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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 1990)
Wednesday, March 21,1990 The Battalion Page 11 Shotputters staying hungry... Barnes working together By NADJA SABAWALA IsTirsi Of The Battalion Staff uLpfl " ‘ ' ' “ ■Junior Mike Stulte will miss this convt weekend’s College Station Relays, rsn.'i; but he’ll stay hungry. Just ask for- ofaiJBer Texas A&M shotnutter and ilita, 1988 Olympic Silvei Meaalist Randy ««ttf Barnes. iditons ■ Barnes has come back to A&M to Kin with Stulce, who is dominating |)t reat collegiate shotput competitions. Stulce will be unable to compete this hU'fi weekend because of an elbow injury Dttd sustained in last week’s National Col- Ij^agjKiate Indoor Championships in In- J|, n ' dianapolis, Ind. ([ ■“! see a guy who’s very hungry,” nHovfKrnes said. “He’s dedicated. I look j -],] at him and remember why I star ted. lapoliii] I'm tab 30 in adtotil is in»l it reaclJ in his J FL nr. it. ■ Stulce holds the world’s only two throws over 70 feet this year: 70 feet, 6.25 inches and 70 feet, 6.5 inches. ■ There’s no experience like it,” Stulce said about throwing over 70 feel. “It’s a great feeling. ■ “Once you do it, you get the feel ing of what it’s like to throw that far and itjust becomes instinct.” ■ Track coach Charlie Thomas said Stulce has the dedication to become one of the best shotputters of all nie. |j ''He’s ■> mall :’s the kind of guy that can win matter what kind of track meet :have,” T homas said. V “He’s one guy that’s the real back bone of the team." I ■ Thomas knows what he’s talking (JUt. In 34 years as head coach at A&M, ht has produced three outstanding shotputters — Stulce, Barnes and ■(iOs sensation Randy Matson. ■ After taking a silver medal in the l ( J T Olympics, Matson became the fust man ever to throw over 70 feet in 1965. BHe won the gold medal in the lf)68 Olympics and is a member of th< National T rack and Field Hall of Fame. “I couldn’t believe that he was so dedicated to athletics,” Thomas said, e turned down a lot to work out. |is dedication was unbelievable.” Barnes, who decided to forego his [junior year of eligibility for the 1988 Olympics, wound up bringing home asilver medal. Bln 1989, he broke the world in- H)or shotput record by more than one foot. BNow he’s looking forward to the summer Goodwill Games. I'T let my scholarship go to go to the Olympics,” Barnes said. “I feel so Iticky that it’s all come together ... there are so many things that can go wrong.” ISluke knows that too well. His el bow injury may sideline him for two eks or more. I “It really scared me,” Stulce said. “I have two opinions that it’s either nerve damage or tendonitis.” ■ Thomas said the three Aggie shot putters are “of the same kind, as far as dedication. “People don’t realize how hard they work — it would kill the aver age person.” The track team finished its indoor season last weekend and will begin outdoor competition this weekend at the Frank G. Anderson Track Com plex on campus. Stulce said he is ready for the out door season to begin. “The indoor season drained me,” he said. “It really gives you a chance to see the kind of shape you’re in.” Throwing coach Robert Parker believes Stulce is in the kind of shape to take him far in competition. “He’s very dedicated,” Parker said. “The work effort is all there. “Itjust comes down to who works the hardest.” Parker said he believes Stulce might have an edge in competition by coming to a school like A&M, which is not commonly thought of as a track “powerhouse.” “There are people knowledgeable enough to realize how well he’s thro- Battalion Hie photo wing,” Parker said. “It’s tough in one way (not having the recognition), but it may protect him in another.” Barnes said he draws from the amount of dedication Stulce has to ward his sports. “I come down here and I see a guy like Mike,” he said. “It makes you re alize what it’s all about ... that you started for yourself.” Aftet watching Stulce train, Bar nes said he decided to work more on his flexibility. “I got concerned with flexibility now after seeing Mike,” Barnes said. “He’s incredibly flexible and I think it will help me to work more on my flexibility.” Barnes’ goal is to compete in the 1990 Goodwill (iames this summer in Seattle. “I’m really excited about it be cause the people are so into it,”. Bar nes said. Stulce has similar goals. “My personal goal is to throw 22 meters,” Stulce said. “But as a team, enhad 'are, II be .. He* ie Oil' Tie ; tsburf