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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1982)
The Battalion Sports August 30, 1982 Page 13A even hectic months SherrilVs day-to-day schedule hasn't featured free time litor's note: Jackie Sherrill, Ice resuming his posts as "xas A&M athletic director head football coach in Janu- has spent long hours trying upgrade the quality of the iversity’s athletics. In the First two-part series, Sherrill says realizes how much he and his have accomplished during tilt past seven months. Mall ght by Frank L. Christlieb Sports Editor ackie Sherrill didn’t leave his rt in Pittsburgh, but he cer tainly has a great deal of Pitt- sbtirgh left in his heart. ■ However, he’s managed to put memories of Pitt deep inside him, where they can’t interfere for stjwith his duties at Texas A&M s Comiii! University. ■ With every reason to yearn for a return to the city and ischool where he zoomed to col- He football prominence, the vy* Hw Aggie head football coach / { cah honestly say he hasn’t had much time to reminisce. His 1 Bind has been far from vacant, 3.1S ■ wever ’ s * nce he accepted the ■uble-duty post of athletic di- Btorand head football coach at )0 mart . Texas A&M during January. I The major occupants of iny of her«herrill’s thoughts during the m nearbylipast seven and a half months ha- , which nolven’t been recollections of his pre-mar! three 11-1 teams at Pitt, nor has insistllat he devoted much reflection to days for® teams’ four bowl victories in five years. And Sherrill hasn’t is no wiffieen contemplating the pair of require a l>ltp>. 2 rankings he achieved dur- ipeedy lali ing each of his last two years of tacle. NeiBching the Panthers, hree-danw Sherrill could spend his time last year Btolling close relationships with ■d general'Pavers whom he recruited, dis- a id. "Id ftlined and developed into married irpnine examples of leadership . I got niJjd athletic ability. But after the peacel latching talents like Tony J8 years Tontett, Hugh Green, Matt T ied in iiTavanaugh and Dan Marino and his touring his tenure at Pitt, Sherrill has all but forgotten the old days. The 38-year-old Aggie coach wants to concentrate on his pre sent surroundings and the situa tion at hand rather than to wish he could have stayed at Pitt for just one more year. Sure, there’s an excellent chance the Panthers will win the NCAA champion ship this season — a potentially masterful performance in which Sherrill could have played the title role. Instead of staying at Pitt to bask in that possibility, however, the Aggie coach seized the opportunity presented to him by Texas A&M. He received notan instant opportunity to coach a national championship team, but a chance to repeat the con struction job he completed while coaching the Panthers. In his first year at Pitt, Sher rill assembled a sixth-ranked 9- 2-1 team, and from there, he kept building until he designed three near-perfect 11-1 teams. With a track record like that, it’s a good fourth-down gamble to say Sherrill would do well in the construction business. Sherrill said it’s satisfying to know he left the Pitt program in such ideal condition. For that reason, Sherrill said, it doesn’t make sense to dwell on what he could have had if he hadn’t left Pitt. “It gets on your mind occa sionally until you meet a student at A&M or until you meet one of the players and you understand the long-range effects of it,” Sherrill said. “Then you know that you did the right thing. “I don’t think that you can (let it have an effect). People say, T left my heart in San Francisco.’ Well, you’d better move back to San Francisco if that’s the case. You’ve made a decision and you’ve got to force yourself to stick with it.” The candid, self-disciplined Sherrill uttered the understate ment of the year in saying that his first few months at Texas Texas A&M Athletic Director and Head Coach Jackie Sherrill has led a rather hectic life for the past seven months, but he’s settled down enough to devote a great deal of his time to the Aggie football team and his staff. Sherrill will open his first season at Texas A&M when the Aggies host Boston College Saturday in Kyle Field at 6:10 p.m. The Aggies, 7-5 with an Independence Bowl victory in 1981, start the year ranked No. 20 in the national polls. A&M have been “very busy.” And it would be an overstate ment to say Sherrill paints a pic ture of energy after enduring a hectic recruiting season, numer ous trips across the United States, speaking engagements throughout the South, three-a- day and two-a-day workouts and day after day of 8 a.m.-to- whenever schedules. No, he hasn’t aged 20 years since January. Yes, at times he wears a worn, exhausted look, and his blue eyes show a lack of adequate sleep and proper rest. But as duty demands of him, Sherrill gives his all until that all-important work ethic is satis fied. “You sit back and you finally realize that you’ve really accom plished a lot,” Sherrill said. “You’re trying to do a lot of things at one time and trying to make up for lost time, but that goes with the territory. “I don’t know that if I was 55 years of age, I would be able to keep the pace. But it’s some thing I really enjoy.” There’s another standard to ward which Sherrill dedicates a great deal of effort. Success. Sherrill will stand for nothing but success in every en deavor. And why shouldn’t Sherrill crave success? During 13 years of playing football between his fourth-grade year and his final year at .the University of Alaba ma under Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, Sherrill played on only