ice
»s officials
he design was conceived
Commandant Thomas
and Assistant Coniman.
laid “Buck” Henderson
led to Houston seams
a Ray.
ho has made other flags
jOrps, was told the flag
sat NASA headquarters
lys to be packed for the
hen scheduled for Feb-
istronaut is allowed to
united number of per
ns and Springer chose
momento to accompany
ace.
;ry was launched March
ve day mission to deploy
illion tracking and data
un satellite.
on media
p.m. Thursday in 501
doeller will talk about
lia coverage and the
islation. The public is
ittend.
tiel to A&M
rum will be about
.iug and savings and
ems in the past, and
ntions to those prob-
aei Bitter, the forum's
ms director, said,
leaker will make his
narks, then the mod-
step in and ask some
stions to the speakers
e floor will be opened
ions f rom the audien-
lid. “We want to gen-
ice participation."
m is f ree and open to
t reception will follow
)cal talent
the show: the Texas
liers, the barbershop
er Class, the Kappa
me of Your Business
uins.
ts scheduled to per-
litarist Hank Towns-
ered dulcimer player
r, vocalist Jill Setina,
ihanie Eiswirth, fla-
cer Roxane Cuellar
m Chris Rand,
g duo called Throw
mce quintet called In
will perform,
gie Wranglers and
ns, Miss Texas A&M
1 be featured per-
tit of their acts were
le 1988 variety show,
e on sale at Rudder
student tickets are$4
nr the general public
’ charity run
iy or $10 on Satur-
n ticipant will receive
ts may pick up race
the Kappa Alpha
e, 1503 Athens, Fri-
-8- p.m. or Saturday
a.m.
11 be placed in divi-
trophies will be
te top three finishers
ion for the 3.1-mile
isions for both male
idude under 19,20-
ver 40 and overall,
vill be drawings for
g the awards cere-
nutes after comple-
:e.
'ephyr Club is theti-
for the run. Other
ors include Tom’s
Fajita Rita’s, 31
ert Shoppe, Wolf
Vash, Carney’s Pub
FM radio station,
ill broadcast live on
;e.
Lerested in the race
Chamberlin at 696-
appa Alpha Theta
-5289 or John Tur
ing and Multisport
ants at 846-3361.
CLE
my
as
^2 Bath
Ketball,
shuttle.
The Battalion
SPORTS 7
Thursday, April 6,1989
Ags down Bearkats again Hickey: A&M women’s sports
Knoblauch, Thompson keys to 9-6 victory can reach national prominence
FROM STAFF & WIRE REPORTS
HUNTSVILLE — Kirk Thomp
son extended his hitting streak to 25
games as No. 1-ranked Texas A&M
defeated Sam Houston State 9-6
Wednesday in non-conference ac
tion.
The Aggies improved to 35-1 on
the season, while the Bearkats
dropped to 24-15.
Thompson was issued a base on
balls by Sam Houston starter Jerry
Tyson to start the game. He stole
second and Terry Taylor knocked
him in with a single to give A&M a
quick 1-0 lead.
Chuck Knoblauch and John
Byington walked to load the bases
and Tyson left was pulled with no
outs.
Reliever Kevin Baker hit A&M’s
Eric Albright to force in Taylor.
Knoblauch scored on a sacrifice by
Mike Easley.
After the Aggies scored three
runs in the first inning, Thompson
led off with a double in the top of
the second and Terry Taylor fol
lowed with a two-run home run.
Thompson walked in the fourth
for A&M and Knoblauch hit a two-
run home run, his fifth of the year,
to put A&M up 7-0.
Aggie Update
• Score: Texas A&M 9, Sam Hous
ton State 6.
• Record: 35-1.
• Ranking: First.
• Next games: Friday and Saturday
at Rice in Houston.
Knoblauch highlighted the Aggie
attack by going 2-for-4 on the day
with two runs batted in.
Chris Burton hit a two-run home
run for the Bearkats in the bottom
of the fifth after Greg McGill
walked, to dose the gap to 7-2.
A&M’s Tim Herrmann raised his
record to 3-0 with the victory, while
Sam Houston’s Jerry Tyson fell to 0-
2 with the loss.
Herrmann worked four innings
and allowed two hits, one walk and
struck out five. A&M used five other
pitchers to close out the game as
A&M Head Coach Mark Johnson
followed his plan to work several
pitchers to keep them fresh for con
ference action.
“I thought Tim Herrmann did a
good job of taking it right to the bat
ters,” Johnson said. “He was aggres
sive and had good command of his
pitches.”
A&M continues Southwest Con
ference play Friday and Saturday in
Houston against the Rice Owls.
Kerry Freudenberg, Sean Law
rence, Ronnie Allen, Anthony DeLa-
Cruz and Scott Centala all saw pitch
ing action in the final innings for
A&M.
A&M scored another run in the
seventh when Andy Duke clubbed
his sixth home run of the season
over the left field wall.
The Bearkats closed to within 8-6
in hte eighth before A&M added an
insurance run in the ninth when
Byington tripled and scored on a
sacrifice fly by Eric Albright.
Centala worked out of ninth-in
ning jam to end the game as a pair of
singles to open the inning were ne
gated by a rally-killing double play.
By Stan Golaboff
SPORTS WRITER
Ever since Title IX was approved
back in 1972, women’s athletics has
been fighting an uphill battle for
funding, respect and an equal op
portunity.
As part of the Education Amend
ment of 1972, Title IX was intended
to prevent schools receiving federal
funding from discriminating on the
basis of sex. Within months, wom
en’s athletic programs sprang up all
over the country. No longer were
women forced to play sports only
through sports clubs.
