Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 1986)
Tuesday, March 25, 1986/The Battalion/Page 11 ABC shuffles = NFL analysts, ' fires Namath Associated Press ■ new YORK — Joe Namath and OJ. Simpson have been removed from the Monday Night Football broadcasting team at ABC and Frank Gifford can remain only as an analyst, a network source said Tues day. IS Capital Cities, which now owns AbC and is in the midst of cost-cut- I Ifting measures, bought out Namath’s contract for “less than $1 million but L more t ^ an $800,000.” Namath ^ served as an analyst for just one year ^ on the series. P Simpson has been offered a spot j opposite Keith Jackson on the net- i work’s coverage of college football ^ and, the source — who asked not to be named — said, “He’s probably going to take it because he feels he’ll get more visibility than if he went somewhere else.” RSimpson had been contacted by CBS and NBC about working NFL games. But, instead of leaving ABC, the source said he will replace Frank Broyles on CFA telecasts. Simpson worked three years on Monday Night Football. §|Gifford, who has been the play- w-play man on Monday Night Foot- ■1 for 15 years —Jackson handled those duties in the show’s inaugural leason — will be replaced by A1 Mi- LSPEi chaels, currently ABC’s top baseball , . announcer. Ithe a. But Gifford was offered the posi- Kon of color analyst on the NFL shows. Gifford began his football a ^’ broadcasting career in that role at CBS. ts ■ Namath signed a two-year con tract in 1985 and earned approxi mately $1 million per year. Though Monday Night Football’s ratings loared last year, the network’s sports operations lost between $30 million and $50 million a year. ABC is planning to go with only two announcers for Monday Night Football for the first time. Ever since the series began in 1970, with Jack- es: son, Howard Cosell and Don Mere dith in the booth, there have been als) three voices doing the games. H In addition, there has been specu lation that ABC is interested in dropping Monday Night Football af ter the contract runs out following the 1986 season. All three networks will conduct negotiations with the NFL following next season. TANK MCNAMARA* by Jeff Millar & Bill Hinds Sampson injured in Rockets’ loss (continued from page 10) back on the floor. “You just have to continue,” said Rockets’ forward Robert Reid. “You know the Celtics are going to say, ‘Here, this is our game because your top player is out.’ You’ve got to have confidence in the guys on the bench and just play hard.” There was a “possibility of a frac ture in the mid-back,” Celtics’ team physician Thomas Silva said through Twiss. Sampson was the game’s top scorer with 17 points before being hurt. Twiss also said there was “deFinite neurological loss” in Sampson’s right leg, although the three-year NBA veteran felt sensation and was able to move his right leg before leaving for the hospital. After speaking with hospital per sonnel, Silva said, “improvement in the right leg is continuing.” Leading 53-51 when Sampson was hurt, the Rockets fell behind 61-57 at halftime. A field goal by Wedman made the score 97-91 before Hous ton tied the game with a six-point rally capped by Hank McDowell’s basket. Wedman broke that final tie with 6:50 left in the game and quickly connected again. Boston guard Danny Ainge’s bas ket finished the 6-0 run. A free throw by Akeem Olajuwon, who led Houston with 29 points, and a field goal by Steve Harris cut the Celtics’ lead to 103-100 before Dennis John son sank a foul shot and Larry Bird and Robert Parish made layups, building the advantage to 108-100. Bird, who had averaged 34 points in his eight previous games, led the Celtics with 36. Parish added 19 and Kevin McHale 17. The Rockets, who lost for the sev enth time in their last eight road games, got 22 points from Lewis Lloyd and 16 from Allen Leavell. Houston remained one game in front of Denver, which was idle, in the race for the Midwest Division lead. Mavericks 126, Pacers 120 INDIANAPOLIS — Mark Aguirre scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half, including 13 in the third quarter, in leading a balanced scoring attack as the Dallas Maver icks beat the Indiana Pacers 126-120 Monday night. Aguirre’s rebound jump shot with 10:50 left in the game ignited a 16-1 scoring spurt. A jump shot by India na’s Herb Williams left the Pacers trailing 93-91 with 11:20 remaining. Aguirre then started a streak of nine unanswered points that ended on a three-point play by Jay Vincent. Wayman Tisdale made a free throw for Indiana with 9:11 left, and Dallas followed with seven more points on a three-point play by Brad Davis, a basket by Dale Ellis and a tip-in by Aguirre with 7:43 to go. The spurt gave Dallas a 109-92 lead and Indiana was never able to get closer than five thereafter. Rolando Blackman contributed 23 points to the victory, while Davis and Vincent had 22 apiece. Ron Anderson had a career-high 28 points for Indiana and tied his ca reer-high with 13 rebounds. Wil liams scored 25 