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SPORTS
5
uesday, June 19,1990
Sports Editor
Clay Rasmussen
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DALLAS (AP) —Jackie Sherrill once
redicted radical upheaval in the South-
rest Conference by 1995. It might hap
ten yet.
The pressures of television, money
jind a Federal Trade Commission inves
tigation of college football have changed
ittitudes about conference ties.
“The college scene is experiencing
hange,” said Arkansas athletic director
frank Broyles. “We see it with Penn
itate joining the Big Ten and Notre
ame bolting from the CFA (College
football Association) package. It seems
|o me that it’s the responsibility of every
hool to evaluate what is happening.”
The Southeastern Conference has Ar
ansas at the top of its expansion list.
Broyles said if the SEC calls, Arkansas
fon’t hang up. They’ll listen to any of
fers, Broyles said, and evaluate them.
J Texas and Texas A&M University
llso are also plums for the picking. If
Sherrill was still the head coach and ath-
tic director at A&M instead of an auto
mobile dealer, the Aggies would proba
bly already be entering negotiations with
|the SEC.
Sources in the University of Texas
thletic department say there is unhap
piness with the leadership of the SWC
nd the Longhorns will be all ears when
fie telephone rings.
rovernment intervention
The FTC investigation is sending
hivers through the collegiate athletic
lepartment community.
Broyles said the possibility exists that
he FTC could rule that the largest
p-oup of schools that can have a tele-
usion package is a conference. That
vould kill off the CFA package. The
kronger and more attractive confer-
|nces would get top dollar from the tele-
ision networks.
“There would be a tremendous shuf-
ling of conferences to convert television
iets to dollars,” Broyles said.
The SEC, particularly if it adds Miami
nd Florida State, has a more diverse
geographical area to offer with Tennes-
iee, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia and Al-
ibama. What if it adds teams from Texas
ind Arkansas? The bidding could reach
megabuck” proportions.
There’s even talk Oklahoma and Ok-
ahoma State might be willing to rejoin
:he SWC. They were charter members
when the conference came together back
in 1914.
Former Oklahoma coach Barry
Switzer said the Sooners orientation was
always towards Texas anyway “because
hat’s where we recruited.”
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The fact that Arkansas is allowing it
self to be courted is already causing
Some hard feelings in the SWC.
[ Texas Tech head football coach Spike
[Dykes said bluntly: “We don’t want peo
ple around who don’t want to be here.”
1 SWC commissioner Fred Jacoby won-
lers why Arkansas would even consider
inch a move because any TV deal would
be imperiled by over-saturation, which
hedaims is happening now.
Devil’s advocate Jacoby also points out
hat the FTC could also rule a violation
)f anti-trust provisions if conferences
tart to break up.
Jacoby still doesn’t believe Arkansas
Will leave, saying “I’m not alarmed. We
have a good thing going.”
Nobody knows when the FTC, which
sometimes moves at a glacial pace, could
nake a ruling on whether the CFA pack-
ige violates anti-trust statutes.
Broyles said it could be two years or
live years but each school owes it to itself
| to be prepared.
Arkansas won the football, baseball,
rack and basketball titles in the SWC in
he last school year and Broyles said “Ar
kansas fans feel better about being in the
southwest Conference than they have in
'he 15 years I’ve been athletic director.”
But money talks. Particularly tele
vision money.
Without it, bigtime sports programs
can’t exist.
When push comes to shove, it won’t
[matter that Arkansas is a charter mem
ber of the SWC and its oldest member.
All that will matter is survival.
Irwin rallies from two-stroke deficit in
playoff, wins US Open in sudden death
MEDINAH, Ill. (AP) — Hale Irwin bird-
ied the 91st hole Monday and beat Mike
Donald in the first sudden-death playoff to
decide the U.S. Open Golf Championship.
Irwin, who made up two shots on Donald
over the last three holes of the scheduled
18-hole playoff, tied Donald on the 18th
with a par-4 and forced the continuation of
the playoff under a sudden-death format.
Irwin’s 8-foot birdie putt sent him leap
ing into the air, a three-time winner in this
event and, at 45, the oldest man to win the
American national championship.
“Mike gave me a chance. God bless him. I
almost wish he had won,” Irwin said.
“I had to keep pecking away. Not a great
day, but I had to stay right there.”
Ray Floyd was the oldest previous winner
when he won at 44 in 1986.
Irwin’s drawn-out triumph, the longest
playoff since 1946, went with previous
Open triumphs in 1974 and 1979 and made
him the fifth three-time winner of this tour
nament.
Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, Ben Ho
gan and Jack Nicklaus each won four U.S.
Open crowns.
Irwin, now occupied with a golf course
architecture business and a part-time player
on the PGA Tour, had to come from be
hind to do it.
