Page 14 THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1979
Sports in the 70s
Texas was off and runnim
By MIKE RABUN
UPI Sports Writer
It might be a chilly winter morn
ing with the fog dampening the bare
limbs of the trees.
Or it might be one of those scald
ing summer afternoons when even
the concrete sweats.
/
And it might be a career woman
decked out in the latest matching
shirt and gym shorts or it might be a
lumpy businessman wearing the
same outfit he does while working in
the garden.
But whatever the weather condi
tions and whoever the person —
somewhere, someone, right now, is
running.
Each of them is a symbol of the
largest sports phenomenon of the
1970’s.
If the 1960’s were the age of watch
ing — with the building of the Astro
dome touching off a boom in stadium
construction and professional sports
leagues expanding cross country —
the 1970’s were the age of doing.
On a late summer afternoon in
Houston’s Memorial Park, the jog
ging trails looks like a freeway at rush
hour.
“We don’t even know how many
people use the trails,” said Richard
Farrington of the Houston Parks De
parks department in Dallas. “Now
we have a little over 2,400 teams. It’s
hard finding a place to put them all. ”
Between running, softball, base
ball, tennis, flag football and vol
leyball, it seems as if almost every
man, woman and child in Texas
found something to do in the 1970s.
“And don’t forget about soccer,”
said Farrington. “That’s going out of
sight and really creating headaches.
We just haven’t figured out how to
handle that. And in California you
hear about roller skating taking over
everywhere. People are just looking
for a lot of things to do and the cities
v — even the biggest ones — can’t
keep up.”
But for those who didn’t want to
take part, there was still plenty to
watch in the 1970s.
And t;he thing that most people
wanted to see was still football.
Inflation ate away at the dollar and
gasoline prices wiped out vacations,
but on Friday night in rural Texas,
high school football was still king.
Schools such as Brownwood, with
coach Gordon Wood given a special
dispensation by the city council to
keep working past the retirement
age, carrying on the tradition.
In the Southwest Conference the
Baylor Bears — the ultimate under
dog for so many years — finally won
the league crown in 1974. The Hous
ton Cougars were admitted to the
conference and promptly won or
shared in three out of four champion
ships.
And Earl Campbell became the
all-time leading rusher in conference
history, won the Heisman Trophy
and at the end of the decade began
what promised to be a successful
career with the Houston Oilers.
Campbell turned Houston into a
Super Bowl contender overnight,
drawing record crowds to the Astro
dome and putting the Oilers into the
playoffs for two consecutive years.
And in Dallas, despite changes in
the roster, coach Tom Landry and
the Cowboys rolled on and on. At
year’s end they had made the play
offs for the 13th time in 14 years.
During the decade Dallas
appeared in a record five Super
Bowls and won two of them.
The major breakthrougW
came in 1978, when Aiy
finished third in the NCAAtJ
inent — defeating UCLAanjJ
Dame along the way i
beating eventual chanipimj
tucky in the semifinals-ajji
won the NIT with an overaw
victory in the finals over Noi||
lina State.
But in pro basketball, bijj
the San Antonio Spurs topro
major story. The failing Oil
chise in the American I
Association was moved to $
nio after the 1973 season]
caught fire.
For years the sport of college bas
ketball was one to ignore in the
Southwest Conference. It looked as
if it were being played in slow mo
tion.
But the influx of coaches such as
Eddie Sutton and Abe Lemons,
along with such veterans as Shelby
Metcalf and Gerald Myers, helped
build the league into respectability.
And when the NBA;
merged, San Antonio wasosfj
teams from the ABA that
The Spurs, led by two-tin
champ George Gervin anl|
ported by a devout
reached their peak early j|
when they came within a fei
and a few seconds of i
N BA championship series.
The Houston Rockets.]
while, had trouble
selves into a championship^
but they at least laid
most valuable player in theij
during the 1978-79 season]
bounding champion Mosesll
Head over heels for the Aggies
A member of the Texas A&M gymnastics team nasties team under Coach Jan Fambro went
performs at halftime of the Texas A&M-East through the fall season undefeated.
partment. “But we know one thing.
The trails have been very well re
ceived. ”
If the sun is shining on a weekend
in Dallas, there is not a softball di-
Edna just keeps coming ba|
Texas State game Wednesday night. The gym-
Battalion photo by Pat O’Malley
amond open anywhere in town.
“About 1970 we had something
like 500 softball teams playing in the
city,” said Alan Thompson of the
AGGIES!
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Jewelry
United Press International
Coming from behind has become a
habit this year for Coach Bud Jackson
and his Edna Cowboys. Five times
^imillllllllllllllllllllllllllllimillillllllllllimillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllimilllllllllllllll^ this season the Texas high school
Class AA semifinalists have played
catch-up football, and won.
“It isn’t something you look for
ward to, but I feel it does say some
thing for the character of our kids
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Our kids just kept coming back when
others would have counted them
selves out of everything. ”
Because of that come-back fea
ture, Edna will meet McGregor at 8
p.m. Friday in Memorial Stadium at
Austin for a shot at thestatfl
pionship the following week!
Childress and Van playat8;[
Wichita Falls’ Memorial Sta
the other Class AA seniifina;|
the winners playing for tkl
crown. Semifinals also aresi
this weekend in Classes AAli|
A, and state championshipssj
decided in Classes AAA and
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Jackson said Edna has a
attack, and can both throwthi!
or play ball control and keepil
ground. He said his Cowl
neither big nor fast, but make:
that in their desire.
“We haven’t made many ole;
mistakes so far, and I certainl
we don’t start now,” he said.
you play this type of compel*
you just can’t overcome coslkjj
takes.”
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Jackson predicted Edna
settle down to play its bestg® I
against McGregor.
“We ll do the same things* Ti
been doing — we just hopes J
them better,” he said. L—^—
Edna defeated Port Isabel -
while McGregor downed WJ
7, in last week’s quarterfinals
dress defeated Fabens, 19"
Van used a penetrations ei
to advance to the semis afterpl*
Breckenridge to a 13-13 tie.
McKinney defeated Lull*
Estacado, 19-14, and Bay
turned back Beaumont Hebert
in their semifinal games last wed
advance to the championshipgn md a ff {
fending
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J. E. "COKE" WELLMAN — APPRECIATION DAY
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Great Ideas forOiristnias'
December 14, 1979
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