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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1987)
Thursday, April 30, 1987/The Battalion/Page 15 ce Ian FSLIC ■*•1 needs an supports ne industm financinp u ld hurttlfi 'dustry th, a S ue of Saii ■ended. released jj •win made ii ( •esident Wi| ris member! he bill whiclii mmittee Sports Draft passes over A&M’s Murray Aggie QB could see NFL action as free agent NFL draft has normal mix of winners, losers billion in ted to the 551 from prai and invest® FSLIC wi tli| two years, money as R1 next two ra L'.S. Treasu Fo agree tt thoritywoul es of the u By Homer Jacobs Sports Editor All in all, he’d rather be in Phila delphia ... or Dallas ... or Los An geles ... or anywhere with a Na tional Football League f ranchise. But Texas A&M quarterback Ke vin Murray was passed over by the NFL Draft ' Tuesday, meaning Mur- Analysis ray is now a free agent and can be picked up by any NFL squad. However, the question remains whether anyone wants Murray. It’s a baffling situation to think that no team can use the skills of a Kevin Murray. Consider the fact that Murray was one of the most prolific passers in A&M and Southwest Conference history. He led the Aggies to back- to-back Cotton Bowl appearances and still holds the Cotton Bowl re cord for passing yards — more than the likes of Roger Staubach, Joe Theisman and Joe Montana. Is this the same quarterback many football afficionados foresaw as a Heisman Trophy hopeful for 1987 if he had remained at A&M for his final year of eligibility? Murray, who was the SWC’s Of fensive Player of the Year in 1985 and 1986, was not drafted, but quar terback Cody Carlson of Baylor went in the third round to the Houston Oilers. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark — or in this case, the state of the NFL draft. Speculation has arisen that Mur ray is too injury-prone, too slow in the 40-yard dash and may have a “bad attitude.” If Murray has a bad attitude, then what adjective can describe Brian Bosworth’s attitude? But even with these supposed handicaps, Murray is a proven win ner and competitor and can flat out throw the football. Sure, his long-ball touch is ques tionable, and he may have forced a few too many passes between a few too many defenders. But for Murray not to be drafted is a bad slap in the face. A&M Coach Jackie Sherrill has said many times that Murray has all the tools of a professional quar terback. He’s even compared Mur ray to Miami quarterback Dan Mar ino. What makes this whole situation unfortunate is that Murray opted to leave A&M early in search of a pro fessional career. Murray took a gamble, and it ap parently backfired on him. Now (here’s going to be the “I told you so” statements running rampant; unfor tunately, some critics may revert to remarks that a black quarterback can’t play in the NFL. Murray still has a chance to make an NFL team if he can impress coaches and scouts as a free agent. If he makes a team, he’ll probably make fairly good money and will have more flexibility to find a team he really wants to play for. But the odds are stacked against Murray because no quarterback has ever made an NFL team as a free agent. Then again, Murray is no stranger to uphill struggles. Injuries and investigations haven’t slowed Murray too much. I doubt free agency will, either. 3FS plans d J ) — An Am i from Chio an emerge nbert Airjx an anonym nb threat, to re turned up ruthorities lassengers while slidi : were used I l. Two meni taken to iic Hospital,: ml Health C at each fad appeared iti 1 bruises Lady Aggies sweep Bears in softball The Texas A&M softball team swept a double-header from the Baylor Bears Wednesday to up A&M’s record to 48-7. The Lady Aggies shut out the Bears 8-0 in the first game as Ju lie Carpenter racked up her 20th win of the season. Shawn Andaya was the win ning pitcher in A&M’s 4-1 win in the second game. The two wins give the Lady Aggies their best ever overall spring record with a 48-7 mark. A&M Coach Bob Brock said the record was a deserving mile stone for the team to reach. “I’m glad the record indicates that this is one of the best teams ever at A&M,” Brock said. Sonics hope to put Mavs out of misery SEATTLE (AP) — The Dallas Mavericks are in pain and the Seattle SuperSonics hope to put them out of their misery. “There’s going to be a tomorrow, but there may not be a tomorrow for us,” Dallas Coach Dick Motta said Wednesday. The underdog Sonics can finish off the Mavericks Thursday night in Game 4 of their NBA first-round playoff series. The Sonics lead the best-of-five series 2-1 after a 117-107 victory Tuesday night in Hec Ed- mundson Pavilion at the University of Washington. If a fifth game is necessary, it will be played Saturday at Dallas. “I still say Dallas is a better basket ball team,” Sonics Coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. “There’s no doubt in my mind about that.” But former Mavericks’ reserve Dale Ellis said he has convinced his Sonics teammates otherwise. “I’ve told them we’re just as good a team as Dallas,” he said. Ellis, voted the league’s most im proved player this season, has been the Sonics’ series star. He scored a career-high 43 points Tuesday night, and last Saturday hit a pair of game-winning free throws with two seconds left in a 112-110 triumph at Dallas. The Mavs are not 100 percent healthy. Starting center James Don aldson did not play in the second half of Tuesday night’s game be cause of an ailing right leg. Mark Aguirre, Dallas’ All-Star forward, was subpar Tuesday night because of strep throat. “It affects my strength and that’s a big part of my game,” Aguirre said. Donaldson underwent X-rays foi a possible stress fracture of his leg after Game 2. The X-rays were neg ative, but the ailment