At the University of Texas, school
adminstrators made an early com
mittment to women’s athletics. To
day, Texas has the top women’s pro
ram in the country. They have a
3.3 million budget, a 1,600 member
booster club and national power
house teams in volleyball, basketball,
swimming and track.
When one considers the rivalry
between Texas and Texas A&M, one
would assume that A&M would have
also made an early committment to
women’s athletics. However, it has
not been until recently that the ad
ministrators at A&M have made the
committment.
In 1984, A&M lured the head
women’s basketball coach of Kansas
State, Lynn Hickey, to A&M to be
the head coach for the Lady Aggies
and the athletic director for women’s
athletics.
Hickey did not have an easy task.
The budget for women’s athletics
was $951,636 in 1984 and only
A&M’s softball team was considered
a national power. Since then, Hickey
and her staff have built — with the
support of the administration — a
program that many think can com
pete nationally.
The softball team won the na
tional championship in 1987 and last
year Melinda Clark and Alissa Bell
became the first Lady Aggies named
as NCAA All-Americans in track.
Donna Roper was a preseason All-
American in basketball. Volleyball
Head Coach A1 Givens and Swim
ming Head Coach Mel Nash have
fielded competitive teams the last
couple of years.
“We have made a lot of headway
in women’s athletics here at A&M
since 1984,” Hickey said. “People
now know that we exist and that ad-
minstration has helped us as much
as they can.”
Many coaches in the Southwest
Conference agree that A&M has the
potential to compete with Texas, es
pecially in basketball, the most visi
ble sport in women’s athletics.
“The only school I see with the re
sources to do it (catch Texas) is
A&M,” Houston Women’s Basket
ball Coach Greg Williams said.
A&M does seem to have the re
sources to be competitive. The wom
en’s athletic budget for 1988-89 is
$1.6 million. A&M has a full-time di
rector of promotion, a full-time
sports information assistant and has
some games broadcast on local ra
dio.
A&M also has its own booster
club, the Maroon Club, and has
some corporate sponsors like Coca-
Cola and Domino’s Pizza.
See Hickey/Page 8
American pros should be playing basketball in the Olympics
If all goes well on Friday, the 1992 U.S.
Olympic basketball team in Barcelona,
Spain, could contain NBA superstars like
Magicjohnson, Michael Jordan,
Dominique Wilkins and Larry Bird.
That’s right, professional basketball
players coupled with some of the country’s
top college talent on a team that could
potentially dominate international
basketball.
All that separates this dream from reality
is the vote of the Federation Internationale
deBasketball (FIBA), a 178-country
organization that will decide on Friday
whether to allow NBA players to participate
in world-class events, including the
Olympics.
What’s ironic about this situation is that
officials involved with the FIBA support
the move, while the NBA and the American
Basketball Association USA (ABAUSA),
Steven
Merritt
Assistant Sports Editor
the ruling body of U.S. international
basketball teams, have been extremely low-
key in their support of the plan.
Boris Stankovic, secretary-counsel of the
FIBA, said that the time has really arrived
in basketball to stop the hypocrisy in the
distinction between amateur and
professional players. Stankovic said that
amateur players do not exist in the real
sense of the word.
International competition has not been
good to the U.S. basketball program over
the years, especially the past five.
The basketball final in the 1987 Pan-
American Games was supposed to be a
cakewalk for the U.S. team, but it was
soundly defeated by a Brazilian team that
was led by Oscar Schmidt, a guy who
reportedly makes $300,000 playing in Italy.
Then the 1988 Olympics rolled around,
and the team built by John Thompson was
supposed to be invincible. The long awaited
matchup between the U.S. and the USSR
was set.
The U.S. team was the best in years, and
what happened? The Russians won with
what seemed to be purely amateur talent.
But in fact, the Russian players were
subsidized by the government.
It was no big secret that many Soviet
athletes were paid, but the basketball
players that won the gold medal in 1988
reportedly received $30,000 each from the
Soviet sports federation.
Dave Gavitt, commissioner of the Big
East Conference and president of the
ABAUSA, said that he also sees hypocrisy
in the system, but that current members of
the ABAUSA are opposed to open
competition.
This opposition by ABAUSA member
organizations such as the NCAA, NAIA
and AAU is probably warranted if the NBA
players are allowed to compete. But once
guidelines are established, there should be
no reason why the so-called amateur and
professional players couldn’t coexist.
Granted, there will be problems to iron
out if the pro players are accepted, but
these problems aren’t beyond a solution.
Questions as to whether the next
Olympic coach should be from the NBA or
a college, or what the correct ratio of
college to pro players would be justified, is
secondary to a bigger concern — injury to
the pro player. That’s the big reason why
allowing the professional player to compete
is not as big of an issue as everyone thinks.
Not many pro basketball players are
going to jeopardize their careers playing
international basketball. If the pro plavers
are accepted, the situation will probably be
more appealing to the younger,
inexperienced players. Veterans like Magic
Johnson and Bird will probably be more
concerned with finishing their careers
without major injury than playing in
Buenos Aires.
So let the pros play, it’s just a way for the
United States to keep up with the
international Jonses.
Texas A&M
30th Anniversary
Blood Drive
April 10-14
BLOOD CENTER
at Wadley
Commons 10-8
MSC10-6
SBISA10 —6
Med. Sci. Library 10-6
Another Service of Student Government,
Alpha Phi Omega and Omega Phi Alpha
GATHRIGHT AWARDS AND
BUCK WEIRUS SPIRIT AWARDS
ANNOUNCEMENT AND PRESENTATION
9:00 A.M. SUNDAY, APRIL 9 RUDDER AUDITORIUM
All applicants should attend!
-
Call battalion Classified 845-2611
Mi