Barton challenges
Kubiak to debate
See page 4,
Randy White signs
with Cowboys
See page 11
Twelfth man kickoff
team chosen
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The Battalion
Serving the University community
Vol 79 No. 186 CJSPS 045360 26 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, August 28, 1984
m I
12th Man chants for ‘Cotton’
at All U night; team set to go
By Lynn Rae Povec
Staff Writer
“fcotton” was the word at All
University night Monday, and
nearly 8,000 Aggies filled G.
Rollie White Coliseum to chant it.
The first students — most of
them freshmen — arrived about
5:30 p.m. to save places for the
upperclassmen in their dorms or
organizations. They spent the
next two hours trying to out-
shout their peers and clapping in
time as the Aggie Band played fa
miliar songs.
As the coliseum filled to near
capacity by 7:30 p.m., All U night
began on a solemn note. Head
Yell Leader Kelly Joseph asked
the crowd for a moment of si
lence to remember Battalion Edi
tor Bill Robinson who died Mon
day. Robinson was fatally injured
in a one-car accident last week.
The invocation followed, seve
ral university leaders addressed
the crowd, and Head Football
Coach Jdckie Sherrill introduced
this year’s team.
Student Body President David
Alders spoke first, and his rous
ing speech — interrupted by two
standing ovations — was met with
thunderous cries of “We wknt
cotton! We want cotton!”
“Cotton’s in the picture, Ag
gies,” said Head Yell Leader
Kelly Joseph before introducing
Dr. John Koldus, vice president
of student affairs.
“This is the beginning of my
twelfth year at Texas A&M,” Kol
dus said. “The 12th Man spirit is
very much alive, and 12-0 is the
way to go.”
University President Frank E.
Vandiver also addressed the
group, saying that Tex^s A&M
has got something other universi
ties don’t hive.
“We’ve got you,” Vandiver told
the crowd. “If I weren’t so glad
you were here, I’d feel sorry for
them.”
After Koldus’ speech, Joseph
preceeded his introduction of
Coach Sherrill by telling the his
tory of the 12th Man tradition.
He told the crowd how E. King
Gill suited up to play in the Dixie
Bowl Classic because the Aggies
“were losing players like flies.”
“It’d be great to end the story
by saying he caught the touch
down pass and won it,” Joseph
said, “but at A&M that kind of
stuff just doesn’t matter.”
Concluding his anecdote with
the short history of the 12th Man
Kick-Off Team, Joseph intro
duced Sherrill, who apologized to
Aggie fans about the change of
kick-off time for the Aggies-Uni-
versity of Texas at El Paso game
Sept. 1. Because the game is be
ing televised, it will begin at 11:20
a.m.
Amidst applause, whoops and
comments of Approval from a few
enthusiastic Keathley residents
seated in the front row, Sherrill
began introducing the 1984-85
varsity squad as cries of “cotton”
once again filled the coliseum.
The last 20 names he called be
longed to the members of this
year’s 12th Man Kick-Off Team
whom he said “have worked aw
ful hard and they’ve already cov
ered over 100 kick-offs.”
With the 12th Man and foot
ball teams assembled on stage,
three players presented Joseph
with a maroon jersey that sported
the number 12.
Joseph and the other yell lead
ers then led the crowd in several
yells.
Battalion
By by Melissa Adair
Staff Writer
James William “Bill” Robinson,
22, editor of The Battalion, died late
Monday morning in St. Joseph Hos
pital in Bryan.
Robinson was a senior journalism
major at Texas A&M and was from
Round Rock near Austin.
Robinson was in a one-car acci
dent last Monday night at about
10:45. The Fiat sportscar he was
travelling in flipped over on Dowl
ing Road and he wtis trapped under
neath it. He had severe head and
brain injuries and had been in a
deep comd since the accident.
Robinson was born on Jan. 17,
1962 at Texas City Memorial Hospi
tal. In 1967, his family moved from
Alvin to Austin and in 1977 they
moved to Round Rock.
Robinson graduated from Round
Rock High School in 1980 and at
tended Southwest Texas State Uni-
dies; funeral on Wednesday
versity between his junior and senior
years in high school under an ad
vanced placement program.
When he graduated, he wds of
fered a full ROTC Navy scholarship
but instead decided to come to
Texas A&M.
He helped organize the Acacia
fraternity here in College Station.
He was president of the fraternity
when he died.
Robinson was a delegate to the
Republican State Convention from
Williamson County and was active in
civic affairs. He attended Hyde Park
Christian Church in Austin.
He was gaining experience in
journalism and was planting to work
as a writer after graduating.
Robinson served as editorial page
editor for The Battalion this sum
mer. He was the assistant sports edi
tor in the spring and was a sports re
porter for the newspaper in the
Spring and Fall of 1982. He also
worked at KAMU-TV As a reporter
for a semester.
He is survived by his father and
stepmother, Mr. and Mrs. Jim Rob
inson of Round Rock; his mother
and stepfather, Brig. Gen. (Ret.) and
Mrs. Prescott A. Stark, also of
Round Rock; his sister, Susan Robin
son; his stepsister, Stacy Macadoo;
his paternal grandpArents, Mr. and
Mrs. Edgar Andrews and his mater
nal grandparents Mr. and Mrs. J.A.
Bond.
His father was a public informA-
tion officer for the Texas Depart
ment of Public Safety for 13 yeArs
and his grandfather, Odell V. Rob
inson, graduated from Texas A&M
in 1938. His sister, Susan, attended
Texas A&M for two years and now
attends the University of Texbs in
Austin.
