The Battalion
Friday, Nov. 18, 1988
Page 9
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1
There are none so blind
as those who will not see
The utter irony of the situation is simply
astounding.
Just yesterday morning I was in Jackie Sherrill’s
office working on a profile of the man, a story that
wound up making the celebrated head football
coach and athletic director pretty good.
Too bad it’s never going to run.
I was trying to get him to talk to me about why he
came to Texas A&M, why he’s such a supporter of
the school, and if he ever plans on leaving for the
ranks of professional football — or anywhere else,
for that matter.
And I was about to ask him why he has such a
difficult time dealing with the media — you know,
with the old NCAA scandal — when he had to leave
for some staff meetings.
He’d said he’d give me 10 minutes. I wound up
with 40.
He shook my hand twice. He passed on excellent
opportunities to put me off. He even encouraged me
to come and finish up the interview that afternoon.
My opinion of the man quite likely was at an all-
time high. At least since the NCAA allegations came
out.
And then . . . this.
It’s over, isn’t it? The Golden Era, the Age of
Sherrill, . . .
All over. . . .
Personally I’m convinced Sherrill didn’t know
about the storm on the horizon. At least, not that
morning.
After all, he takes practically every opportunity to
avoid talking to the media. It doesn’t seem very likely
that he would choose the occasion of what may be his
dismissal as athletic director to try to become
friendly.
Now it looks like Sherrill and A&M football might
not have very much to be friendly about. Not for a
long, long time.
I said at the time the First bomb the NCAA
dropped that I was hardly a charter member of the
Jackie Sherrill fan club. And I did vote as a member
of The Battalion Editorial Board in favor of asking
the University to look into the possibility of firing
him.
But on the other hand, I wasn’t quite sure then a
dismissal was in order.
Then.
University President William Mobley had
expressed his full confidence in Sherrill as part of
the solution to the problem, and Sherrill himself had
pointed out that many of the allegations were
somewhat picky.
And as all my friends will attest, it’s not difficult to
get me to believe someone.
But even Mr. Naive has come around now.
It’s time Sherrill supporters and Aggie fans came
around to the increasingly obvious facts of the
situation.
Q
Hal L.
Hammons
Sports Editor
We’ve been had, folks.
Jackie Sherrill’s stay at Texas A&M, once you boil
it down, has been nothing but one deception after
another.
He told us we could have a winning program in
three years and go to the Cotton Bowl in four —
without cheating. He told us we could beat Texas
four years in a row — without cheating. He told us
we could be national-championship contenders —
without cheating.
Apparently we couldn’t.
And then he told us we had caught all our slip
ups. We were on the way to a clean program. We
were committed to compliance with NCAA rules and
regulations.
Apparently we weren’t.
And we ate the whole thing up, didn’t we?
Swallowed it hook, line and sinker. It was too good to
be true. It was big bucks, no whammies.
How could we have missed it? How could we have
been so blind?
Because it felt good to think we could have it all.
Because we wanted to believe.
After all, we in America — and especially in Texas
— have been brought up to love winners and hate
losers. And we in Aggieland were tired of being on
the down side. We were ready to win for a change.
And Texas A&M capitalized on it. Told us in
dollars and cents what was most important to this
University. Told us a football coach was worth all
that money they were paying him if he could bring
home the Southwest Conference crown.
Was it?
Is years of disgrace in the eyes of millions of
Americans worth a few Saturday afternoons of
glory? Is a yearly New Year’s trip to Dallas worth its
weight in sname and stigma?
All questions we were told we would never have to
answer. Because we were doing it the hard way —
earning it.
It would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.
We were sitting ducks. Patsies at the shell game.
Completely, blissfully unaware of what was going on
under our very noses.
Jackie Sherrill conned us. He conned us all. And a
scary number of people out there bought the entire
act.
Wacker’s staying
TCU coach denies buyout rumors
FORT WORTH (AP) — Jim
Wacker wants to board up the ru
mor mill. No, he isn’t quitting as the
Texas Christian head football coach.
Period. No ifs, ands, or maybes.
There has been tailgate party talk
at Amon Carter Stadium that
Wacker would take a half payout on
the rest of his contract, which lasts
until 1991, and return to Southwest
Texas State University, where he
won two NCAA Division II national
championships.
The rumor mill ground out the
tortilla that Wacker would replace
retiring athletic director Bill Miller
and football coach John O’Hara. It
would cost somebody, either
SWTSU or dissident TCU alumni,
an estimated $200,000 to swing the
deal.
