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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1983)
Texas A&M The Battalion Sports January 19, 1983 /Page 11 PAR'fl.i jm m G TO P|£ f m Building from scratch UTSA finding success ditor’s note: This is the second r a$iwo-part series dealing with eVevelopment of the Univer- ■o/ Texas at San Antonio's hftic department, and the ten who worked to make major )/Ige athletics in San Antonio reality. by John P. Lopez Battalion Staff ^ f SAN ANTONIO — It takes a ✓j I pat deal of work to start and ^'• 1 stain a successful athletic de- irttnent. It requires so much srk. in fact, that many institu- e . 1! )n| don’t dare take on such a tlmsot Mitlmding and expensive task. }athettc aW IK i those institutions that do ’ S0U P“ t( lilJ a program have a terribly pubiicii ffipult time trying to keep the merchan!f tein afloat. A prime example 5slowatai a h athletic department that ened Jai ts found the financial (as well n Smith jacademic) dilemma too difTi- itchen MiJ 1 1° co P e w ‘ t * 1 * s Oniversi- 1 about 5{T 0 | San Francisco — a school up for thej 1 *^ 1 had always been feared as P|ketball power and one that . AHgiven the National Basket- uca, dire j| \ SSO{ i a ti on such talents as strap, 3' [||b usse |i and Bill Cartwright. Francisco recently ’tP°N~-jg trancisco recently was ohn Rc ij-U to c j r<) p basketball as a davofanmP- Mty sport, m* 10 0 So why would Rudy Davalos ts lliem cept the job of athletic director the University of Texas at San en tvas [ btbnio, and take on the task of 11 ak imM to an athletic de- ctedtheid; lr fi nent f r0 m scratch at a com- it would sc h 0 o| of about I(),()()() indadd!eey ents? Bddie Sutton (Arkansas’ ;ad coach) said that if the Iministration is not for it J lifts just aren’t going to hap- 3 ?n with an athletic depart- em,” Davalos said. “And when pthere I found put in a hurry iat we have an administration iat is really behind us. San ntonio deserves a first-rate ■tram because I know that tent s repo are a | ()t 0 p S p 01ts f ans onal incoi ere j j ust ( e h confident about rnt.fai le l () b an d I st ill do. San Anto- ; rise m i 0 | s rea d v f or big-time athle- i pending f%sj' adjustment B ;isketball coach Don Ed d y 'se just grjeed: “You’ve got to have a lot 1 Y f imfidence and a lot of faith inflationthings are going to work ent, m u|And you have to have really did notf" . 7 uercentii ;es good people on your staff. No matter how much expertise or recruiting talent the guy has, if he’s not a good person he’s going to get you in trouble some where down the line. I think we have some really good people here on our staff starting with the president of the university right on down the line. We have a great rapport within our staff and there’s a good feeling here about what we’re doing. The ingredients are definitely here for us to prosper.” But building a program from the ground up, Davalos said, can be tedious and time-consuming work. “There are a lot of things that go into it that people don’t know about,” he said. “We had to get all the equipment, have the floor painted, come up with a media guide and generally do things that a lot of programs take for granted. “When I first got hefe the school didn’t even have a fight song or band to play the fight song.” The Roadrunners have a fight song and band now, but UTSA is still without dormitor ies — a fact that forces the athle tic department to find other liv ing conditions for UTSA’s athletes on full scholarship. “There are apartments right across from school where the athletes live,” Eddy said. “They eat at the university cafeteria, so these guys have got excellent liv ing conditions. Besides, the apartments are much nicer than any dorm.” One problem Davalos and Eddy do not have to contend with is finding a place for UTSA’s men’s and women’s bas ketball teams to play. The Con vocation Center is an ultra modern special events center which seats about 5,600 and is equipped with a tartan-surfaced basketball court. Eddy says the center, although relatively small, is impressive. “I think our facilities are su per. The capacity isn’t a whole lot, but if we have a problem with over-crowding I won’t mind,” he said. “That’s a good problem to have. Anyway, we can always go play at the (Hemis- fair) Arena where the (San Antonio) Spurs play.” Although the Roadrunners have still not filled the Convoca tion Center for a home basket ball game, their constant iny- provement on the court has boosted sales in the ticket win dow considerably. But basket ball isn’t the only sport on the UTSA campus enjoying success. During 1981-82, the first year the Roadrunners participated in Division I competition, UTSA fielded four varsity teams — Basketball, cross-country, tennis and outdoor track — all of which fared well against more experi enced teams. One athlete in par ticular enjoyed extreme success on the cross country team. Roger Soler, a transfer stu dent with the Roadrunners, ran against every team in the South west Conference and never lost. And included among Soler’s vic tories were three wins over last year’s SWC champion. “He is really good,” Davalos said. “And besides him we have a women’s runner named Wendy Norman who is another good one. We don’t have the depth to .fdispoP ed for aft consider 1 5.76 pei icwhat ’s 5.48 mean ; also higl [gs climbe 1 billion, fC' 7 ■ 1 BOTH E • I •Morning Classes - 9:00 & 10:30 AM •Evening Classes - 2:00, 3:00, 4:15, 5:30 6:30, 7:45 (except on Fri.) •Open? Days A Week •Short Term Monthly Memberships - No Contracts •Saturday Classes -10:00, 11:00, 12:15 •Beginner Classes Available •Sunday Classes - 3:00, 4:00 jjReturn this Ad before our opening date" ■January 28 and receive $10.00 OFF on| lOne Regular Month of Classes or 3J ■ Month Membership. ■ win a team championship, but those two runners do real well for us. My guess is that they both would have come in first if they ran in the Southwest Confer ence meet. “I think we did all right for ourselves considering it was our first year. And I hope we do the same in the sports we added this year (indoor track, volleyball, golf and rifle).” Davalos said the next so called “big-time sport” in the works for UTSA is baseball since starting a football program is too much of a burden financially for the athletic department. “1 would say that right now football is out of the question because of the money situation,” Davalos said. “It’s very hard to raise two or three million dollars to start a football program. “But if the facility becomes available I think a baseball team would work out great in this community. It would be a while, of course, since we would have to build a stadium. But I think UTSA could eventually have one of the top baseball teams in the country because of the talent in this area. A lot of the players in San Antonio and South Texas would come here to play ball. The baseball players from this area are consistently the most sought-after players by college teams. “I just really feel good and confident about this school’s fu ture. Things are really looking up. The former athletic director at the University of Houston told me that this school looks ex actly like Houston did when it first started. He said the situa tion is almost identical. I just hope our program eventually does become as successful as Houston’s.” From the looks of things, the Roadrunners are well on their way. The UTSA Roadrunner, at top, enter tains the crowd during all UTSA home games. At bottom is a view of the Convo cation arena. ATTENTION SOPHOMORES: THERE ARE IMMEDIATE OPENINGS FOR A SUMMER PRO GRAM LEADING TO A COMMISSION AS AN OFFICER IN THE MARINE CORPS. THOSE THAT ARE QUALIFIED TO FLY, ARE GUARANTEED A PILOT POSITION AT FLIGHT SCHOOL. **N0 OBLIGATION UNTIL COMMISSIONED AT GRADUATION. **N0 INTERRUPTION OF COLLEGE. EARN $1400 FOR SUMMER PLUS $100 FOR * * * * EACH MONTH IN SCHOOL UNTIL GRADUATION. ALL EXPENSES PAID TO AND FROM TRAINING. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT CAPTAIN CONE AT 846-2751 OR SEE HIM AT 707 UNIVERSITY DRIVE. The Few. The Proud. The Marines.