Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 9, 1994                   TAG: 9402090124
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ETC.

The nominees for top female athlete are tennis star Steffi Graf, jockey Julie Krone and former Texas Tech basketball standout Sheryl Swoopes.

Sixty athletes and six teams were nominated in 23 categories for ESPY awards, which honor excellence in sports performance. The second annual awards will be presented Feb. 28 in New York during a telecast on ESPN.

Julius Erving is this year's winner of the Schick Achievement Award, which goes each year to a former NBA coach or player who has gone on to success after his basketball career. Erving, one of pro basketball's most prolific scorers and among the first of the slam-dunk artists, is now a successful businessmen and civic leader.

Sports Illustrated ballyhooed its swimsuit issue at a gathering of some of the models who posed for the 30th edition of the magazine's hardy perennial.

The models wore street clothes at the news conference. The 1994 edition, dated Feb. 14 and appearing today, will be the first with three cover girls - Kathy Ireland, Elle Macpherson and Rachel Hunter, each in a black bikini.

Another first has men - five members of the U.S. national water polo team - in the layout.

Steve Garvey, a former 10-time All-Star first baseman, twice has been on the cover of Sport Magazine. Now he will be behind the scenes as executive publisher of the oldest sports monthly in the United States. Sport began publishing in September 1946. Garvey, who played 19 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, appeared on the magazine's cover in April 1976 and April 1983.