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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1972)
Page 6 College Station, Texas Friday, April 14, 1972 THE BATTALK ‘Right man’ Butler tells of hiring football coach Emory Bellan (Editor’s note: This is the last in a series of articles about the A&M football program done by a team of Journalism 204 students and submitted to The Battalion for publication.) By KARL WOLFSHOHL Gene Stallings is gone and former Longhorn Emory Bellard is now head football coach and athletic director at A&M. People around Aggieland are asking questions, and Dr. O. D. Butler, former chairman of the Athletic Council has some an swers. What does Butler expect from the new football program ? He won’t make definite predictions, but his outlook is optimistic. “There were a large number of prospects for head coach, and I am quite confident that the president, Board of Directors and Athletic Council selected the right man for this position,” Butler said. “Emory Bellard wanted the job. He was allowed to select his own staff, and everyone that he selected accepted without hesi tation.” “He has demonstrated excel lence at recruiting,” the head of the Animal Science Department added. What about early rumors that Charlie McClendon of LSU or Johnny Majors of Iowa State would be A&M’s new coach ? “Well, this position was open to the world,” Butler replied. “We had more than 70 people nomi nated, and the administration did receive an indirect contact from Mr. McClendon, who was interest ed in the position, but it was not offered to him. Some others were contacted. Of course, there is no question that Johnny Majors was a prospect for the position.” With such a large field of pros pects, why was Bellard hired ? “A committee of the Board of Directors, President Jack K. Wil liams and Dr. Charles Samson, representing the Athletic Council, interviewed Coach Bellard after receiving permission from the University of Texas athletic di rector,” Butler explained. “There was an intention to interview others, but Coach Bellard sold himself to this committee. They were convinced that he had the experience, leadership qualities and dynamics to do the job. He just convinced them that he was the right man.” Why has A&M had such out standing individual players in the past and yet has shown a rela tively poor win-loss record? “Obviously I am not an expert on football,” Butler said. “One of the thoughts the Athletic Coun cil had was that professional ad vice should be sought in selecting a new coach. Arrangements were made for former Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson to serve in this role. Wilkinson thinks Texas A&M University should be able to win in the conference and na tionally. He thinks nothing should prevent our being competitive on a national level. As far as being able to appraise what happened in the past, I’m not able to do so. All I can say is we felt the resources provided were competi tive with other institutions like ours and that we had to expect somewhat more success.” What was the role of the Ath letic Council in the firing of Gene Stallings ? “After careful consideration, A&M hosts Baylor Saturday STUDENT DISCOUNT Available At With This Ad or Student ID. JAY’S PACKAGE STORE Stock up for Parent’s Weekend At the Saber Inn By BILL HENRY Assistant Sports Editor The show must go. This is the felling of coaches Omar Smith and Richard Barker knowing now that the Aggie ten nis team has no chance for any share of the conference crown this season. Saturday, the Aggies will take on the Baylor Bears on Varsity Courts beginning at 1:30. With the conference race already de cided, it will be a match between the also-rans and after Rice and SMU tangle, every team will be also-rans except the winner. “Baylor is not very tough and I expect we’ll bet them pretty good,” Barker said. Rice eliminated A&M Wednes day in Houston by defeating the squad 5-2 and insured itself of the third consecutive SWC title and the seventh in the last eight years. “We needed to beat Rice 5-2 to have any hopes of winning the title this year,” coach Omar Smith said. SMU and Rice will now battle it out for the crown officially this Saturday but the chances of the Mustangs winning the title now seems doubtful. The Mustangs stand three games behind the Owls which means SMU would have to de feat Rice 5-2 to tie and 6-1 to win an outright championship. Oakridge Smokehouse Restaurant 809 Texas Ave. C.S., Texas COME AS-U-R mm* Mi'll Hi I We claim to have “Worlds Best Food” come