Boston College

NEWTON - Dan Kennedy will graduate from Boston College on Monday, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and the recipient of the school's most prestigious prize, the Edward H. Finnegan Award. Winners of the Finnegan, given to the student who best exemplifies the BC motto, "ever to excel," tend to go big - top grad schools, Wall Street, overseas fellowships. Kennedy is planning to give away his computer, recycle his Blackberry, and move to a modest communal house in St. Paul, Minn.

Thomas H. O'Connor was an affable historian with a wise and compassionate ability to understand conflicts, especially the collisions among races, classes, and religions that shaped Boston from the early 17th century to modern day. By the time of his death Sunday, at 89, he was a local eminence who helped lifelong Bostonians and newcomers alike understand the city's tangled politics and folkways. O'Connor was as deft at lecturing on Separatist Puritans as he was on the city's desegregation battles of the 1970s.

Longtime University of Massachusetts softball coach Elaine Sortino, one of just five active coaches with more than 1,100 career wins, has announced that she is battling cancer. Sortino made the announcement to her team Wednesday following a 4-2 win over Boston College. No additional details were released. Director of Athletics John McCutcheon said the 33-year coach will continue to be as involved as possible with the team, but day-to-day operations will be handled by her assistants.

Thomas H. O'Connor, the unofficial dean of Boston history and a fixture for more than six decades on the Boston College faculty, died Sunday in his Milton home. He was 89. The cause of death was a heart attack, the college's news and public affairs office said. "Most traditional treatments of Boston tend to be extraordinarily incomplete and at times strangely unreal," Dr. O'Connor wrote in his first book about the city, "Bibles, Brahmins, and Bosses: A Short History of Boston," (1976)

A question that has vexed college administrators since John Belushi shambled on screen in "Animal House" - what to do about heavy drinking by students - may have a new answer. A study of 30 campuses nationwide found that an online educational course that showed students in attention-grabbing detail the consequences of excessive drinking had significantly reduced common alcohol-related problems among freshmen, including binge drinking and sexual assault. The results, published in July in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, also showed that students who completed the program were less...

A Boston College lacrosse player from Brightwaters, N.Y., has been found dead in his apartment in the Boston suburb of Brighton. University spokesman Jack Dunn says 20-year-old Michael Racanelli was found dead Monday in his Foster Street home. Police say preliminary investigations have ruled out foul play. A medical examiner will determine the manner and cause of death. Racanelli was a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences at Boston College. He was reportedly recovering from a collarbone injury he suffered last month.

No. 1 Boston College clinched its 12th Hockey East regular season title with a 4-0 season-finale win over Vermont. The Eagles received goals from four different players to shut out Vermont in Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Saturday night. The Catamounts close out the season with a record of 6-27-1 and 3-23-1 in Hockey East, while the Eagles improve to 25-10-1 and 19-7-1 and extend their win streak to 11 games. Vermont goaltender Rob Madore finished the night with 28 saves in his final game as a Catamount, while Boston College netminder Parker Milner stopped 26 shots.

Boston College wrapped up its football season with a 24-17 victory over Miami at Sun Life Stadium in Miami. BC quarterback Chase Rettig connected with tight end Chris Pantale on a pair of touchdown pass plays and Luke Kuechly returned an interception 45 yards for a touchdown to lead the Eagles, who finished the season 4-8, 3-5 in the ACC. Miami is 6-6, 3-5. Hurricanes quarterback Jacory Harris was intercepted four times.

NEWTON - Steve Rose sat in the student-athlete lounge at Boston College's Conte Forum, and shrugged his shoulders. Fresh off another practice session, he wondered aloud how he arrived here, as the new quarterback in the midfield for the men's soccer team. Rose had been at the Heights years ago, as an All-State, All-New England high school recruit from Acton-Boxborough Regional, but the fit wasn't right. Four years later, things had changed. He graduated from Seton Hall in New Jersey with a year of soccer-playing eligibility left, and he knew BC was the...

TAMPA - The fact that Boston College is in the Frozen Four shouldn't come as a shock. The Eagles have advanced this far five times in the last seven seasons, and 10 times in the last 15. However, the 2011-12 edition has surprised many, including coach Jerry York. After losing four-year starter John Muse in goal and a plethora of goal scorers (Brian Gibbons, Cam Atkinson, Joe Whitney, and Jimmy Hayes, who combined for 167 points last season), it appeared the squad would be decent, but not necessarily championship-caliber.

Journalist Bob Woodruff urged Boston College's 136th graduating class Monday to give back, practice faith, pursue their passions, and never forget the importance of friends and family - lessons he said he learned six years ago on the day he "should have died. " While Woodruff was reporting in Iraq for ABC News on Jan. 29, 2006, he sustained a traumatic brain injury when the military vehicle in which he was traveling struck a roadside bomb. Initially, he was not expected to survive, he said.

NEWTON - Dan Kennedy will graduate from Boston College on Monday, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and the recipient of the school's most prestigious prize, the Edward H. Finnegan Award. Winners of the Finnegan, given to the student who best exemplifies the BC motto, "ever to excel," tend to go big - top grad schools, Wall Street, overseas fellowships. Kennedy is planning to give away his computer, recycle his Blackberry, and move to a modest communal house in St. Paul, Minn.

NBA Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose faces a recovery of eight months to a year from knee surgery. The assessment by Dr. Brian Cole Tuesday means the star point guard could return mid-January to early February - or miss next season. The doctor added there is a chance Rose could be back sooner, but "we're not going to rush it. " The Bulls had already said Rose has a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Cole said there were also two tears in Rose's meniscus cartilage . . . The Bulls will exercise their contract option for next season on coach Tom Thibodeau and will...

Boston College received a $5 million gift from an anonymous donor to endow its head men's ice hockey coaching position currently held by Jerry York. The donation pays tribute to the 1967 Boston College graduate, who has five NCAA championships and 913 wins during his storied career. "We are most grateful and pleased to announce this magnificent commitment," said athletic director Gene DeFilippo. BC won its fifth national championship in program history April 7

HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says it is time for the University of Connecticut and Boston College to put hard feelings behind them and work to re-establish an important New England rivalry on the football field and basketball court. In an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, Malloy, an alumnus of Boston College, said he has expressed those sentiments in talks over the past year with Boston College President William Leahy. The two schools have been at odds since Boston College left the Big East to join the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005, and the state...

The Westford Academy players huddled around coach Julie Devlin Olivier before their practice session Sunday afternoon, anticipating a quote. "What makes a dark horse shine?" asked the second-year coach. Olivier then highlighted what her players need to focus on for the remainder of the season to be successful: ball possession, good goaltending, and smart shooting. Westford is off to a sizzling 13-2 start, with impressive wins over Central Catholic, Wayland, and Bishop Guertin.

By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff It will be--for better or worse--running back by committee for the next several weeks, including at least the first two games of the season. Yet, as Boston College went through its drills this afternoon, gearing up for the third scrimmage of summer training camp (tomorrow afternoon) there was no sense of panic. No sense of doom. Yes, Montel Harris, the Eagles leading rusher and on the precipice of becoming the all-time leading rusher in BC and perhaps Atlantic Coast Conference history, will be sidelined for the immediate future as he recovers from arthroscopic...

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says it is time for the University of Connecticut and Boston College to put hard feelings behind them and work to re-establish an important New England rivalry on the football field and basketball court. In an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, Malloy, an alumnus of Boston College, said he has expressed those sentiments in talks over the past year with Boston College President William Leahy. The two schools have been at odds since Boston College left the Big East to join the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005, and the state of Connecticut...