live >tba wears'- 1 > layer Dear Wiley,... Beaumont retiree collects letters from sporting greats :| BEAUMONT (AP) — Hank Strain, the former Kansas City Chiefs and New Orleans Saints coach, called Wiley Grinnell the other day. Tommy Lasorda, the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, dropped him a line, as did Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Chi cago Bears Coach Mike Ditka re fuses to cooperate, but that only puts Grinnell in high company. Which is exactly where the Beaumont retiree is every day when he comes downstairs in his cozy frame home, sits at the oak desk in his study and takes out his labor of love. It is an ongoing collection of well-thought-out letters, hastily scribbled messages and miscella neous memorabilia that the 78- year-old Grinnell has requested and received from almost 1,000 of the most famous American sports figures of the 20th cen tury. Handwritten letters and auto graphs from football stars Jim Thorpe, Bronco Nagurski, Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch, Doak Walker, Bobby Layne, Johnny Unitas, Lou Groza, Don Mere dith, Roger Staubach and even Kevin Sweeney, the Cowboys’ strike-team quarterback, can be found in the six leather-bound volumes Grinnell has put to gether. College coaches Joe Paterno and Jackie Sherrill, an unlikely couple in real life, are together in Grinnell’s Volume One. Other notables such as Tom Landry, Bum Phillips, Pete Rozelle, Presi dents Gerald Ford, Ronald Rea- an and George Bush, and Rev. Teodore Hesburgh, the former president of Notre Dame, are also included. It all started as a gag. Grinnell had spent his life associated with “I I wrote to Tom Landry first, then Roger Staubach, and it’s taken off from there. It’s no longer just a Cowboy book.” — Wiley Grinnell, letter compiler athletics — 15 years as a high school coach and 20 years as a sporting goods salesman — and he was an ardent fan of what used to be called America’s T earn. So for his 65th birthday, Grinnell’s son and daughter-in- law gave him a book titled: “Ev erything I Know About the Dallas Cowboys,” by Wiley Grinnell Sr. Inside, the pages — nearly 400 of them — were all blank. It was quite a conversation piece at first, as one friend after another read the title, then turned to the blank pages. But soon, Wiley decided to fill the pages. “I wrote to Tom Landry first, then Roger Staubach, and it’s taken off from there. It’s no longer just a Cowboy book,’’ he says. But rest assured Volume One, Page One is Landry. The note from Landry is typical of the coach’s humor: “You are the first fan that I have ever seen who would admit that they didn’t know anything about the Dallas Cowboys,” Landry wrote. “My mail is usually full of letters from experts.” That March 1980 letter set things in motion. Like the others that have come.since and the Jim Thorpe autograph, which he penned for Grinnell during a 1941 barnstorming tour of Texas, Landry’s note is displayed along with a photo and short bi ography. During World War II, Grinnell was a member of the Army Air Corps Physical Fitness Board and one of his primary assignments was to set up physical training programs at the colleges where the Air Corps had training de tachments. On his final stop, at Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos, Grinnell met a young cadet named Hank Stram. “In I960, when I found out Hank Stram was going to be the coach of the Dallas Texans (who became the Kansas City Chiefs), I called him to make sure it was the same Hank Stram I knew' in the Air Corps,” Grinnell says. “Now we talk all the time, and he helps me get in touch with people I want in the book,” Grinnell said. Stram, in his letter for Grinnell’s book, wrote; “Wiley, you may not know much about the Cowboys, but I know for a fact that you know a lot about be ing an athlete, a coach, a teacher and a leader. ... You made an in delible impression on me.” Grinnell now spends his days formulat ing wish lists of contribu tors for his book searching for their addresses and mailing re quests, opening replies and pre paring them for his book. Grinnell said he has never had his collection appraised, and so far, no collector has offered to buy it from him. But its value is certainly more than just thera peutic. T told him,” his wife said, “if he died before I did, I was going to auction off his books and go to Europe.” \AGGI inema/ Aggie Cinema Movie Information Hotline: 847-8478 It Should Never Have Been a Movie Film Festival Spies Like Us Mar. 23 7:30 $2.00 Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid Mar. 23 9:45 $2.00 Airplane II : Mar. 23 Midnight $2.00 UHF i Mar. 24 7:30 $2.00 National Lampoon’s Vacation Mar. 24 9:45 ...