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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 1991)
own explosion lursday i n . tically. ne( l origin m Grayco er lOa.m,, u -tims was in the air ipd fire at iid Milan °n super- Wednesday Sunny High 80 The world’s longest yellow rib bon. A&M just must have the biggest everything, you know. Just ask the people who erected the roughnecifstatue.” Ellen Hobbs Column /page 2 Ags outlast Arizona i-ranked Texas A&M base ball team takes two of three from Wildcats over weekend page 7 Helping Hands Texas A&M students helping design improvements for Ronald McDonald House pages The Battalion 90 No. 111 USPS 045360 10 Pages College Station, Texas 'Serving Texas A&M since 1893' Monday, March 18,1991 i it incler con- southeast rtheast of Air Force lists Texas A&M graduate as 'killed in action' the sev-1 United he Uni- nore on i to the n rolled, oted to raduate 25 per- rate ed- fs abil- and na- f whom profes- dne. page5 191 rajl nething s being ; to hit I r, is to he Na-| n. :ats illy in ids me, I vant to I for the | has ng mi-1 sburgl father | ball St sup I niss a o livJ ichultf one to ; me if I eh is J | uneej even I one to | rdayfi By Tulie Myers The Battalion students, 1 to go to ” Ga ge enroll at ' a better ugh the r Texas of grad- licularly Us. But idents to to 2 per- ScMllth )uys. re chal- growth, ) exceed an class s on the urces in at year's irs. d dollar to teach to stu- come to back the “That is.” uid not ollment A Texas A&M graduate and Air Force pilot has been unofficially listed as "killed in action." Thomas Clifford Bland Jr., 26, was missing in achon Feb. 1 after the C-130 aircraft he was flying went down somewhere in the Middle East. He was identified using the en graved Aggie ring on his finger, said Mark Stratton, Squadron 1 Executive Officer and senior political science ma jor. Stratton holds the same Squadron 1 position Bland held when he was in the Corps. An Air Force chaplain visited Bland's mother two weeks ago to tell her of her son's death. Stratton said he has been in contact with her since then. "She was very optimistic until then," Stratton said. "Now she's taking it like you would expect a mother to. But she's a strong woman." Bland's mother attended a memorial service for her son last week at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. An official status will be issued when Bland's body arrives in the United States. Stratton said that could take a week or two months. Members of Squadron 1 have been wearing gold MIA bracelets with Bland's name and date missing en graved on them since the Air Force fisted him as missing. Stratton said the squadron agreed not to remove the bracelets until Bland had been found or had received a proper burial. Stratton said he will attend the burial at Arlington National Cemetery, where he expects Bland's body will be buried. Traditionally, MIA bracelets are bro ken in half and returned to members of the armed services when they come home. With KIAs, the bracelets are buried with the body. Stratton said he hopes to attend the epi Corps. If that is not possible he will go as a civilian and bury the 48 bracelets from his squadron. During the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the Veterans Administration supplied MIA bracelets, but Stratton said he did not want to wait for the VA, so the juniors in Squadron 1 went to a local company. The Aggie Parents of the Year, Dick See MIA/Page 9 Davis resigns under NCAA fire JAY JANNER/The Battalion Embattled first-year basketball coach Kermit Davis Jr. resigned Friday after the A&M program was hit with possible NCAA rules violations. A&M begins the search for its fourth coach in just over one year today. Possible NCAA rules violations A list of the 13 violations found by the\ A&M investigation. Eight of them namel former Aggie coach Kermit Davis Jr.: □ Reported player broker Rob Johnson accom- j panied Syracuse transfer Tony Scott on an offi-1 cial visit to A&M. S A University aircraft was used to fly Scott and hnson from Houston to College Station. Davis and his assistant Fletcher Cockrell flew on the R lane from College Station to Houston and from ouston to College Station. A&M basketball coaches, Scott and Johnson all dined together at a College Station restaurant during Scott’s official visit. B Scott's airfare was provided by Davis through hnson to fly from New York to Idaho, where he attended two summer classes at the College of Southern Idaho. E ] Scott’s father was provided partial payment y Davis for airfare from College Station to New York. □ Scott, his mother, his son and fianc6e were promised payment by Davis for travel expenses to and from College Station and New York. □ Johnson was assisting the A&M coaching staff in the recruitment of ; New York. Johnson was paid $2,400 for working as an M basketball camp counselor in summer 1990. Q Johnson was provided travel expenses by Da vis for his trip to College Station in October 1990. P Part-time Assistant Coach Billy Kennedy, act ing on Davis’ instructions, gave $8 to a recruit's wife for the purpose of submitting a financial aid package for processing. S Kennedy paid the same recruit’s wife $60 for e or six hours of babysitting. □ Kennedy transported the same recruit in Ken nedy’s personal automobile from the recruit’s apartment to Davis’ office. E Cockrell transported a recruit to a summer igue game on July 9, 1990. This was during an evaluation period when no contact is per mitted. A&M looks for new coach; Thornton may reclaim job By Douglas Pils The Battalion i c another player from Two weeks shy of holding the ob for one year, Texas A&M lead basketball coach Kermit Davis resigned Friday after a three-month investigation into alleged NCAA violations. His resignation followed the completion of a 95-page report by Robert Smith, A&M's vice president for finance and admin istration, and two meetings last week with University President William Mobley, Athletic Direc