: The Battalion
——
Sports
Page 3 • Wednesday, July 28, 1999
Ice hockey team soon to be approved for competition at Texas A&M
BY RUTH STEPHENS
The Battalion
I Texas A&M University may soon
be welcoming a new sport as part
ol its student organizations: ice
hockey.
I Pending official recognition by
■&M on Aug. 15, the A&M ice
hockey team will begin their first
season in October.
I Founder and team captain
Daniel Sneed said he started orga
nizing the collegiate hockey league
last year.
I By January of this year he had
teams from Baylor University, Uni-
■ersity of Texas, University of
■orth Texas and College Station
slated to play.
I Sneed started the College Sta-
■on team with players from A&M,
■linn Junior College and Tomball
Junior College.
I Texas and North Texas eventu-
Hlly dropped out, ending the sea
son prematurely, but a few games
■fere played, including the College
■tation / Texas season opener at
the Compaq Center in Houston.
“At least 300 fans came to that
game,” Sneed said. “I mainly
wanted to see what things would
look like. It convinced me that the
interest was there.”
Sneed, who played ice hockey
in junior high and high school, ap
proached several people he knew
at different universities about start
ing an ice hockey league and with
their help, Sneed successfully re
cruited several teams.
On the roster for the 1999-2000
season is North Texas, Texas, Bay
lor, Southwest Texas State and
Texas A&M, once it is recognized
by the Department of Student Ac
tivities.
Sneed then asked the Inter
scholastic Hockey League in Hous
ton if they would be interested in
forming a league for the universities.
The league agreed and the In
tercollegiate Hockey League
(ICHL) was formed.
Sneed said the popularity of ice
hockey is growing in Texas, espe
cially with the recent success of
the Dallas Stars.
“It’s huge in Texas,” Sneed said,
“especially with kids. Each rink in
Texas has their own league with
over 5,000 people participating in
cities like Houston and Dallas.”
Sneed had wanted to play Divi
sion III ice hockey in Boston, but
was told he didn’t have enough ex
perience. That prompted him to
start competitive ice hockey at the
collegiate level.
“I’m trying to make it where you
can play hockey if you come down
here (Texas),” Sneed said. “You
shouldn’t have to be the best in the
world and move up north to play.”
Sneed said many players he re
cruited for the upcoming season
played roller hockey and were ex
cited about the opportunity to play
on ice.
“I want people to understand
though, that this is full-contact ice
hockey and is a lot faster than high
school,” Sneed said. “We want
people coming out for the team
who are confident on the ice.”
Because the ice hockey team
will be a student organization
rather than a club sport, only 25
percent of the team must be A&M
students. Because of this, students
enrolled at Blinn and Tomball can
remain on the team.
Sneed hopes ice hockey will
eventually reach the club level at
A&M, and in the future become a
varsity level sport in the state of
Texas.
The Willowbrook Aerodome in
Houston will be the home rink for
A&M, with a banner going up as
soon as the team is recognized by
the University.
The schedule consists of 20
games starting in October with the
season ending in March or April.
Sneed said games will be played
on the weekend, with all teams
meeting at one site, two times each
month.
With this rotation, multiple games
can be played in one weekend,
which saves in travel and rink costs.
Besides completing his roster,
see Hockey on Page 4.
TEXAS A&M ICE HOCKEY
• Team will compete in the Interscholastic
Hockey League (ICHL).
• League will consist of Texas A&M, Baylor
University, University of North Texas,
University of Texas and Southwest Texas
State University.
• Schedule consists of 20 games, with the
season beginning in October and ending in
March or April.
• A&M will play its home games in the
Willowbrook Aerodome in Houston.
GABRIEL RUENES/The Battalion
French Faux Pas
MARK MCPHERSON/The Battalion
Frenchmen show true colors by slandering,
not praising Lance Armstrong's triumph
Mark
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I t is too
bad that
phrases
are not de
fined in the
dictionary. If
they were,
then it is al
most certain
under the
phrase “fun- i^***"^^^"*
damental lack of class,” the
French TVicolor would be there
in big, bold letters.
What have our supposed
French friends been up to now?
Thankfully, they have not drawn
the United States into another
war nor demanded another
spate of Jerry Lewis movies. No,
they are just being a group of
what the English-speaking
world calls “cry-babies.”