Some ragged action in the middle of the
round — and some poor results from wood
shots played from deep rough — enabled
Donald to move to a two-stroke lead after
12 holes.
It stayed that way until Irwin threw his
approach in about six feet from the cup and
made birdie on the 16th hole — statistically
the toughest on the Medinah Country Club
No. 3 course.
They halved the 17th with pars and went
to the 18th with the gritty Donald hanging
on to that slender lead.
But Donald, winner of only one title in
an 11-season tour career, hooked his short-
driver into the left rough.
He ran his approach into the left-front
bunker, then blasted out about 15 feet short
of the cup.
Irwin two-putted for par from about 25
feet and Donald then stepped up to the
most important putt of his life.
Irwin got a second chance.
The two men, who completed the regula
tion 72 holes tied for the top at 280, re
mained tied after playing another 18 holes,
each in 74, two over par but a respectable
score in winds that gusted to 35 mph.
They continued the playoff on the first
hole, the sixth time they played it in compe
tition this week and the second time on
Monday.
Donald got his second shot about 30 feet
from the flag.
Irwin, now the winner of 18 titles in a 22-
year career, stuck his in ^bout 8 feet from
the wind-whipped flag.
After Donald missed, Irwin rolled his
home and scored his first victory in five sea
sons.
Aggie golf team
signs key players
From Staff and Wire Reports
Texas A&M men’s golf coach Bob El
lis announced the signing of Shane
Bertsch and Marco Gortana to national
letters-of-intent to play golf for the Ag
gies, Friday.
Bertsch, a 6-2, 185-pound transfer
from New Mexico Junior College, will
have two years of eligibility at A&M. In
1989, he won three JUCO tournaments
and this year, won the 1990 Western Ju
nior College Athletic Conference
championship while earning all-region
honors.
“Shane is a seasoned player with a
great deal of winning experience,” Ellis
said. “He should be ready to come in and
help our team right away.”
Gortana, from Johannesburg, South
Africa, is a 6-2, 190-pound incoming
freshman regarded as one of the top
prep and amateur players in South Af
rica.
The Italian native won the Southern
Transvaal Open, the Transvaal Open
and finished second at three other
Transvaal tournaments last spring.
“We have, in Marco, a very good in
ternational player with exceptional tour
nament experience.” Ellis said.
Seeking the path to the Soviet Union
Aggie powerlifter to compete in U.S.S.R.
By Douglas Pils
Of The Battalion Staff
Dedication, sacrifice, a strong desire and
a good work ethic are key characteristics
needed to be successful in most of life’s en
deavors.
Character traits such as these are begin
ning to pay off for Robert Kamman, a
Texas A&M construction science major
from Kingwood.
Kamman was recently named to the
American Powerlifting Team that will com
pete in the 1990 International Powerlifting
Competitions. The event will be held in
both Leningrad and Moscow in the Soviet
Union, July 20-27.
Two teams of 24 of the nation’s top pow-
erlifters will enter the competition against
top Soviet powerlifters. Kamman is one of
12 to be named to the first team which will
compete for points.
Kamman said that members of the sec
ond team are basically competing to obtain
experience.
Powerlifting is a combination of three
different lifts — squats, the bench press and
deadlifting.
A tremendous amount of mental prepa
ration and concentration are required.
“Preparing mentally for a lift is very im
portant. Many people don’t realize that it’s
not just a sport of brute strength,” Kamman
said. “You have to be extremely focused
and know your limitations because with the
weights involved, a slip in concentration can
cause serious injury.”
He sometimes uses music to prepare
mentally before a lift.
“By the time I pull off the head phones I
hardly notice they’re gone because I’m so
keyed in to what I’m about to do,” he said.
Kamman said he became seriously in
volved in powerlifting about three years
ago through the Weightlifting Club at
Texas A&M.
Lately however, he has been competing
on his own with the help of Charles Gon
zales and Steve Lumpee, owners of Gold’s
Gym in College Station.
“Steve has really been like a coach and a
great help in my progress,” Kamman said.
“He’s gotten me on the right diet and I help
him sell vitamin supplements for his other
business.”
The 5-10, 242-pound junior leads a busy
life selling the vitamin supplements and
working as a bouncer at the Baja Yacht
Club.
Kamman works out five days a week for
two and a half hours. He just completed his
work at the Fireman Training School and
will soon start work as a fireman.
Kamman said he hopes the combination
of being a fireman and a having a degree in
construction science will lead to a career as
a consultant for architects to construct fire-
safe buildings that will also save firefighters
lives.
In addition to his many daily tasks, he is
either a part-time or full-time student while
maintaining a home life with Lori, his wife
of three years.
