le Battalion
Sports
Page 9 • Tuesday, April 27, 1999
Equality in athletics
A&M to add new women's sport for Fall '99 semester
Title IX Tallies
Varsity Level I teams for A&M
Men’s sports
Football
Baseball
Basketball
Indoor track & field
Outdoor track & field
Golf
Tennis
Swimming & diving
Cross country
men's and women's athletic programs:
Women’s sports
Volleyball
Softball
Basketball
Indoor track & field
Outdoor track & field
Golf
Tennis
Swimming & diving
Cross country
Soccer
“An athletics program can he
considered gender equitable when
the participants in both the men’s
and women’s sports programs
would accept as fair and equitable the
overall program of the other gender. ”
— NCAA Gender-Equity Task Force
BY JASON LINCOLN
The Battalion
The 1999-2000 season should mark an
exciting time for Texas Aggie sports. Not
only will the current sports be striving to
top this year’s impressive NCAA and Big
12 performances but will move into a pe
riod of growth as the athletic program ex
pands to meet the needs of the rapid
changing and growing student body. Next
season will mark the addition of at least
one and possibly two women’s sports to
meet Title IX requirements.
The expansion comes just in time for
the 25th Anniversary of women’s sports at
Texas A&M, which will be celebrated next
October. In the beginning the program
started with less than six sports and a bud
get of $36,000. A quarter of a century lat
er there is a possibility for 12 sports and a
budget of over $7 million.
Title IX refers to a section of the Edu
cation Amendments of 1972 that deals
with gender issues in the education envi
ronment. In 1992 the NCAA created the
Gender-Equity Task Force to help ensure
the fair treatment in athletics on the basis
of equity. The task force concluded that
there was a deficit in the opportunity to
participate for women.
As a result the requirements became
more defined in hopes of achieving a well-
balanced athletic environment. The regu
lations govern the overall approach, the
nature of the particular sports, reasonable
decisions, percentages of athletes, number
of teams, and tangible benefits.
With the last two academic classes
yielding more female entrants than male,
the percentage of women has risen to 48
percent, resulting in a shortage of female
athletes by percentage according to Title
IX guidelines. This forced the athletic pro
gram to take a look at percentage side of
the regulation to meet the proportionality
requirements.
Although the women have one more
sport than the men, they are still in need
of approximately 50 athletes. The numbers
are skewed as a result of the large numbers
in football and baseball, which no current
women’s sports can equal.
“We’re in great shape,” senior associ
ate athletic director Lynn Hickey said
about complying with Title IX regula
tions. “The only thing we’re in a deficit
for is numbers and that comes from the
growth of the university. We want to be
proactive about this.”
Currently, A&M leads the Big 12 in ath
letic gender equity and is fifth nationally
with a 3.43 on a 4.0 scale, behind only the
three military academies and Georgia Tech
University. In addition A&M joins Boise
State University for the distinction of be
ing the only two schools in the nation to
spend in excess of 40 percent of its athlet
ic budget on women’s sports.
A&M has an active history of adding
sports and adding to the Aggie tradition
of success.
The last sport that was added to the
A&M sporting community was women’s
soccer in 1993. In the five seasons of its ex
istence, the sport has emerged into a top
25 program that, in 1997, grabbed Texas
A&M’s first ever Big 12 Conference regu
lar-season and tournament champi
onships.
In the same season, the Aggie soccer team
took the Big 12 Championship, and four of
the ten women’s sports broke into top-10 na
tional rankings, while seven were represent
ed in NCAA postseason competition.
“We can look at the history and see
some good things have happened in a rel
atively short amount of time,” Hickey said.
“Almost all of the teams have been in the
top 25. That kind of progress is very com
mendable for this University.”
In some instances, schools are forced to
cut back the men’s program to meet the
Title IX requirements because of budget
constraints. At A&M, the program has
been able to expand and excel from what
was once an all-male institution while not
making sacrifices on the men’s program.
“We’ve been able to keep the men’s
program intact because of football, the
12th Man and the Big 12,” Hickey said.
The decision on which program will be
added will be announced in late May or
early June. The sport or sports will be in
place for the Fall ’99 semester.
uid for Elway?
roncos schedule Sunday press conference to announce QB’s retirement
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’ DENVER (AP) — John Elway will
ire Sunday because he no longer be-
ves he can handle the physical pun-
iment of the NFL.
Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen
wmed Monday that Elway was
iving football because he “felt in his
sjBnind that he had some physical
iblems he didn’t think he could over-
|:M”
The usually durable Elway, 38,
Hd all or part of six games last sea-
h with hamstring, back and rib in-
ties. Of more concern, however, was
troublesome left knee. Limping
nund a golf course in California last
sekend, he admitted he eventually
ftequire an artificial knee.
Bowlen said the news conference,
'eady delayed several times, will be
'Id Sunday at a time and location to
determined later this week.
r e wanted to be very sensitive to
ipimilies involved in the Columbine
drool shooting) situation,” Bowlen
The final drive
Career statistics for Denver Broncos QB John Elway, who is
expected to announce his retirement Sunday after ±7 seasons:
GAMES 234
PASSES ATTEMPTED 7,250
PASSES COMPLETED 4,123
TOTAL PASSING YARDS 51,475
TOTAL YARDS RUSHING 3,407
TOUCHDOWNS 333
PASSING 300
RUSHING 33
INTERCEPTIONS 226
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
• No. 1 overall pick in
1983 NFL Draft by Balti
more Colts
• Participated in a record
41 game-saving, fourth-
quarter drives
• One of only two quarter
backs to throw for over
50,000 yards in a career
ELWAY
trts
id. ‘We wanted to make sure we did
't in any way interrupt the grieving
ocess.
