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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 1951)
Thursday, February 22, 1951 THE BATTALION Page 5 Walker Davis Makes Habit * Of Overcoming Ills; Dad Follows Team I By FRED WALKER Balt Associate Spoils Editor When he was nine years old he was stricken with polio. ’ In September of ’48 he entered A&M and embarked upon a glorious career on the basketball court. Last Saturday he had a fever of 104, but, still flu-ridden, he took the field against SMU Tuesday to play 35 minutes and tallied 19 points. Again Walter “Buddy” Davis had valiantly overcome a painful physical handicap to become the hero of the hot^r. Buddy appeared to be anything but well after the game was over. He looked pale and haggard—and tremendously happy. It wasn’t the biggest smile that ever crossed the 6’8” center’s face, but it was there, never theless. Congratulations were delivered from many people, but the things—said and un said—from Davis’ wife, Margaret and his father, Frank Davis of Nederland, topped them all. One couldn’t have found a prouder parent and wife on the face of the earth. Speaking of Frank Davis brings another story to mind. They say that the most ardent fan is the Brooklyn Dodger . partisan, but every last one of them can take a lesson from Buddy’s father. When Walt was a freshman, Mr. Davis would come up from Nederland—180 miles—to watch his son if the Aggies only had a scrimmage with Allen Academy. This year Mr. Davis has missed only one game—the Arkansas tilt. No Place Like Home On January 16th, however, Walter’s father made a mistake. It wasn’t just the fact that he covered 700 miles to see that first SMU game, it was what occurred on the ^ way home. As everyone knows, Beaumont is a fairly large city, somewhere around 90,000. That last two or three hundred miles must have caught up with Mr. Davis for he claims that he doesn’t remember going through Beaumont. This is where the mistake came in. He told Buddy’s mother that he jerked awake several times to find himself run ning on the shoulder of the highway. Mrs. Davis sternly told her husband that he better stay home for a while for she was “too old to start look ing for a new husband.” The few people present to hear Mr. Davis tell this one had a good chuckle at this down-too-earth advice, but they also found out where Buddy Davis gets his grit, forcefulness and good old sense of humor. Our hat off to the Davis family—both of them. • I Baseball Coach Beau Bell has been working the boys a la major league. The first day he had them run rabbit—run until they were bushed. Whether-or-not A&M baseball has a good year, the fans will know that every last player is in good enough physical condition to give his best. For the last several days the 70-odd men that reported for try outs have been doing some light batting, fielding and pitching. They will probably have the kinks worked out by Friday for Bell plans to start inter-squad competition then. The ax will begin to fall on Saturday when the ex-St. Louis Brownie starts to cut that huge 70 to a traveling squad. Former Ag gie star center fielder and new St. Louis Cardinal Wally Moon has been assisting Bell. • Although Harry Stiteler and his Backfield Coach Gil Steinke gave staff has been held up considerably his charges some sweet lessons in by the weather and its damaging broken field running and pass de results, the head football coach fense. Minus the use of a ball one started his men on the grind again back would run down field in a » Monday. series of zigs and zags while anoth- Fundamentals took the limelight er tried to keep in front of him. ’ and Ray George and Dog Dawson Stienke took the runner’s position put the linemen through plenty of after a while and gave one lad a . hoops. Dawson seemed to take sound demonstration. He zigged particular delight in “siccing” the when he should have zagged. ‘ mds on a tackling dummy that was Stiteler is well pleased with the secured vertically at both ends. hustle that the squad has shown When an eager wingman attack- thus far. He plans to scrimmage ed, the man had to keep a stiff con- the boys every day and end the tact with it or be catapulted six week with an inter-squad battle »r seven feet. In another two weeks each Saturday. Next week he plans those boys will be able to move a to start working on some running bulldozer. plays for his quarterbacks. Two to Go After the basketball game Tuesday night, coach John Floyd refused to take any of the credit for the victory. Said Floyd: “The boys deserve all the credit; they played a mag nificent game.’’ SMU coach Doc Hayes followed up by saying that the Aggies are the best team I have seen this season. They’re in now. It must be said here, however, that Floyd takes his games one at a time, and A&M still has to face Rice, who upset the Frogs, and Texas, a team about which too much cannot be said in A&M circles. f Here and There “I think Mr. Spink is full of prunes,” was what Ted Williams had to say when Taylor Spink, publisher of the Sporting News, remark ed that no baseball player should be paid over $35,000 annually .... . Abe Saperstein’s Harlen Globe-Trotters have scheduled 301 basket ball games for 1951, mo're than a college team would schedule in 10 years .... Joe Harris, basketball forecaster, called the Rice-TCU and SMU-Texas upsets last week .... Irony: ten days ago LIU coach Clair Bee said that a coach’s judgment of his players is not infallible. “I worked with boys a long time, but I could be wrong,” Bee de clared. Three LIU stars arc no.w facing a jail sentence for taking bribes The Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio, went over the $1,000,- 000 pay mark when he signed his ’51 .contract for a reported $100,000. A 1 hind--sonic To Win Walter “Buddy—The Hand” Da vis shows how he picked up his new nickname Tuesday when A&M beat SMU, 49-43. Though indistinguishable in the galaxy of players collected around the west goal in DeWare Field House, Davis is neverthe less recognized by his educated mitt which here collected two of its total 19 points during the flashing contest. Clutching anxiously at Davis’ arm is Jack Brown, while Char lie Lutz looks hopelessly on. Going up with Brown is John DeWitt and through the mass of humanity, is seen the No. 13 of Marvin Martin. The man in the rear with the pained expression is Freddy Freeman. Owls Can Shape SWC Lead Heavyweights Top Card In Little Gym Battles By JOE BLANCHETTE Batt Sports Staff v : The heavyweights stole the show from the other weight divisions on the Wednesday Intramurals Wrest ling card. The top bout of the af ternoon was undoubtedly the R. C. Giescke—Fred Klatt battle. : Although Giescke pinned Klatt in 1:40 of their scheduled five min ute clash the crowd’s interest was centered on the two bruising grap- plers. In the only other heavyweight battle of the afternoon Mac Max well of B QMC earned a 7-1 deci sion over Scott of the Maroon Band and Grubbs pinned Ralph Hartman. 123 Found Class If Skeet Cameron of G AF just teal fye whistle by King of I AF in 4:59. Rudy Riviera of D Vets edged by Park of B 'Engineers on a 6-3 decision. 137 Found Class Lindley of C AF decisioned Avila of A Armored, 5-1 while Harold Turner of L AF tossed Bob- Brad ley to the canvas in 2:12 of their bout. Hood of A FA stopped Un derwood of C Infantry 10-2. 130 Found Class Bill Scott of E FA recured a firm hold on Goldstein and immed iately pinned th e supplyman in 1:15 as Fletcher of I AF was drop ping Huey of C FA to the mat in 2:51 of their match. Patton of HAF gained a 7-6 win over George Laing of L AF. Ill the only 157 lb. match of the Intramural card yesterday Bob Braslau of Company 7 pinned An- dfew$ pf Company 8 in 2 AO, The Texas Aggie Basketeers, at present all alone at the top of the Southwest Conference heap, will move stealthily into Houston Sat urday night to engage the giant killing Rice Owls. Although the Aggies have now fully labeled themselves as “the team to beat”, they may find that they have bitten off more than they can chew when they go after the Owls. The last time that the two quin tets tied into each other the Ag gies came out on top 51-39. This was the least number of points that Rice has been limited to this season. In that game the Owl’s No. 1 man, center Joe McDermott, was restricted to 6 points by a watchful Buddy Davis. Giant-Killer Suffering one of the worst sea sons that they have had in quite a while, the Feathered Flock 'will be.striving to knock another con ference leader from its lone post. When they beat TCU 54-49 last weekend, the Horned Frogs also had been the sole possessor of the conference lead. Only a little more than a month earlier, TCU had torn Rice to pieces and set a conference scor ing record to the tune of 87-66. Joe McDermott, 6’ SVa” center from Lufkin, has been “Mr. Rice” all season. The second year letter- man senior is the current confer ence scoring leader for points scor- (See RICE CONTROLS, Page 6) “Vour Home A way-From-Home MOVE YOUK MEM BEE SHIP TO THE CHUKCH OF YOUE CHOICE ?? ‘TVs the ‘TVs the C hristian thing to do.' ollegiate thing to do. FIRST BAPTIST College Station (Block North of Post Office) FIRST COLLEGE AVE. CALVARY BAPTIST BAPTIST BAPTIST Bryan Bryan (Block South of Courthouse) (Just East of Bryan