Page 3 day • July 19, mblic school.†[ by Congress earlier 2000 education bill, loals 2000 is volun- itary and Secondary er reach, including i the country, railed for a national 'iolence and greater irriculum that have ng students how to 1, without debate, a ion of strict codes of zero tolerance of acts of violence on )dium r’s nutritionists >ut portions of the popular Mexican at table-service rants in Chicago, i, San Francisco ishington. al portions of the lish were mixed, ample of each was an independent testing, said Bon- bman, director of n for the center, man said there single culprit in i cuisine, but that blem starts with ; dishes — Mexi- s, refried beans, ream and gua- — and is magni- i he added entree. ie 15 dishes, the | found the only it†to be chicken j ith flour tortillas, ly when eaten the trimmings, vorst choice was ios platter. “You | at a stick of but- j a half teaspoons j nan said of the j se-stuffed, deep- >ped with cheese i lakes it a popu- eduled on Mon- losed, he said, irnaments that ying time,†he rovide a quality rs.†; Creek and ou trages, said he pened in 1992,†re kind of golf ging from the ice I wanted to' er gloves and a dio was stolen i property. t bicycles were office was en- g-distance tele- d op, a motorist ithout a valid lion ising fork tur ns S96 $PORTS Coaches, players excited about move A&M looks forward to the Big 12 "Anytime there is a change, it will be a fun experience. It's going to be fun to have 'new blood.'" —Danny McCray, Aggie football player Tuesday • July 19, 1994 New center overshadows Holler House The fires of Hell are burning low, and it’s starting to get a little frosty down there. Lucifer has got the old parka out and is wondering what is going on. What is going on? Well, A&M has its special events center...al most. The Board of Regents still has to approve the appropriation of funds for the project. But since the Regents sent the proposal to the coordinating board in the first place, it is very likely the funds will be appropriated. The center that A&M has been wanting and needing for so long will be a reality within a few short years. If the work goes as planned, the Class of 1997 will be the first to have commencement in i the new center. Many students will be gone by then, victims of graduation. Their sojourn into the real world will keep them from being able to enjoy the center as much. There might be the occasional road trip back to College Station to see the Aggies or Lady Aggies play for a national championship or to see their sons and daughters graduate (with hon ors of course). But there will not be that feeling of seeing the new cen ter every day. So those who graduate will have to live with memories of G. Rollie White. Earlier this year, the Lady Ag gies defeated the then No. 4-ranked Texas Tech Lady Raiders. There have been numerous Musters and graduations held. This past season the men’s basketball team finished its best season since 1986. G. Rollie entered its 40th year during the 1993-1994 season. It was opened in 1954 with 7,500 seats. Since 1954, A&M has grown to be the third largest university in the country with over 40,000 stu dents. G. Rollie is too small for the University’s needs. But, even though it is too small, G. Rollie has character. It is like a man who wins the lottery, but will not buy a new car to replace his ‘68 Mustang, with the upholstery ripped, the primer showing on the fender and the pink, fuzzy dice hanging on the rearview mirror. Someone asks him why he does not go out and buy a Ferrari with all of his new money. “Well, I guess I just like old Bessie,†he says. “She’s been around for so long, and she’s never let me down before.†It is the same with G. Rollie. Whenever former students who did not know the new center think back on an Aggie basketball game, they will think of “the Holler House.†When they think of graduation, they will think of G. Rollie. Soon A&M will scrap its beat-up Mustang and opt for the new Fer rari. The approval for the new cen ter is long overdue, but even so, G. Rollie will be missed. Maybe not for the cramped spaces and shabby exterior, but for the good times that its memory can conjure up. Some people thought that G. Rollie would be A&M’s coliseum for a number of years into the future. “The coordinating board will never approve it,†they said. But the board did approve it. The impossible has happened. A&M, the cold day in hell has arrived. By Brian Coats The Battalion Texas A&M has seen a lot of changes during the hundred-or-so years it has fielded athletic teams. It has gone from an all-male, all-military institution with limited resources to success and prominence on a national level. Part two of three Now, a new chapter is about to begin as A&M joins the Big 12. Coaches and players at Texas A&M are enthusiastically viewing the move to the Big 12 as an exciting change. They are predicting positive results and success for the Aggies when league play begins. Football has been the main focus of the switch. Small football crowds and mediocre teams probably led to the demise of the Southwest Conference and the change as much as anything else. The SWC, which in the last few years has become a one-team show and at best was sending two teams to bowls, could not compete on a national level with other conferences. A&M football coach R.C. Slocum said he is sad to see the SWC go, but college football fans are in store for some excitement when Big 12 football begins. “I grew up in Texas with the South west Conference,†he said. “I have sen timental feelings for it, but life involves change. It is a great move for Texas A&M - the caliber of competition will be better, and fans are going to come to games like A&M-Nebraska just to see good college football.