V'l 2,1996
The Battalion
tian
Lved
they cannot
Week,
main source
-shirt sale,
organizations
no fundine
sity.
a sophomore
r, is a conn
ection Week
is to talk to
ts are over,
to them,
on Week has
at I believe,”
k has helped
liefs and giv-
to share my
TUESDAY
April 2, 1996
Sports
Page 7
Irvin indicted on two drug counts
The Cowboys ’ all-time leading receiver could face up to 20
years in prison if he is convicted of the charges.
DALLAS (AP) — Michael
Irvin, the Dallas Cowboys’ all-
time leading receiver and one
of the NFL’s most popular
players, was indicted on two
counts of drug possession Mon
day. He faces up to 20 years in
prison if convicted.
Irvin and two female com
panions were indicted by a
grand jury less than a month
after police found them in a
motel room littered with co
caine and marijuana.
The indictment charges
Irvin with felony possession of
at least 4 grams of cocaine and
misdemeanor possession of
marijuana.
Irvin, former teammate Al
fredo Roberts and the two
women, described by police as
topless dancers, were found in
an Irving motel room on
March 4 with drugs and para
phernalia.
Jail officials said Irvin was
arrested shortly after the in
dictments were returned, then
released on $5,500 bond.
He was seen entering the
grand jury courtroom about
1:30 p.m. Monday and was
seen leaving the Lew Sterrett
Justice Center with Roberts
about 3 p.m.
Just 10 weeks earlier, Irvin
helped the
Cowboys to
their third
Super Bowl
championship
in four years.
Telephone
messages left
with Irvin’s
attorney,
Kevin Clancy,
were not im
mediately re
turned. No
trial date has
been set for the case.
A statement released by the
NFL said:
“We are aware of today’s
grand jury charges and will
closely monitor the case. Play
ers ultimately convicted of
drug-related violations of law
are subject to disciplinary ac
tion by the commissioner.
“Pending resolution of such
court cases, the NFL drug poli
cy and program for drugs of
abuse and alcohol states that
players involved in drug-relat
ed incidents are required to
undergo on a confidential ba
sis a medical evaluation by in
dependent doctors that could
result in a mandatory treat
ment program.
In addition, players in the
drug program are subject to
10 tests per month for two
years. Failure to comply with
any portion of the policy
would result in fines leading
to suspension.”
There was no decision on
whether to indict Roberts, a
31-year-old business associ
ate of Irvin, said a spokes
woman with the district at
torney’s office.
Irvin and one of the women,
22-year-old Angela Renee
Beck, face punishment of two
to 20 years and a fine of
$10,000 if convicted on the co
caine charge.
The misdemeanor charge
is punishable by up to 180
days in county jail and or a
$2,000 fine.
Beck was charged with
felony possession of at least 4
grams of cocaine and misde
meanor possession of marijua
na. Jasmine J. Nabwangu, 21,
was charged with possessing
less than a gram of cocaine, a
felony, and with misdemeanor
possession of marijuana.
Nabwangu could face 180
days to two years in jail and or
a $10,000 fine if convicted of
the cocaine charge.
Police said Beck claimed the
drugs belonged to her, and of
ficials estimated their worth to
be $6,000.
She was the only one arrest
ed when the drugs were seized
on March 4.
Roberts and the women had
been offered immunity from
prosecution for their testimo
ny, Fort Worth television sta
tion KXAS had reported.
Irving police said they
found the drugs and parapher
nalia in the motel room after
responding to a motel man
ager’s complaint about a noisy
party involving possible prosti
tution and drug use.
Irvin
Kentucky justifies
preseason hype
The Wildcats defeated Syracuse, 76-67
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.
(AP) — Kentucky has its first
national championship in 18
years, the one it was supposed
to win all season.
The Wildcats got it with a
76-67 victory over Syracuse
on Monday night, a loss that
earned the Orangemen the
respect few gave them
going in.
The sixth national title in
school history, second only to
UCLA’s 11, came through the
scoring of senior Tony Delk
and freshman Ron Mercer.
And, of course, the famed pres
sure defense and the ability to
use college basketball’s deep
est roster.
Syracuse, a 14-point under
dog, has the most NCAA tour
nament victories without a ti
tle. A 36th NCAA win would
have meant a first national
championship.
Now, this Syracuse team
joins the one-point losers to
Indiana in the 1987 champi
onship game in sustaining the
most bitter defeats in school
history.
Delk finished with 24 points
and tied the championship
game record with seven 3-
pointers. The Wildcats fin
ished with 12 3s, something
critical in cracking Syracuse’s
2-3 zone. Kentucky tied the
championship game record for
3s by a team.
Mercer came up with a ca
reer-high 20 points, all but six
of the points the deep Ken
tucky bench provided.