High) Bryan (Half-way to Bryan ) The NEW BAPTIST STUDENT CENTEK (by North Gate Bus Station) * Recreation Room * Snack Bar * Spacious Lounge Erected by Texas Baptists and supported by above churches for your enjoyment. All AGGIES Welcome! AGGIE VESPERS Daily Except Wednesday 7:15 - 7:45 P. M. Southeastern 1st Wetter Foe; Tankers Meet OF By B. F. ROLAND The Aggie tennis team will open its 1951 season tomorrow afternoon at 2 p. m. when it takes the court against Southeastern. Rated with Texas and SMU this year as one of the three top teams in the conference, the Aggie netmen to claim this ranking are Ray DeBerry, junior; Royce Tate, junior; Dick Hardin, senior; and Eugene Letsos, sophomore, all of whom will start against Southeastern. All the netters, except Letsos won a letter for the 1950 season. DeBerry, a San Angelo High School product, played the No. 1 singles last year and the No. 1 doubles with Tate. Tate, Corpus Christi High School star and 1948 state high school doubles champ, was the No. 3 sing les player last yeai', besides being on the No. 1 doubles team. Hardin, who hails from Amarillo, filled the No. 4 singles and No. 2 doubles slots last year. The top freshman on the 1950 Fish team was Letsos. While play ing, high school tennis in Galves ton, he gained the state high school doubles finals in 1948 and was a 1949 singles finalist. Letsos’ triumph came a year later when he won the state TAAF singles crown. Two sophomores who will be heavily called upon to furnish re serve power will be Tom West of San Antonio and Don Farmer from Galveston. The grapevine has if that both will be capable of filling any vacant spot on the team. Bookies Tired Of Being Taken In B’ktball Fix By MURRAY ROSE AF Feature Writer R. J. DeBerry New York, Feb. 22—(A*)—Maybe the bookmakers will solve the prob lem of fixes themselves. A big bookmaker told us he has stopped taking bets on college basketball games. “By next year,” he said, “none of the big money commissioners will handle ’em. I got clipped for five grand on one dump and it’s not going to happen to me again.” Bookie Operation Our informant is a layoff man. In business, he might be called a wholesaler. Fie doesn’t do much business with regular bettors. Most of the wagers he handles are from other bookmakers in different cit ies. The individual betting money that he does handle, however, is wagered by plungers. Most of the bets he takes are from $500 up, the “up” reaching into five figures. If he gets too much “action,” he spreads some of the bets to bookies in other cities. “Dumps are arranged by punks,” said the bookie. “The regular deal er wants honest sports. We make our living by the vigorish (the regular percentage or commission for taking bets). We got the vig running for us and we’ve got to win out in the long run. “The punk is out to clip us. He fixes a game and tries to catch us.” “How did I happen to get caught ^(See BOOKIES, Page 6) By JOE HOLLIS The Aggies Mermen will splash water against two of the strongest teams in this part of the country this weekend in P. L. Downs Natatorium. The first meet, scheduled for 3 p. m. Fri day, will be against the Oklahoma Sooners. The next afternoon the Ags will play host to the Rice tankers at 2:30 p. m. 4- “Oklahoma is stronger than last year,” says Coach Art Adamson, “and they won last year so we ex pect them to give us a rough time since we are about the same strength as last year.” The meet with Oklahoma Friday will be the fifth contest for the cadets in the 1951 season. The first time A&M Aquamen took to the pool they came out with second place honors in the SWC Relay. Baylor fell next to the Aggies with a left handed score of 55-20. Northwestern Louisiana State fell next when the Aggies drowned them to the tune of 42 to 33. Coach Adamson will rely heavily on the sei’vices of both Van Adam son and Ralph Ellis, who garner ed A&M’s only first place points in their recent meet with SMU. Despite their first place points the Ags were dunked 30-55. Bill Sargent and Tommy Corn- stock will also be in there splash ing for the Aggies giving able as sists to Adamson and Ellis. Wallace Elected Baseball Captain Guy Wallace, senior letterman shortstop from Dallas, has been elected captain of the 1951 Aggie Baseball team by his teammates. The five-foot-nine-inch Wallace has earned two varsity letters in Aggieland baseball, and this year will be seeking a third. In the 1950 season he was one of the leading hitters at A&M with a .306 average. While in high school at North Dallas, Wallace was honored with All-District distinction. One year he was All-State. 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