Wednesday, March 21,1990
The Battalion
Page 11
Shotputters staying hungry...
Barnes working together
By NADJA SABAWALA
IsTirsi Of The Battalion Staff
uLpfl " ‘ ' ' “
â– 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 â–  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.
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■ 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.”
â–  Track coach Charlie Thomas said
Stulce has the dedication to become
one of the best shotputters of all
nie.
|j ''He’s
â– > 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
â– (iOs sensation Randy Matson.
â–  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.”
â–  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
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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
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UHF i Mar. 24 7:30 $2.00
National Lampoon’s Vacation Mar. 24 9:45 ...$2.00
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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
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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
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