Monday, April 4,1983/The Battalion/Page 13
Twelfth Man kickoff team
an idea that could backfire
Sept. 3, 1983. 6 p.m. Kyle Field. A
time bomb is waiting to explode.
Texas A&M head coach Jackie
Sherrill's brainchild, the Twelf th Man
kickoff team, takes the field for the
first time. Their opponent? The Cali
fornia Golden Bears. The ball is teed
up, kicked off and the countdown be-
f 8J
$e
lishedn;
An unidentified Golden Bear re
turn man takes the ball in his own end
me, veers to the left, gets a block at
the 20-yard line and sprints down the
sideline for a touchdown. No one
even gets close to him. The Bears lead
6-0. '
California head coach Joe Kapp
stands on the sideline, a huge grin on
his face. He can’t wait for the next
kickoff...
It was born in November, the pro
duct of a coach getting involved with
the student body. It was announced a
short time later, and caused a slight
uproar, if there is such a thing. And
now, as it moves toward reality, there
is concern that the Twelf th Man kick
off team may be a mistake.
The group — a combination of
cadets and non-cadets, picked from
the student body and assigned to cov
er Aggie kickoffs at all home football
John
wagner
games — has captured the imagina
tion of every person who ever said “I
can do that.”
It has been the subject of intense
media attention, a cute feature story
of a cute idea. The writers and photo
graphers and camera crews all trudge
over to Kyle Field to ask a few ques
tions, to take a few pictures and all is
forgotten — at least for now. One
almost can hear the folks in their liv
ing rooms saying: “Look what those
Aggies are doing now! Jackie’s lettin’
boys who aren’t even football players
cover kickoffs!”
Perhaps the scenario above is a bit
far-fetched, a bit too Hollywood to
believe. Maybe those guys can run and
tackle and hit. Maybe Sherrill is right
when he says the team will work just
fine. Maybe the Aggies will finish the
season in November without one kick
off being run back for a touchdown.
But what if they don’t?
What if the whole idea backfires?
What if the cute story suddenly goes
sour? Is there a way to back out in
mid-season, to save face and protect
pride if a tradition-come-to-life falls
apart right in front of our eyes?
The idea of a Twelfth Man kickoff
team — regular students taking part
in a game normally reserved for high
ly recruited, much-pampered athlete-
students — is a good one, if it works.
But how great the odds?
Publicity is a two-way street — it can
be bad as well as good. And plenty of
people are hanging around who will
be more than happy to poke fun at the
Aggies when things go wrong. Need
an example?
Sherrill was still at Pittsburgh when
an Aggie decided to run onto Kyle
Field, complete with saber, to protect
his home turf. No doubt he heard ab
out it, though. Everyone from Johnny
Carson to your hometown paper
mentioned it, most in very unflatter
ing terms.
Need another example? How about
last season’s most fashionable Aggie
joke — football? Sherrill was here for
that one, and the publicity his hiring
created seemed laughable when the
team struggled to a 5-6 record.
Add to that all the hirings and fir
ings and misfortunes that have pla
gued athletics here for the past several
years and you realize Aggies shouldn’t
be sticking their necks out again. It’s a
good way to get them cut off.
Texas A&M students are tired of
the football season being something
they have to suffer through. They are
tired of seeing their school laughed at
and ridiculed. They are tired of athle
tics in a fishbowl — the Aggies strug
gle on as the media and the nation
look in and snicker.
It doesn’t matter that the idea of the
kickoff team was conceived innocent
ly, or that there are good intentions
behind it. It still poses a threat. And it
would be a shame if the Texas A&M
student body — after all these years of
standing at football games — had to
ask the Twelf th Man kickoff team to
sit down.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
LECTURE
What Christian Science Teaches
About Intelligence
Tuesday, April 5
7:30 p.m. Room #404Rudder Tower
Given by Jean I. Tainsh, C.S.B.
ALL ARE WELCOME
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Devil Jjcontinued from page 11)
■nued to unfold. Texas A&M,
resultsiMnce thought to be one of the
■ipdefensive teams in the con-
ftrence,committed seven errors
ft the nightcap. What’s more,
lie Aggies dropped to eight
ord) llace in conference,
bright ImB Perhaps the only sign of a
possible revival were the strong
bats of Kevin Smith, Tony
Metoyer and Mike Scanlon.
Smith and Metoyer finished the
nightcap with two-for-four per
formances while Scanlon slap
ped two doubles in a two-for-
five day.
The Aggies have a chance to
try and regroup Wednesday
when they travel to San Antonio
for an exhbition game against
the San Antonio Dodgers. The
next conference series for Texas
A&M will be Friday and Satur
day in Lubbock against the red-
hot Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Tech won two of three, games
this weekend from the third-
ranked Houston Cougars.
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