$2.00 Elvira Mistress of the Dark Mar. 24 Midnight $2.00 Little Rascals Film Festival Mar. 24 3:00 $2.00 Children under 13 - $1.00 Tickets may be purchased at the MSC Box Office. For membership information contact MSC Aggie Cinema at 845-1515. RACIAL AWARENESS PROGRAM Applications Due Friday, March 23 First Meeting Monday, March 26th 7:15pm in 231 MSC Express Yourself * Get the Facts * Learn From Others * Become Informed Racism on Campus ** Non-minority Perspectives Free Speech ** Affirmative Action Demographic Changes**Myths and Stereotypes Department of Multicultural Services * 148 MSC * 845-4551 Have your 1989 Aggieland Students who have not picked up their 1989 Aggielands may do so at the English Annex from 8:30 to 4 p.m. A few extra yearbooks remain for sale at $25 for those who did not order one. o Photo courtesy of A&M Sports News Junior shotputter Mike Stulce (above) and 1988 Olympic Med alist Randy Barnes (left) have drawn a lot of comparisons. my goal is to win the NCAA title.” He also hopes to compete in the Goodwill Games and said his ulti mate goal is the 1992 Olympics. “That would be awesome,” Stulce said. “It’s kind of far off, but it’s al ways there.” Filling the parts left behind in A&M shotput record books is hard work, Stulce said. He said he is pleased with his performance so far this year, but there is always room for improvement. ’And, as Coach Thomas said, “These are the ones to make them selves into world champions.” So as the indoor track season closes and the world of outdoor track emerges, it seems one shotput ter will thirst for victory. Stulce may be eating up shotput opponents in the collegiate ranks right now, but he’s staying focused. He’s got one eye on the national title, one eye on the Goodwill Games this summer. And he’s staying hungry. Astros thinking they need more time to prepare HOUSTON (AP) — Houston As tros first baseman Glenn Davis is get ting ready to report to spring train ing but he thinks more time is needed before the start of the sea son. “We need at least a month,” Davis said from his home in Columbus, Ga. Davis said he hoped to be at the Astros training site by Thursday, al though Manager Art Howe planned the first full-scale workout for Wednesday. After work begins, Davis said he’d be concerned about the Astros pitch ers. “I’m concerned about the pitch ers,” Davis said. “I don’t think their arms will be ready. I’m concerned about injuries.” The Astros will have five practice sessions before they begin the exhi bition schedule Monday against the New York Mets. They’ll have 14 exhibition games to prepare for their season opener April 9 in the Astrodome against the Cincinnati Reds. , “I imagine we’ll spend the first few days trying to evaluate what kind of shape everyone is in,” Howe said. “I’m sure we’ll concentrate on who’s able to pitch in a game, who’s been throwing a lot and who hasn’t.” With half the time to get ready for the regular season, Howe expects to see workouts in fast-motion. “You'll see guys hustling around, trying to get all the work in we can,” Howe said. “Everybody will want to get going. But that’s something else we’ll need to watch. We’ll have to make sure no one extends them selves too quickly.” Catcher Craig Biggio was among the early arrivals at training camp. With one year, 99 days of major league service, he would have bene fited from arbitration after two years. Biggio doesn’t care. “I’ve never even thought that I’d be one of guys who can go,” Biggio said. “I’m happy with what they paid me this year. I hope I’ll be happy with what they pay me next year.” MSC Political Forum Political Forum General Committee Meeting Applications for 90-91 execs will be available Thursday, March 22 301 Rudder 7 PM ^Tr FARMERS MARKET Within walking distance of Texas A&M OPEN DAILY 10:30 a.m.-ll:00 p.m. THIS WEEK: SPAGHETTI MADNESS Garlic bread and Medium drink included only $1." plus tax Special Good After 5 p.m. Dine in only University Drive at Northgate 846-6428 expires 3/25/90 Clip Coupon PEPE’S MEXICAN CAFE’S famous BEEF TACOS O c 390 each Limit 10 with coupon Coupon good thru March 31 OR ALL YOU CARE TO EAT MEXICAN BUFFET $3.99 each (dine-in only) with coupon Coupon good thru March 31 Not good with any other offer 3312 S. College, Bryan or 107 Dominik, College Station ^lip Coupon, o Q- a o ,CJ