†A&M Senior Associate Athletic Di rector Lynn Hickey said the Big 12 is going to be a women’s basketball “mega-conference.†“Last year, seven out of the 12 teams went to the NCAA tournament, and three made it to the sweet-sixteen,†she said. “It’s going to be the premiere women’s basketball conference.†She said extra benefits, like new re cruiting grounds and increased expo sure will only add to the excitement. The coach with the biggest smiles around campus has to be Bob Brock, the A&M softball coach. His team has been an independent since its inception in 1980. Now they are joining a confer ence with quality softball programs. “I am real excited,†he said. “We are in a strong conference with lots of well- known name people...this is good for soft- ball, good for the schools, good for every one involved. It’s great for the kids.†Brock said being an independent is frustrating because it is hard to sched ule home games. It is also hard to schedule games in April because many other teams are playing conference games. He said with the move to the new conference those are now just prob lems of the past. Even some players are getting caught up in the excitement. Leeland McElroy and Danny McCray, both sophomores on the Aggie football team, should still be here when Big 12 play begins in 1996, and both are looking forward to the change in competition. “I am excited about it,†McElroy said. “This is going to help in the long run.†McCray said he cannot wait to play some of the teams in the new confer ence on a continual basis. “Anytime there is change, it will be a fun experience,†he said. “It’s going to be fun to have ‘new blood.’†Wally Groff, A&M’s athletic director, is anticipating the extra revenue the new league will bring as well as the ex citement of new opponents. “Financially, the television is going to bring in about $1/2 million more to each school, each year,†he said. “Com petitively, the league could be one of the best in every sport.†No controversy — for a change Oilers' training camp starts calmly in contrast to storms of last season SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) — The closest thing to a controversy as the Houston Oilers opened training camp Monday was David Williams’ announcement that his wife Debi is pregnant again. Williams, the starting right tack le, skipped a game last season to be with Debi for the birth of their first child. The Oilers punished him for being absent, setting off a nation wide uproar that was just one of many distractions Houston endured last season. There should be no Babygate this season. The Williams’ second child isn’t expected until February, after the season is over. Maternity issues aside, the Oilers opened training camp at Trinity Uni versity with an unusual calm that was a stark contrast to how last sea son unfolded. They had Babygate, Buddy gate, a quarterback controversy and the death of defensive lineman Jeff Aim, who committed suicide after seeing his best friend die in an auto mishap. There won’t be another Buddygate unless former Oilers’ defensive coor dinator Buddy Ryan and assistant head coach Kevin Gilbride get into another fight when Houston plays the Arizona Cardinals on Dec. 4. Buddy Ryan, now the Cardinals’ head coach, slugged Gilbride during a celebrated one-punch fight during the Oilers’ game against the New York Jets on Jan. 2 in the As trodome. “I never worried about what he (Ryan) said when he was here,†Gilbride said. “I’m not concerned now.†Williams says the team will bene fit from less turmoil this season. “It’s rough enough when the play ers are jawing back and forth but when the coaches are doing it too it’s just a tough situation,†he said. Second-year linebacker Micheal Barrow, a favorite of Ryan’s, says he enjoys playing for Jeff Fisher, a Ryan protege who uses slightly more mel low techniques as the new defensive coordinator. “I wish Buddy was here, but Jeff’s a nice replacement,†Barrow said. “Buddy told us to go kill them (the Oilers offense). Jeff is more like, ‘Be careful with the quarterback; we need him.’ Buddy would be saying knock him out.†The Oilers traded Warren Moon to the Minnesota Vikings, giving pa tient backup Cody Carlson his chance to become the starter. Former Vikings quarterback Sean Salisbury is Carlson’s backup. Contract holdouts spiced training camp last season, but the Oilers be gan camp Monday with only two starters not present for the morning workout — cornerback Cris Dish- man, who has agreed to terms, and guard Doug Dawson. “The thing that’s comforting is that we’re all starting step one to gether,†Gilbride said. “We make progress together and don’t have to slow our progress for the late ar rivals.†Gary Brown, who startled the Oil ers with a 1,000-yard rushing perfor mance in only eight starts last sea son, expects to continue making progress with a full season of start ing assignments. He likes the camp mood, too. “There’s no turmoil, so everything is fine,†Brown said. “Everybody is working hard to get to a certain place and that’s the Super Bowl. If we can keep focused we’ll be fine.†Not everyone is pleased with the peaceful beginning of training camp. Wide receiver Haywood Jeffires expects something to break out soon. “I think controversy helps,†he said. “Every successful team has con troversy. I’ll go crazy if someone doesn’t start a fight. It wouldn’t be an Oiler practice.