dy
aguire
lion
ents havf
feet wet,
rience bji
ly bottle
Rica, anii
■sday,
d, consul;
led "Dolf
e focus ol
ine how;.
Jgies relati
ze and I
ences pt
ties are;
i," shes
how does
>e this be!
anteer fori
ints with
take pkt
October i
rr 1992. L
).
students h
to get i
iteering, i
an speak v
? le expert
'ackard s
theyhel;
the const:
ils."
\is is the:
res of feec
>hins hash
e dolphins
in will bee
savior dose
will be t
studies.
re heard,
like a pal
i. ,
ie study is ;
helps nur<
hins for:
ie few stu:
derstand»
like," shesi
;ft has
A&M, pro;
e 1990 scho:
han $362,ft
of that n
mgs.
1 can bee®
■educing ^
rime to oca
aking simp;
K. lee Davis
Guest Sportswriter
Astroturf?
Kyle Field
blasphemy!
Why is there plastic grass on the floor
of Kyle Field? That might not be the
burning question of the '90s, but it
should be. We are talking endangered
world-class status here!
At this self-proclaimed world-class
institution of ours we have Dr. James
Beard, who just finished growing
natural sport turf grass inside of the
New Orleans Superdome. According
to reports the grass worked superbly.
So if we have a professor that can
grow grass inside of a parking garage
on steroids like the Superdome, I
would be willing to bet my last dollar
we could could grow some fairly
decent grass in wide open Kyle Field.
But has Dr. Beard been contacted by
anyone to tear up that goop on the
floor at Kyle and put in real grass?
I never did understand why Aggies
decided to use the plastic stuff
anyway. I remember my elementary
school principal, Mr. J.C. Miles, an
Aggie through and through, proudly
displaying a patch of the junk on his
desK.
"That is the future of sports, son,"
he said, urging me to touch his turf.
"The future looks ugly," I replied.
Apparently Principal Miles was in
no mood to entertain smarmy
comments from an eight-year-old who
had popped Paula Peavy's pumpkin
heaa for making fun of his haircut. I
was, of course, properly punished for
my lack of foresight.
It strikes me that there might be a
lot of Aggies like Mr. Miles, Aggies
that for some reason believe artificial
turf is better than the real McCoy.
That seems to be the belief of our
fabled athletic director, John David
Crow. He allowed a new rug to be put
into Kyle Field just back in 1989.
I suppose Crow never had to play
on it himself.
Maybe this love of fake turf is a
manifestation of some sort of Freudian
turf envy for that other school in
Austin.
Texas A&M already has one of the
finest all-grass sports facilities in the
United States. Leo Goertz, the
groundskeeper at Olsen Field,
regularly wins awards and recognition
for the high-quality playing surface he
maintains for baseball.
A&M could be the first school in the
Southwest Conference to switch back
to a natural grass football field, a move
that some other schools across the
nation have started to make.
A grass stadium could be turned
into an exceptional recruiting tool as
well. Fewer serious injuries occur on
grass than on turf, where "blown"
knees are all too common.
Natural grass could also be a great
home field advantage because no
other conference team plays on it
more than once or twice a season.
I'm sure the average fan would love
to see and smell beautiful, cool, fresh-
cut grass at an Aggie game rather than
that slime-green, petroleum-smelling
garbage down there now.
I'm sure they would rather see our
gridiron heroes galloping up and
down the field with dirt and grass
stains on their uniforms instead of turf
bums and rug-rash.
Besides, that noted world-class
university in Boston has natural grass,
and they are a bunch of lawyers and
doctors. What do they know that we
don't? Think of what A&M could be
with a natural grass football stadium.
Instant world-class status!
Texas A&M is one of the greatest
agricultural institutions in the world,
and it is an unseemly abomination
that we put plastic and rubber in our
football stadium. We should once and
for all make the switch back to natural
grass.
As J.C. Miles would say, it's the
future of sports.
