Students, alumni and other fans filled every seat at Wayne State's Student Center to watch the Warriors play Pittsburg State in the NCAA Division II football championship game on a large projector screen. More than 100 people came to watch at least part of the game, and though many left feeling disappointed, several applauded the Warriors at the end of the 35-21 loss.The Warriors are on the map now, and for at least a day, they grabbed the Detroit sports spotlight. "It's a remarkable comeback story the city of Detroit could use," said 1976 WSU graduate Charles Johnson.

A Detroit News front page story features the Warriors' quest for the NCAA Division II championship game in Florence, Ala. Saturday. "This is so exciting, just bringing this exposure to Wayne State and being able to tell our story and where we've come from and the fact that we've never been to this stage," said senior receiver Troy Burrell. "To be able to do this for Wayne State and for the city of Detroit is such a great thing." Wayne State (12-3) will finish the season with more wins than Michigan or Michigan State. It's a dramatic turnaround for a program that went 0-11 in 1999 and had just two winning seasons in the 20 years before Coach Winters arrived in 2004. Winters has won 48 games and has become the school's career leader in victories. Tragedy hit the team in May when starting cornerback Cortez Smith, 20, was shot and killed while trying to break up an altercation in a club parking lot in downtown Detroit. The tragedy hit the team hard, including Burrell, who was Smith's roommate. "We carry that with us daily. That was my roommate, and every time I step out on the field, we have that memory of him being our brother and our teammate," Burrell said. "That fuels us when we're playing these games. "We keep Tez in the back of our minds every single time we take the field - practice, on the field, during game days," said Zach Easterly, a senior linebacker. "That's who we play for every single day." WSU Athletic Director Rob Fournier also comments in the story. Photos are included.

This is the second in a series of stories that provide a behind-the-scenes look at Wayne State's football program and its journey to the Division II national championship game. Today's installment, from the site of the national championship game in Florence, Ala., takes a look at Warriors starting quarterback Mickey Mohner and backup quarterbacks Sean Guinane, Doug Griffin and Nick Moeller. Mohner, a junior, is expected to start his 16th game for Wayne State against Pittsburg State in Saturday's Division II championship game. He's seen game action since he was a freshman and is the most experienced of the group. "The big thing I want these guys to know is they are one play away from being the starter," Winters said. "So you have to prepare like you are the starter. I don't want an injury to cost us a game. They all have to know what's going on." Photos are included.

Cellphone driving risks re-analyzed Two early influential studies on cellphone use and car crash risk may have overestimated the risk of talking on cellphones while driving, a Wayne State University researcher says. Richard Young, professor of research in Wayne State's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, who spearheaded the study, appeared this morning on NPR's "The Takeaway" program.

Gel may help prevent birth problems Preterm births, neonatal complications and health care costs are dramatically reduced when women with short cervixes are given a progesterone gel, according to a study announced Wednesday by Wayne State University researchers. The strategy can help annually prevent 45,000 preterm births and cut health care costs by $500 million, said Dr. Roberto Romero, the study's principal investigator and chief of the Perinatology Research Branch of the National Institutes of Health, hosted by Wayne State University at Hutzel Women's Hospital.

Wayne State football's go-to guy serves vital role This is the first in a series of stories that provide a behind-the-scenes look at Wayne State's football team and its journey to the Division II national championship game. Today's story profiles Wayne State's equipment manager Terrance Woods, a native Detroiter and former youth football coach. He is a man of many hats, and he will need to wear every one to help transport 3,504 pounds of equipment from midtown Detroit to northern rural Alabama for Saturday's Division II national championship game against Pittsburg State. Mike Flynn, building operations director at Wayne State, said Woods goes deeper than that. "He is the glass," Flynn said. "Somebody's got to hold it together." Comments are included from left tackle Joe Long and wide receiver Troy Burrell. Video is provided.

Wall Street Journal: Wayne State, U of M tops in graduating future sports franchise owners Lately we have been talking a lot about athletics at Wayne State University now that their football team could win a national championship, but here's another sports-related bonus for the school. According to the Wall Street Journal, WSU is one of a handful of universities nationwide that can claim multiple graduates as owners of professional football teams. WSU can claim three, and the University of Michigan can claim four. The Yahoo News story identified the Wayne State University alums as Dan Gilbert (Cleveland Cavaliers), Stephen Ross (Miami Dolphins) and Bill Davidson (Detroit Pistons).

A national USA Today feature story highlights the Warriors and their quest for the NCAA Division II championship. This is the fifth week in a row we'll be getting on a plane," says coach Paul Winters. "Our guys have really been embracing it." Says senior running back Josh Renel: "It's been remarkable, the feeling around campus. I think there are some students who never really knew we even had a football program. Now, you walk around campus and hear cheers, professors are announcing congratulations before classes. It's been an amazing turnaround." The achievements of the "Road Warriors" figure to be remembered for a long time, whatever happens against Pitt State. Warriors coach Paul Winters is quoted.

The lead story on CBS Detroit discusses a Wayne State University researcher who has shown that compounds found in soybeans can make radiation treatment of lung cancer tumors more effective while helping to preserve normal tissue. A team led by Gilda Hillman, professor of radiation oncology at WSU's School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, had shown previously that soy isoflavones, a natural, nontoxic component of soybeans, increase the ability of radiation to kill cancer cells in prostate tumors by blocking DNA repair mechanisms and molecular survival pathways, which are turned on by the cancer cells to survive the damage radiation causes.

