATHLETICS

Gordon Athletics is the name of the department that oversees athletics at Gordon College.
Don't call it the Gordon Athletic Department, the Gordon Department of Athletics, or use
the word sports to describe it.

Use athletics or sports to refer in general to the activities overseen by this department.

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ACRONYMS

Spell out the name of a league or organization on first reference and follow it with the acronym in parentheses, with no comma between them. In subsequent references use the acronym. If there will be no second reference, omit the acronym.

Use the same style to introduce sports acronyms some readers might not understand.

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FACILITIES

Refer to Gordon College's athletic facilities by the names below on first reference. Thereafter, the less formal names in parentheses can be used.

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NUMERICAL INFORMATION

Use the styles below.

Measurements are recorded differently for different athletic events. For guidelines about issues not detailed here, consult the Associated Press Stylebook; copies are available at the Gordon Athletics office in the Bennett Center, and the College Communications office in Frost Hall.

Scores

Always use numerals. For College communications, separate them with an en dash.
In writing that will be sent to off-campus news outlets, separate them with a hyphen (AP style).

How to create em dashes ➔

Measurements and race finishing times

Use decimal numbers for track and swimming times. 

Use metric measurements (with decimal fractions) to report distance in non-running field events such as the broad jump. (Consult the AP Stylebook for details.)

Swimming distances can be reported both in yards, and in meters. For Gordon communications, the rule of thumb is to use meters.

In lists, use this abbreviation for meters:    m
In sentences, spell it out.

Order of finish in a competition

Use ordinal numbers, and superscript the letters.

Use words to express numerical sequence in all other cases.

Seeding

Use this style:    no. 3 seed

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SPECIALIZED VOCABULARY AND "GORDON PHRASES"

Spell and punctuate as shown below. 

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GORDON'S ATHLETES, TEAMS, AND COACHES

Student Athletes

When writing about a student athlete for College communications, identify the student by full name and class year. In second references in news stories and formal writing, refer to the student by last name only. However, this is flexible; it is fine to refer to students by first name if that better suits the tone of a feature article.

Because of NCAA and conference reporting requirements, Gordon Athletics style varies from standard College style in news releases, rosters and a range of other materials. Articles may specify an athlete's hometown (with state abbreviated, using the traditional state abbreviations that include periods) and identify the student's class year as first-year (abbreviate as FY), sophomore, junior or senior. Do not use freshman.

Refer to female Gordon College student athletes as women.

Team Names

Refer to Gordon College teams by their official capitalized names (scroll down). These can stand alone, or be combined with lowercased words to create phrases such as the Men's Basketball team. 

Subsequent references can

• substitute the team nickname the Fighting Scots or the Scots
• use Gordon or Gordon College before the team name
• make general reference to the team or the Gorden men (or women).

The nickname Lady Scots is no longer used.

Official and informal team names

When a team name includes an ampersand, don't substitute and. 

COACHES

Capitalize Coach or Assistant Coach before a name (and any other major words in the coach's official job title if you wish to state it in full). Lowercase them when they follow a name. On subsequent references, it is fine to use the person's last name only, or to refer to the individual by title and last name. As a rule, Gordon communications do not include degrees after coaches' names.

Never refer to an individual simply as Coach.