They are not even crying over
the fate of one of their fellow
countrymen in the British Open.
Frenchman Jean Van de Velde
pulled off the greatest choke job
of all time at Carnoustie, blow
ing a three shot lead on the last
hole of the tournament.
That’s right, the biggest
choke ever. Bigger than Dennis
Eckersley, bigger than Bill Buck
ner. Bigger than Nick Anderson
at the free throw line or Greg
Norman at Augusta any time.
Monsieur Van de Velde screwed
up so magnificently that the en
graver had to scratch his name
off of the Claret Jug.
But the French are not so up
set about that. They hardly play
golf, and all Frenchmen know
that they haven’t won anything
on English soil since 1066.
They are griping about what
should be the feel-good story of
the decade. They are trying to
rain on the parade of Lance
Armstrong, the winner of the
1999 Tour De France and a man
who came within two weeks of
dying from testicular cancer
three years ago.
Since Armstrong is an Ameri
can, the French media is more
interested in burying him than
praising him. They have gone
out of their way in the past 10
days to accuse Armstrong of
doping or using illegal sub
stances to improve his chances
of winning.
Even after this was forcefully
denied by Armstrong, tour offi
cials, and the International Bicy
cling Federation, the newspaper
LeMonde still accused him of us
ing drugs on its front page.
This is utterly pathetic. Arm
strong has gone through France
faster than anything since Ger
man Panzers in 1940, and the
French cannot stand it. Many
French dislike Americans be
cause they feel the United States
has attempted to exert their
domination over them, and that
American culture has attempted
to destroy theirs. They treat
Americans — especially ones
from Texas like Armstrong —
are arrogant buffoons who are
very quick to remind them that
see French on Page 4.
Armstrong a winner before Tour
(AP) — Lance Armstrong’s victory in the Tour de
France was made possible by another incredible tri
umph — medicine’s ability to beat advanced cancer.
In 1996, Armstrong’s doctors in Austin, Texas, gave
him the most feared of medical diagnoses: At age 25,
he had cancer. Not just that, but it had already spread
throughout his body.
In a way he was lucky because his form of malig
nancy, cancer of the testicles, is one of the unusual
types of cancer in adults that can often be cured once
it has spread.
For Armstrong, like most victims, the first sign of
trouble was a painless lump in one of his testicles. He
ignored it for 5 1/2 months, thinking it was probably
irritation from his competitive bicycle training. But
when it grew sore and he began to
cough up blood, he went to see a
doctor.
He had never heard of testicular
cancer, which strikes 7,400 men in
the United States annually and rep
resents just 1 percent of all male
cancers. But for men in their 20s
and 30s, it is the leading form of
cancer.
Armstrong underwent surgery
to have his right testicle removed
and received one round of chemotherapy. Then he was
sent to Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis to
see Dr. Lawrence Einhorn, an expert in testicular can
cer.
What Einhorn found was especially ominous. Doc
tors grade this kind of cancer by how far it has spread.
Stage one disease is confined to the testicles and is
completely curable.
Stage two has spread to the abdominal lymph
glands and is 98 percent curable. Stage three has trav
eled through the bloodstream to the lungs or beyond.
Typically doctors can cure 80 percent of these patients.
“Stage three is the worst,” Einhorn said. “He was
a bad stage three.”
His cancer had spread extensively throughout his
lungs, and there were also traces of it in his brain that
had begun to cause headaches.
Einhorn estimated that he had a 50 percent chance
of being cured. Still, for an adult with widely spread
malignancy, those are good odds.
Twenty-five years ago, such a diagnosis would have
quickly lead to death. That was before the develop
ment of cisplatin, a platinum derivative that has be
come standard treatment for many kinds of tumors but
is especially effective against testicular cancer.
That fall and winter, Armstrong underwent three
more five-day sessions of chemotherapy. Besides cis
platin, doctors gave him the
drugs etoposide and ifosfamide.
Ordinarily, they prefer the
drug bleomycin to ifosfamide,
because it is equally effective and
less likely to cause nausea. But
bleomycin can slightly injure the
lungs.
“That damage is trivial for
most people, but if someone is a
world-class athlete, a slight re
duction in lung function would
lower their standing by several notches,” Einhorn said.
So the doctors settled on the nastier but ultimately
safer ifosfamide.
