Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1931)
6 THE BATTALION FROGS AND SMU FOR AGGIE CAGERS SPORTS BITS BY FRANK W. THOMAS JR. The defeat by Baylor the other night came as quite a surprise to all. If Coach Reid’s goalers can win all the remaining games, the champion ship can still be ours. Thus far, the only man that the 1931 track team will lose is P. T. Mc Clendon, Dothan, Ala., who has left school. McClendon made his first letter in cross country this season, and was counted on very strongly in the distance runs. All the rest of the squad seems to be scholasti cally eligible. Three consecutive halves with only three field goals scored against them is the record the Aggie made in the Baylor and Texas game last week. Only six were made by their oppon ents in both games. This is quite a record for any conference team, and especially so seeing as we were rated as cellar occupants by most of the Texas sport writers at the start of the season. From all reports it appears that Squawk Veltman is being recognized as an all-Conference prospect by more than ourselves. Veltman’s excellent guarding, dribbling and passing has figured prominently in the Aggie success this far this season. By his surprising accuracy in hit ting the basket in the Texas game in which he made two sensational shots, “Dan” Moody, a former guard shifted to forward, is likely to gain a regular berth on the team ere the the season ends. Reports from T C U that Cy Ice land and “Red” Oliver have written for admission to the Olympic club will give the Aggie track hopes quite a boost, since Rufus Emmons, A & M dash man, is second only to Leland in his event. Oliver was ruled ineligible in conference compe tition this spring because of scholas tic delinquency. The Mustangs may not find going so easy next Saturday night when they meet Coach Reid’s revamped team. Seeing as Baylor and Texas together were able to score only six field goals, we’re not so sure those Ponies can do much better. Captain Shiro Hoke will no doubt have his hands full Friday night, when the Aggies meet T C U in guard ing the elongated Dietzel, mighty T C U pivot man. We believe he can do it though. With beautiful spring weather al ready prevalent in Aggieland, Captain Lyons, Freshman baseball coach, plans to start his pitchers nad cat chers working this week. The re mainder of the squad will not be called out. for about three weeks. The First Infantry, with only two more games to play, one with the (Continued on page 7) Aggie Outfielders Heavy Hitters BELL AND VELTMAN BOTH HIT OVER 300 MARK LAST SUMMER The return of two proven sluggers, Beau Bell, Captain elect from Green ville, and Lester Veltman, San An tonio, is quite a relief to Coach Hig ginbotham’s outfield worries. Although Bell’s batting average in conference games was below par last year, the fact that he hit well above the .300 mark in semi-pro baseball during the past summer following the conference race speaks well for him in the approaching season. In more than 40 times at bat he hit a little better than .225 for the season’s play. However, his fielding was far above the average nearing the perfect mark by a very few points. Veltman, long distance hitter and fielding sensation in a number of the games, was ah all-conference selection for the left field post last year by almost unanimous choice. He has an impressive swat average from last year, being well above the .300 mark in nearly 50 times at the plate. Play ing with a semi-pro team in San An tonio last summer, Veltman was out standing in his position with a bat ting average near the .400 mark throughout the three months. The center garden, left vacant by the graduation of Brooks Conover, will be the only position open without a letterman. However Coach Hig has several freshman numeral men and squadmen from last year to compete for it. Horseshoe Pitching- Is Next Intramural Sport Although scheduled competition does not begin for two weeks, a number of units have already obtained equipment for horseshoe pitching. As has been the policy in the past, four leagues will be formed in this sport, with six or seven teams to the league. Teams composed of six men will represent their respective organ izations in these leagues, as in the case of handball and tennis. A new policy is being inaugurated this year with respect to horseshoe and indoor baseball equipment, that is each unit is required to place a deposit of two dollars with the depart ment until this equipment is returned. This was made necessray because of a seemingly large unnecessary loss of equipment for these sports last year. When that material issued by the de partment is returned, the deposit will be refunded. Breakage will be cared for by the department. Human beings are much too unsub stantial to be copied; they can at the utmost only serve as suggestions for the novelist’s imagination to work up on.—W. Somerset Maugham. Those believe there is such a thing as free love are mistaken. There may be plenty of freedom, but believe me, there is very little love.