“We feel that Sunday probably is the
ne when we could put this tragedy
hind us, and perhaps John’s press
ence could be received as sort of
lappy time. ”
• ti ill Monday’s Denver Post, Elway left
tlOfl ) doubt about his plans.
, , “Absolutely, I’m retired,” he told the
Cifw' ®paper. “One of the reasons I held
f saying anything was to make sure
s what I would do.
“I seriously considered coming
jentf
back, but I just couldn’t make it be
cause of my knee. “I’ve never liked it
when an athlete says he’s retired and
then comes back. Once I’ve decided, I
am certain.”
Bowlen said he was in Australia
nearly two weeks ago, promoting his
team’s Aug. 6 preseason game there,
when he received a telephone message
from Elway.
“As soon as I got the message, I
knew what it was about,” Bowlen said.
“I called him back, and basically, it was
a short conversation. He said, ‘Pat, I’ve
decided to retire and go on with the rest
of my life.’ I told him I respected his de
cision and was really happy for him.
“Because I couldn’t get back until
the following week, we originally de
cided to announce it on Wednesday
(April 21). With what happened at
Columbine (April 20), that was very
much not appropriate. And it was just
a matter of time before the press figured
out what was going on.”
Bowlen, who said he will retire El-
way’s No. 7, insisted he would not low
er his expectations for the two-time Su
per Bowl champions this season,
despite the loss of the Hall of Fame-
bound quarterback.
“John will be missed, for sure,”
Bowlen said. “But, no, our expectations
are going to be the same. I think we’ve
got a very solid football team. Bubby
Brister is going to play well, and, of
course, we have Terrell Davis and many
other very good players on this team.
“I would have loved to have had
John come back for another year. I’d
love to see him three-peat, do some
thing that no other quarterback has
done in history. But that wasn’t to be.
So we’ll go forward. We’U be fine. I
think we’ll be a good football team, if
not a great football team.”
ience
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wckets blast Lakers in playoff preview
cnee
HOUSTON (AP) — Scottie Pippen
ad 26 points and six steals as the
ouston Rockets
itilt a big lead and
id not lose it, snap-
ing a three-game
>sing streak with a
!)2-|80 victory over
ae floundering Los
pgeles Lakers on
Monday night,
fthe Lakers lost
heir third straight
jame and their second straight by at
bst 20 points to fall 11/2 games be
hind Houston in the race for fourth
PIPPEN
place in the conference and home-
court advantage in the first round of
the playoffs.
The Rockets used a 22-6 spurt start
ing in the first quarter to build a 41-20
lead with 8:01 to go in the half. Los
Angeles, which has lost six of eight
games, never got the deficit below
double figures.
Charles Barkley had 20 points and
16 rebounds, Cuttino Mobley added
15 points and Hakeem Olajuwon had
14 points and eight rebounds.
Pippen took over in the second
quarter with 12 points that included
three 3-pointers. The Rockets hit six of
their first 12 3-point baskets but made
only four of their next 19 and finished
10-for-31.
Shaquille O’Neal led the Lakers
with 19 points and 12 rebounds, Glen
Rice added 16 points and Rick Fox had
12.
Notes: Kobe Bryant opened the sea
son with five straight double-doubles
but he has not had one since March 14.
The Rockets’ victory was the 350th
of coach Rudy Tomjanovich’s coaching
career, all with the Rockets.
Houston’s 31 3-pointers were a sea
son high, beating their 30 attempts
March 25 against Toronto.
MIKE FUENTES/The Battalion
The Texas A&M Baseball Team celebrates following a grand slam by freshman designated hitter Greg
Porter (44) during the third inning of the Aggies’ game against the University of Kansas Sunday.
Aggies to battle Bearkats
A&M Baseball Team looks to move to 31 -2 at home
BY TRAVIS HARSCH
Staff Writer
Each year, the coming of spring brings with it
a sense of new beginnings and of course the op
portunity for some spring cleaning. That is ex
actly what the Texas A&M Baseball Team will be
trying to do tonight when it goes for the season
sweep of the Sam Houston State
University Bearkats at Olsen
Field.
The Aggies have taken both
meetings with the Bearkats this
season, winning 7-3 in
Huntsville in February and 15-4
earlier this month at home.
A&M has posted a remarkable
30-2 record at the friendly con
fines of Olsen Field.
The Aggies are enjoying their highest ranking
of the season, second in the Baseball America
poll. The ranking also is the highest point the Ag
gies have reached since the 1993 team was listed
as second in the final poll for that season. A&M
was last ranked first nationally in the June 1, 1993
Collegiate Baseball survey.
The Aggies are coming off a weekend sweep of
the University of Kansas Jayhawks that, combined
with a Baylor University loss to the University of
Oklahoma, has given A&M some breathing room in
the race for the conference title.
The series with Kansas also brought sopho
more outfielder Daylan Holt closer to the sin
gle-season home run record set last year by
Craig Kuzmic. Holt stands tied with Kuzmic
with 25 blasts on the year and has gone deep in
each of his last four games. Senior John
Scheschuk holds a team record of his own with
home runs in five consecutive contests.
As a team, the Aggies stand just five home
runs away from breaking the team season record
of 88, set by the 1989 squad that was recognized
before the Sunday game with Kansas and tied by
the 1995 team.
Sam Houston State comes into the game hav
ing lost five straight, including a three-game
sweep by Southwestern Louisiana this past week
end that dropped the Bearkats’ overall record on
the season to 21-28. SHSU also has struggled in
Southland Conference play, posting an 8-16
record.
The game will be the penultimate regular sea
son contest of the year and the final non-confer
ence game at Olsen Field this season, as the Ag
gies finish their home schedule with a game
against the University of Texas Friday.