Banner Graphic, Volume 12, Number 96, Greencastle, Putnam County, 31 December 1981 — Page 9
For lack of better way, bowls will decide champ
By HAL BOCK AP Sports Writer Who’s No. 1? For the moment, the answer to that perennial question is Clemson, the last remaining undefeated major college football team in America. Fourth-ranked Nebraska will try to change that in Friday night's Orange Bowl, one of five major college football games New Year’s Day and Night that could revise the rankings considerably. The final Associated Press football poll will crown the national champion Sunday night, and a victory over the Cornhuskers would just about seal the verdict for Clemson. But a loss could throw the poll into a scramble, which is what
N FL playoffs Kuechenberg says Dolphins needed rest
MIAMI t AP) Bob Kuechenberg will have his hands full with San Diego’s All-Pro defensiye right’tackle, Gary “Big Hands” Johnson when the Miami Dolphins play the Chargers Saturday. It is not the best of ways to return to action after a lengthy layoff. "Kooch,” the only member of the Miami offense who was there when the Dolphins were winning Super Bowls in the early 19705, suffered a perplexing and bothersome injury, a strained right arch, in the eighth game of the 1981 season against the Dallas Cowboys. Kuechenberg said the oneweek layoff in the playoffs
Visions of sacks danced in Edwards' head
CINCINNATI (AP)—Eddie Edwards, the Cincinnati Bengals’ leading pass rusher, passed the time during his three-week injury-related layoff by dreaming of quarterback sacks. “I’m really anxious to get in there. All I ever thing about is sacking the quarterback. I think about it all day long third and long, and me coming around the corner and sacking the quarterback,” said the defensive tackle who had 10 sacks
Dukes get another shot at Cavaliers on Saturday
By JOHN NELSON AP Sports Writer Coach Terry Holland’s Virginia Cavaliers are going to keep playing James Madison until they get it right. The third-ranked Cavaliers, 10-0, won the title of the Richmond Times-Dispatch Tournament Wednesday night by beating James Madison 57-44. Until the game, James Madison also had been unbeaten, and Virginia didn’t shake the Dukes until the final six minutes when All-American center Ralph Sampson led an 11-1 scoring burst. The Dukes have only to wait until Saturday for their chance to avenge the loss. The two teams meet in a regular-season contest that day in Charlottesville, Va., the Cavaliers’ home. “Obviously, it was a much closer game than the score would indicate,” Holland said. “Madison is an awfully good team, and I just wish we didn’t have to play them again Saturday.” The Dukes, now 8-1, have a history of playing Virginia tough. Last season, Virginia escaped from Harrisonburg, Va. the hometown of both the Dukes and Sampson with a 53-52 victory. “We had the Virginia folks on the edges of their seats,” Dukes Coach Lou Campanelli said. Sampson scored 22 points and had 14 rebounds, but he and his teammates were unable to make early victims of James Madison. The Dukes trailed by only three points on three occasions midway through the second half, that last time at 46-43 with six minutes left. But Sampson hit a slam dunk, then stole the ball and fed Craig Robinson for another stuff that put Virginia up 50-43 with 5:39 to play Robinson wound up with 12 points and Linton Townes had 14 for the Dukes. In other games involving ranked teams, No. 6 Hawaii upset second-ranked Wichita State 84-74; N 0.5 Arkansas clobbered Kent State 91-49, eighth-ranked DePaul beat Northern Illinois 55-46, lOth-rated lowa downed Drake 60-49 and No. 17 Georgetown whipped Niagara 77-49. The Top Ten In Hawaii, 20th-ranked North Carolina State met Rice for the title of the Rainbow Classic, but the two teams had a tough act to follow. Hawaii took fifth place with a 62-61 victory over Michigan State. In the seventh-place game, Cal State-Fullerton beat Bradley 64-62. Scott Hastings’ 18 points led five Arkansas players in double figures, and the 8-0 Razorbacks easily outmuscled Kent State. Arkansas led 42-20 at the half and 54-26 midway through the second 20 minutes. Marty Harmon led the Golden Flashes with 12 points. Terry Cummings scored 17 of his 25 points in the second half to help DePaul defeat Northern Illinois. The 6-9 junior hit seven ofzeight shots from the floor in the second half to short-circuit
it has been like for much of the 1981 college season. Clemson is the seventh school to occupy the top rung in 1981, following Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas, Southern California, Penn State and Pittsburgh. All of those schools, except Notre Dame, will be playing bowl games either today or Friday. Michigan, now 16th in the poll, faces N 0.19 UCLA in tonight’s Bluebonnet Bowl at Houston. That was one of three games on tap today. In the others, West Virginia played Florida in the Peach Bowl at Atlanta and Mississippi State faced Kansas in the Hall of Fame Bowl at Birmingham, Ala. On Friday, Texas, ranked
which goes to division winners (the Dolphins won the American Conference East title; the Chargers took the AFC West crown) didn’t necessarily help him “but the rest of this club needed it badly, the guys that have been playing the last seven or eight weeks. This is a long, grueling 20-game season we’ve completed now,” he said, adding in the four exhibitions, “and most of our players have bumps and bruises. They’re the walking wounded. So an extra week off is invaluable.” Kuechenberg shrugged aside his role as a link with the Dolphin champions of the past. “I think the fact that I’ve been