tor John David Crow and Davis' lawyers. Reports of Davis' demise sur- facecf in the Houston Chronicle March 7, the day A&M faced Texas Tech in the Southwest Conference Tournament. After the game that night Da vis lashed out at what he termed "irresponsible journalism" in Texas. "I guess you get tired of peo ple saying sources 'close to the situation'”^ Davis said. "There have been other articles about those sources before. I think I would have been contacted my self. If John David Crow says I'm still the coach at A&M, then I'm still the coach." Whether or not the premature reports came from fact, five days later Mobley informed Davis that "his services were no longer re quired." Davis wouldn't comment on □ Battalion Editorial/Page 2 □ Analysis of Davis removal/Page 7 Thursday, and efforts by The Battalion to reach Davis for com ment at home Sunday were un successful. Mobley said that Crow again will search for a new coach and more could be said on the matter sometime today. John Thornton, an assistant at A&M for nine years and interim coach for 12 games last year after Shelby Metcalf's reassignment, is rumored to be the top candi date. After seeing the report for the first time Tuesday, Davis was given two days to respond at the meeting on Thursday. It was then that the report was re leased, and Davis put off the an nouncement until Friday. Davis' attorney, George Parn- ham, officially announced the resignation from his office in Houston and said Davis is being used as a "scapegoat and a sacri ficial lamb" by the University. Parnham said in a letter to Mobley the report legally was not sufficient to fire Davis. Rather than attempt to sue the University, Parnham said the coach just wanted to get on with his life and put his problems at A&M behind him. "Coach Davis determined that it was in his best interest and in See Davis/Page 9 r it, but Bret ilybe- n * tea® lallya Anatomy of a Dismissal : The Key Players of the Kermit Davis Jr. Saga lUnMIMI Kermit Davis Jr. The embattled first-year coach was named in eight NCAA vio lations. He re signed under pressure Friday. John David Crow The A&M Ath letic Director was involved in his third coach ing change in a little over a year. NCAA problems have led some to question his fu ture with the University. Tony Scott The former Syr acuse forward’s transfer to A&M sparked the in ternal probe af ter the Syracuse Post-Standard uncovered NCAA violations in the Orangemen and Aggie programs. William Mobley The A&M Presi dent called for Davis’ resigna tion last week and now may be forced to take a stronger interest in the troubled athletic pro gram. John Thornton Last year’s in terim coach has surfaced as the- leading candi date to take over the A&M basket ball program. Family honors professor with memorial service By Timm Doolen The Battalion The family of Dr. Peter John Sharpe will have a memorial service Wednesday for the Texas A&M bioengineering professor whose body was found March 10 in tne Brazos River. Sharpe, 50, was missing since Jan. 24, the same day his van was found abandoned along the river near a bridge on Highway 21. On the morning of March 10, three fishermen found Sharpe's body caught in brush a few hun dred feet from the bridge. Justice of the Peace Billy Cox pronounced him dead at the scene, and the body was positively identified as Sharpe's after dental records were checked. A Travis County autopsy showed no sign of foul play. Cox said Sunday a cause of death hasn't been determined yet, but that it should be known within three days. Sharpe started at A&M in 1972 and was known nationally and internationally as an ex- E ert in global ecology. He was a member of the iosystems Researcn Group in the Department of Industrial Engineering for almost 20 years and served as head of the group for several years. Dr. Gerald Miller, head of the bioengineering division, said Sharpe was a worldwide author ity in his areas of research which included eco logical analysis, pest management and crop re duction. Miller said Sharpe had studied global ecology in Australia, the Middle East and the Far East. Sharpe also was involved with the Texas En gineering Experiment Station and helped found tne Center for Biosystems Modeling in 1990. See Professor/Page 4 Battalion features updated look By Jay The me Blaschke The Battalion Welcome to the new Battalion. Your newspaper is greeting you back from spring break with a more modem and attractive design. Battalion News Editors Richard Tijerina and Keith Sartin spent several weeks comparing old and new Battalions, studying newspapers across the nation and deciding on the look before you now. Tijerina, ajunior journalism major from Corpus Christi, said The Battalion has not changed its basic layout style for years and was due for revamping. "We want to change our image," Tijerina said. "We want to make it (The Battalion) more consistent, day in and day out. "We began comparing Battalions from 10 years ago to Battalions from 10 days ago and The Battalion fiSPdlBHll The Battalion fel U .. N :** trC, ! r, ' 8ener “ l - ,ri “« l minister discuss criST i New* continue* ui A&M during summer **•# nM»pk» optoioa* roafervnc* ctuuigc* Uurn busier during orknUllun | not much had changed," he said. Because the newpaper's style had not changed, Tne Battalion had fallen behind the times, he said. "We want to address the modem student at A&M," Tijerina said. "We want the paper to be more attractive and more consistent in news coverage." Battalion Editor Lisa Robertson, a senior journalism major from Irving, said the cleaner design is necessary for a successful newspaper. "We need the readers to know where to look for the news they want, and we do that by establishing a regular design," Robertson said. ”We'll be using more graphics, pictures and news briefs to give readers as much information on as many topics as they need." Both Robertson and Tijerina said the decision to change The Battalion's format was not made See Battalion/Page 4