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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 1967)
UNIVERSITY NATIONAL BANK A HOME OWNED, ALL-AGGIE BANK, SERVING THE COLLEGE STATION AREA— OFFERING COMPLETE BANKING FACILITIES "§§m m...... : ;:'C" xxxxxsxxxxxxxxxxsxxxxxxxxxrxxxxxxx: i II ;• ' x.x-x:x'X'— ■ .. . timm :::-: ! V mm jvw It’s no trick at all to start a Checking Account or Saving Account - We Are In Easy Walking Distance of the Campus Or— BANK BY MAIL (We Pay The Postage) “On the Side of Texas A&M University” at the North Gate Member Federal Reserve System Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation 846-8751 THE BATTALION Thursday, September 21, 19G7 College Station, Texas Page 9 Sports Aplenty Texas To Win In Tight Race By GARY SHERER This weekend, every Southwest Conference team will be in action. The Aggies played Southern Methodist while Baylor hosted Colorado last weekend, for the only confer ence team action thus far. The SWC race is annually a confusing one and this year the status quo should remain. While recognizing the fallacy of predicting college football results, this corner nevertheless offers the following GUESSES on the SWC lineup. 1 — Texas—Chris Gilbert, Bill Bradley and company return from their second straight 6-4 season, but most ex perts agreed that Coach Darrell Royal’s ’66 crew was the best team in the conference at the end of last season. Royal greets back many of the players from the team that suited up for the ’67 Bluebonnet Bowl win over Mississippi. The Longhorns to take the crown in a squeaker. 2 — Arkansas—The lament last year was, “with Brit- tenum gone what can the Hogs do.” Coach Frank Broyles, who has made it a habit of winning in recent years, hopes he has the answer to that mournful question. The an swer’s name is Ronny South who takes over the quarterback job for the Razorbacks this season. South was red-shirted last year after being the team’s leading scorer as a place- kicker in the ’65 season. If South clicks, the Hogs will be tough. 3 — Texas A&M—Last weekend’s loss to SMU was tough to take, but the Aggies have a month before their second conference game (at Texas Tech) and they will get a chance to regroup against Purdue, LSU and Florida State. That seems like a tough regrouping setup, but Coach Gene Stallings aand his energetic staff of assistants have a good football team and the Maroon and White will be in there fighting for the league crown. 4 — Texas Tech—Coach J.T. King has all the answers on offense with proven performers like John Scovell and mike Leinert back, but the defense is a question mark. Tech should score many points this year but the green defense will be hard-pressed to keep the opponents down in the meantime. 5 — Texas Christian—Head Coach Fred Taylor in his first season this year has some solid deturnees, but answers must be found from a promising group of sophomores. The Horned Frogs could threaten or not even be a factor. 6 — Southern Methodist—The Mustangs proved last weekend that despite the loss of many lettermen, if you still have a player like Jerry Levias you’re not dead. Un fortunately one man can’t do it all, so SMU has a rough road to look forward to. 7 — Rice—Coach Bo Hagen starts his first season as top man and is looking to change the “cellar team” outlook of recent years. The Owls finished last in the conference last year but gave each team a tough time. A problem of depth seems to be the main thing that will keep Rice from climbing the SWC ladder. 8 — Baylor—The Bears haven’t won a SWC title in 43 years. This season does not look like the year they will break the streak. Defensive lineman Greg Pipes looks like the only solid performer for Coach John Bridgers as the Baptists get set for a tough year. Hargett, O’Neal Top Early Stats DALLAS — Defending statisti cal chamipons in Southwest Con ference football have been fore warned by a few early-birds that there’ll be a bit of uneasiness among the heads that are wear ing the crowns. Saturday’s spectacular start of Southwest Conference football pi’oduced sensational statistics as though a full season had to be crammed into a single week-end. Jerry Levias and Ines Perez of SMU, Edd Hargett, Steve O’Neal and Wendell Housley of A&M made it a curtain-raising to re member. Levias and Perez grabbed most of the headlines with their heart stopping heroics, but their Aggie adversaries countered with some noteworthy performances of their own. Both Hargett and O’Neal came through with performances rarely matched in SWC annals. Only six passers in Conference history have completed more passes in season-opening per formances than Hargett did Sat urday. The junior quarterback completed 12 of 25 for 169 yards, a completion performance that has been surpassed only by Terry Southall of Baylor (1965 and 1966), Chuck Curtis of TCU and Vince Matthews of Texas (1956) Don Trull of Baylor and Danny Thomas of SMU (1963) and Mike Marshall of Baylor (1964). Very few punters have come up with better curtain-raising av erages than O’Neal’s 48.6, and few indeed are those who have matched his mean on five or more efforts. O’Neal, who was a close No. 3 man in the league last year, punted 50 yards or bet ter four times and three of his great kicks went out-of-bounds inside the 5-yard line. Housley, the league’s fifth ranking rusher last season, sounded a threat that he would be an even stronger workhorse this season. He led the rushers with 21 carries for 76 yards, and it was his thrusts in the intense humidity that put the Aggies in position for the go-ahead touch down with less than a minute to play. Levias, scoring and kickoff re turn leader last year, gave a con vincing indication that he might retain both titles and go for the pass-receiving and punt-return titles as well. His kickoff sorties were phenomenal and his seven receptions has been surpassed only once in season openers. Har lan Lane of Baylor caught nine the 1965 inaugural with Auburn.