23,199-j
IE Battamos
Jorthside
npus.
’hysical
5 years
ior, said
Jt notice [
ustodial
always
what we
ve do so
'unny to
le would
leaning
;els the ;
critical |
d hopes
itinue to
ion, we
le said,
am, with
ir Texas
de.”
dll
iter
’ood Ser-
t will hf
•e how it
e.
anky’s, a
*ee years
Battalion
it’s doors
lening on
s a small
that can
laid,
rd to tell
ourt will
ssses on
>
Thursday • June 23, 1994
Ass ieli f e
p|g|p|:gpp§P|
Texas-bred 'Forty Two' embedded in A&M tradition
Jeremy Keddie
The Battalion
W alk into the Dixie Chicken, and
you are likely to find groups of
people gathered around the graf
fiti covered tables. Generally scattered on
these tables are pitchers of beer, someone’s
keys, packs of cigarettes, and dominoes.
And the dominoes, as well as the beer,
will remain on the tables from the moment
four willing players walk in, until they are
ushered out at 1 a.m. to the sounds of
“Good Night Irene.”
Phrases like, “Whose shake is it?”, “Win
dows are trump?”, “No splash, no plunge,
no sevens, and forced lows,” and “ThatTl
walk” are scantily heard over songs like
“Colorado Kool-Aid.”
They are phras.es from a game referred
to as “Forty Two”, alihougli some will
emphasize that it is “Texas Forty
Two.” After all, the game was in
vented in 1887, by W. A. Thomas
of Garner, Texas, at the age of
eleven as a means to avert bore
dom.
In an article in The Dallas
Morning News, Thomas ex
plained how he came up
with “Forty Two:”
“There was a strong
prejudice against any
form of card playing
in my household,”
said Thomas.
“Dominoes were
not regarded as
instruments of
the devil, so I got
to fooling around with
the possibility of bidding
with numbers.”
“Forty Two” is similar to
“Spades” with partners trying to win
“tricks” while capturing points. Each
game consists of seven rounds,
and is worth one point plus
the points won from each
trick. Points can be won by
capturing dominoes worth
multiples of five. There are
35 total points in the domi
noes, and if you add up the
“point dominoes” and the
number of tricks, you have
42.
So what makes this
complicated game so in
teresting to people?
Hubert, who wanted to be referred to by
his first name, played in the “Forty Two”
state championship in Halletsville.
“It’s an easy way to meet new people,”
said Hubert.
And occasionally relationships do
emerge •.from- playing -dominoes. ... Y v t ,...
James.TayJor, who has been a pa
tron of the Dixie Chicken for the
past four years, met his girl
friend playing dominoes.
“My girlfriend and I
have had more fights over
dominoes than anything
else,” Taylor said. “She gets
upset when we play on oppo
site teams and she loses.”
However, Enoch Phetteplace,
who claims to have played domi
noes since he was old enough to
know.what the “pips” - or dots —
added up to, said the psychological
aspect intrigues him.
“There are so many variations in
hands, and it’s interesting to see how oth
ers are going to play,” Phetteplace said.
However, reasons for why people play
dominoes run deeper than the pile of ash
left after Bonfire, and dominoes are as pop
ular as the long-standing A&M tradition.
Scott Pitzer, sales manager of Ihiremco
Manufacturing, attributes the populari
ty of dominoes in Bryan-
College Sta
tion main
ly to the
students.
He claims
that A&M is
the epicen
ter of domi
noes.
“Dominoes
today comes
from an agri
cultural back
ground,” said
Pitzer, “and lots of kids at A&M come from
rural towns.”
Puremco Manufacturing, located in
Waco, is the nation’s last mp-nufacturer of
dominoes, and sells over 100,00,0,spts.^
ypap, with the A&M logo reigning as th^
best-selling 1 design. Pitzer also explained
that traditions play a large role in the pop
ularity of dominoes here.
Some might say playing at the Dixie
Chicken is sort of a tradition. In exchange
for an ID, the bar will loan you a set of
dominoes. There are players of all skills
and styles, and should the domino sets run
out, someone can usually be found looking
for an extra.
Although “Forty Two” is the most popu
lar game played at the Dixie Chicken,
some still prefer to play straight dominoes,
arguing that “trumps” make “Forty Two” a
game of luck.
Aside from having the most players in
the region, Hubert said the best players of
“Forty Two” come from the Bryan-College
Station area.
“There’s no other place in the world
where they play ‘Texas Forty Two’ as much
as they do here,” said Hubert. “And the
better you get, the more you want to play.”
‘I ve never missed a game'
Local filmmaker
captures 23 years of
A&M athletics and
his own slice of life
Christi Erwin
The Battalion
S ometimes it’s the people on
the sidelines who make the
biggest difference.
This holds true for B.B. Hol
land’s contributions to the A&M
Athletic Department.
Holland, Class of ‘55, video
tapes football games and prac
tices and basketball games for
the athletic de
partment.
The coaches
and the players
use the tapes to see what they
are doing right or wrong and to
plan for future games, he said.
“I’ve been everywhere — 258
consecutive games, 23 years
worth,” Holland said. “I’ve nev
er missed a game.”
Holland said he has seen
some changes in A&M football
over the years.
“Practice has not changed
that much, but the players keep
on getting bigger,” he said.
George Hamilton, his part
ner of 22 years and photojour
nalism teacher at A&M Consoli
dated High School, agrees with
Holland.
“I agi.j6’3 and the players
used to be about the same size
as me,” he said. “Now I look at
their shoulder blades.”
Hamilton said that the play
ers attitudes have also changed.
“Since Coach Bellard and
definitely Sherrill, players are
more carefully chosen, more in
telligent and have better
mouths,” Hamilton said. “To
day, we have good down-to-
earth players who are easier to
get along with.”
