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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 1988)
The Battalion Friday, Nov. 4, 1988 Page 9 Sports ""fTeafFs thriving in ‘Grant’s Tomb’ Baylor coach made strong program out of laughingstock I )Se d, itsdepj 'ccounts, ini' g the fedtii; WACO (AP) — Six months after rant Teaff’s wife had a vision that he ditors will entnf ^fW'onld become football coach at Baylor lDiversity — and he had, in fact, an swered the call to lead the Bears from the ildemess — Teaff stood on a barren ractice field and asked himself, “What the world am I doing here?” Teaff, now in his 17th season at the world’s largest Baptist college and the lean of Southwest Conference football caches, said Baylor in 1972 was a laug- ngstock because of its football pro- . He said “probably 150 or 200” caches had turned down the job before was offered to him. Jtomaticallyj nth the acquiring bail! ionship deposits i n the FDIC; 527,630 for initially will haveiki -igllj icy ■ “It was a graveyard,” Teaff recalled in a recent interview. “Newspapers printed that it would henceforth be ||nown as‘Grant’s Tomb.’ ” I Teaff at 26 had been the nation’s youngest head football coach at Mc- Murry College in Abilene, and an assis- ant at Texas Tech before becoming head coach at Angelo State. His dream was to return to Tech as head coach. After Baylor’s Bill Beall had gone 3- 28 in 1969-71, the school thought it had finally found his coaching successor in Rudy Feldman of New Mexico. Teaff said he and his wife, Donell, a former Tech cheerleader, were watching television when the Feldman announce ment was made, but she said, “You’re going to Baylor.” “Come on, babe, they just hired a coach,” Teaff said. “No, I just know you’re going to Bay- : lor,” she said. Feldman changed his mind, Teaff got the call, and the rest is history. “I thought I could turn it around in five years. After I’d been here six months, I didn’t know if I could ever do it,” Teaff said. “I didn’t have two people who could make my Angelo State team. We had an old, dusty practice field that didn’t have a blade of grass on it, and I couldn’t get anybody to visit — they’d just laugh when I would go out to recruit,” Teaff said. His first Baylor team scraped together a 5-6 record, and two years later came the game that Teaff says “changed the face of the conference” — a 34-24 Bay lor victory over Texas, which had won six straight SWC titles and had defeated the Bears for 16 consecutive years. Baylor officials were so excited that they left the scoreboard lighted all night, and executive vice president Herbert Reynolds, now president of Baylor, slept in the press box. The victory led to Baylor’s first SWC football championship in half a century. Six years later, in 1980, the Bears won the conference again, and now they are viewed as a force to be reckoned with year-in and year-out. Baylor now has more running backs in the National Foot ball League “than any school in Amer ica,” Teaff said. One week short of his 55th birthday, Teaff still teaches Sunday School at the First Baptist Church in Waco. He doesn’t drink, smoke or chew, and he lets nothing interfere with “date night” every Thursday with his wife. “My Christian commitment has been a well-known fact for a long time. I didn’t become a Christian when I came to Baylor,” Teaff said. He acknowledges that the school has “a lot of Christian athletes,” but says, “This isn’t a churchy atmosphere.” However, he says, “All of us, in relationship to a power greater than we, are at different levels. We think a young ster ought to have a chance to grow spiri tually, as well as physically and men tally.” Teaff’s record at Baylor is 100-85-5, and his 17 seasons rank him fourth —be hind Penn State’s Joe Patemo, Georgia’s Vince Dooley and Michigan’s Bo Schembechler — in tenure at one school. Jackie Sherrill, in his seventh season at Texas A&M, is second among SWC football 'oaches. “I jus love it (at Baylor). I’ve had three daighters graduate from here,” Teaff said He said he rejected a “mind-bog gling” financial package to coach at Southern California even though he con siders that joo one of the top three in the nation, and also refused several times to accept the position he once coveted at Texas Tech, as well as many others. His salary at Baylor, a private institution, has not been disclosed. “There are certain things in life that are priorities, and quality education in a Christian atmosphere is a priority, and is very appealing to me,” he