CHAMPAIGN — Olympian Justin Spring today was promoted to associate head coach for Illinois men's gymnastics.

Spring, who will retire from competitive gymnastics, will  oversee the men's program previously run by Yoshi Hayasaki, who retired.

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CHAMPAIGN – It was an offer too good for Justin Spring to pass up. Even at the cost of ending his world- class gymnastics career and giving up a shot at competing in another Olympics.

"This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Spring said Wednesday after being named associate head coach of the Illinois men's gymnastics team. "I'll miss (competing) from time to time, but when they asked me if this was something I'd be interested in, it was a no-brainer."

– Decatur's Lewis Jackson should have been warned that the outskirts of Monticello is no place to speed. Town scuttlebutt has it that a favorite watering hole, once owned by Dick Butkus' linebacker coach Lou Baker at Illinois, went out of business when town gendarmes took notice that patrons were leaving there in cars when they had no business driving.

SALEM, Ore. – It came to be known as Ping Pong Diplomacy, an acknowledgment of the role the sport played in the normalization of relations between two Cold War adversaries in the early 1970s.

It wasn't the only sport, however, that helped thaw an icy chill that then existed between the People's Republic of China and the United States. Urbana native Nancy Thies Marshall can attest to that because she lived it, participating in a historic meeting of the countries' gymnastics teams in May 1973 at New York's Madison Square Garden.

MINNEAPOLIS – Paul Ruggeri keeps his first NCAA trophy on a crowded dresser in his apartment room on campus.

"It's overflowing," the Illinois sophomore gymnast said. "There's not much room for anything else."

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Sophomore third in all-around

MINNEAPOLIS – The Illini didn't send coach Yoshi Hayasaki out with a national championship, but the 33-year Illinois men's gymnastics coach couldn't be more proud of his squad after a fifth-place finish Friday at the NCAA Championships.