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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1976)
Page 10 THE BATTALION TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1976 Dick Todd turns rancher Idol is home on the range It’s hard to imagine Dick Todd, the rancher in skinned cowboy boots and flannel shirt, as a national hero. But that’s exactly what the quiet, modest man was in the 1930’s and 40’s. Todd broke all the records dur ing his long football career. He was the most sought after high school senior in history, the athletic idol of Aggieland and the running half of the Washington Redskin’s national championship team. After that he was the most out standing service player during WW II, a successful college and pro coach and was appointed to the Board of Regents of two universities. Today, at 52, Todd is back home in Crowell, a small North Texas com munity where football is king and he is still hero of the kingdom. Between 1931 and 1934 Todd earned 12 ath letic letters, the school’s limit; scored 664 touchdown points, a na tional record which stood for over 25 years; and was the first boy from a “B” school to be named to an all-state team, which he made three times. When asked about his high school career Todd says, “Well, you know, I was just real lucky, there were a lot of good boys on the team. If they hadn’t of been a winning team no body would have noticed me.” But they did notice the 5’9 ”, 160 pound package of dynamite and Todd was recruited by schools all over the nation. So why did he choose A&M, which couldn’t even give him a scholarship? “Well,” Todd said in a recent interview, “it was the uniforms.” He explained, “I was real fortunate in getting to visit some of the top schools, like St. Mary’s, Stanford, and Notre Dame, but we were just poor country people and I could tell my dress di dn’t fit in. At A&M everybody dres sed the same and I just felt more comfortable.” So “Dangerous Dick”, as he came to be known, went to Texas A&M College where he had to pay his own way by scrubbing gymnasium floors, pots and pans. For the next four years Todd was, as Coach Homer Norton put it, “a high-stepping, free-wheeling football destroyer in a period when the Aggies enjoyed but modest success.” Todd seems to have trouble re membering the honors he received while at A&M, saying “Oh well ...” when asked about them. But one he still beams about is being named to Kate Smith’s mythical team. “You remember” Todd reminisces, “she was the most popular singer then and she gave us these really nice en graved watches.” He still doesn’t know though what a mythical team is. Todd and another member of Miss Smith’s team, Sammy Baugh of TCU, went on in ’39 to the Washing ton Redskins. “Slingin Sammy” and “Dangerous Dick” were the two- man powerhouse of the Redskins as they dominated pro football. Todd led the team in scoring, receiving and ground gaining for eight years. As Baugh said, “He was harder to bring down than an inflation.” It was during these years that Todd did what he calls “my greatest damage to A&M.” During spring training he served as assistant coach at Oklahoma State University, where he coached Darrel Royal, who turned out to be the longest lasting threat ever to the Aggie team. After three years in the service, where he was named “Most Valuable Player” and four more years with the Redskins, Todd returned to A&M as an assistant coach. He left again in ’50 after being of fered the head coaching job. Why? “I wanted A&M to have something better than that, ” Todd answered se riously. Todd took the coaching respon sibilities for the Redskins in mid season that year and made dramatic changes. One of his first rules was that sports writers would not be al lowed in the dressing room until after the game. The next day one of the local writers who had been locked out demanded to see Todd before the game. “I went down, opened the door, asked him if he got my message and when he said yes, slammed the door in his face, ” Todd retells the story. “Well,” he con tinued, “he went down and wrote a story about how I was the one who should have been barred from the locker room. What really bothered me though,” Todd said, “was that after we won the first game of the season that afternoon, he didn’t have the guts to print it.” At the end of the season Todd went to SMU, then to Midwestern University. “I guess you could say I closed Midwestern up,” Todd says about the school’s dropping football when he left. “Guess they figured if they couldn’t do any better than me they’d better just quit.” In 1960 the American League formed with Dick Todd coaching the New York Titans (now the Jets). Todd coached only one year of his three year contract then returned back to his home in Crowell for good. Todd had been