More importantly, the extra
bodies enabled the Wildcats to
keep up the defensive pres
sure; Syracuse finished with
24 turnovers, 19 more than it
had in the semifinal win over
Mississippi State.
John Wallace, the senior
who returned to school rather
than enter the NBA last year,
finished with 29 points and 10
rebounds. But he left the game
in tears when he fouled out
with 1:06 to play and Ken
tucky leading 72-67.
Hard-working Dingwall strives
to achieve heart of a champion
By Tom Day
The Battalion
Humble, yet hungry.
These words may be the motto of
Nancy Dingwall’s favorite profes
sional sports team, the Houston
Rockets, but they provide an accu
rate description of herself, as well.
The Lady Aggie Tennis player is
not loud or flashy, nor does she
overwhelm opponents on the court,
ftdlike the two-time defending
NBA champions, she’s a competitor
that does what it takes to win.
“She’s not a real hard hitter
or too flashy, but she hangs in
there,” A&M Head Coach Bobby
Kleinecke said. “She has a good
tennis mind to where she works
through the opponent and finds
ways to hit their weaknesses.”
The keys to exploiting those
faults, Kleinecke said, lies in Ding
wall’s persistence as a player.
“She’s kind of pesky,” Kleinecke
said. “Some people might come in
and think they’re going to dominate
her in the first set, but Nancy finds
away to hang in there and put her
self in a position to win the match.
“She can change her game to
do what it takes to beat an oppo
nent, and that’s probably her
biggest asset.”
That strategy hats carried Ding
wall a long way in her three-year
stint at A&M. The junior already
ranks in the school’s career top 10
in both singles and doubles victories
and is currently ranked No. 77 na
tionally in singles play. She is also
ranked No. 40 with senior Wilson
Pate in doubles play.
Despite spending long hours on
the court practicing, Dingwall cred
os her mental approach to the
Same as a key to her success.
“It’s not so much working hard
as it is my mental game,” Dingwall
said. “It takes concentration and
keeping my mind on the match the
whole time and not losing focus like
some players do.”
As a freshman, Dingwall was an
immediate success, making an im
pact as the team’s leader in singles
and doubles wins. She also paired
up with Pate to earn All-Southwest
Conference honors and a berth in
the NCAA Championships.
“She’s pretty much an all-court
player,” Kleinecke said. “She can
play the net and she’s pretty con
sistent from the baseline. She’s at
the top of the lineup in singles
and doubles and she’s had a lot of
success at both, so she’s a very in
tegral part of our team.
“But more important than that,
she’s helped Wilson with our lead
ership roles and keeping the team
on track.”
Stepping into that role was
an easy decision for Dingwall,
who hopes to be the team’s cap
tain next season.
“Last year, we kind of had a
problem with leadership and we
had a lot of tension on the team,”
Dingwall said. “This season, we
needed someone to step forward
and let everyone know what their
roles were. I’m really excited about
(the chance to be team captain)
next year.”
Although she has been satisfied
with her accomplishments on the
court, Dingwall said her biggest de
sire still eludes her.
“Overall, I’ve been pretty happy,
but I’m still wanting to reach All-
American this year or next year,”
Dingwall said. “That’s been my
main goal the past three years.”
Kleinecke said she thinks
Dingwall has a good shot at
achieving her goals.
“She’s shooting for AH-SWC and a
conference title, and that’s something
Rony Angkriwan The Battalion
Nancy Dingwall takes a moment to
reflect at the Omar Smith Center.
that’s still up there for grabs in both
singles and doubles,” she said. ‘But
we’re also hoping that shell make it
to the NCAA Tournament and have
a good shot at All-American.
“She’s had some great wins and
she’s capable of beating anybody.”
In addition to her high expecta
tions on the tennis court, Dingwall
has what she believes to be even
loftier goals off the court. A member
of the GTE/SWC Tennis Academic
Honor team as a sophomore, the ac
counting major has used her schol
arship to her full advantage in the
classroom as well as on the courts.
“I realize I’m here to go to
school, so my main goal is acade
mic,” Dingwall said. “I want to
work for a Big Six (accounting)
firm after I graduate, and right
now I’m applying for internships
for next summer with one of
them. That’s what I’m aiming for.”
Rangers’ past filled with injury, insult
Among other things, Papa was a
big Texas Rangers fan. Let me em
phasize was.
When I was kid, he and I used to
go outside on warm summer
evenings and listen to Rangers
games on his Sears pocket-sized
transistor radio while he watered the
front lawn. But that all changed one
night back in ’79 — the night he be
came known around the neighbor
hood as “Leone the Blasphemer.”
The Rangers were playing some
body (I can’t remember who) and had
squandered scoring opportunities the
whole game but were somehow only
down by a run in the bottom of the
ninth. That’s when they suffered
three agonizingly consecutive strike
outs after loading the bases with no
outs. The obscenities that reverberat
ed up and down the street ceased
only when Dad took a moment to
hurl his little radio into Mrs. Holley’s
weeping willow across the street, two
houses down. That’s a true story.
