Wednesday, February 3, 1988/The Battalion/Page i
Sports
Ags don’t back ‘other’ sports
SS III
Ever been to an Aggie basketball game at Jollie
I Rollie? How about a baseball game at Olsen Field? If
I you’re like the majority of A&M students, you probably
I haven’t.
A scarcity of A&M fans is often a constant at two of
I the big three sports in Aggieland.
G. Rollie White Coliseum has
I a capacity of 7,500. Yet unless
I the Aggies are on a winning
streak, only a few hundred stu
dents bother to show up.
Even against archrival Texas,
a mere 4,442 fans attended
Sunday’s game.
C.E. “Pat” Olsen Field can
I hold 5,053, but room for a cou-
>rini<( I pie of hundred is usually all
that’s needed.
The attendance records for
Non!
cliaiif I women’s athletic events are
tinu
ing of the major sports. Lulls in the action are few and
far between. Even if a pause in the action occurs, A&M
students can sit down without the worry of being told
how many directions Highway 6 runs.
And unlike the pros, college basketball has a special
atmosphere and attractiveness all its own.
At places such as North Carolina, UCLA and In
diana, students flock to the games with their faces
painted in an array of their school’s colors. Small musi
cal groups play Dixieland jazz. Students try to sink half
court shots for spring break trips to Acapulco.
At Kentucky, the whole university shows up at the
stroke of midnight on the day practices are allowed to
begin. The roar rises to a crescendo when the team’s
star player officially starts practice with a crowd-pleas
ing power slam.
Anthony Wilson
Sports Writer
even worse. Saturday night’s
game against Texas drew 2,993 — a Coliseum record
for a women’s contest. Yet the majority of those fans
were UT students and boosters. Some home court ad
vantage for the Lady Aggies. —.
To put it bluntly, these figures are pathetic for a
school with an enrollment of more than 39,000.
Obviously A&M students don’t realize the entertain
ment value of baseball and basketball. Personally, bas
ketball is my favorite sport at A&M.
Unlike football, where spectators are often perched
in the upper reaches of the third deck of Kyle Field
next to some daredevil pigeons, basketball fans are
close to the action.
The confines of G. Rollie have allowed me to see
Winston Crite’s power, Don Marbury’s cockiness, Dar
ryl McDonald’s smoothness, Mike Clifford’s bricklaying
and Shelby Metcalfs striptease from an excellent van
tage point.
Basketball is also the fastest moving and highest scor-
What baseball lacks in kinetics and scoring, it more
than makes up for in relaxation and nostalgia. What
could be nicer than sitting in the bleachers of Olsen
Field on a spring afternoon, smelling the freshly
mowed outfield and munching on a chili dog while
soaking up rays to the sound of cracking bats? Now
that’s true Americana.
But let’s not forget that A&M has a great team this
year, too. The Aggies missed advancing to the College
World Series by one game last season and are returning
several key players. Their hitting ought to be their
strong point, which should make for some interesting
games.
A&M games always feature promotions and givea
ways, including the popular lucky numbers. And public
address announcer Derrick “D.D.” Grubbs is a riot be
tween innings.
Texas A&M has always been a great supporter of its
football teams, even in the pre-Jackie, pre-Cotton years.
Why can’t we give our other teams as much respect and
support? Non-football athletes work just as hard to be
competitive at their respective sports. If the student
body got behind them, who knows what they could do?
A&M basketball teams try to bounce back
Pro Football Hall of Fame
gives Ditka membership
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Mike
Ditka said it really wasn’t fair to
have had as much fun as he did
playing football and still be
elected to the Pro Football Hall of
Fame.
The Chicago Bears coach was
elected Tuesday along with Fred
Biletnikoff, Jack Ham and Alan
Page.
“It’s mind boggling,” said
Ditka, who played 12 years in the
NFL as a tight end.
Biletnikoff, a flanker with the
Oakland Raiders famed for his
timing and exacting pass routes,
said, “I can’t tell you how excited
I am. It’s a big, big thrill for me.”
Ham, a key performer in the
Pittsburgh Steelers’ “Steel Cur
tain” during four Super Bowl vic
tories in the 1970s, said, “I’m
ecstatic. I’m going in with some
pretty good company.”
Page, a cornerstone at de
fensive tackle on the Minnesota
Vikings’ famed “Purple People
Eaters” defense, said, “(My)
whole career was a highlight.”
