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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 12, 1978)
the sports THE BATTALION Page 13 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1978 I Alt likes limelight ih alest 2; a SO occ Upj( " l 1S b « en ii |°r theme in ta| w involvj, Rations, ^ Proposals j “O'fications s , adat -i‘wo u y ‘'oogotiations e| g n minst er ,sare hopi n j ' ai1 get started ,nt o, during n bly session, 1( i bill for res | eluding a u.. i,nir g, Pa,, „ > substantive uv afternoon r tup advisen ’ere ns no essed or the too much to quit d rs rwise be aliltj get special! 0 students i i have debi rdingtoas Dallas, at i percent, lent $5001 gion, howe laid the Edwin Fji regional ( udent Fin avebeenl gents and I bled in thep ieipation al lets By MILTON RICHMOND United Press International NEW YORK — Four years ago Muhammad Ali, who was about to meet George Foreman and become only the second man ever to regain the world heavyweight title, motored down from the mountains in Pennsyl vania and issued what he felt was the most earthshaking an nouncement in boxing history. Standing in front of a mic rophone in Madison Square Garden’s Hall of Fame Club, he declared, as convincingly as he could, that regardless of how he did against Foreman, he was going to retire for good following the contest. “This is my last fight,” he said. “Positively?” someone baited him. “Absolutely,” Ali answered. “After this one, no more." Since then, he has fought 11 times. With the summer season upon us, and this being the accepted time for reruns, here comes Ali again with yet another moment ous announcement, strangely reminiscent of the one he made before. “This is my last fight,” he says, meaning Friday’s upcoming bout with Leon Spinks. His meeting with Spinks in the New Orleans Superdome, in which he’ll be seeking to become the first man ever to win the heavyweight championship three times, is no more likely to be Ah s last fight any more than was his successful challenge against Foreman in Zaire, Africa, in Oc tober of 1974. It is true that privately, Ali frequently thinks of not fighting anymore. Why shouldn’t he think that way? He’s 36, he has enough money to do anything he wants, within reason, and the training required for the kind of fight he anticipates with Spinks has long since grown to be an ef fort and a bore. But that insatiable desire for continued recognition and atten tion, the like of which Ali has grown accustomed to these past 14years, plus the money, is what always prompts him to keep changing his mind about actually quitting. It isn’t easy to turn your back on money, not when they keep pushing it on you, and it’s even harder to bow out and be come just plain Muhammad He-Used-To-Be, attended by no one, after having been treated as a king always surrounded by a court. Ali is still the biggest drawing card in sports. There have been various reports as to how much he’s getting for his rematch with Spinks. Some of those reports say he’s accepting less money than his opponent for the first time since his prechampionship days now that he’s not the title- holder anymore, and others say he’ll receive the same amount as Spinks. Actually, Ali will get at least $3.5 million, possibly a little more, and if he keeps being of fered that kind of money you can look for him to continue fighting until he can’t possibly get his hands up anymore. The idea which appeals most to Ali, and has for some time now, is being named special am bassador by Jimmy Carter and being given a post similar to that of Andrew Young, so that he can travel around the world, talk to the leaders of the various nations and spread good will for the USA. He’d probably do a fine job of it. Still, I can’t help thinking of the obvious hypocrisy in all this because here’s a man who flatly refused to fight for his country and now is suddenly excited about going abroad and extolling its virtues. Apart from that, Ali has been kicking around a couple of other ideas, ones more closely con nected with his upcoming fight with Spinks. Both these ideas are predicated on his beating Spinks, which he honestly feels he can do. His first option would be to keep the title six months or so and then announce his retire ment. There he goes thinking about it again. Ali’s second op tion is based on the possibility of his knocking out Spinks early and having an easier time of it than he might have imagined. In such case, he has confided a couple of times, he would be inclined to fight again and his opponent would be Larry Holmes, the World Boxing Council’s heavyweight champ. But only if the price was right. For the fight with Spinks, Ali has been training harder than he did before his first contest with him. His weight is down to 220 pounds and he’ll probably enter the ring somewhere around 218, which is a good weight for him. “I’m gonna be ready this time,” he says. “This fight is the