Ever since then, Dad has re
fused to listen, watch or read about
the Rangers. He hasn’t missed a
whole lot during his boycott — just
season after season of bad pitching,
bad defense, bad luck and bonehead
front office decisions.
The old song says you’ve gotta
“accentuate the positive, eliminate
the negative, and don’t mess with
Mr. In-Between,” but with the
Rangers, there ain’t any positive to
accentuate and there’s too much of
the low down, rotten dirty blues to
keep off your shoes.
After all, after 24 years in Ar
lington, the Rangers now head into
their silver season as the only fran
chise besides the Florida Marlins
never to taste the sweetness of post
season fruit. Washington Senators?
There’s been five second-place fin
ishes but no American League West
pennant. Even when Texas had a
back door claim to first place with a
52-62 record in 1994, a players
strike ended the season in August.
Tack on 11 more pennant-less sea
sons before the hapless Washington
Senators relocated to the Lone Star
State, and that makes a grand total
of 35 years of jack-squat.
My parents have been married
almost as long, and they have man
aged, at the very least, to produce
two attractive, well-adjusted chil
dren and a substantial collection of
Anne Murray Christmas albums.
The lack of a postseason excur
sion, however, doesn’t quite explain
the depths of doom shared among
Rangers fans. With the exception of
Nolan Ryan’s two no-hitters and
the 1989 game when he registered
his 5,000th career, the Rangers
have few highlights — in fact, this
is a franchise that seems to keep
finding new ways to knife its fans
in the gut with lowlights.
This is the franchise that once had
and then traded away the talents of
Bill Madlock, Dave Righetti, Ron
Darling, Dave Stewart, Rob Nen,
Sammy Sosa and Wilson Alvarez.
This is the franchise that selected
Jeff Kunkel as the third overall pick
(repeat, third overall pick) in the
1983 draft. Anybody seen Jeff lately?
This is the franchise that that
used the fifth overall pick in 1989
to select Donald Harris, former
Texas Tech defensive back, over
Frank Thomas.
This is the franchise that was
fined $250,000 when owner Eddie
Chiles went against the league and
signed free-agent drug-abuser
Steve Howe in 1987. Howe would
disappear during a mini-camp the
following year, apparently getting
lost while snorting every white line
in North Texas.
It gets worse. No team has ever
had as much bad luck in terms of
ill-timed injuries. Third baseman
Dean Palmer rupturing a bicep and
missing the rest of what could’ve
been a breakthrough season last
year. Jose Canseco ripping a an el
bow ligament while pitching the
end of a blowout loss in Boston in
1993, which caused him to miss the
last four months of the season. (I
'Cvon’t mention Canseco’s soccer-
style, home run producing head
blimp while playing right field in
Cleveland in 1994).
^Canseco’s elbow blow-out doesn’t
even merit the Rangers goofiest in
jury award. That would go to center
fielder Oddibe McDowell, who cut
his hand in a butter knife mishap
at the Rangers “Welcome Home”
luncheon before the start of the
1987 season opener.
But the most telling incident
conveying the overall doom prevail
ing over the Rangers organization
occurred in the winter of 1985 and
involved pitcher Dave Stewart.
While on vacation in Los Angeles,
Stewart was arrested with a trans
vestite prostitute named Elston
Tyler, a.k.a. Lucille. The arrest took
place two days before Stewart was
to receive the Ranger’s Good Guy
Award. Ouch, Dave.
This season doesn’t look any
more promising. Once again, the
pitching staff, as a whole, is a whole
lot of nothing. Bobby Witt is the
pitcher with the most career victo
ries, if that tells you something.
Shortstop Benji Gil was put on the
DL last week with a bad back. And
you never know how many games
Juan Gonzales is going to miss with
a sudden case of back spasms. Play
offs, here we come.
And you Astros fans think you
have it bad. The only thing you’ve
suffered through was the orange
and yellow rainbow uniform period.
Join The Aggie Orientation Leader
Program! This is your chance to draw from
your experiences and help orient thousands
of new students this summer.
Pick up applications at the
following locations:
- the third floor of the Y.M.C.A.
Building
- the Student Programs Office
- Student Activities in the
Koldus Building
- Multicultural Services (137 MSC)
- Support Services for Students With
Disabilities (126 Koldus Building)
INFO SESSION: 4/1/96 @ 8:30 p.m. 110 Koldus
Applications Due Tuesday, April 9 5:00 P.M.
Questions ? Call 862-2746 or stop by the
third floor of Y.M.C.A.
JOIN US
as we welcome
Charles F. Hermann-
Director of the
George Bush School
of Government
and
Public Service
Tuesday, April 2
8:30 p.m.
Rudder 502