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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1966)
Quack Cracks New Breed By DAVE BARONTI Emerald Sport* Editor By DAVE BARONTI Emerald Sports Editor A SPORTS NUT, by definition, has no definition. He can be the guy who keeps track of first downs in front of his radio set—even the fellow who knows what year Jem Macy was born. But he can also be like Cassius Clay and ask, “Who's Barry Goldwater” several days before the 1964 election. So swimming (and water polo) coach Don Van Rossen coined a more specific phrase to describe the water polo team he took to the Air Force Academy in Colorado over the holidays: “A new breed of athletes.” He wouldn't be calling them that except the trip they took included (a) 27 consecutive hours of driving to get there Thursday night at nine, then (b) three water polo matches at the 7,250 foot high pool Friday against some of the nation’s best teams, then (c) two more matches Saturday morning, (d) a fourth place in the tournament, and (e) a 27-hour return trip to Eugene. “To go through a schedule like they did is really something,” Van Rossen said. “You know how much these boys must love their sport in order to do that just for a few games. “In the day of the pampered athlete, this is unusual, believe me.” OREGON, ACCORDING to Van Rossen, had never com peted in a serious intercollegiate water polo tournament before, and consequently were of unknown quality and seventh seeded among the eight teams. They traveled into California last spring and were drubbed by San Jose State, 26-2. But that was before Chuck Horner and Jim Whitefield joined the team. Both are All-Americans—Chuck a goalie from Foothills Junior College and Whitehead a field man from Santa Clara, (Calif.) High School. “They were just terrific” in the tournament, according to Van Rossen. and paced the team to a 24-3 upset over Utah, after earlier losses to Colorado State (9-5) and Indiana (8-1), the squads which finished second and first in the affair. “Colorado State was rough,” Van Rossen said. “Indiana” was just good.” Dennis McGowan, a typical Oregon player in that he had never played the sport before he came to college, added that one of the reasons for Oregon's success in the latter part of the tourney was that “we learned to pace ourselves.” In addition to McGowan. Horner and Whitehead, Dale Kiefer— an ex-All-American swimmer from Yale—Rich Gessling, George Frekany, Bob May, Steve Johnson, Jose Roster and Paul Paquin made the trip. The group got into Eugene late Sunday night. ***** “COACH NYEVE? I’M J.J. Tipicofan from the NCAA Recognitions office in New York. . . “Yes, fine. I’m calling about that form you sent in—you know, where you were supposed to vote for the most inspirational colle giate athletic team in either 1965 or 1966. . . “Yes, yes. I know you voted. But you can’t vote for that kind of a sport . . . look, Alabama’s got 99 out of 100 votes so far. Why don’t you give them the honor and make it unanimous? “Mister, I don’t care if your fellas play for free—or if they do one-handed crabwalks from San Francisco to New York to get to (Continued on page 5) Basketball, Wrestling, Swimming Winter Sports Set to Go By PAUL POLSKY Emerald Associate Sports Editor As the geographical years turn so do the sports seasons. With the completion of football comes the new, basketball and wrestling, plus swimming. Wrestling coach Art Keith and head basketball coach Steve Bel ko and his assistant Frank Ar nold all spoke at Monday's week ly meeting of the Oregon Club at the Eugene Hotel. Keith spoke first and was able to give a brief outline of the team and the season. “We have eight sophomores, four transfers, and one IM re cruit,” said Keith. "The rest I don’t know. We are largely an un known quality.” The wrestlers will engage in their first matches Saturday with both the freshman and varsity go ing to Corvallis for an invita tional. Keith also introduced his fresh man coach and assistant Jim Bry ant. Bryant was a coach at St. Francis, Reedsport and Beaver ton high schools before retiring to the business world. He came out of retirement this year to give his time to the University’s athletic program and help Keith. Basketball coach Steve Belko took the stand and outlined the coming season, his team, and pre dicted that the PAC champion would probably be in the final game of the NCAA playoffs this spring. Belko mentioned that there have been no major rule changes since last winter, but added that rubber sponge padding has been installed on all backboards across the country to protect the new breed of leapers from crushing their skulls. “We lack the super-star type player this year, like Charlie j Warren or Jim Barnett, Belko! said. “But we hope to make up for it in team balance. “I’ve never had a bunch of kids that worked any harder with j the long hours that I have ask-1 ed of them, plus the rigorous rou-1 tines they had to run.” Belko then gave personal run-! downs on his team. • Nick Jones—One of the' four returning Duck lettermen,1 Jones is rated as a fine “all-around player,” one whom Belko is hop ing can return to the “fine showing he made as a sopho more.” • Rick Abrahamson — A freshman who hasn t ' played enough to fit in,” according to Belko. However, the Duck coach feels that he will develop into a fine ball player—especially as a result of a summer weight pro gram. • Mike Nicksic—"He’s a short six footer but good enough to play in our league,” says Belko. He added, Mike has good athletic and basketball sense and can play good defense. He will press Abraham son for his guard job. • John PinkstafT — Rated a ‘ more mature and tougher kid” by his coach, John is expected to be better at both ends of the court this year. His sporadic scor ing looks to be more balanced, said Belko. • Bill Thomas — A fine defen sive player last year and is im proving play on the boards and offense. A knee injury ai\d subse quent surgery has slowed him down a little but his defensive aggressiveness and great desire make up for the lack of speed. • Ken Smith — The leaper and most improved kid on the squad, reported the coach. Al though he is not real strong he is very quick and fast and has picked up a lot of basketball savy over last fall. • Bob Craven—Although out for eight days with a rare disease, Craven is rated as the sixth man or third forward. "He must learn to be aggressive,” said Belko, who feels this will come in time. • Lee Harvey — A transfer student from Boise in Idaho. Har vey is a 6-4 guard who is just learning the Oregon system but Belko feels he will help, especial ly on defense. • Mike Powers — A redshirt from last year, Powers is tough on the boards and is called the "Bill Thomas type of forward" by his coach. The Ducks open their season this Friday in Lincoln, Nebras ka against the Nebraska Corn huskers, who are picked to win the Big Eight conference. Saturday evening the Ducks will play in Manhattan, Kansas against the Kansas State Jay hawks. Following a Hawaiian trip the Ducks will co • host the Far West classic with OSU, Washington, Washington State, Indiana, Min nesota, West Virginia, and St. Louis, are entered. Belko also called the PAC a tough conference with six of the eight teams improved over last year. "WSU is probably the sec ond strongest,” ho noted. When he finally got around to Lew Alcindor of the UCLA Bruins, Belso said: "He is a line ball player who has ability along with size. He is great; they should win, hut you never concede any thing.” Belko then introduced his first full time assistant varsity coach, Frank Arnold. Arnold outlined the Duck re cruiting schedule which includes letters to all the major Califor nia high school coaches plus most of the high school coaches in both Oregon and Washington. Arnold also had a lot of praise for this year’s varsity. "This is a tremendous group of kids for working When you work as hard as we have so far, we're bound to win some we shouldn't,” he concluded. 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