Mr. Robinson said Bill had re
cently tried to get him to sign the
back of his driver’s license to donate
his organs for transplants if he died.
Rescue begins
for sunken load
United Press International
PARIS — Owners of a French
freighter that sank in the North Sea
with a 225-ton cargo of radioactive
uranium hexafluoride — which
could explode if water reaches it —
organized a risky operation Monday
to retrieve 30 sealed drums holding
the toxic material.
Compagnie Generale Maritime’s'
president Claude Abraham said the
operation to salvage the cargo
aboard the Mont Louis would begin
today and would be completed
“within the next two or three weeks.”
He said divers would be sent
down to break open a hole in the
hull of the 5,800-ton freighter lying
in 50 feet of water 12 miles off the
Belgian coast. A Belgian and a
Dutch ship will haul the cargo to the
surface with cranes, he said.
The salvage operation was de
scribed as “complex and risky” by
experts at the French environment
ministry.
The Mont Louis sank Saturday af
ter colliding in fog with a passenger
ferry from West Germany and took
with it to the bottom of the sea the
sealed drums of uranium hexafluo
ride — a highly toxic, radioactive li
quified gas.
The Mont Louis was bound for
the Baltic port of Riga in Soviet Lat
via when it hit the ferry bound for
Sheerness, England with about
1,000 passengers from Belgium. No
one was hurt.
The material had been partially
processed in France and was on its
way to be enriched in the Soviet
Union. It was to have been returned
to Belgian and French companies
for use in nuclear power plants, said
Comuhrex, the French firm that
produced the uranium hexafluo
ride.
The Greenpeace environmental
group, which first released reports
that the capsized vessel was carrying
a radioActive cargo, said it was com
mon practice for many Western na
tions, including the United States, to
enrich yellow-cake or uranium hex
afluoride in the Soviet Union, be
cause it was far cheaper than else
where.
French and Belgian authorities
stressed the cargo hold had not been
damaged in the accident and there
was no immediate risk or evidence of
pollution.
They said the uranium hekafluo-
ride was only about 3 percent radio
active, but if the substance mixes
with water, it produces an acid that
could trigger an explosion.
Ship hit by rocket
in Persian Gulf war
United Press International
KUWAIT — A warplane hit a
Panamanian-registered oil tanker
with a rocket that sparked a blaze
Monday as the tanker sailed in the
Persian Gulf. It was the 32nd con
firmed air attack on commercial
shipping this year in the Iran-Iraq
war.
The attack by an unidentified
warplane came amid reports of
clashes between Iranian and Iraqi
ground troops in the nearly 4-year-
old war.
A spokesman for the Greek Pi
raeus-based Troodos Shipping Co.
confirmed that the 20,000-ton Cleo I
had been hit by a rocket and caught
fire as it sailed from India to the
Saudi Arabian port of Ras Tannura
to load oil.
The ship was hit about 70 miles
northeast of Qatar, said the official
Kuwaiti news agency, KUNA. There
were no reports of injuries among
the ship’s crew.
In London, a spokesman for
Lloyd’s, the shipping insurer, said
the fire was under control, but that
the vessel’s steering was damaged in
the attack and the tanker was head-
ing for the Qatari port of Doha us
ing an emergency guidance system.
The British Broadcasting Corp.
reported that the American guided
missile destroyer USS King was
about 50 miles from the stricken
ship at the time of the attack and of
fered assistance.
In Washington, a Pentagon
spokesman said the warship was in
the area at the time but could not
confirm that assistance had been of
fered.
The incident was the 32nd con
firmed hit on a neutral ship this year
in the Gulf, where Iran and Iraq
have been at war since 1980. Dozens
of unconfirmed Attacks also have
been reported.
On Friday, an Iraqi missile tore
into A Cypriot-registered freighter,
setting it ablaze and forcing its crew
to abandon ship south of Iran’s main
oil terminal at Kharg Island.
An Iraqi military spokesman in
Baghdad said that Iraqi forces had
killed four Iranian soldiers in fight
ing east of the southern Iraqi city of
Basra. There were no reports of
Iraqi casualties.
Iraq invaded Iran in September
1980 because of a long-standing dis
pute over navigational rights to the
Shatt el-Arab waterway. The wAr
spread with both nations attacking
the Gulf shipping lanes in an at
tempt to cut oft e
ments.
' each other’s oil ship-
“I told him I just couldn’t do
that,” Mr. Robinson said. “But Bill
really thought that was important ...
so his kidneys will be donated for
transplant.”
Robinson’s father said he was al
ways a “good kid” and he was ex
tremely proud of him.
“He’s the kind of kid that I’ll
never have to look back and say I’m
sorry about anything he did,” he
said. “He’s a great guy all around.
He always wanted to help others.”
Robinson's parents have set up
the Bill Robinson MemoriAl Schol
arship Fund to help journalism ma
jors at Texas A&M. Contributions to
the fund in lieu of flowers may be
made to the Texas A&M Devel
opment Foundation, care of the De
partment of Communications,
TAMU.
The funeral will be Wednesday at
Central Christian Church in Austin
at 2 p.m., Wednesday.
n Today’s Battalion
local
• New meal plan system offered. See story page S.
National
• Anderson to support Mondale. See story page 7.
• Reagan speaks to honored students. See story page 4,
: ■ 7 ■
> V--V - - *■
World
• Arabs want to ban rally. See story page 6.
iil