Armstrong continued to ride between treatments,
and by late December his chemotherapy was over.
But it was still unclear whether he was saved. Doc
tors monitor progress with chest X-rays and blood
tests.
His X-rays still showed abnormal growths in his
lungs 1 , but that could have been scar tissue, not can-
see Cancer on Page 4.
“Stage three is the
worst He [Armstrong]
was a bad stage three.”
— Dr. Lawrence Einhorn
Cancer Expert
Major league umpires rescind resignations
NEW YORK (AP) — In what ap
pears to be an overwhelming de
feat, the threatened walkout by
major league umpires collapsed
yesterday, with all umps with
drawing their resignations. The As
sociated Press has learned.
However, about one-third of
the 68 major league umpires will
lose their jobs anyway because the
American and National leagues al
ready have hired 25 replacements
from the minor leagues, two high-
ranking baseball officials said
speaking on condition of
anonymity.
AL president Gene Budig sent
letters to nine AL umpires on Mon
day accepting their resignations,
according to the officials.
Similar letters to as many as 13
NL umps will be sent by NL presi
dent Len Coleman later this week.
the officials said.
On Monday, umpires sued the
AL and NL in federal court in
Philadelphia, seeking a court order
that would allow them to withdraw
the resignations prior to their ef
fective date of Sept. 2.
Lawyers for owners and um
pires held a conference call Tues
day with U.S. District Judge Ed
mund V. Ludwig, who refused to
issue a temporary restraining or
der to prevent owners from ac
cepting the resignations, the offi
cial said.
Umpires union head Richie
Phillips did not immediately com
ment on the move. Baseball
lawyers did not return telephone
calls seeking comment.
Umpires announced their mass
resignations after a meeting in
Philadelphia on July 14, and 56 of
the 68 umpires submitted resigna
tion letters in the. following week.
By last Friday, 14 of those 56
umpires had withdrawn their res
ignations. The rest of the with
drawals were sent to the leagues
yesterday, the officials said.
Umpires decided on the resig
nation strategy because they feared
owners would lock them out when
their labor contract expires Dec. 31,
and the agreement contains a no
strike clause.
The nine AL umps who appar
ently were sent letters Monday ac
cepting their resignations are Drew
Coble, Jim Evans, Dale Ford, Rich
Garcia, Ed Hickox, Mark Johnson,
Ken Kaiser, Greg Kosc and Larry
McCoy.
The only NL umpires assured of
keeping their jobs are Wally Bell,
Mark Hirschbeck and Jeff Nelson.
Fox Sports Net plans High School Championship
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Fox Sports Net un
veiled its plan for a national high school champi
onship football game yesterday, but the network is
battling skepticism from officials who doubt the
game is logistically feasible.
Under Fox’s plan, the top two teams in its week
ly “Fab 50” poll would meet at a predetermined site
in December of 2000 for the inaugural championship
game.
The poll, which begins this season, is compiled
by a group of 4,000 correspondents nationwide who
funnel their information to 35 regional pollsters.
But because of scheduling difficulties and the re
luctance of high school governing bodies such as
Texas’ University Interscholastic League, the process
has become more complicated than Fox officials
originally anticipated.
“We have run into some impassioned opposi
tion,” spokesman Michael Lewellen said. “But we
think we’re on the right track.”
Among the main concerns about holding the
championship game is finding an appropriate date.
The high school playoffs in Texas continue into the
fourth week of December, but states such as Illinois
sometimes complete their postseasons by the end of
November.
Fox said it would pay the traveling expenses of
the teams, bands and pep squads involved, but crit
ics of the plan- note that the players’ families will
have problem finding transportation because teams
won’t know whether they’re playing until the week
of the game.
Lewellen said no state has rejected the network’s
proposal, but the UIL and similar organizations are
leaning toward not being involved in the plan.
John Tyler head coach Allen Wilson said he is
seeking a waiver from the UIL to participate in the
game if his.team is selected, and other coaches may
take similar actions if they are asked to participate.
“Everyone talks about how great Texas high
school football is, but we’ve never had a way to
prove it,” Wilson said. “Now we have a format.”
Five Texas teams were listed in Fox’s first Fab 50
preseason poll — No. 2 Midland Lee, No. 21 Austin
Westlake, No. 29 Duncanville, No. 34 Lewisville and
No. 48 Stephenville.