Amazingly, Kamman finds time to con
sume six meals a day. The normal daily cal
orie intake for an average person is about
2000. Kamman said he takes in about 5000
including two pounds of meat and a gallon
of milk .
Nutritionalysis, the diet plan Kamman
follows, was orginally designed for body-
Robert Kamman, a junior construction
science major, has been named as a
builders. But with a few modifications,
Kamman said he has added nine pounds of
muscle in 18 weeks and has reduced his
body-fat ratio by two percent.
“The diet works around foods I like and
crave,” he said. “It gives me an optimum
charbohydrate, protein and fat ratio in my
diet.
“What’s difficult about it is preparing all
of that food. Usually we prepare large por
tions and heat it up later,” Kamman said.
“If not, Lori and I would spend most of our
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
member of the American Powerlifting
Team that will compete in the U.S.S.R.
time cooking.”
In recent years, the steriod use in all
sports has been well chronicled, but Kam
man said he sees no use in chemically alter
ing one’s body.
“Controlling your diet and steady work
outs are what’s needed to adjust your
weight and build muscle,” Kamman said.
“Besides, most powerlifters peak at 33 or 34
years of age, so I have a way to go until I
mature as a powerlifter.”
That work ethic and dedication paid off
for Kamman at the 1989 United States
Powerlifiting Federation’s Region IX Colle
giate Powerlifting Championships in Ar
lington.
A powerlifting team normally consists of
10 members, but in December, Kamman
and one other lifter from A&M, Tom Wha
ley, finished second as a team and between
them broke seven national collegiate re
cords.
Kamman broke the collegiate squat re
cord with a 705.2 pound squat. He set the
new standard in the deadlift with a 655.7
pound lift while breaking the collegiate to
tal record by lifting 1813 pounds.
For the past three years, Kamman’s per
formance at regionals qualified him for na
tionals. But injury, or as in the case this
spring of Kamman not attending A&M as a
full-time student, has kept him from at
tending.
This makes the competition in the Soviet
Union all the more important to Kamman.
“I’m real excited about the prospect of
going to the Soviet Union and competing
against some world class competition,” he
said. “I’m in the best shape of my life and
I’m anxious to get over there.”
A big concern for Kamman about travel
ing to the Soviet Union is the quality of food
that will be available, he said.
“I would hate to have my performance
affected by a change in my diet,” Kamman
said. “Maintaining the proper diet is essen
tial not only for the body but also for the
psyche of the mind as well.”
Dr. Edmond F. Enos, chairman of the se
lection committee established by the Asso
ciation for International Cultural Exchange
Programs, said Kamman was selected to at
tend not only for his powerlifting abliities
but also to be a quality representative of the
United States and a promoter for the sport.
The association is a non-profit organiza
tion promoting international goodwill and
is pushing for powerlifting to become an
Olympic sport in the near future.
At the present time, Kamman is busy re
adying himself for the competition physi
cally, mentally and most importantly finan
cially.
He needs $2800 to cover the trip’s ex
penses to the Soviet Union plus round-trip
airfare to New York. Kammam and his wife
have been busy trying to track down spon
sors.
“We’ve basically been pushed from de
partment to department trying to get
money from the school,” he said. “I’m not
associated with the Weightlifting Club any
more plus I sat out last spring to work and
train, so the school is reluctant to provide
any funds.
“I’m to the point where I’ll do just about
anything to get the money. We’re trying to
see if I can get some alumni support but I’ll
borrow the money if I have to ... it’s that im
portant.
“I’ll get there somehow,” Kamman said.
Everything is a challange and powerlift
ing centers around the challange of using
the mind to overcome your body’s limita
tions and do the best that you can do Kam
man said.
“That’s the inspiration,” he said. “It’s the
personal challange set before you and the
thrill of the competition.”
Kamman’s hard work is paying off. He’s
headed to the Soviet Union to compete with
some of the world’s best and hopes some
day the hard work will land him in the
Olympics.
-13)
-13)
MAHENDRA O. THAKRAR, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.
Associated
Obstetrics-GynecologyTnfertility
Tubal Microsurgery
Laser Surgery
Office Hours By Appointment
HEM PROFESSIONAL CENTER
2701-A E. 29th St.
Bryan
776-5117
209 Dominik
College Station, TX
(409) 696-3003
We fix $6 00 haircuts
A FULL SERVICE SALON
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DEFENSIVE DRIVING CLASS
June 22 & 23, 1990 (6-10 p.m. & 8:30 2:30 p.m.)
June 27 & 28, 1990 (6-10 p.m. & 6-10 p.m.)
STATE APPROVED DRIVING SAFETY COURSE
Register at University Plus (MSC Basement)
Call 845-1631 for more information on these or other classes
D&M EDUCATION ENTERPRISES
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