†Jeffires wore jersey No. 80 to Monday’s practice, honoring former starter Curtis Duncan, who was waived last week. “Drew Hill is gone and now Cur tis. I just wanted to show my sup port,†Jeffires said. “I’ve lost all my friends on the team.†BllMpl 11 §|li 1 The Associated Press Houston Oilers Pat Carter (46) and Roderick Lewis (49) work out during their two-week minicamp in June. The Oilers’ training camp began Monday at Trinity University in San Antonio. NBA resolves court disputes Baseball players move closer to strike NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA’s salary cap, col lege draft and right of first refusal were declared, legal Monday by a fed-up judge who urged the league and its players to stay out of court in the fu ture. The decision by U.S. District Judge Kevin Duffy fell in line with previous rulings giving pro sports wide latitude to work out labor agreements outside of some laws limiting other businesses. Duffy himself downplayed the legal significance, noting the issue had been in federal court at least three times before and saying he was “convinced ... neither party cares about this litigation or the re sult.†“Both are simply using the court as a bargaining chip in the collective bargaining process,†he said. The ruling freed teams to immediately resume signing contracts with players, a practice that had been stopped by the court pending resolution of the dispute. Duffy rejected the NBA Players Association’s ar gument that the salary cap violated antitrust law, saying the NBA was not subject to the law as long as it has a collective bargaining relationship with the union. Duffy criticized the NBA’s lawyers for “sharp and shady practices of the type that most ethical lawyers shun†for filing its lawsuit as a pre-emp tive strike because the union had threatened to sue. The union countersued. Promising everything was now open to negotia tion, NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik said he hoped “now the players will come back to the bargaining table so we can move forward.†“We think we have to find a system that enables us and the players to have a proper and fair divi sion of the revenues,†he said. “If there’s another system, we’re prepared to talk about that.†Buck Williams of the Portland Trail Blazers, president of the NBA Players Association, said: ‘The most important point that Judge Duffy want ed to make is he wants us to settle this thing at the collective bargaining table. It may take a good while, but eventually that’s what’s going to hap pen.†The players plan to appeal. “... Very quickly,†promised Frederick Schwartz Jr., a lawyer for the players. “It seems to us that it is a rather strange result that if you agreed to something you are stuck with it as long as the union exists.†Duffy urged both sides to bargain. “No court, no matter how highly situated, can replace this time-honored manner of labor dispute resolution,†he said. “Rather than clogging the courts with unnecessary litigation, the parties should pursue this course.†NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball players rejected the owners’ salary cap proposal Monday, moving the sides closer to a confrontation that could in terrupt the season. During a four-hour bargaining session, union head Donald Fehr asked owners to return the threshold for salary arbitration to two years in stead of three and to raise the minimum salary from $109,000 to between $175,000 and $200,000. Fehr said the union believed management’s proposal would transfer at least $1.5 billion from players to owners if baseball’s revenues rise at an average of 7 percent per year. He said the very concept of a cap was difficult for players to consider. “We don’t think there’s any reason to go down that route,†Fehr said. While the parties intend to meet again Wednesday, the salary cap dispute is threaten ing to cause sport’s eighth work stoppage in 22 years. Fehr said the union’s executive board will meet again by July 31, either in person or by telephone, and will again consider whether to set a strike date. “When there are other reasonable options, that’s the one you consider last,†Fehr said. “But if need be, that’s the one you act on.†Owners say they need a salary cap for small- market clubs to remain competitive and would guarantee players $1 billion over seven years if players agree to the cap. Management-negotia tor Richard Ravitch said players were complete ly ignoring owners’ concerns. “I was extremely disappointed that we did not receive a proposal that was responsive to the problems in the game we are trying to address,†Ravitch said. Owners have tied changing their internal rev enue sharing to players agreeing to a salary cap. Fehr has called a cap un American. “If it’s so un-American, how come football and basketball have it?†Ravitch said. Fehr criticized the NBA’s salary cap and right-of-first-refusal system, saying it has de stroyed free agency and led to just four teams winning the championship from 1982-93. In the last five years, according to the base ball union, 290 NBA contracts were negotiated with right-of-first refusal players, and just two players signed with new teams. Fehr said eight saw offers matched and 280 received no offers. As part of baseball owners’ salary-cap plan, salary arbitration would be abolished and play ers with between four and six years of major league service would have right-of-first refusal free agency. “Half the teams are out of the free-agent mar ket every year because they’re over the salary cap,†Fehr said.