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, while Steve Sti- panovich had 22 for Indiana. It was the eighth consecutive Dal las victory over Indiana — a streak that dates back to March 7, 1982 when the Pacers recorded a 108-106 victory. OSU snubs A&M rally at Louisiana tourney From Staff and Wire Reports LAFAYETTE, La. — The No. 1 Oklahoma State men’s golf team won the inaugural Loui siana Classics tournament Mon day, holding off a late charge by runner-up ■——— 11 1 Texas A&M Mon’S Golf and the Aggies’ Jorge Coghlan, who won the indi vidual title over OSU’s Michael Bradley. OSU led from start to finish in claiming its third tourney title of the season. The Cowboys had a three-day team score of 1097, which was 17 over par for the 7,000-yard, par 72 Oakbourne Country Club course. A&M finished with 1106, fol lowed by Houston with 1 126, Texas Christian with 1127 and Lamar at 1130. Houston Baptist was sixth at 1137, followed by Oklahoma at 1139, Alabama at 1161, McNeese State at 1166, New Orleans at 1182 and host Southwestern Louisiana at 1185. A&M’s Coghlan, the first- round leader, had a strong final nine and posted a par on the final hole to take the individual championship with a four-over 212. That edged Oklahoma State’s Bradley, who had 213. Tray Tyner of defending na tional champion Houston, was third at 215, followed by Houston Baptist’s Colin Montgomerie. Wyoming beats Florida to earn NIT finals berth Associated Press NEW YORK — Fennis Dembo continued his hot postseason scoring pace with 23 points Monday night, leading Wyoming from an early 12- point deficit to a 67-58 victory over Florida and a berth in the Finals of the 49th annual National Invitation Tournament. The Cowboys, 24-11, will play for the championship Wednesday night against Ohio State, a 79- 66 winner over Loui siana Tech. Dembo, averaging 22 points in Wyoming’s f o u r N IT triumphs af ter a 16.5 average during the regular season, led a Wyoming surge during the middle 20 minutes of the game. Eric Leckner added 19 points and Turk Boyd 10 for the Cowboys, who used their superior height to over come the Gators, who finished the season 19-13. Kenny McClary, Florida’s tallest player at 6-foot-7, led the Gators with 13 points and 10 rebounds be fore fouling out with 2:47 remain ing. Nine of his rebounds came in the first half. Junior forward Joe Lawrence got Florida off to a great start, hitting his first six shots, all on jumpers from at least 12 feet. Lawrence joined guard Andrew Moten and McClary to account for all of Florida’s points as the Gators took a 25-13 lead with 8:51 left in the first half. At that point, Lawrence had 12 points, Moten seven and McClary six, four of them on offensive re bounds against the much taller Cow boys. Wyoming, however, started as serting its height during the remain der of the first half by taking the ball inside. Leckner, the Cowboys’ 6-11 center, scored nine points and 6-4 forward Dembo had 12, only two of them on outside shots as the Cow boys rallied to close the deficit to 37- 32 at halftime. The Cowboys rarely took an out side shot after the first 10 minutes of the game. They scored the first six points of the second half to take their first lead 38-37 on an inside jumper by Dembo, who went on to score 1 1 points in a nine-minute span. Dembo gave Wyoming the lead for good 49-48 on a breakaway layup with 8:40 remaining in the garite. Lawrence did not make another shot after his early hot streak arid wound up with 12 points, along with Vernon Maxwell, the Gators’ leading scorer this season with a 19.9 aver age. Moten finished with 11. UTSA names new coach SAN ANTONIO — Ken Bur- meister, an assistant coach at the University of Arizona, will be the University of Texas at San Antonio’s head basketball coach, the San Anto nio Express-News reported Monday. Burmeister, 38, will replace Don Eddy, UTSA’s first basketball coach. Eddy quit Feb. 7 after the school be gan investigating an incident in which the he allegedly shoved a player during a game. Burmeister was picked by a six- man search committee over three other finalists, the Express-News quoted an unnamed source as say ing. Dr. Alan Craven, a search com mittee member, would neither con firm nor deny the report. But he did say the coach had been named and that the school would announce his appointment later. Burmeister was in Houston over the weekend and told the newspaper he would not confirm he had been appointed. “I’d hate to jeopardize any chance I have of getting the job by saying something now,” he said. Burmeister has been an assistant coach at Arizona since the 1983-84 season. He has been an assistant at Iowa and at the University of Texas at Arlington. The job would be a homecoming of sorts — he grad uated from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. The Express-News said Burmeis ter was selected over Cal State-Sacra- mento head coach Bill Brown and Alaska-Anchorage head coach Harry Larx abee. <?/ N IJVTERURBAJV drink specials. 505 University Dr. The INTERURBAN 846-8741 an aggie tradition”