Halvorsen: Leagues’
top teams had a shot
■ Continued from Page 7
tent, Seattle. Those teams
weren’t given scratch from the
word go, and neither team has
really been able to get off the
ground since. It’s true that
Seattle did have a successful
team in the mid-1980s and
even went to the AFC champi
onship before losing to the
Oakland Raiders, but Tampa
Bay has yet to pull itself out of
the doldrums.
One argument could be that
it is the quality of the people in
the front office and on the
coaching staff that inevitably
make a team what it is. Look at
the expansion teams of the
past, like Dallas and Miami.
Dallas won slightly over 19
percent of its games in the first
two years of existence before
becoming a major power in the
NFL about 10 years later.
Miami took six years to ac
complish what no other team
has ever done: go undefeated
in a season and win the Super
Bowl after winning only a
quarter of its games in the first
two years. All of this occurred
without the same amount of
NFL help that today’s teams
have received. But the rules
have changed since those
teams came into the league, im
pacted mostly by free agency.
Carolina has had four first
round draft picks in two years
and has reaped the benefits of
the free-agent market, and has
picked up potential and peren
nial all-stars such as Kevin
Greene, Sam Mills, Eric Davis,
Ragib Ismail and John Kasay.
Carolina acquired 19 free
agents, 14 unrestricted free
agents and four players off of
the waiver wire this year. Pret
ty good dealing by the front of
fice if you look at it that way.
When you look past all of the
little perks the newest expan
sion teams in the league re
ceived, it comes down to the
simple fact that both of these
teams have put their available
talent to its full use. Carolina is
far from the most talented team
in the NFL, but they played
tough and beat the 49ers twice.
Jacksonville has even less of a
talent pool to work with, but
the Jaguars’ persistence and at
titude has led them this far.
Really, the thing that it boils
down to when you look at
these two teams in the champi
onship games is that they de
serve to be there, plain and
simple. The powers that be —
San Francisco, Dallas, Pitts
burgh and Denver — all had
their shots at proving that
wrong but couldn’t.
Now, all that those teams
can do is sit back and enjoy the
rest of the playoffs and wonder
how they could be more like
Carolina and Jacksonville.
Ryan Halvorsen is a sports re
porter for the Emerald. His
views do not necessarily repre
sent those of the newspaper.
Please recycle this paper!
Northwestern’s Autry enters draft
■ DRAFT. Wildcats’ running back Darnell
Autry will skip senior season for the NFL
The Associated Press
EVANSTON, 111. — Against the advice of his coach,
Northwestern’s marquee running back said Monday
that he’ll skip his senior year and turn pro.
Darnell Autry, the Wildcats’ career rushing leader,
helped raise the program from a perennial doormat
to national prominence.
Despite uncertainty over his place in the NFL draft,
and despite the advice of head coach Gary Barnett,
Autry said it was time to go.
“Nothing is guaranteed. I feel and I know in my
heart I’ve got the mind to succeed and get through it
no matter what,” said Autry, who is also an aspiring
actor.
“I felt it was time to try this opportunity and I have
the faith and confidence it’s going to work out,” he
said. "I think that's the only way it can be.”
“It was not based on the team’s future, not based on
coach Barnett’s future or even my family’s future. It
was based solely on what I thought was best for me,”
Autry said.
The 20-year-old junior has rushed for more than
3,000 yards the last two seasons at Northwestern,
helping it to two of the three postseason bowl games
in school history.
Barnett, who reports say will interview for the va
cant Detroit Lions’ coaching position, advised him to
stay based on information that Autry would not be
one of the top 15 players selected in the draft.
Barnett released a statement from Florida, where
he was at a college coaches convention.
“I recommended to Darnell that he stay in school,
based on the information which the NFL has supplied
to me,” Barnett said. “I felt it was in Darnell’s best in
terest to return for his senior year, however, he and
his family have decided differently, and I will cer
tainly do anything I can to help him as he enters the
draft.”
Autry said he would have preferred to have Bar
nett’s blessing but did what he felt he had to do.
At 5-foot-ll, 209 pounds, Autry has a powerful and
bruising running style and rarely fumbles.
He was a Heisman Trophy finalist in 1995, when
Northwestern lost to USC in the Rose Bowl. In the
Wildcats’ Jan. 1 loss to Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl,
Autry was stricken with a 101-degree fever, finishing
with 66 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries.
Autry, the Wildcats’ career scoring leader, was
sidelined for one game by a shoulder injury this sea
son and still rushed for 1,386 yards and 15 touch
downs.
Autry said he was not pressured by his father to go
to the NFL and said his decision was not based on fear
of injury during a final season in college.
"It’s a gamble ... whether you are a senior or a ju
nior,” he said.
A committee assessing his draft status told him he
could be drafted between the late first round and the
fifth. Despite the uncertainty, he said it was time for
him to go.
Autry said the uncertainty didn’t bother him be
cause “no one knows what teams are thinking until
you are drafted.”
Northwestern finished with a 9-2 regular season
record and a No. 15 ranking, and tied for its second
straight Big Ten championship.
Autry, like most underclassmen, faced a Jan. 10
deadline to announce whether he would give up his
final year of college eligibility.
He said he still hopes to pursue his acting career
once his playing days are over. He said he needs an
other year of classes to graduate and would like to re
turn to Northwestern to get his degree.
UCLA softball coach will retire in June
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — UCLA’s
Sharon Backus, whose 847 victo
ries are the most of any collegiate
softball coach, has decided to re
tire at the end of the current acade
mic year, athletic director Peter
Dalis said Monday.
At her request, Backus has been
reassigned within the athletic de
partment, effective immediately,
and will not coach during the
1997 season.
Backus complied an 847-167-3
record in 21 years at UCLA, mak
ing her the winningest college
softball coach in history. She led
the Bruins to nine national cham
pionships and a post-season
record of 118-32.
“I’ve had a great career at UCLA,
but it’s time for a change,” Backus
said. “My primary reason for step
ping down has to do with the ill
ness and death of my mother in
early October.
“That, plus the ongoing NCAA
probe of the softball program have
created a level of stress that I feel is
best to put behind me at this time.”
Student
MAKE THE
f^rPTrl =-l rt =-i n
UO STUDENTS, HELP US FILL THE
seats at Mac Court this
season! Pick up your FREE
pit: pack when you purchase books
at the UO Bookstore for Winter Term
CLASSES... BRING THE PACK' S 6 A M E
Raffle Tickets to Pac-10 Men's and
Women's Basketball games and
WIN GREAT PRIZES!
prizes sponsored by_
Bi-Mart,- Burger King®, Little Caesars, Pepsi,
U•S. Bank, UO Athletic Department, UO Bookstore
Downtown Athletic Club
Available while supplies last (first 10,000 students) or until January 31, 1997.
8 Oregon Daily Emerald Tuesday, January 7, 1997