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The Battalion
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Thursday, Novembers, 1990
Sports Editor Nadja Sabawala 845-2688
TV basketball
grabs attention,
new matchups
change was in store for
professional basketball fans after years
of watching CBS Sports broadcast the
NBA.
Last Saturday, NBC ended almost a
decade of selfishness by the league’s
former network,
Scott
Wudel
when it presented
the Los Angeles
Lakers—San An
tonio Spurs sea
son opening
game. And what
a breath of fresh
air it was.
For the past 8
years, CBS had been using tunnel vision
when selecting the games it would
broadcast to its national audience.
Sunday after Sunday basketball fans
would turn on their television and see the
same picture.
Ninety percent of the time, the screen
would include either the parquet floor of
Boston Garden or the sleek, yellow-
highlighted court of the Great Western
Forum.
To CBS, the league consisted of
maybe four teams.
CBS could have broadcast the same
game week after week, who would know
the difference?
If the Boston Celtics and Lakers
weren’t playing each other, they were
usually hosting a Philadelphia or
Chicago team on an off day. But the
network didn’t want to make a habit of
reaching for teams that weren’t good
enough for the rest of their clientele.
But after CBS unloaded millions of
dollars to major league baseball, it had to
part with its long-time friend, who had
since grown tremendously, no thanks to
the network.
NBC wasted no time snatching the
professional basketball league. Now the
NBA is its baby.
NBC’s inception into the league last
Saturday was for the most part a success.
From the very start it showed that it was
committed to making its broadcast a
class act. j.
Bob Costas guided former Laker
coach Pat Riley through the finer points
of the broadcasting game during the pre
game show. Riley, slick head of hair and
all, trembled through his first few
comments but soon caught an air of
confidence.
The former NBA player and coach
calmly sat at his desk and sank a shot in a
miniature basketball hoop ten feet away.
A left-handed Costas, who was foolish
enough to challenge Riley to the shot,
could do no better than hit a studio light
behind him.
Riley’s butterflies are now behind him
and he soon will show the same prowess
in front of the camera as he did as a
player and a coach.
But the game was equally impressive.
With an attention to detail, the network
created some brilliant graphic displays to
See Wudel/Page 11
UIL: Dallas Carter must forfeit
\
wins leading to championship
AUSTIN (AP) — The University Inters
cholastic League said Wednesday it has no
option, following a court ruling, but to or
der Dallas Carter to forfeit four victories
that led to the school’s 1988 Class 5A foot
ball championship.
The 3rd Court of Appeals on Wednes
day denied a motion by the Dallas Indepen
dent School District to clarify or modify its
Oct. 3 ruling, in which both sides claimed
victory, or to be granted a rehearing.
UIL Director Bailey Marshall said the
league’s State Executive Committee would
proceed as if it had won the case, pending
possible appeal to the Texas Supreme
Court.
No one was immediately available for
comment from the Dallas ISD when con
tacted by The Associated Press.
The appeals court Monday rejected a
plea by the Odessa Permian football coach
ing staff for relief from a judge’s ruling that
barred the defending Class 5A champions
from this year’s playoffs.
The Panthers were declared ineligible by
the UIL, which said the school violated its
rules by holding practice before Aug. 20.
The Carter case is a dramatic example of
what the UIL and Texas Education Agency
perceive as a problem that has gotten worse
since the Legislature enacted the no-pass,
no-play law.
Under that law, a student must pass all
classes to be eligible for extracurricular ac
tivities, such as sports. It is considered a key
element of educational reform in Texas’
public schools.
In the Carter case, the school was tempo
rarily forced out of the 1988 football play
offs by a ruling from state Education Com
missioner W.N. Kirby that Carter had
violated the no-pass, no-play law by chang
ing an algebra grade for backfield star Gary
Edwards from failing to passing.
But hours later, on Nov. 18, 1988, state
District Judge Paul Davis of Austin issued a
temporary restraining order that enabled
Carter to continue in the playoffs.
The following month, Davis forbade
Kirby from determining Edwards’ eligibil
ity, and he forbade the UIL from knocking
Carter out of the playoffs.
The UIL appealed to stay Davis’ tempo
rary injunction, which was denied by the
3rd Court on Dec. 9, 1988.
On Dec. 17, Carter won the 5A football
title by defeating Converse Judson, 31-14.
In July 1989, Davis again ruled in favor
of Carter and filed a permanent injunction
against the TEA and UIL, which was ap
pealed.
On Oct. 3 of this year, the 3rd Court of
Appeals dismissed the case as moot and set
aside Davis’ decision that had prevented the
TEA and UIL from declaring Carter ineli
gible for the playoffs.