said. The “real world” of competition, as he phrases it, is his profession. “There’s no quarter given whether you’re a Christian institution or a great academic institution. When you crawl See Teaff/Page 10 Texas A&M vs. Louisiana Tech • Time: Saturday, 2p.m. • Where: Kyle Field • Weather: Partly cloudy with tem peratures in the 70s. • Tickets: Seats are still available from the A&M ticket office. • Aggies: A&M had last week off. • Bulldogs: Tech is coming off a 66- 3 loss to No. 7 Florida State last week. • Records: The Aggies are 4-0. The Bulldogs are 3-5. • Media: The non-conference game will not be televised but can be heard over the 80-station Aggie Radio Net work. Dave South will handle the play-by-play, and Jay Howard is on commentary. ockets and Mavs on different roads to success ^countability epresentaiivs' cmocrais' ael media, Can you believe it’s basketball season again? It DP countert; Seemed like yesterday when the Lakers were sip- ier control" Bing champagne after their second straight ” Bentsensr- phampionship. But it's true, and so once again we ^■mbark on an six-month-long trek that serves to en’s pressst,4w eterm * ne which couple of teams out of about 247 campaignii® 00 ’ 1 deserve to go to the playoffs. Texas hopes for a champion seems, once again, lie on the shoulders of the Dallas Mavericks and 2 Houston Rockets — particularly the Mavs. The an Antonio Spurs received their lottery ticket hen David Robinson was not allowed to get out If his naval obligation in time to play ball this fear. The Spurs look promising, although I personally vertisement ures Beniw 're no Jackfe luring their e words: "PrI frequent j a p a in Pfr f ? Joubt Robinson will turn out to be the saviour ev- hnuts w crowds tusic singer ictor Rob Lem ^usli Hot Jryone seems to think he will be. But they won’t be worth too much this year. So let’s focus on Dallas and Houston, two teams at took vastly different approaches to success uring the off-season. The Rockets went through another wholesale facelift recently —their second in two years — When they dealt Rodney McCray and Jim Peterson |ff to Sacramento for Otis Thorpe and Mike Woodson. Arguably, the move was even more dra- I patic than the one that sent Ralph Sampson to Bolden State for Joe Barry Carroll and Sleepy lloyd. ■ Ironically enough, Carroll himself was sent to Hal L. Hammons Sports Editor New Jersey this week along with Lester Conner for Tim McCormick and cast of several. The message is clear: The Rockets know where they want to go, and they didn’t think they were going to get there with Carroll or Sampson. Now they’re trying with Thorpe. Houston has tried for years to reconstruct the magic of the team that was two games from an NBA championship against the Boston Celtics. They were close, but the backcourt fell to drug problems and Sampson was found to be a chronic under-achiever. A wave of trades brought players like Floyd, Conner, and Dirk Minnefield to Houston — none of whom performed as hoped. Purvis Short gave the team good offense off the bench, and Floyd was excellent when he was allowed to free-lance a bit. But as a whole, the team was a big disappoint ment. Thorpe is the latest godsend. The darling of the California media, Thorpe is a big-scoring, big-re bounding power forward who is expected to take a big load off Akeem Olajuwan’s shoulders. But it remains to be seen if Thorpe can mount such num- 1 bers on a team where someone else is actually re bounding or scoring on occasion. The approach is quick-fix in the extreme. If the team doesn’t perform right, trade it for one that will. As long as The Big Guy stays in town. The Rockets’ neighbors to the northwest have been the exact opposite. Rather than getting it all in a couple of blockbuster trades, the Mavericks have been willing to slowly build their team through strong drafts around a strong nucleus of talent. With only 12 spots open on a basketball team, a good draft pick or two every year in the right posi tions will lead to a good team. The Mavs are great examples. Dallas was a hair’s width away from being one of the elite teams in the league. They had it all — power in the post, scoring in the frontcourt, bal lhandling in the backcourt, good bench play and defense. They just didn’t quite measure up. Their approach to climbing to the next rung of the ladder was one perhaps that required more courage than trading Mark Aguirre — doing noth ing. Dallas seems quite satisfied to play the same hand they were dealt last year again this year. Rather