one losing team. Throughout his years as a head coach, only during one — at Washington State in 1976 — has he finished with a below- average record. As an assistant at Alabama, Arkansas and at Pitt during 1973-75, Sherrill coached under others whose standards were high. So it’s not just his own good f ortune that has prompted a need for success. “I’ve been exposed to win ning coaches and been around the atmosphere of winning,” Sherrill said, “and I’ve also been able to coach with some great coaches — Coach Bryant, Frank Broyles (former Arkansas coach) and John Majors (at Ten nessee).” Even with all the success he’s experienced throughout his playing and coaching careers, Sherrill keeps intact his basic philosophy about such matters. “I don’t think you can ever experience success without ex periencing failure,” he said. In a recent Biloxi High School class reunion, Sherrill found an old quote that he’d written in a classmate’s year book, and its meaning echoes his ideas about success. The quote hit home with pinpoint accuracy: “Success is failure turned in side out.” Not only does Sherrill de mand success, but his strong de sire for excellence compels him to strive for precision, and at times, perfection. His 50-9-1 re cord while at Pitt speaks for it self, and Sherrill’s playing career as a starter under Bryant at Alabama lends more support to his history of success. Of his career with the Crim son Tide, which included play ing on national championship teams in 1964 and 1965, Sherrill said: “I was in between an aver age athlete and a gi eat athlete — whatever that means.” With his prosperous playing career and his five years at Pitt a part of the past, Sherrill has for the last few months focused his efforts on “selling” Texas A&M. During that time, he and his' family have also been trying to settle down to the ways of the Texas A&M-oriented Bryan- College Station area, a far cry from the “community” of nearly 500,000 in which Sherrill lived between December 1976 and January 1982. Sherrill and his wife, Daryle, still in the process of building a house in College Station, haven’t had it easy during their first months here. While her hus band came to town in January to assume his duties, Mrs. Sherrill and their two children remained in Pittsburgh until she finished working late in May. From his first marriage,! Sherrill retained custody of his daughter, Elizabeth, who is 14, years old. Sherrill and his wife,'I who married in 1973, adopted a son, Justin, in July 1981 .Justin is 13 months old. The four have been living in a three-bedroom home in College Station temporarily, but Sherrill said he hopes that his family’s new home will be finished by De-| cember or January. Sherrill holds strong beliefs about his obligation to the Uni versity community and to the youth in the area. While in Pitt- See SHERRILL page 16 ’82 Vikings among state’s finest Glad you’re back Ag’s! V by Joe Tindel Jr. Sports Staff The Bryan Vikings may final ly get that long-awaited chance to see if they’re one of the best football teams in the state. According td Dave Camp bell’s Texas Football magazine, the Vikings may be the best team in class 5A. But this year Head Coach Merrill Green has a second chance to find out—just in case the Temple Wildcats should yank another district title from his grasp. If Bob McQueen’s Wildcats take their ninth straight victory over the Vikings, Green can still take his team to the state play offs, provided Bryan is the second-place finisher in the dis trict. Thanks to a new provision approved by the University In terscholastic League, every high school team that finishes second in its district can advance to the playoffs. That means a lot of those really talented teams that finished 9-1, as Bryan did last year, will have a chance to prove they’re as good as some of the district champs. Green said the new rule will help maintain interest in the football team further into the season. The only possible prob lem he sees would be if the pro vision “watered down” the play off system with too many teams, making the season too long for high school players, he said. But, he said, the potential be nefits that may result from the provision outweigh the bad points. McQueen, however, said he feels less enthused about the new provision, since it elimin ates the open week that allows teams time to work out bruises while giving coaches enough time to examine opponents in detail. “We’ve always used our open date as an opportunity to heal our wounds,” McQueen said. Green said there are good and bad points about open dates also, which in his mind eliminate the loss of the open week as a major flaw in the provision. He said there have been times when he didn’t want an open date for fear it would slow down the team’s momentum. “I’ve been (here) now 17 See SCHOOLBOY page 14 J range faction If •ipment THE INTERURBAIV Good Food, Good Service, Good Music The Interurban still holds on to the way things used to be so you can relax. Happy Hours Monday — Thursday: 4:00-7:00, 10 to closing Friday: 4:00-6:30 Weekend Celebration: Friday: 10:00 til closing Saturday: 11:00 to 7:00, 10:00 til closing Baseball Night Starts at 7:30 on Tuesday nights, but come early to make your game picks . . . you might win a $30.00 gift certificate or other prizes! INTERURBAN Rolling With You!’ 5015 University Drive, College Station LAST CALL We've combined all the remaining stock of the Waco and Bryan stores for these final 3 days only Suits 1/2 price Sport Coats 1/2 price Knit Shirts 25.00 to 38.50 Now 13.99 Shorts. . 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