eat with us and “You Be The Judge” • Breakfast Special — egg-, bacon or sausage & 59c 809 Texas Ave. C.S., Texas homemade bread toast • Plus other goodies. OPEN: 6 a.m. — 10 p.m. except open till 1:00 Friday Nite & till 2:00 Sat. Nite. “That ain’t gonna happen,” quipped assistant coach Barker. “I do think SMU is tougher and the match between the two clubs will be a dog fight but no one is going to beat Rice that bad.” The downfall of SMU came in a match with Tech. John Gard ner, SMU’s top-seeded player, lost his singles match to Tech. Texas also game SMU too tough a battle as the Mustangs sneaked in a 4-3 win. Rice defeated the Longhorns 6-1 in the first con ference tilt of the year. “Rice beat us hands down, there is no question about it,” Barker said. “Our freshmen really took it on the nose from the two veterans they were play ing against in singles.” “We were real pleased with the way Dan Courson and Tom my Connell played. Connell just went in there and beat his man in straight sets and got off the court.” Connell is undefeated in SWC action this year. “We had a good chance of win ning the match going into dou bles competition being behind only 3-2 but Rice’s experience just overwhelmed our k i d s,” Barker added. Bite into Spanada. Juicy! One nip and you'll know why we call it juicy. Spanada is mellow red wine drenched with the flavor of juicy oranges, lemons and limes. Chilled. Over ice. Over and over again. Drink Gallo Spanada. Juicy. the Athletic Council made a rec ommendation to President Wil liams that a change be made in the athletic director and head football coach,” Butler said. “This recommendation was accepted by the president and confirmed by the Board of Directors. I was chairman of the Athletic Coun cil at that time.” What is the overall role of the Athletic Council at A&M ? “The role is to represent the faculty and the institution in the supervision of the athletic pro gram by dealing directly with the athletic director or working through the president of the uni versity at the president’s discre tion,” he explained. “Under the rules of the Southwest Confer ence and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, intercolle giate athletics must be supervised by a committee on which faculty members predominate. We are simply complying with the rules of the conference. The council is composed of five faculty mem bers. Dr. Charles Samson is chair man.” What does Butler think about the near future of Aggie ii ball? “When I wrote to my colleaf at other universities, I offersi jest to make a smaller ^ with them that I’d see themirt we were the host team at Cotton Bowl within three yn and I firmly believe we cam the conference in that periot time. I just believe that we tooled up to be very success!- James to return By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tackles Boice Best and Bill Wiebold swapped positions on Texas A&M’s defensive front Thursday as the Aggies went through their 14th session of spring football drills. Best was at right tackle and Wiebold was at left tackle, just trading the spots they had han dled. Defensive line coach Dee Pow ell said the move was made be cause Best is more experienced and can handle the middle guard position better when the Aggies put up a five-man front. “Boice is a double study and is having a great spring,” Powell said. “Wiebold, on the other hand, is so banged up he should get a Purple Heart,” he added. It was announced that quar terback Lex James, who pulled a hamstring muscle in the fifth practice session, will return to full duty next Tuesday. Fullback Brad Dusek has a slight hamstring pull and missed Thursday’s action but is ex pected back in a few days. Sports schedule Friday Baseball: Texas Tech, there, doubleheader, 1:00 Golf: All-America, Houston Football: Spring workout, 4 p.m. Saturday Baseball: Texas Tech, there, Single game, 2:00 Track: ACC, Rice track in Abilene Football: Scrimmage, 2 p.m. Tennis: Baylor, here, 1:30 Monday Tennis: Southwest Louisiana, here, 1:30 Tuesday Baseball: Houston, there, doubleheader Football: Spring workout, 4 p.m. Wednesday Tennis: Texas,here, 1:30 Football: Spring workout NOW OPEN! ADULT LIBRARY CLUE 333 University Drive ADULT ART MOVIES Open 7 Days A Week 3 p. m. Till Midnight Escorted Ladies Vi Price Monday Bring Date or Frier; ; Free. No One Under 18 Admitted 2 Full Features 16mm Co',:: Sound. Features Change Ever Thursday. Adult Library Club Phone 846-9990 Clip This Ad For $1.00 Discount. tal. 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