was diagnosed as a stress reaction, a condition that sometimes precedes a stress frac ture. “We’re frustrated,” the 7-foot-2 Donaldson said. Ellis is taking out his past frustra tions on Motta, who kept him on the f attle ant Tear ofhisji o his familf! lurn for (he laced backot , The third k began to li® 1 to offer his® $4,000 ratf Fort Laudf ansplant sci nfectious f«* :as. Two dat!; correct anal H FOR }AIXS X IE lion: k PRFSaxJTS A GRADUATION CELEBRATION WITH [he DXknpquts I W * FEATURING ^ THE FABULOUS ■Pleasure Cones bench, behind Aguirre and Rolando Blackman, for three seasons at Dal las. “I don’t think Motta really knew what he had in me,” said Ellis, who led the Sonics in scoring this season. “Ellis didn’t get the minutes he wanted with us and he got discour aged,” Motta said. Motta felt he had to trade Ellis af ter Ellis openly defied him by t efus- ing to go onto the floor late in a game last season. So he sent him to Seattle for journeyman guard A1 Wood, a player who didn’t fit into the Sonics’ future. Still, the Sonics weren’t supposed to come close to the Mavericks in the playoffs. Dallas was 5-0 against Seattle during the regular season and the average margin of victory was 18.6 points. The Mavericks set a club record with 55 regular-season victories, and Seattle wasn’t even a .500 team. “Our timing is off,” Motta said. “Now, our backs are against the wall, and that’s no cliche.” NEW YORK (AP) — The poor got richer in the NFL draft. Some of the rich got richer, too. While coaches and personnel ex ecutives unanimously applauded themselves, and sages pointed out that it will take years to determine the draft’s real value, a few winners and losers jumped out of Tuesday’s 18-hour selection process. Winners: the Tampa Bay Bucs, Houston Oilers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills. And two of the last three Super Bowl winners, the San Francisco 49ers and New York Gi ants. Losers: The Chicago Bears and, as usual, the St. Louis Cardinals. The Bucs, a big loser last year when top pick Bo Jackson opted for baseball, won by default. By some wheeling and dealing, new coach and general manager Ray Perkins had 20 picks, the most since the 12-round draft was instituted in 1977. The assumption is that 20 new guys can’t be any worse than 20 who played on the 2-14 Bucs last year, particularly when No. 1 is Vinny Testaverde, the quarterback around whom Perkins will rebuild. “We got most of the players we wanted. Now it’s just a matter of how good a job we did evaluating,” said Perkins, who may have snared a star on the second round in Mississippi State quarterback Don Smith, who will be turned into a running back. The Oilers, with an extra first- round pick from the trade of Jim Ev erett to the Los Angeles Rams last year, added two potentially explo sive elements in Miami fullback Alonzo Highsmith and Haywood Jeffires of North Carolina State, considered the top wide receiver. They also may have the pass rusher they need in Walter Johnson of Louisiana Tech, one of six straight linebackers picked in the second round. The Steelers benefited from sheer luck and curious picking ahead of them, notably by the always curious Cardinals, who took Colorado State quarterback Kelly Stouffer with the draft’s sixth pick. That set off a chain reaction that dropped Purdue defensive back Rod Woodson down to 10th and also al lowed Philadelphia to take Miami defensive lineman Jerome Brown with the ninth, setting up a poten tially awesome front featuring Brown and Reggie White. Pittsburgh had tried unsuccess fully to trade to get Woodson, the best defensive back available and maybe the best pure athlete in the draft. “It’s like Christmas in April,” said defensive coordinator Tony Dungy and Coach Chuck Noll said: “We spent lots of time looking at other people because we thought he’d go very, very high. People fall in love with certain people. I’m in love with him.” Buffalo, which wanted Penn State linebacker Shane Conlan, had the third pick but figured it could get Conlan lower. So it exchanged places with Hous ton, which held the eighth choice, added a high second-round pick, and still got Conlan. Then, the Bills parlayed that second-round choice into a deal with Tampa Bay that gave them the first pick of the sec ond round and another top de fensive back, Nate Odomes of Wis consin. The 49ers, who stocked up on picks with deals last year, got two re placements for their aging offensive line in Harris Barton of North Caro lina and Jeff Bregel of Southern Cal ifornia. They also got a running back to replace Wendell Tyler and Joe Cribbs in Terrence Flagler of Clemson. The Giants, whose only notable weakness was wide receiver, were amazed when Mark Ingram of Mich igan State was available on the last pick of the first round — the Bears’ choice of Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh helped make that possi ble. They were more amazed that the man they might have taken first, Florida safety Adrian White, was still available on the second round. New York got another break when Dallas and Denver mis-timed a trade that would have allowed the Cowboys to pick wide receiver Ste phen Baker of Fresno State. In 1957, \ a Teenager Namfcd Ricardo Valenzuela was a Wandering Farm Worker, Struggling to Survive and Keep his Family Together. Two Years Later, he was a Star. Ritchie Valens. At the Age of 17 he had Three Hits on the Charts in Nine Months. Then. One Tragic Night in 1959, in the Skies Over Iowa, his Star Fell. This Summer, it Rises Again. Columbia Pictures Presents the Legend of Ritchie Valens. Brought to you courtesy of EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY PASSES AVAILABLE AT M.S.C BOX OFFICE APRIL 30 DATE: THUR., APRIL 30 TIME: 8 P.M. LOCATION: RUDDER AUDITORIUM 4L