most important one of my life. I got to win it and get out on top.” Bellard reviews Ags’ game By MARK PATTERSON Battalion Staff After having a chance to review the performance of his team this weekend, Emory Bellard can’t help but be greatly impressed by its per formance. “We dominated Kansas in the second half and took complete command of the contest,” Bellard said. “Our intensity got better and better as the game went and as a team we improved with each series. I can’t help but be pleased. Then again, I would have been greatly disappointed if this team hadn’t play well. “I can’t say if Kansas was that bad or if Texas A&M was that good. I expected this team to play good football and they did. “I think one of the keys to our success was our conditioning. In the second half, it seemed superior and it allowed us to take control of the contest.” UPI top 20 United Press International NEW YORK — The United Press International Board of Coaches’ top 20 college football ratings, with first-place votes and won-lost re cords in parentheses: 1. Alabama (30) (1-0) 2. Oklahoma (4) (1-0) 3. Arkansas (2) (0-0) 4. Michigan (1) (0-0) 5. Southern Cal (1-0) 6. Ohio St. (0-0) 7. Texas (0-0) 8. Penn St. (2) (2-0) 9. UCLA (1-0) 10. Missouri (1-0) 11. Texas A&M (1-0) 12. Pittsburgh (0-0) 13. LSU (0-0) 14. Nebraska (1-1) 15. Florida St. (1-0) 16. Notre Dame (0-1) 17. -Maryland (1-0) 18. Kentucky (0-0) 19. Washington (0-1) 20. Colorado (1-0) Note: By agreement with the American Football Coaches Associa tion, teams on probation by the NCAA are ineligible for top 20 and national championship considera tion by the UPI Board of Coaches. Those teams currently on probation are: Michigan State, Houston, Ok lahoma State and Grambling. IRS ruling favors TCU United Press International FORT WORTH — Texas Christ ian University officials learned Monday that radio and television revenues from intercollegiate athle tics, as in the past, will not be consi dered taxable income. TAMU MSC TOWN HALL SERIES ATTRACTION #1 SEPTEMBER 29, 1978 G. ROLLIE WHITE COLISEUM 8:00 P.M. General Admission Free w/ticket 3.00 6.00/ 6.50 4.00 Another key to the final outcome was Texas A&M’s ability to convert offensive possessions into scores. The Aggies were able to put points on the board six of the 12 times they had the ball. And if Tony Franklin would of connected on all three field goal tries the Aggie scoring ratio would have been even more impre ssive. “The kicking game as a whole is one of our greatest concerns at this time,” Bellard said. “Not only executing our opportunities to score but our coverage on punts and kick offs as well. David (Appleby, punter) didn’t have a good game along with Tony. But since he’s been here Tony has never kicked well in an opening game. But our kicking game will improve. The right ingredients are there for suc cess.” And the ingedients were there Saturday for a successful ground at tack as the Aggies ground out 322 yards on 61 carries. Introducing the I-formation into their offense the Aggies ran from new alignment 30 of their 76 snaps with junior halfback Curtis Dickey accounting for 128 yards on 25 tries, averaging better than 5 yard a carry. “Things that we were trying to develop in our offense looked en couraging,” Bellard said. “Because of the audibles called at the line of scrimmage we had some starting count errors, mostly because we weren’t adjusted well for the audi ble. Because of the penalties we were slowed up a bit but overall I’m greatly pleased with the offense. In somewhat of a rarity for the Bellard-coached team the Aggies threw 15 passes in the contest. A total of 21 passes were called by Texas A&M and on those 21 plays the ofiense gained 174 yards (from completions, sacks and scrambles). Wide receivers Doug Teague and Gerald Carter accounted for the bulk of the Aggie air attack. Teague had four catches for 52 yards and two touchdowns while Carter grab bed three passes for 44 yards. Both performances impressed the Aggie coaches. “Both Gerald and Doug had very fine games for us,” Bellard said. “Both missed the first passes thrown to them that were catchable passes. Gerald could have easily scored on his first but he dropped it. But after they got their drops out of their sys tem they didn’t miss another thrown to them.” Quarterback Mike Mosley went 7-for-ll in the contest for 97 yards in the air. And given his chance in the fourth quarter David Beal was 2-for-4 for 25 yards while adding 83 yards on the ground and one touchdown. “We didn’t pull Mike because of the job he was doing or because he was tired. We simply wanted to give David a chance to play. And when given his chance he took advantage of it.” As did the rest of the Texas A&M squad. At least on this particular Saturday. THE Maroon& White K IS COMING TO Outfitters! 313B South College in the Skaggs Shopping Center/ College Station ^ e Hamburgers 1800 S. Texas Ave. College Station 693-9515