The UIL’s Marshall said Wednesday the
executive committee has no choice but to
uphold its 1988 decision that Carter forfeit
four games in which Edwards played after
Oct. 10 of that year.
Whether the committee would take back
Carter’s trophy and individual player med
als is up to the committee, Marshall said.
“I don’t expect to get every medal back
— some of them are probably lost,” he said.
“But they should make a good faith effort,
if and when this takes place.”
Although the school board accepted the
UIL’s sanctions, Permian coaches filed a
lawsuit Sept. 28 in an effort to restore the
school’s eligibility this season and also to lift
penalties imposed by the UIL against head
coach Tam Hollingshead and three assis
tants.
State District Judge Peter Lowry of Aus
tin upheld the UIL decision, ruling that
Permian was ineligible.
Tagliabue pulls
’93 Bowl from
Arizona site
NEW YORK (AP) —' NFL commis
sioner Paul Tagliabue summarily pulled
the 1993 Super Bowl out of Phoenix on
Wednesday after Arizona voters rejected
a proposal to make a holiday of Martin
Luther King’s birthday.
“I do not believe that playing Super
Bowl XXVII in Arizona is in the best in
terests of the National Football League,”
Tagliabue said after the Arizona electo
rate rejected by 15,000 votes of nearly 1
million cast a proposal to make a holiday
of the slain civil rights leader’s birthday.
While Tagliabue’s statement doesn’t
make the move official, it’s expected that
most if not all of the 28 NFL teams will
go along with his recommendation. A to
tal of 21 votes are necessary to move the
game, which will probably go to San
Diego, Los Angeles or San Francisco, the
other cities that bid for it.
“I can’t imagine that people won’t go
along with the commissioner,” said Nor
man Braman, owner of the Philadelphia
Eagles and chairman of the Super Bowl
site selection committee.“I think it’s tra
gic for the people who worked so hard to
get the game there. But I think it would
be an affront to our public and our play
ers if the game is played in Phoenix,”
Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill said the
proposal to make King’s birthday a holi
day was “the right thing to do” and that
he was disappointed both at the voters’
decision and Tagliabue’s action.
“I was not pleased that the NFL issued
its statement so quickly after this elec
tion,” he said. “I can understand that the
NFL felt such a statement was necessary,
but it unfortunately added to an already
emotional situation here.
“I am calling on the Governor and
legislative leaders of Arizona to take
whatever steps are necessary to accompl
ish an enactment of the King holiday.”
An estimated 60 percent of NFL play
ers are black and the league has been
highly sensitive in recent years to calls to
add minorities to its coaching and front-
office staffs. Art Shell of the Los Angeles
Raiders, appointed last season, is the
only black head coach in the league and
there are no black general managers.
Phoenix was chosen last March as the
host city, although both Tagliabue and
Braman said at the time that the league
could change its position if there was no
holiday to honor King.
It was with that in mind that the state
legislature ended nearly two decades of
divisive debate last year by passing a bill
making the third Monday in January
Martin Luther King-Civil Rights Day in
Arizona, one of three states without such
a law.
But King Day opponents, led by im
peached former Gov. Evan Mecham, cir
culated petitions to force a referendum
on the issue.
Both issues appeared on Tuesday’s
ballot and both were rejected. The King
Day for Columbus Day swap was turned
down by a 3-1 margin and the holiday
without the swap lost by fewer than
15,000 votes.
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MSC
VARIETY SHOW COMMITTEE
presents
FACULTY FOLLIES
A TOUCH OF CLASS"
NOVEMBER 16
RODDER THEATRE
7:30 $3.00
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
MSC BOX OFFICE
IT INTERESTED IN A TRIP TO AUSTIN?^
BUS TRIP SPONSORED BY THE
MAROON CLUB/LASSO FOR
LADY AGGIE VOLLEYBALL VS. T.U.
ON NOVEMBER 15th
COST: $10.00
(includes ride, & meal on bus)
(game tickets are $2.00)
CONTACT THE TAMU WOMEN'S
ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT AT
845-1052 FOR DETAILS.
OR CALL CONNIE AT 775-0542
ALUMNI FORUM
Come find out what former Texas A&M University
students are doing with their Liberal Arts degree.
Friday, November 9,1990
2:30-4:30 p.m.
301 Rudder Tower
* This is a “drop-in” forum--come and go as you like
Sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts & the Liberal Arts Student Council
TEXAS AGGIE CHAPTER
DUCKS UNLIMITED
3RD ANNUAL
BANQUET/WILD GAME COOK
November 13th
7 p.m.
Wellborn Community Center
Tickets on sale at the MSC
Nov. 8th & 9th and at the door.