Holland said not only have
the players changed, but so has
technology.
We used to film the games
and send the film to Houston
for processing. Then a change
in print processing made it pos
sible to install a film lab below
Kyle Field, he said.
Now with tape and Kyle
Field’s state-of-the-art video
lab, coaches can view practice
instantly, he said.
Holland said Athletic Direc
tor Wally Groff helped him get
the funding for the video lab.
Groff said Holland’s video
tapes are important to the
coaching staff and serve as a
teaching aid for the players.
“He (Holland) is a natural
since he has the time, desire
and great ability,” Groff said.
“Whether bowl or regular game,
we can count on B.B. Holland
being there.”
Holland said he benefits
from his job with the athletic
department because it allows
him to travel with the team and
see things he would otherwise
not have the chance to.
“When we go to away games,
George (Hamilton) and I rent a
car and go sightseeing,” he said.
“It will take us 16 hours to
get to Texas Tech,” Holland
said. “The most interesting
route is not always the shortest
route.”
Except for Holland’s sight
seeing trips, he has lived in Col
lege Station all his life, and has
seen the city and the A&M cam
pus grow.
His grandparents lived next
to the old creamery, where
West Campus is today.
Holland said it is strange for
him to see all those “fancy
buildings” because he remem
bers when his grandparents
1 lived there. He said a tree with
a double trunk^still marks the
spot wfc^e his grandparents’
home was once located.
Holland received both his un
dergraduate and masters in his
tory and education at A&M. He
taught 8th-grade history for 16
years, taught two years at the
high school level and was prin
cipal of South Knoll elementary
for another 16 years.
Holland, who is now retired,
says he loves to “piddle.”
To him, “piddling” is restor
ing Studebakers and winning
first place at two national car
shows.
“Piddling” also involves tap
ing athletic games, “dabbling”
with woodwork, taking photos
and maintaining a well-
groomed putting green in his
front yard.
“I’m a jack of all trades,”
Holland said, “but the master of
none.”
OFILE
Welcome to
Warren E. Mayberry The 15-acre facility houses
7 he Battalion more than 100 animals, includ-
E ver wondered where the
deer and the antelope
roam? Try looking on the
west side of campus at the
Wildlife Research Center,
where they are joined by lions,
ostriches and coyotes.
The center was started in the
mid-1980s by Dr. James Mc-
Craty, former head of the physi
ology department.
Dr. James Herman, veteri
nary clinical associate, said ani
mals were donated to Texas
A&M from a private collection to
start the center. Through this
collection, the center was able to
expand.
“We sold the founding ani
mals to improve the center,”
Herman said.
Proceeds built the existing
wildlife fencing and added a 12-
unit working chute in the split
level lab. The design of this
chute allows the technicians to
work safely with the smallest to
the largest animals, Herman
said.
“We are especially apprecia
tive of the chute design when
working with deer,” Herman
said. “Deer are too small to work
in normal cattle chutes, so we
had to design a chute that would
allow us to adapt to any ani
mal.”
mg an orphaned lioness which is
part of an embryo transfer pro
ject to save Siberian tigers.
Embryo transfer and artificial
insemination are two techniques
the center uses to save endan
gered species.
“The Iranian goat is our cur
rent embryo project,” Herman
said. “This goat is on the brink
of extinction.”
The veterinarians transfer
embryos from the female of the
species and place them in do
mestic sheep, and much of the
center’s projects help human re
search, Herman said.
“Antelope and tigers aren’t
the only creatures aided by the
center’s studies,” Herman said.
“Humans are helped by our re
search just as much as other an
imals.”
The various species of wildlife
are used as a model for research,
and can in some cases prove bet
ter than many of the traditional
research animals such as ro
dents and domestic animals.
One project where animals
serve as a model is in the study
of tuberculosis in deer. The re
search on deer and the spread of
TB from deer to cattle may
break the portion of the cycle af
fecting humans.
“The chain found in deer in
the jun
terms of the spread of TB is from
organism to deer to cattle and
then to humans,” Herman said.
The center is able to help an
other health area, human “out
breaks,” he said.
“The recent outbreak of rabies
in South Texas is one of our
biggest projects,” Herman said.
“We are trying to create a vac
cine for rabies much like (what
is) used in Europe.”
He said the research involves
the use of a vaccine first tested
in foxes in Georgia. The hope is
the serum will work on coyotes
who are spreading the disease in
South Texas. This serum will
help producers in the area com
bat the disease without killing
coyotes, Herman said.
Producer-oriented research
stimulates much of the center’s
activities.
Ostriches have become a
large agricultural resource in
the last several years. However,
not much is known about the
flightless birds.
Dr. Blue McClendon, a profes
sor of veterinary physiology, is
studying ostriches and their use
as an agricultural resource.
The National Ratite Associa
tion funds research to study the
use of ostrich meat, oils, and
skins as agricultural commodi
ties, and this research is in part
why the center was founded, Mc
Clendon said. The center’s exis
tence allows the technicians the
ability to answer the infamous
research question, “What would
happen if...?”
Knowledge for knowledge’s
sake is why Herman feels the re
search center was founded.
“We also wanted to have a
place where students could gain
hands-on experience, and the
center allows us to do just that,”
Herman said.
Mike McLendon, a veterinary
student and technician at the
center, feels there are more ben
efits to the center than just the
research.
“The center gives graduates
and undergraduates an opportu
nity to gain experience with re
search.”
Students see a process from
the animal stage to the lab and
back to practical application, h<
said.
“A neat thing about working
at the center is the chance to d<
work that not only helps ani
mals, but people as well, while
hanging around with people wl
enjoy the beauty of animals,”
McLendon said.