making his home in the off-season in Crowell since he first began coaching for the Redskins in 1950, and in 1961 decided to close his long career where it started. “I realized I was cutting my income drastically when I gave up football and came back to ranch but the life here is good enough to be worth it, this is home.” Longley traded Associated Press DALLAS — Clint Longley, quar terback, rattlesnake hunter and amateur pugilist, is now a San Diego Charger. King wants hormone count on Dr. Richard# Associated Press NEW YORK — Billie Jean King wants to count the male hormones before deciding whether the trans sexual, Dr. Renee Richards, should be allowed to play in women’s tennis events. “I haven’t made up my mind,” the outspoken champion of women’s lib said Monday. “She may have under gone an operation to become a female but you must remember that she still has male hormones. “More than that, she has played men’s tennis for 30 years. That is a tremendous advantage. It is an ad vantage that should be weighed be fore she is permitted to compete with women.” Without coming out flatly and say ing so, Billie Jean left the impression that she probably would line up with her fellow women pros in opposing Dr. Richards’ entry in the women’s singles division of the U.S. Open. “If I had played in men’s tourna ments since I took up the game, I would be a better tennis player,” Bil lie Jean insisted. “This is something you have to consider. “Also, there are going to be more and more such operations. So a firm policy has to be made some time. As I said, I am not really sure at the moment.” Billie Jean, 32, winner of six Wimbledon and four U.S. wojJ titles, has established herselfaj of the free thinkers on social j s ,i and a stern critic of sexual bid tennis. She has been credited within ing build the women’s tour fro-] hamburger, one-night standc tion to a $1 million yearly enlerprj! She was the first woman to readj million in tennis prize monev* she was the first president of] Women’s Tennis Association. The WTA threatened a boyu Dr. Richards, a 42-year-old eye geon who as Richard Raskindi;| ranking 35-and-over player 1 undergoing a change of sex a ,i ago, were allowed in the U.S.OjI Steelers wilt in Texas heat How long has it been since you’ve had a good fit? TOP DRAWER Culpepper Plaza Associated Press DALLAS — This might not be a glamorous week to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. Chuck Noll, coach of the world’s champions, was somewhat miffed Saturday night after Dallas whipped Pittsburgh 20-10 in a National Foot ball League preseason rematch of the Super Bowl X teams. "The game was all Cowboys,” snapped Noll. “They were in better condition . . . they outhit us . . . they were very physical. . . the most physical Cowboy team I’ve seen.” Noll added, “We had trouble with the weather — 85 degree heat and 45 per cent humidity and we shouldn’t have. That means we’re not in condi tion and that’s the coaches’ fault. It’s up to us to get them in shape and apparently we didn’t. “So, we’ll try and solve that this week.” Noll continued with his post-game lecture. “I just can’t say enough about the Cowboys . . . they played well and had super backing from their home crowd,” he said. Dallas, playing before a sell-out crowd of 64,000 in Texas Stadium and a national television audience, saw the game as a way to gain a mea sure of revenge for a 21-17 loss to Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl. “We expected the Cowboys to come out tough, yep, that’s about what we expected and that’s what we got,” said running back Franco Har ris. Defensive end Harvey Martin said Steeler quarterback Terry Brad shaw “just laughed at me when I sac ked him right before the end of the first half. Comparing this game to the Super Bowl game, it was one helluva lot better. We would have played as well if we had played any team in the league. You really can’t look back on last season.” Bradshaw was one of three players who sat out the second half because of heat exhaustion. One Dallas player was overcome by the heat. “Oh, it got a little warm out there, said Cowboy defensive tackle Jethro Pugh. “Just about like it was the last time we played Pittsburgh.” Dallas sacked Pittsburgh quarter backs five times and Cowboy(J terback Roger Staubach two touchdown passes. “I feel it was more importantly most pre-season games," Staubach. "We played fired up,” saida nerback Mel Renfro. Dallas’ superb defense drewJ from Coach Tom Landry whos “It was a great effort against a 4 good team. Our defense wasei:] tional. We are playing the veten now and it’s showing up.” AGGIES! Doiu Jew offers Student ID Discounts! 15% off of $ 5 0 00 or more 10% off of under $ 50 00 CASH PURCHASE ONLY 212 N. 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