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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1983)
Page 12/The Battalion/Tuesday, November 1, 1983 Anderson High school football hero is ‘human pinball’ TANK MCNAMARA by Jeff Millar & United Press International COLUMBIA, Mo. — You can’t see the football field from the north wing of Hickman High School. The view is ob structed by the brick wall of the south wing. Football coach Tom Travis would gladly walk through that wall for Gary Anderson. The coach and his former player last saw each other Jan. 15, about four months before Anderson, arguably the finest athlete ever to come out of Col umbia, graduated from the not- so-gray area known as student- athletics to a $1,375 million con tract with the Tampa Bay Ban dits of the U.S. Football League. Since then, Anderson has been a human pinball in inter league contract disputes that have seen his intellectual capac ity questioned in a Houston courtroom and on sports pages throughout the nation. “If I were an outsider looking at this situation,” Travis says, “I’d say that Gary Anderson’s a money-hungry mongrel.” But Travis loves Anderson like a son. So does Patti Free man. And Larry Beightol. And the people who know Gary Anderson for who he is, and who he isn’t, are raising serious questions. “Let me ask you this,” Travis Aug. 12. Padre Cafe Gary Anderson says. “Who’s at fault when a youngster is born without arms? You certainly don’t fault those parents. God knows they didn’t want that to happen.” Gary Anderon’s academic re cords do not support the claim that he is illiterate. He wasn’t when he graduated from Oakland Junior High School in 1976. He wasn’t when he graduated from Hickman High School in 1979. And he wasn’t when he left the Universi ty of Arkansas after SV2 years in order to do professionally what he does best: perform magic with a football in his hands. But a curious thing happened An attorney representing Anderson stood in a Houston courtroom and asked his client to read a portion of a Tampa Bay contract Anderson now says he’d never seen before. Anderson struggled. And that, proclaimed attorney Charles G. King, proved Ander son is functionally illiterate. About 2!/2 weeks later, Sports Illustrated spread the word across six pages of the magazine in an article that chronicled Anderson’s legal and academic problems. There, for all the world to see, was the attorney’s contention that Anderson can not read. The story pushed to the fore front a number of simmering questions. Namely, was Ander son academically equipped to cope in a major university when he graduated from Hickman? And if he wasn’t, how did he earn 82 hours of credit at the University of Arkansas? According to those who know Anderson — friends, coaches, teachers — the answers are as simple as A, B, C. Despite cour troom theatrics suggesting otherwise, Anderson literally was a student-athlete. “Gary can read,” says Patti Freeman, the guidance director at Oakland Junior High School for the last 11 years. Freeman met Anderson when he enrolled at Oakland in the seventh grade. “He couldn’t have made it through the seventh and eighth and ninth grades like he did with no problem." No one denies that Anderson has a reading deficiency. Based on recommendations from sixth-grade teachers, Oakland steers its top-notch students away from reading classes. Anderson was not one of those students. In seventh grade, he was placed in a developmental reading course. Freeman, however, points out that the course was not reme dial. Anderson never was placed in special education classes. “I have people coming to me all the time telling me so and so isn’t doing well and they need to be tested for special ed,” she says. “No one ever told me that Gary was having any problems.” But reading wasn’t his long suit. “Gary probably won’t knock the top off any standardized test scores,” she says. “He’s not going to be a national merit scholar. And I think that Gary would be the first one to tell you that he has a few problems understand ing everything he reads.” Says Anderson: “I really don’t read unless I have to.” . „ FOOTBALLCOACMESfOR A N SMAU-'Towifo med eofcOL uajo MD lUEAR BUU_ETPF?OOF VKflt, OtO because of pewu -nAReAre^!?' wep ri CMARLEV, VOU GREUJ UP IkJ TtXOO iOU THINK. THE GOVS IN THE _ HOOSfTOfd BUREAU ARE. PULUKiO OUR L£6S AGAlkU y \AklAT& THt ^ SCHOOL'S. f&COPO I AMD 5. SORpKlStf PlptO'T Ok. EAKUGk tj ■ 6€A* 78 Phillies release Morganj United Press International PHILADELPHIA — Veteran second baseman Joe Morgan, saying he wanted to be closer to home should he decide to return for his 19th major league sea son, was given his release Mon day by the Philadelphia Phillies. Phillies president Bill Giles said Monday he spoke with Mor gan, 40, “several times” in the past week. He said Morgan had not made up his mind about playing next season and re quested that the Phillies release him. “There was a clause in Joe’s contract in which we had an Oct. 31 deadline for renewing his contract for 1984,” Giles said. “Joe requested that the Phillies exercise their option not to re new his contract and be given his release, so that if he decided to play next season, he could play closer to his home.” Such a move by Morgan gave rise to speculation that he would be returning to the San Francis co Giants, who traded him to the Phillies after the 1982 season. Morgan makes his home in Oak land, Calif. Morgan, who was the Nation al League’s Most Valuable Play er in 1975 and 1976, signed a one-year contract with an option year after the Phillies acquired him. Morgan batted over .300 in September to spark the Phillies to the National League East championship and the league penannt. He batted .263 with two home runs and a triple in the World Series but the Phillies lost in five games to the Baltimore Orioles. “Certainly, Joe Morgan was a very big part in the Phillies win ning the 1983 National League , pennant,” Giles said. “He got hot at the right time and led us into the World Series.” After the final out in the fifth World Series game, Morgan appeared to be leaning toward retirement. He was plagued by nagging leg injuries during the 1983 season and baited just .230. But Morgan also has stated that a goal of his is to break the major league record for home runs by a second baseman held by Rogers Hornsby. With 260 career homers, he tn shy by four. “If I’m healthy, I play as good as anys man in the league,"Moi at the time. “But realist.” Morgan hit 16 hoa during the past sear drove in 59 runs. I finished fifth in the lea 89 walks, adding to hit! cord and moving kr fourth place on the alt Morgan was signedJ fessional contract byf n >11 C0I1 13 s 111 196fi named NL Rookieofilti ] 1 Mi3 1 l<- pl.ivcd sevtu s<>iis with ffoustonbdj traded to the Cincin where he competedin^ off series and thrttf Series. I fe returned to Ho free agent in 1980 d i!i< iK \i two seasonsf (.lants, I fe hit I f homtl (h o\ e in 6 1 runs in 198| named the league’s I Player of the Year. I PREFER 'fish WITH FKESH VE0E/ES CM&R fK BED OF RICE. WHERE P0 YOU THINK WE ARE, THE PADRE CAPE? really fine eats Dominik Drive College Statiorv-BYTHE-SEA Paralyzed Steeler now listet in fair condition after crasl United Press International PITTSBURGH — The medical condition of Pittsburgh Steelers rookie Gabe Rivera, cri tically injured in and left para lyzed by a car crash Nov. 20, has been upgraded to fair, but he remains in the trauma unit of Allegheny General Hospital, a team spokesman said Monday. Rivera, a 285-pound defen sive lineman and the Steelers’ No. 1 draft choice last spring, suffered severe spinal and inter nal injuries during the two-car, head-on collision in the Pitt sburgh suburb of Ross I own- ship. He is paralyzed from the chest down, and doctors have said he probably will never walk again. The Steelers’ spokesman said physicians did not expect to further upgrade Rivera’s condi tion before the end of the week. Rivera probably also will remain in Allegheny General’s trauma unit at least thro^ weekend, the spokestt Rivera has beencha drunken driving and: driving in connection™ accident. The driverofi®| car, Allen Watts, IMSitting i Township, was unhurt sbnior Rivera, 22, isanati'f jf|Qj^ tal City, Texas, and pi-'— lege football at 1 cx.is .j bride of six months, tht Kim Covington, is tt| their first child. VI and ready for pickup 8:00-5:00 rmer e mids , tonig platfori McGovi kota, wi jiidentii fed by N He will 1 [work a fnmon S ^ram ci am, sa jr Room 230 Reed McDonald Bldg. (if you have pre-paid; check your fee slip) The Bra wers. We w ke theii s or w: nt actic VPA n The B> is deal snada p. Phil 1. Lloy n and JParson iy the I 8 and 20 State er b irs of 1 “We hi 'iolation PA sai The gr