Pardee, Johnson evaluate talent
By Jayme Blaschke
the Bi
■ Battalion
Although the Dallas Cowboys ran
roughshod over the Houston Oilers en-
route to a 24-6 victory during the teams'
Sunday night scrimmage in San Antonio,
both coaches agreed the numbers on the
scoreboard were only a secondary con
cern.
Houston head coach Jack Pardee, hop
ing to correct problems evident in the
previous week's scrimmage with the
Cowboys, spent the evening in frustra
tion as the Cowboy defense stuffed the
mn-and-shoot.
"I'd love to look great every time out,
but I didn't figure going in we were
going to look great, because of who we
were going to play," Pardee said. "The
Cowboys are a better team than last year.
"They came in with Troy Aikman and
their first offense getting 30 plays, and
the same went for their defense," he
said. "I knew they were going to do that,
and I knew a lot of our matchups weren't
going to be too good once we started sub
stituting."
Dallas head coach Jimmy Johnson
agreed there was a mismatch, but felt it
was a mental one.
"I think that once you get into your fi
nal line of players, and they're not exec
uting real well, I think there's a tendancy
to get demoralized," Johnson said. "But
I'm not taking anything away from our
players, they played real well.
"I was happy with the way our defense
was disciplined and played the run bet
ter," he said. "They were more disci
plined in their coverage of the run-and-
shoot. We practiced against our offense
every day except this morning, when we
had a 15 minute walk-through against
the run-and-shoot. This is the first time
they've seen the run-and-shoot since
Thursday night."
Pardee said his main concern was to
get a better look at the talent in pressure
situations. One obvious area of concern
was the number of dropped passes by
the receivers, a major problem in the first
half of the 1990 season.
"We'll get through this problem," Par
dee said. "This wasn't a real big night,
but we did end up having some good
catches. Some individuals really helped
themselves tonight. Frank Miotke came
up with some big catches.
"It's too bad Shawn Jefferson got hurt.
I was hoping we'd get to see him, be-
iopmg
cause he'd made some good plays a week
ago in the kicking drills," he said. "A lot
of people tonight got a little better, but
we didn't look good as a team."
Johnson's main concern coming into
the season was to find a capable backup
for quarterback Troy Aikman, and the
scrimmages apparently gave him what
he wanted.
"I'm happy with Cliff Stoudt," John-
RICHARD S. JAMES/The Battalion
Gary Brown (33), a rookie running back from Penn State, looks for a hole in the Dallas defense during the Houston-Dallas scrimmage.
about things, when you have doubts,
you're not going to be an aggressive foot
ball team."
Pardee said despite the Oilers' poor
showing, no one should write them off
yet.
"We're not as bad as we looked to
night," he said. "We didn't leave our first
teams out there, because they know
what they're doing. We're not going to
use the first team in a scrimmage.
"Overall, with everyone on the team,
we didn't look like a good team tonight,"
he said.
son said. "He's done a good job and I
really think he's going to help this of
fense.
"Of course, Troy's a great quar
terback," he said. "I was happy with the
way the offense executed, scoring four
touchdowns with the first unit. Troy did
a great job."
Johnson said his team's impressive
showing was due mainly to the Cow
boys' growing confidence.
"When you're comfortable with what
you're doing, and know what you're
doing, you become more aggressive,"
Johnson said. "When you're unsure
Muecke fighting for third
Oiler quarterback spot
By Jay
me Blaschke
e Battalion
After three seasons in the Canadian
Football League, and one year of retire
ment, former Baylor quarterback Tom
Muecke is battling for a job in the NFL.
Unfortunately for him, his perfor
mance against the Dallas Cowboys in
Sunday night's scrimmage did nothing to
improve his chances of making the
team, and Muecke is the first to admit it.
"I'd say my performance was both
? ood and bad," Muecke said. "The first
2 plays were good. We drove down and
had a chance to take it in (for a touch
down) and I fumble the snap to kill the
drive. Then I came back and threw the
interception. That was bad."
Muecke, who was not drafted by the
NFL after he left Baylor, is not dwelling
on his performance, and takes it with a
grain or salt.
"Of course I wanted to play my best
out there, but I don't know, some bad
things have to happen so you can learn
from them," he said. "Hopefully I'll get
some more opportunities in the presea
son to do some things."