Once done, the TCU revolutiona
ries would summon Curly Halman
from Southern Mississippi to take
control of the Horned Frogs’ sag
ging football fortunes.
Wacker quickly scotches this gos
sipy scenario.
You ask Wacker how he is doing
and he quips “I bet you are doing a
lot better than I am the last two
weeks.”
The Frogs have lost heartbreakers
to Texas Tech and Texas as their
season unraveled. It’s a season in
which TCU is expected to do big
things with 32 seniors.
The Frogs will have a losing sea
son no matter what happens against
Texas A&M on Saturday.
Wacker deals head-on with the ru-
“There ain’t no way I’d go back to
Southwest Texas,” Wacker said. “I
hope I got three more years to go
here. I hope to be here a long, long
time.
“I didn’t even know Bill Miller was
retiring, and the last thing I need is
to be athletic director. I’m into
coaching stuff, and I sure want to
put that rumor to rest.”
Wacker’s critics charge he hasn’t
been much of a coach since he took
TCU to the Bluebonnet Bowl in
1984.
They claim his small college
coaching techniques don’t carry over
to major college football. They give
him an “A” for recruiting and a “D-
Texas A&M vs.
Texas Christian
• When: Saturday at noon.
• Where: Kyle Field.
• Weather: Partly cloudy with
a slight chance of rain. Tempera
ture at kickoff expected to be in
the mid-80s.
• Aggies: Last week A&M lost
to Arkansas 25-20 in Fayetteville.
• Frogs: TCU lost to Texas
30-21 last week in Fort Worth.
• Records; A&M is 5-4 (4-1 in
SWC). TCU is 4-6 (2-4).
• Television: Raycom-TV is
televising the game regionally
with Phil Stone on play-by-play
and Dave Rowe on commentary.
• Radio: The game can be
heard locally on WTAW-AM and
around the state on the 80-station
Aggie Radio Network with Dave
South on play-by-play and Jay
Howard handling the commen
tary.
• Transportation: The A&M
Shuttle bus system will be operat
ing on a trial basis to transport
off-campus students to and from
the game.
Buses will be running from 10
a.m. unul one hour after the
game is over.
minus” for X’s and O’s on the chalk
board.
They claim he’s too disorganized
on the sidelines to keep into the flow
of the game.
They say his emotion-charged
speeches have lost their meaning to
players who have heard the same
pep talks time after time.
Wacker says what has happened
at TCU is that the school is still over
coming what he calls “the devasta
tion of 1985.”
The NCAA hit the Horned Frogs
with severe penalties after seven
players admitted there was an
alumni slush fund which issued a
regular payroll.
“Everything can be traced back to
the disappointment of the NCAA ac
tion,” Wacker says. “It was the
toughest job in the country when I
took it and it still may be.
“We had to kick off the top seven
players on the team and the NCAA
took away 30 scholarships. Every
thing that could go wrong does go
wrong here.”
He says everyone has “just got to
keep believing we’ll turn it around.
We’re still excited. We’ve got a big
response from our recruits this year.
Not a lot of people in the league are
knocking ’em dead right now.”
Then Wacker says, “It will still be a
special when it (TCU getting to the
Cotton Bowl) happens. I’ll guar- «
antee you nobody will be able say it i
was easy.” ^
Wacker loses two senior quar- -
terbacks and is looking for a strong- s
armed passer on his recruiting
rounds.
“Finding a quarterback is critical,”
Wacker says. “We need to find one
who can throw as well as run. We .
need to do better job in the passing
game.”
Wacker says he doesn’t listen for
ticking packages when he opens the <
mail. <
*
“I have a lot more favorable mail,” •
he says. “You can count the number
of negative responses on less than J
one hand. Our fans are the greatest
in the whole world. They aren’t «
spoiled.”
Wacker says he can understand
the alumni being somewhat dis- «
gruntled. Wacker’s teams in five •<
years are 2-15 in November.
;v
“I’d be upset if they were not not ?
disappointed,” Wacker says. “I think
they understand some of the diffi
culties we’ve been through.
“We’re making progress and we
will do it right. Our kids are going to ?
class and will get their degrees. I’m ?
dang proud.”
Then there’s the rumor that a
strong Wacker-backer has left $25
million in her will for TCU if they ii
leave Wacker alone through 1991. . .
Enough. Wacker has shut down >
the rumor mill. ;
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