Free Press sports columnist Drew Sharp writes about the team's dedication to the memory of fellow Warrior Cortez Smith who was lost his life as he interceded as a peacemaker on behalf of a friend during an argument at a location off campus. The Warriors believe Smith has watched over them this season. He has become "the angel on our shoulders," coach Paul Winters said. As the Warriors face the Pittsburg State team at Saturday's Division II national championship game, the entire team will walk onto the field holding the school flag, each waving three fingers in salute to their fallen teammate. Smith's family became honorary captains for the Warriors this season. The players wear T-shirts under their jerseys with the mantra "It's all about character" and Smith's No. 3. A photo of Warriors celebrating a win is included.

Fox 2 sports reporter Jennifer Hammond interviewed Warriors players and Coach Paul Winters as practice was being conducted on Ford Field. Channel 20 sports director Dean Pantazzi included field interviews during his "Sports Commentary" segment.

A study put together by researchers in Detroit is being called the "most important ever conducted on premature birth." It is getting the designation because researchers claim they have figured out how to drastically reduce the rate of premature births in our nation. They say doctors should measure the cervixes of pregnant women and then treat women with shorter cervixes with vaginal progesterone. The study was put together by researchers at Wayne State University, the Detroit Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Roberto Romero, head of the study and chief of the Perinatology Research Branch of the National Institutes of Health, which is based in Detroit at the DMC and Wayne State University's School of Medicine, said in the Detroit Free Press story that "evidence is compelling" that the cervical measurements and gel significantly improve a woman's chance of having a full-term, healthy baby. A woman with a short cervix has a greater chance of delivering before 37 weeks of pregnancy. A normal pregnancy is about 40 weeks.

On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board called for a nationwide ban on texting and calling behind the wheel. Many individual states and municipalities have their own prohibitions on cell-phone use while driving, but the new ban seeks to outlaw all non-emergency calls and texts by every driver in America. Coincidentally, on the same day, a new analysis of past data on distracted driving found that the crash risk may have been overstated. Researchers at Wayne State University's School of Medicine looked at two influential studies on distracted driving and car crashes, and concluded that the papers' methodology was problematic. The studies found that cell phone use by drivers raised the risk of a car crash by four times. The two studies recruited people who had been in a crash, and then used their cell phone billing records to compare their phone use during the time of the crash with their use during the same time period the week before. The previous-week comparison period was called the "control window." The problem, according to Dr. Richard Young, the lead author of the new analysis, published in Epidemiology, is that while the researchers asked people whether they had driven during the control window, they didn't ask how much they drove.

Hitching a ride into the retina on nanoparticles called dendrimers offers a new way to treat age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. A collaborative research study among investigators at Wayne State University, Minnesota's Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins University in Maryland shows that steroids attached to the dendrimers targeted the damage-causing cells associated with neuroinflammation, leaving the rest of the eye unaffected and preserving vision. The study was funded by grants from the Ligon Research Center of Vision at Wayne State University, the Ralph C. Wilson Medical Research Foundation, Office of the Vice President for Research at Wayne State University, and Research to Prevent Blindness.

Doctors at Van Andel Research Institute are among dozens more across the country who will take part in a 3-year, $6 million project aimed at devising new treatments for a particularly deadly form of skin cancer. The Stand Up to Cancer and Melanoma Research Alliance Dream Team, composed of nearly 50 doctors, scientists and researchers, is tasked with examining the usefulness of personalized and other therapies to treat metastatic melanoma. Dr. Patricia M. LoRusso, a professor of oncology at Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University's School of Medicine, will serve as project co-leader leading the team of medical professionals from various institutions, including Vanderbilt University, the Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University. Michigan State's Grand Rapids-based College of Human Medicine also is involved with the project.

In one of those magical, improbable playoff runs that helps renew faith in the joy of sports, Wayne State University's football team has pushed itself to the Division II national title game, after having never made the playoffs before this season. The Warriors (12-3) will play Pittsburg State (Kan.) in Florence, Ala. this Saturday for the national title. Warriors coach Paul Winters said this unlikely post-season run has been intense, bringing more attention to his football program than it's ever seen. A photo is featured of Wayne State's Josh Renel and Aaron Cornett celebrating after advancing to the Division II finals.

Craig Fahle talked to Crain's Detroit Business reporter Bill Shea about the success of the Wayne State Warriors this football season.

Are children better off learning in schools computer-free? The Waldorf School approach to child learning has been receiving national attention for its non-focus on technology and computer literacy, especially with advocates of the model being found in many high-tech families in California's Silicon Valley. Craig Fahle talks about the possible benefits and draw-backs of a computer-free primary education. Mary Waker, director of Wayne State University's Education Technology Center at the College of Education, joined the discussion.

Wayne State is included in a list of universities that have produced the most current major-sports franchise owners. WSU has graduated three owners including Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. The top 11 institutions in the rankings include: Harvard, Georgetown, Columbia, Michigan, UCLA, Arizona, Dartmouth, NYU, Penn, Wayne State and Yale.

A Wayne State University professor says there is a way to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma without the risk of more cancerous tumors growing in a patient. Current treatments attack cancerous cells but are met with specific resistance from a protein in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cells that make cancer-treating drugs less effective. Pathology professor Asfar Azmi has presented findings of a new treatment that weakens that protein. "Really these are very effective drugs," Azmi, who works under WSU professor Ramzi Mohammad, said in a news release. "They are killing resistant lymphoma cells at very low concentrations, or nanomolar range. Such tumors were developed in Mohammad's lab from patients who did not respond to standard chemotherapy." Azmi says that the same drugs can be used as a broad treatment for many types of cancers and can be added to future chemotherapy treatments.