Muecke's main competition is with
Reggie Slack, a 12th round draft pick
from Auburn, who was cut by the Oilers
in pre season last year. The two are fight
ing for the third auarterbqck spot with
the Oilers, behind Warren Moon and
Cody Carlson. The situation isn't new to
Muecke, who competed with Carlson for
playing time when they both played for
Grant Teaff at Baylor.
Fortunately for Muecke, Slack did not
play well in the scrimmage against the
Cowboys, and Carlson's holdout has al
lowed Muecke to increase his practice
time.
RICHARD S. JAMES/The Battalion
Houston backup quarterback Tom Muecke.
Muecke, however, is not pleased that
his position is still open because of poor
play on his teammates' parts. He, like
most of the team, is disappointed with
the ease the Cowboys manhandled
them.
"We scored one time with Warren on
the first series, but I think they (the Cow
boys) were a little bit more ready to play
than we were today," Muecke said. "It
showed on the scoreboard.
"Dallas scored some early touch
downs, and we didn't score for the rest
of the ballgame," he said.
Despite the adversity, Muecke believes
Houston's poor showing was a fluke,
and not an indication of things to come.
"It's early, and these are scrimmages,"
he said. "I think things'll pick up in the
preseason, and I would say by the time
the season starts we'll be rolling full
speed ahead."
Dallas to make AlamoDome
their preseason home in 1993
San Antonio to host
NFL football action
By, %
me Blaschke
e Battalion
The San Antonio Riders of the World
League will not be the only profes
sional football team playing in the Ala
moDome if Jerry Jones has his way.
Jones, an Arkansas businessman
and owner of the Cowboys since 1989,
said his team plans to use the San An
tonio stadium upon its completion.
"We've tentatively — but not defin-
atively — set up a game for preseason
in '93 when the AlamoDome opens,
with the Oilers," Jones said. "I'm ex
cited for all the sports fans in San An
tonio, that the facility's going to be
here so they can be more a part of the
NFL and can see some games.
"Certainly the Cowboys, whenever
we can, are going to take advantage of
that opportunity, and get down here
and be visible to these fans," he said.
"It may be a time when we can play
the Oilers, or it may be another team
we play down here in preseason."
Jones said moving some of the Cow
boy's pre-season games to San Anto
nio was a natural progression.
"A lot of these fans have grown up
in Cowboy families, rooting for the
Cowboys, and so one of the reasons
we went to Austin was to be closer to
the San Antonio Cowboy fans," Jones
said. "We know of the great Cowboy
tradition here, and we are going to al
ways be sensitive to it."
If there were any doubts about the
support the Cowboys would recieve
in San Antonio, the scrimmage with
the Oilers laid those fears to rest. De-
RICHARD S. JAMES/The Battalion
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
spite the fact Houston's training camp
is in the Alamo City, the majority of
the 10,000 plus fans at the scrimmage
were partisan Cowboys.
"We're very pleased with the enthu
siasm and support we've recieved he
re," Jones said. "It was great to hear
all the Cowboy support up there.
"My main job is to do everything I
can for the Cowboys to be out and be a
playoff team and a superbowl conten
der," he said. "I think our fans' loyalty
in San Antone will take care of itself."
19 Years Experience
Ring sizing •
• Chain repair •
• Diamonds mounted •
Watch batteries
Aggie rings sized, stripped
Pearl re-stringing
We Pay CASH for Old Coins, Rolex
Watches, Diamonds and Old Gold
n iJna.
"Very Personal Investments"
313 B South College Ave.
(Skaggs Shopping Center)
846-8916.
Shrimp Boil
Wed Fn 6-9 pm
815 Harvey Rd. Woodstone Center
696-5570
TIME IS RUNNING OUT
TO PICK UP YOUR
1989-90 AGGIELAND
If you ordered a 1990 Aggieland and haven't
picked it up, stop by the English Annex between
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Yearbooks will not be held and refunds will not be
made on books not picked up during the academic
year in which they are published.
Mailing fees are $5, payable at the English Annex.