than try to trade Aguirre — reportedly a de- visive force on the team — for another small for ward, they decided to keep him, hoping the prob lem would take care of itself. It was probably a good decision; Aguirre’s repu tation would prevent the Mavs from getting anyone with anywhere near Aguirre’s talent. Face it: As much a jerk as reports would have us believe he is, he is one of the most gifted offensive performers in the league. Maybe the most. And the hands-off approach may work better than the wholesale reconstruction approach. The Lakers still don’t have a center to replace Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who will die one of these days. The Celtics have seen their best days pass long ago. Age and injuries may keep them from winning their own division this year. They certainly shouldn’t go any further. It will be interesting to watch the season pro gress. Will the Mavericks prove to be good enough without alterations? Or will they wind up looking at the Atlanta Hawks — who acquired offensive threats Moses Malone and Reggie Theus in the off season — and wonder what might have been with a little more aggressiveness? Tune in next April for the answers. Swim teams in action Saturday The Texas A&M men’s and women’s swimming teams will play host to a dual meet against the men’s and women’s teams from Southern Methodist Univer sity Saturday at 6 p.m. at the P.L. Downs Natatorium adjacent to Kyle Field. Both A&M teams opened their 1988- 89 seasons last weekend in Fort Worth with the Southwest Conference Relays and a dual meet against the Arkansas Ra- zorbacks. In the SWC meet, the Aggie men fin ished fifth while the women’s team placed fourth. The men’s team defeated the Razor- back men by a score of 127-104, and the women fell to the Lady Razorbacks by a 122-115 margin. A&M Swimming Coach Mel Nash was pleased about the performance of his team last weekend. “Technically, we lost to Arkansas, but it sure didn’t feel like a loss,” Nash said. “We had a phenomenal day swimmimg- wise, but without diving points (A&M doesn’t have a diving team), it’s tough for us to have a chance of beating them.” The Aggies cannot field a diving team because of inadequate facilities at A&M. Two years ago, when the Mustangs last visited College Station, th Aggie men and women picked up victories by large margins. :ts to add lot e Texas Hob P* d 66 for the If. andidates, niic e've ever had b: iOP doesn't ga: c said, “We»: ortunity.” I in recent fc ns ol trying!?: s, particularly: I y, to keep tie involvement e> d by the accB >wn into theta election and: racisim andtta ni . . . This isl t happens ew| 's happening fc icy're pretty de elopments Thif Jim Mattox s. s in several cita: answer any lep; i laws at polliilj that this imf :d fairly and here must be: or threaten * mocrat. sistant attorney :y in Austin,Dl McAllen, MJ' Ms an be there forth® coming yeafr Iressed in thepl* restriction oft* pecific time f :cnses, penatt storation, main*] t. i gave the cof r i regulate ys. Preparai nagement W AGGIE TRADITIONSV12TH MAN* BONFIREVGIG 'EMVHOWDYVCOTT ON BOWLV REVEILLEV WHOOP V DO MINOESVAGGIESVMAROONVGOOD BULLVMIDNIGHT YELL PRACT ICEVHUMP IT AGSVDIXIE CHI CKENVAGGIE WAR HYMNVSILVER TAPSVAGGIE BLOOD DRIVE VMS CVFIGHTIN TEXAS AGGIE BAND VQUACK SHACKVFARMERS FIGHTV SINGING CADETSVQUADV KYLE F IELDVELEPHANT WALKV FISH CAMP THE ® BLOOD CENTER AT WADLEY ¥ November 7 1988 Commons—10 a.m. to 8 p.m. MSC—10 a.m. to 6 p.m KfSBISA -10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Zachry -10 a.m. to 5 p.m. irmlatinns 1 ; regulations mah, president ociation, said I the plan becaif there was enoui at and review. mittee works th Its said, it wo« ; > and lead to iH' een the indusf Department. THE BLOOD CENTER at Wadley Another service of Student Government, Alpha Phi Omega and Omega Phi Alpha Wine Premier ’88 International Debut of Messina Hof 1988 Wines Saturday, November 12th 10am-5pm at Messina Hof Vinyards, Bryan, Texas Winery Tours & Tastings pooking Demonstrations By Outstanding Texas Chefs Learn from experts; French, German, Sicilian, Country Gourmet, South West Cuisine and Pastry Delicacies Directions to Winery 1) Exit Hwy 6 at Hwy 21 2) Travel east 2ml. to Wallis Rd. 3) Follow Signs to Winery 778-9463 Free Admission Reservations Required Paul 8c Merrill Bonarrigo 75 We 've got a big weekend planned for you Presents "fom Hanks A wonderful ||0F new comedy Friday, Mov. 4 : 7:30/9:45 pm Rudder 701 Sat., Nov. 5 : 9:45/Midnight Rudder Ruditorium $2.00 with TAMU ID