—Bishop Car ey of Bloemfontein. Conference Baseball To Open In Houston Apr. 3 The 1931 Southwest Conference base ball race will open in Houston on April 3 when the strong Baylor Bears will invade Houston for a game with the Rice Owls. The Aggie schedule will open the following day against the Bears. The Bears are preseasonally con- ceeded a very good chance of busting into Coach Billy Disch’s long held monopoly of conference baseball cham pionships this year, as they have al most the identical team as last year with the addition of Pat Parker, an outstanding pitcher from Lufkin. The Longhorns will be weaker this season as most of the pitchers of their 1930 championship team have either graduated or left school. Rice is put ting a rather strong team in the field this season, boasting of Ray Hart as the best pitcher in the conference. Coach Jimmy St. Clair will coach the Mustangs this season. Their show ing in the conference in the past few years has been rather poor, and it is questionable as to whether they will show up much better this year. The T C U Horned Frogs are ex pected to put forth about the same calibre team as of last year, which (Continued on page 7) Aggie Five Loses To Baylor Bears Baylor Makes Foul Shots Count In Beating- A & M Showing a complete reversal of form over the preceeding game, the Baylor Bears made good 15 out of 16 foul shots in Waco Monday night to defeat the Aggie basketball team by a score of 27-18. Both teams made an equal number of goals, making six apiece. Puny Witcher was very successful in his guarding of Capt. Shiro Hoke, holding him without a single goal to his credit. Raymond Strickland was the high point man of the game with nine points. Marcum and Moody led the Aggies with 5 points each. Squawk Veltman again guarded Raymond Alford very closely, but he managed to score two field goals at critical moments, making a total of seven points. The score at the half was 9-7 with Baylor leading, and the Aggies did not go into the lead at any time dur ing the remainder of the game. Baylor Alford, f Wells, f Strickland, c Witcher, g Runnells, g Kiersky, f Fg.Ft.Tp. 2 3 7 13 5 3 3 9 0 4 4 0 2 2 0 0 0 TOTALS A & M Bell, f Marcum, f Hoke, c Veltman, g Beard, g Moody, f 6 15 27 Fg.Ft.Tp. 0 2 2 2 15 Oil 10 2 113 2 15 TOTALS 6 6 18 Games This Friday and Saturday Will Decide Fate of Aggies in the Title Race * Engineers Trample 2nd Inf. One-Sided Game A powerful Engineer eleven ran rough-shod over Jimmie Aston’s Se cond Infantrymen Saturday after noon and won a one-sided affair by the top-heavy score of 38-0, while the other games scheduled for the after- T C U AND SMU WILL RULE AS FAVORITES AFTER BAYLOR LOSS With championship hopes dimmed by the recent defeat by Baylor, the Texas Aggie basketball team will go up against their real test of the sea son when they meet the highly-touted T C U Horned Frogs and the confer 1st Inf 4 3% Eng 5 2nd Art 4 1st Ajrt 5 Cav 4 2nd Inf 4 3% y a .875 3% 1V2 .700 2 2 .500 2y 2 2V 2 .500 2 2 .500 1 3 .250 % sy 2 .125 noon between the Second Artillery and the Composites, the Cavalry and the First Artillery, resulted in ties, 6-6 and 0-0 respectively. Beginnig with the initial kick-off the Engineer opened up a series of passes and end runs to score a touch down before the game was three min utes old, and from this point on they were never successfully checked. With Vallee starring on the end runs, and Parker and Flournoy tossing bullet passes the Infantrymen soon found themselves helpless against the pow- | erful Engineer offense. Valee made several gains of more than 30 yards each. Scoring a touchdown on the open ing play of the game, “Two Gun” Tracy’s fighting Composites took the Artillermen by surprise and all but emerged with a victory against the fast slipping Wagon Soldiers. The Composites after making the first score of the game continued to play the Artillermen off their feet through out most of the first half. With only two minutes to play, Chapman, Art illery fullback, intercepted a lateral pass intended for an Infantry end and ran 40 yards before being brought down from behind. The Artillery took advantage of the break and scor- (Continued on page 8) CONFERENCE STANDINGS SMU .... 5 5 0 1.000 T C U .... 6 4 2 .666 Arkansas .... 8 5 3 .625 A & M .... 6 3 3 .500 Baylor .... 7 3 4 .429 , Rice .... 7 2 5 .285 Texas .... 7 16 ,143 Handball Singles And Doubles To Start Soon A handball tournament, scheduled to start early next week, in which each unit will be allowed to enter two men in the double competition and one in the singles race, is the newest fea ture offered by the depax-tment of in tramural athletics. The tournament following immedi ately axter the close of the league competition, in which every organi zation was represented this year, F, intended to serve as a means of de termining the best doubles team and individual player in the college. In playing the matches, since each unit will be represented by only one team of two men and one man for the sin gles, no substitutions will be made. ence leading Mustangs in their first meetings of the season this Friday and Saturday night in Ft. Worth and Dallas, respectively. Defeat at the hands of these two rivals will eliminate the Aggies from any prospects of getting the basketball championship this year, whereas vic tories over these schools will place the Maroon and White as logical contend er for the honor. The Reidmen will go into these frays as the underdogs as a result of the last game. S M U is undefeated in the conference race and holds substantial victories over all schools except A & M and Arkansas. T C U is at present occupying second place in the confer ence race as a result of a victory over Baylor last week. The Frogs have won four out of their six games played this season, having lost to S M U and Ai’k- ansas. The spot light of the T C U game will be devoted to the center ring, where Dietzel, the conference’s lead ing scorer, will match tip-offs with Capt. Shiro Hoke. Both are strong can didates for an all-Conference position in that place. Squawk Veltman, bril liant Aggie guard, will make his bid for an all-Conference position against Atkins of T C U and Skeeters of SMU, both outstanding in the guard position. RESULTS T C U 38, Baylor 22. A & M 34, Texas U. 10. Baylor 27, A & M 18. SMU 41, Texas 33. WHERE THEY PLAY Feb. 13: A & M vs T C U at Ft. Worth. Baylor vs Ark. at Fayettville. Feb. 14: Baylor vs Ark. at Fayettville. Texas vs Ark. at Fayettville. A & M vs S M U at Dallas. Tcrias vs Rice at Houston. Feb. 17: A & M vs Rice at Houston. Feb. 18: S M U vs Baylor at Waco. Texas vs T C U at Austin.