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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1984)
3GGLE ts pvefm(e in ti'fog Friday, December 7, 1984Arhe Battalion/Page 11 Dorsett’s Ride’ El Paso folklore :w nt M United Press International EL PASO — The story of “Tony and the Pony,” an account of Tony Dorsett’s ride on a Sheriffs Posse horse, drew laughs at a Sun Bowl news conference with the coaches of aryland and Tennessee. ocery, ink. ■ Tennessee coach Johnny Majors laughed loudest at the recollection. Hed forgotten about the incident. But Sun Bowl veterans say the story of' Dorsett’s Last Ride” on a horse is now part of Sun Bowl lore. It seems a few days before the 1975 Sun Bowl game between Pitts- rgh and Kansas (Majors was aching Pittsburgh), the players from both teams were taken to the Sheriffs Posse roundup, one of a number of hospitality events for ich the Sun Bowl is famous. lent;, fa' jrchaseDt i nga te detain Dorsett, Pittsburgh’s All-Ameri can running back, decided to go na tive and mounted a Sheriffs Posse horse. 1: “An assistant coach ran in and told Johnny,” said Sam Jenkins, Sun Bowl Association president-elect. “Johnny turned white. He could just see his All-American tailback falling off a runaway horse.” pFor Majors, now with Tennessee, it was a return to the good old days at the Wednesday news conference. For Maryland coach Bobby Ross it was his first time at the Sun Bowl, but not his first time in Texas. H“I was an assistant coach at Rice, and 1 hope I do better in this bowl game than we did at Rice,"” Ross said. “My wife and the children think back to many, many happy days in Texas.” The Maryland and Tennessee teams do not arrive until the Mon day before the Dec. 22 game. But Sun Bowl Executive Director Donnie Duncan arranged for the two coaches to hold a news conference in El Paso to plug the game. “I don’t know much about foot ball. I’ve been coaching it since 1957,” deadpanned Majors. “But I think going in we’ve possibly got the best matchup of any bowl game.” It will be a second bowl encounter for the teams. Tennessee beat Maryland, 30-23 in last year’s Flor ida Citrus Bowl. Both coaches came in from the College Hall of Fame induction ban quet in New York. Ross even cancelled some in-home recruiting visits and left El Paso on a red-eye flight Thursday at 3:50 a.m. in order to get back on schedule. The 1976 Pitt team - with Dorsett winning the Heisman Trophy - won the national title. The Sun Bowl vic tory the year before “was our first win on the way to the national championship,” Majors said. “It cat apulted us right into being the best college football team America’s seen in the last 20 years. Of course, I speak from a prejudicial viewpoint. But that was a completely well-bal anced team with no weaknesses.” Dorsett kept his balance on the Sheriffs Posse horse, also, Jenkins recalled. “Tony stood tall and rode the horse around the Sheriffs Posse arena like he was born in the sad dle,” he said. L§ What else can be said about TCU's Wacker? United Press International I FORT WORTH — One of the [ things Jim Wacker has turned out not to be over the course of his 47 years is shy. f It takes only a matter of seconds, | certainly no more than 30 to 45 of * them, to become aware that Wacker 4/j enjoys doing just what he says he en- m w j joys doing. H“Hove coaching because coaching is teaching,” Wacker said. “But I love selling, too. I love going up against rMlflfr ot her coaches, trying to sell our l program and our school. I love re- i cruiting.” ■That’s where Wacker is these 1 days. He’s in Austin and Houston 1 and who knows where selling Texas 3fS J Christian University to the youth of . . , America. 1 Italy i He did a pretty good job of that * ) the past two years, but his job was 1 made a lot easier this season since his a 1 TCU Horned Frogs produced the [ sharpest turnaround of any football > team in the country, f; TCU went from a 1-8-2 record to t 8-5, earned a bowl trip for only the 1 second time in 25 years and, came 1 within one victory of representing | the Southwest Conference in the , Cotton Bowl. it store |! For all of that Wacker was named i Thursday as UPFs collegiate football „ J coach of the year. It makes no difference whether Wacker is speaking to a chemistry professor, a group of seminary stu dents or the people whose bankrolls ' OIL! fi nance ^e school’s athletic de- V partment. He is apt to give them the same i lecture and the theme of that lecture is that TCU is inevitably going to be national champion. 1 “We were so close to winning the conference championship and going to the Cotton Bowl,” he said. “We had that brass ring and let it slip away. We talk about the things you’ve got to do to hang on to it. I You’ve got to make it happen, t “The pot of gold is still out there and we are coming closer. We will be pushing and griding and reminding the players of what it takes to make a good team into a championship team. ■“And once you get to the Cotton Bowl you start talking about national championship.” 0i Wacker admits he gets his share of strange looks when he launches into his national championship speech. But he is used to getting those kind of stares. “I had a newspaper guy call me not too long and I told him that in two more years we would be in the Cotton Bowl and would be in the top 10,” said Wacker. “He asked me how I could say such things and I told him all I was saying is what I believe will happen. You’ve got to be nuts in this profession if you don’t believe you are going to get there. “If you don’t believe it, it sure isn’t going to happen. The first year I was at Southwest Texas we told those guys they would be national cham pions (of NCAA Division 2) before they graduated. They thought we were ridiculous. They hadn’t even won a conference championship in 10 years. But it happened. “I don’t care what happened be fore and I don’t care if it sounds stu pid to everybody else in the world. We are going to talk it and believe it and strive for it and know what our goals are. “I don’t expect everybody in the world to believe it. They can think we are goofy and crazy. I don’t care. I know what I want my coaches to believe and for me to believe and the players to believe. And if they be lieve we’ve got a chance and those possibilities can become a reality.” TCU resided for years in the realm of the pitied, but almost over night the Frogs became envied within the confines of the SWC. And Wacker wants it that way. “I want everybody in the world gunning for us,” he said. “And it was that way at the end of the season. Texas played their best game of the season against us and Texas A&M played one of their two best games against us. “But our kids played hard for 11 games in a row. I really believe we’ve seen the turn in attitude. Yeah, I wanted that chance to win the con ference championship against A&M and Texas. “We had a great offensive explo sion in our first two games (against Utah State and Kansas State). After that there wasn’t a lot of sneaking. People knew we were going to play hard.” Reagan meets Doug Flutie, receives Heisman replica United Press International l WASHINGTON — President Reagan greeted Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie of Boston College Thursday as a college football player “in a class by himself.” The diminutive quarterback advised high school athletes in the audi ence: “If you can dream it, it’s possible.” The football star, who set a major college passing record, was named last week as the best player in college football. | The ceremony was held in an auditorium in the Executive Office Build ing filled with football players from Gonzaga High School in Washington, which is run by the same order of priests that operates Boston College, f Among the guests were Flutie’s coach, Jack Bicknell; his parents; Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Silvio [ Conte, R-Mass. • | Afterwards, Harold Reinauer of the Downtown Athletic Club, which awards the trophy, gave the president a small replica of the statue. B “That’s better than an Oscar,” remarked Reagan, recalling his admira tion of Jay Berwanger, the first Heisman winner 50 years ago, when he was sportscaster “Dutch” Reagan. WE BUY BOOKS EVERY DAY! And remember we give 20% more in trade for used books. LOUPOT’S BOOKSTORE Northgate - Across from the Post Office $6.00 OFF CUT & BLOW S.TYLE with this coupon Because of us.. .You’re looking good! f(am RESTAURANT ^ ¥ fik Autheuic Chinese Food Many Choices - Low Prices. Try our Family Style dinners - many selections at a low price. Also, enjoy Complete dinners. Serving wine and beer 846-8345 Mon. - Sun. 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