Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 1988)
Friday, July 8, 1988/The Battalion/Page 5 "'ill ad Place in w sen. lursdai, 1 a van. Sports sday Texas, ?emen( ourisn Ban boxing while we’re still civilized nee devel. can i». ss ent & matured conlet- It was a Saturday night, sometime luring the early 1980s, when I vatched with detatched amusement he worst hour-long spectacle of sport” I had ever seen. Larry dolmes, one >f the heavy- eight hampions >f the world vas taking vhat loosely :ould be in- erpreted as c h a 1 - enge” from i a n d a 1 1 Tex” Cobb, ore accu- ately, it was 5 rounds of Hal L. Hammons Sports viewpoint rget practice for Holmes. Cobb couldn’t win — Holmes new it, commentators knew it, fans new it, and Cobb knew it too. But e also knew Holmes couldn’t hope :o put a dent in his iron jaw, and a Vednesc )ig paycheck was waiting for him on he other end of an hour’s w'orth of lodding and jabbing. I’m not trying to say Cobb was d for ifiiobbing the public of a decent show ingclos > situatio ■mm 1 endent rested *eed rp offid n the pa >y agreeing to fight for the title; the ans shelled out the bucks to see it live or refrained from changing the T.V. channel completely on their own initiative. Cobb was just making a wad the easiest way he knew how. But the show that resulted made boxing look stupid. The outcome was never in doubt. But since Cobb was never really hurt, the referee could not justify stopping the fight. You may recall this was the fight after which Howard Cosell an nounced he would never again work a boxing match. Small loss, you could argue, but the point was made. Of all the fights I have seen over the years, this was the one that came to mind after watching last week’s fiasco between Tyson and Spinks on closed-circuit television at The Sum mit in Houston. Both of these fights made me wonder why we, a supposedly en lightened and advanced society, let this kind of entertainment exist. Can anybody give me sufficient cause for the support of this farce we refer to as boxing? I can give you plenty of reasons why we should ban it. • Banning boxing would rid our mass-media world of a sector of its role models that traditionally has been among the least worthy of the honor. Our parents who grew up idolizing Joe Louis, possibly the greatest boxer of all time, cringed when he developed marital and fi nancial problems that tore down all the star-gazing illusions they had about him before. Louis wound up as a professional wrestler because of his lack of money. I don’t mean to say there aren’t apples just as rotten in other spheres of the working world, but the ties are easy to make: Good fighters got good through years of practice. Sel dom does all of the practice come in the gym, and crime is frequently a result. • Banning boxing would prevent what is undoubtedly in store for us in the future — a multi-million dol lar death in the ring. Several boxers have died from boxing injuries in the last five years, but the fights were not ones that millions of fans were watching at the time. At any rate, it would seem obvious that continued fights will mean con tinued fatalities. • Banning boxing would be against the wishes of organized crime, gamblers and lots of other low-life types. Everybody recognizes boxing as the easiest sport to fix. • Banning boxing would prevent us from being subjected to quite as many shots of Muhammad Ali as we get now. Seeing the one-time “Louis ville Lip” battle Parkinson’s disease for a coherent sentence is an experi ence to be missed. Many experts be lieve hi$,condidon was brought on by receiving too many punches to the head. • Perhaps most importantly, ban ning boxing would prevent millions of children in ghettos across the country from trying to find a better way by turning to boxing. Kids pick up on this and warp it: “If Mike Tyson came out of the ghetto to make millions and marry a beautiful actress, why can’t I?” They never see the millions who tried and failed. Or maybe they do see them, lying in the gutter or frying soybeans at McDonalds, and don’t realize it. I know many would make the ar gument that boxing is one of the only ways an inner city youngster can ever get above the poverty line. But I cringe at the thought of a 12-year-old telling his mother, “I don’t need school, Ma — I’m gonna be the heavyweight champion of the world.” I hope and pray you are cringing, too. James gang riding roughshod throughout professional sports orp is si the lam ‘ople inti ALTO (AP) — The James Gang is riding again n the hills and woods near Alto. This gang doesn’t rob banks. These James joys play sports and have ridden their fame to he top level of professional athletics. Will James of Alto has two sons — Graig and ]hris, each a success in the world of sports. Craig, 27, is a running back with the New En gland Patriots of the NFL. He was a three-time i verb: ill-conference running back while at Southern low hek Vlethodist, finishing as the SWG’s third all-time rusher behind Earl Campbell and teammate Eric Dickerson. In the pro ranks, he was named to the Pro . that weflJowl his first full year as a starter. ically Chris, 25, is the starting right fielder for the et close