Ditka, 48, out of the University
of Pittsburgh, was named NFL
rookie of the year in 1961 after
catching 56 passes for 1,076 yards
and 12 touchdowns. Three years
later, he had 75 catches, a record
for tight ends that stood for 16
years.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound na
tive of Carnegie, Pa., did not miss
a start in 84 games with the Bears
and earned All-Pro honors his
first four seasons. He had 427 re
ceptions for 5,812 yards and 43
touchdowns in his career.
After being traded to Philadel
phia in 1967, Ditka finished his
career with four seasons at Dallas.
In 1971 he had 30 receptions and
scored the clinching touchdown
in the Cowboys’ 24-3 victory over
the Miami Dolphins in the 1972
Super Bowl.
Biletnikoff, who will turn 45
later this month, spent 14 years
with the Raiders. The 6-1, 190-
pound flanker caught 589 passes
— seventh best all-time — for
8,974 yards and 76 touchdowns.
The native of Erie, Pa., caught
.40 or more passes for 10 straight
seasons, and his 70 catches.Tor
1,167 yards and 10 touchdowns
in 19 postseason games were re
cords at his retirement.
year career with 25'/a sacks, 21
fumble recoveries and 32 inter-
Biletnikoff, now an assistant
coach with Calgary of the Ca
nadian Football League, caught
four passes for 79 yards to set up
three Oakland scores in a 32-14
victory over Minnesota in the
1977 Super Bowl and was named
the game’s most valuable player.
Ham, 39, missed only four
games in his first 10 seasons in
the NFL. The outside linebacker
from Penn State finished a 12-
ceptions.
Ham, who is a salesman for a
coal company and also a radio
analyst on NFL games, traced his
success to Joe Paterno, his college
coach.
“I was a young kid who didn’t
have a lot of confidence until I
went to Penn State,” he said. “Pa
terno, . . . he’s the kind of guy
who put me on first team defense
in my first year. It kind of made
me a little more confident.”
Page, a 42-year-old native of
Canton, home of the Hall of
Fame, became the first defensive
player to be named NFL most
valuable player in 1971. He was
the NFC’s defensive player of the
year four times and was an all
league choice nine years in a row.
Page, now a staff lawyer for the
Minnesota attorney general’s of
fice, said of his selection, “I don’t
know if it’s about time, but it’s
certainly a nice time.”
A graduate of Notre Dame,
Page was the Vikings’ second pick
in the first round of the first com
bined AFL-NFL draft in 1967. A
defensive end in college, he w’as
moved to defensive tackle by the
Vikings.
An affirmative vote of approxi
mately 80 percent is needed for
election.
Both Texas A&M basketball
[teams will be trying to break three-
game losing streaks Wednesday
against Texas Christian at G. Rollie
White Coliseum.
The women start at 5 p.m., and
[ the men follow at 7.
The Lady Aggies are coming off
Ian 89-61 loss to the 5th-ranked and
Southwest Conference-leading
Texas Lady Longhorns Saturday
night.
They will be playing without se
nior forward Evelyn Sanders. Sand
ers, ranked 10th in the SWC in scor
ing and rebounding, injured her
knee against the Lady Longhorns.
Although the injury does not appear
to be serious, she could be out for as
long as three weeks.
them an early lead in the SWC.
The men lost 52-49 to UT Sun
day. It was the third straight loss for
the Aggies after four wins that gave
The game is crucial to the Aggies’
hopes t£> get back in the SWC race.
The second half of the season in
cludes five road games and home ac
tion against Houston, Texas Tech
and Baylor.
The men’s team is two games be
hind 6-1 Arkansas. SMU is 6-2 and
Baylor is tied with A&M at 4-3.
The women are 3-4 in conference.
A&M women’s tennis opens against Lamar
The Texas A&M women’s tennis
team will face Lamar today at 1:30 to
begin its 1988 season at the Omar
Smith Center.
The Lady Aggies will' also face
Southwest Texas State on Saturday
and North Texas State Feb.9. Both
matches are at the Tennis Center.
A&M will be trying to improve on
last year’s 8-20 record.
Gaye Lynne Gensler, A&M’s top
player, is back after missing last sea
son because of a knee injury. The
only experienced players back are
sophomores Lisa Keller, Jennifer
‘ rd.
Jones and Cindy Crawford. Cindy
Churchwell saw limited action in thy
fall season, and freshman Susan Wif
Hams sat out the fall with a knee in
jury.
Newcomers to the team are Sand
Klein, a junior transfer from
Georgia Tech, and freshmen T raci
Nix and Derryn Haygarth.
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