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Sports
The Battalion
Page 5 • Tuesday, September 23, 2003
SPORTS IN BRIEF
A&M-Tech game
to start at 9 p.m.
The Texas A&M-Texas Tech
football game on Saturday
Oct. 4 will kickoff at 9 p.m. The
game was selected to be
shown nationally by Fox
Sports Net.
The game will be one of four
Big 12 contests to be tele-
I vised that day. Colorado-
Baylor, Kansas State-Texas
; and Oklahoma-lowa State will
also be televised,
i The 9 p.m. start time will be
;the latest an A&M game has
started since 1980, when the
Aggies played Houston in the
Astrodome.
The two teams had to wait
for a Houston Astros playoff
game to be completed. The
game went into extra innings,
and time was needed to con
vert the surface from baseball
to football, and the two teams
did not begin play until 11:33
p.m. The game, which ended
in a 17-13 Houston win, did
not finish until 2:41 a.m.
Volleyball breaks
into AVCA poll
The Texas A&M volleyball
team on Monday broke into
the USA Today/American
Volleyball Coaches
Association poll for the first
time this season. The Aggies
are ranked 25th.
A&M (8-3, 0-1 Big 12) had
been receiving votes in every
previous poll, including being
listed at 26th last week.
Two other Big 12 teams are
in the latest Top 25 poll: No. 7
Nebraska and No. 9 Kansas
State. Missouri is listed as
28th.
A&M, which defeated
Houston over the weekend,
returns to league play
Wednesday night in a home
match against Colorado. First
serve is set for 8 p.m.
Two of a kind
Jamaar, Earvin Taylor following similar paths to A&M, success
By Dallas Shipp
THE BATTALION
T he late-night backyard basketball
games never seemed to end.
Neither one of the brothers could
accept losing, especially not to each
other. They couldn’t agree on fouls late
in the games, fouls that usually served
as a desperate attempt by Jamaar and
Earvin Taylor to extend the game rather
than accept defeat.
The Texas A&M receiving duo grew
up competing in anything and every
thing, but more often than not, their
competitions revolved around basketball,
not football.
“We had a light in the backyard and
would play basketball at night,” Jamaar
said. “We were real competitive. Almost
to the point we had to be separated.”
But despite being competitive, Earvin
said he has always admired his big
brother.
‘T tried to (imitate him) ” he said.
“He was the one I always looked up to
because he showed me a lot of things.
Around the neighborhood all the kids
looked up to him because he played the
best basketball.”
The duo had no choice but to love bas
ketball. Earvin, who was named after
Magic Johnson by his father. Henry
Taylor, has been called Magic from an
early age.
Henry played basketball for UT-Pan
American and had a short stint with the
San Antonio Spurs before playing
overseas, while their uncle, Jeff Taylor,
played for Texas Tech and the Houston
Rockets.
Basketball provided the first opportu
nity for the two to play on the same team
for the first time, but it wasn't quite like
putting on the maroon and white in front
of 87,000 people at Kyle Field.
“We were on the same team in Boys
and Girls Club basketball in the 6-to-8-
year-old league,” Jamaar said. “My
brother was only five, but he got to play
because my dad was the coach. That was
the first time we got to play together.”
John C. Livas • THE BATTALION
Texas A&M wide receiver Jamaar Taylor makes a catch against Utah on Sept. 6. Taylor and his
brother Earvin grew up competing against each other, but now both play as receivers for A&M.
And it was the last time until this year.
When they weren’t competing in
sports, Jamaar and Earvin were always
on the same team.
Their mother, Rachel Taylor, said she
will always be grateful for the role
Jamaar accepted after she and their
father divorced.
“Jamaar has been a big part of
Earvin’s life,” she said. “1 don’t know
how to thank him enough for always
being there.
“Me and his dad have been divorced
since Jamaar was in the ninth grade and
he always played the father figure for
Earvin. They could have both gone
astray but they didn’t, and I'm real
happy for that.”
However, when Earvin faced the
daunting task of choosing which college
to play football for, Jamaar stayed out of
the decision-making process all together.
“He would have fouiid his place to go
to school but he saw all the positives
that A&M had to offer: the new facili
ties, the new coaching staff and a chance
to play his freshman year,” Jamaar said.
His mom didn’t keep her feelings
quite as silent.
“I was pushing for A&M the whole
time,” she said. “I knew that Jamaar had
gone all the way to Notre Dame and
came back. I didn’t want Earvin to make
that same mistake.”
Earvin watched Jamaar thrive at wide
out for the Aggies last year, but no other
game compared to the atmosphere
Earvin experienced during the Aggies’
30-26 win over No. 1 Oklahoma.
“That was the icing on the cake,”
Rachel said. “He saw Reggie McNeal
out there and saw all the fans. (Then)
Reggie called him and said A&M would
be good for him and he would work
with him. That had a lot to do with it.”
Since joining the Aggies, Earvin has
learned a lot from his older brother, who
said he doesn’t try to compete with his
brother like he used to — at least not on
the gridiron.
“Right now we’re on the same side of
the ball so it’s more of a teaching thing,”
Jamaar said. “Teaching him the trade of
being a wide receiver, making it easier
on him in that transition from high
school to college.”
In the Aggies’ opening game at Kyle
Field against Arkansas State, the Taylor
family got to see what it had been wait
ing for since Earvin signed his letter of
intent — Jamaar and Earvin on the field
at the same time.
“It was a dream come true, because I
had been waiting for it all summer,”
their mother said. “1 was crying and
screaming. 1 was really excited.”
Off the field, Earvin says one of his
favorite things to do is visit his nephew,
Jamaar’s son Brandon Taylor, who
turned 2 in August.
Rachel said Jamaar lives for
Brandon.
“If (Jamaar) has a certain amount of
yardage or catches when he comes out
of the locker room he’ll say 'that’s
money in the bank for daddy,”’ she said.
“He does everything for Brandon.”
Jamaar, who is on pace to eclipse the
A&M record for receptions and receiv
ing yards, is the first Aggie receiver to
enter his senior season with more than
80 receptions and 1,200 receiving yards.
Earvin said he wouldn’t mind eclips
ing the numbers put up by Jamaar.
“Those are high goals I would like to
achieve one day,” Earvin said. “But
right now I just want to be my own per
son, and (Jamaar) wants me to be my
own person.”
But Jamaar doesn’t see any limit to
his little brother’s potential.
“He’s a playmaker,” he said. “He’ll
be a guy to keep the Taylor name here
for three more years after this. They’ve
been calling him Magic forever, that’s
who my dad named him after. He’s
gonna be special. He’s gonna be magic.”
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October 23, 2003
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