This is for all e helps- to new h are rea lutlooksi n’t i live. Ti lit the Philadelphia Phillies. He is hitting .267 with 10 homers. Ironically, Chris originally had committed to play football at SMU before opting for pro base ball. Says their father, “They’re both at the top of their sports. Chris came back from an ankle in jury and made it back to the Phillies. Craig will be coming back this season from knee surgery. He works out hard and knows he has something to prove. “They motivate each other. Success breeds success. When Craig was already in the NFL and Chris was in the minors, he longed for success. People would get on him and tease him about having a brother in the NFL. He doesn’t HkeTo be called little brother. He’s worked hard to make it to the major leagues. “We always knew Craig would play pro foot ball. His coaches in high school told him that, and when he got to SMU we all knew he’d make it to the NFL. The main thing was just avoiding inju ries. I expect Craig to have a real big season this year. He has renewed enthusiasm and confi dence about football. “That’s one thing both of my sons have — con fidence. They’re leaders. Neither one of them like to follow and they sure don’t want to sit on the bench. They’re hard nosed players. I think they get that from me. I had just average ability, but hated to lose and I was very competitive.” Summer intramurals begin registration soon By Fiona Soltes Reporter Although Texas A&M is a vir tual wasteland for intercollegiate sports during the summertime, intermurals still provide students, faculty and staff a chance to show off their athletic skills. Registration for slow-pitch softball, volleyball triples, basket ball triples, racquetball singles, tennis doubles, golf doubles and horseshoe singles are July 12-15 at 159 Read. The team sports will be played on weekday evenings. Individual sports times will be determined later. Tom Reber, assistant director of intramural sports, said the sports are open to students, fac ulty and staff and their spouses with few restrictions. “To be eligible, students must be enrolled in either a second ses sion or a 10-week class,” Reber said. “Faculty and staff and spouses need to have a recre ational ID to use the facilities and an intramural validation sticker to compete.” IDs and stickers can be bought at the Intramural Recreational Sports office for $7.50 each. Reber said that for all partici pants to have a fair chance, the sports are divided into classes: A for high skill, B for moderate skill and C for novice. The sports are also separated into men’s, wom en’s, and coed divisions. “We want to prevent the sports from becoming a bad experience for anyone,” Reber said. “This way, we can separate those who are serious about the game from those playing just to have a good time.” If the number of participants is any evidence, the attempt at mak ing intramurals fun for all has been successful. “Last year, 42 percent of the more than 40,000 students were involved in at least one of our events,” Reber said. Softball, the intramural de partments most popular sport, at tracted 562 10-member teams. The intramural office in creases participation by decreas ing team sizes for some sports, called triples. Reber said volley ball and basketball have only three people to a team. “This way, you’re always play ing a new team,” he said. “Also, in basketball triples, both sides use the same basket, playing on a half-court. Two games can be played at the same time on one court. It’s easier to get three peo ple together to make a team than six, too.” But if someone wants to enter a team sport and can’t find even two other players, he shouldn’t despair. A “free agent” board is posted in the intramural office where individuals can post their name, phone number and which sports they are interested in, so that team captains or potential doubles partners can pick them up. Captains usually organize teams and pay the fees. Softball fees are $30 per team per session, while basketball and volleyball teams pay $20 each. Individual sports are free. Davis signs with Nuggets DENVER (AP) — Walter Davis, a six-time NBA ail-star and the all- time leading scorer in Phoenix Suns’ history, became the second unre stricted free agent to change teams when he signed a contract Wednes day with the Denver Nuggets. He has been ranked among the league’s top 20 scorers five times, most recently in 1986-87 when he ranked 11th in the NBA with 23.6 points per game. Davis ranks 36th on the NBA’s all- time scoring list with 15,666 points, averaging ^0.5 points over 766 games. Summer Special $65 AT 4' TAT M- r, Aerofit f r;i‘K Reach 60,000 readers per day The Battalion It s free and it’s distributed on and off campus 845-2697 Back To School Deadlines Begin July 29 • indoor swimming pool • raquetball • vollyball • • basketball • weight machines • free weights • • aerobics •tanning bed • lounge • — — — — — — — COUPON — — — « ONE WEEK TRIAL MEMBERSHIP (Limited to First 100 applicants) OR AEROFIT E3 Vdlj Marij, $10 OFF summer membership (last day to sign-up is July 31) 823-0971 Aerofit Less than 10 minutes from campus Club and Activity Center 1900 West Villa Maria • Bryan, TX 77801