in 13 regular-season National Footba!' League games. Edwards, who is looking toward his first American Football Conference playoff game Sunday when the Bengals host the Buffalo Bills, missed the final three games of the season because of a knee injury. He said that the injury is 90 percent healed. “It was very hard sitting out. I felt I was having my best year ever. I was very disappointed. When I’d stand on the sidelines and see a guy miss a play, I’d
sports
N 0.6,.6, goes against N 0.3 Alabama in the Cotton Bowl at Dallas. The Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., an addition to the New Year’s Day program, has N 0.7 Penn State against No.B Southern California. Pitt, now 10th, faces defending national champion Georgia, ranked
there before certainly doesn’t hurt. But more importantly, not so much that I’ve been around 12 years, is the fact that I’m a good offensive guard and that if I can be in the lineup, I should be there. “The rest of it just kind of happens naturally, the fact that I’ve been around the longest.” In other words, if he hadn’t been as good as he was and is, he wouldn’t have been in all those playoff games and Super Bowls. What makes this team similar to the Dolphin teams which won two Super Bowls (and had one perfect season along the way) is the ability of
say, ‘Dog! I knew I’d have made it. I tried to go over in my mind what I’d have done to make it. I turned player-coach for a while,” he said. Coach Forrest Gregg and assistant coach Dick Modzelewski praised Mike St. Clair’s work as a replacement for Edwards, but both said that the team would be stronger with Edwards back. “I felt just the way I would if my wife had left town,” said Modzelewski of Edwards’ absense. “You miss a player the cali-
several Northern Illinois comeback attempts. DePaul, 9-1, led 29-24 at the half and by just five points, 51-46, with 1:16 to play. Allen Rayhorn led the Huskies with 15 points. Michael Payne, a freshman, and Todd Berkenpas led lowa over Drake. The Hawkeyes, 7-1, outscored Drake 9-2 down the stretch and their biggest lead of the game was the victory margin of 11 points. Payne scored 18 points and had 11 rebounds, and Berkenpas had 12 points. Ricky Watley scored 16 points for the Bulldogs. The Second Ten Patrick Ewing scored 20 points and led Georgetown, now 10-2, to its ninth straight victory, beating Niagara in the championship game of the Rochester Classic. Eric “Sleepy” Floyd had 16 points and directed an aggressive Hoyas defense that baffled the Purple Eagles. Mike Phillips topped Niagara with 15 points. Columbia captured third place in the tournament with a 64-52 victory over Utah. The Tournaments Unbeaten Virginia Tech walloped Jacksonville 102-83 behind the 19 points of senior guard Jeff Schneider to win the Gator Bowl at Jacksonville, Fla. Virginia Tech, 9-0, also got 16 points from Dale Solomon. Texas Tech won the consolation game, 8478, over Boston College. Chuck Aleksinas scored four points in the final 30 seconds to boost Connecticut over South Florida 57-50 in the title game of the Connecticut Mutual Classic at Hartford. Norman Bailey led the 8-1 Huskies with 14 points. South Florida has just two losses, to UConn and top-ranked North Carolina, in nine games. La Salle defeated St. Bonaventure 68-65 in the third-place game. Kevin Richardson’s two free throws with 32 seconds to play lifted William & Mary over Davidson for the championship of the Iron Duke Classic at Durham, N.C. In the consolation game, Duke defeated Auburn 72-71. Brad Leaf scored 28 points in Evansville’s 77-58 drubbing of Murray State in the championship game of the Evansville Holiday tournament. Eastern Illinois won the consolation game, 68-67, over Tennessee Tech. Roosevelt Chapman scored 24 points, Mike Kanieski had 22 and Paul Hawkins added 20 as Dayton won its own invitational tournament by beating Florida State 93-79. North CarolinaCharlotte beat Hofstra 70-60 in the third-place contest. Zack Jones scored 21 points and San Diego State beat Temple 75-64 to win the Cabrillo Classic at San Diego. Baylor edged Florida 72-71 in the third-place game. Jonathan Brown sank two free throws with 50 seconds left and blocked a shot by Eastern Montana’s Ron Osborne in the final seconds to give San Jose State a 54-53 victory in the title game of the KOA Classic at Billings, Mont. In the consolation game, Gonzaga defeated St. Francis, N.Y., 65-51.
N 0.2, in the Sugar Bowl New Year’s night at New Orleans. That game will take place at the same time as the ClemsonNebraska Orange Bowl showdown and much of the final poll standings depend on those two contests. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena,
the reserves to step in for lengthy periods of time without a major drop in production. Most notably they were Jeff Toews, a three-year veteran who replaced Kuechenberg, and second-year pro Dwight Stephenson, who took over for injured center Mark Dennard for the past five games. “That’s what happened in the early ’7os, when we were in our championship years. A guy would go down and the guy who was behind him stepped in and did the job. Jeff and Dwight were N 0.2 draft choices and they can certainly play football in this league.”
ber of Eddie Edwards,” said Gregg. “He’s a great football player. The guy, in my mind, is a 100-percenter.” The Bengals’ defense never touched Bills quarterback Joe Ferguson in their regular season meeting, which the Bengals won 27-24 in overtime. “They’ve got a good offensive line. They have great timing and they pick up stunts well. The quarterback does a good job of getting off the ball,” said Modzelewski.
Calif., oldest of all the postseason contests, sends No. 13 lowa against No. 12 Washington. The postseason tempo began picking up steam in Wednesday night’s Liberty Bowl when No. 15 Ohio State edged Navy 3128. Clemson carries a streak of 11
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Brian Winters didn't hurt the Indiana Pacers much on Tuesday night, but he made up for it Wednesday against Washington. T he Milwaukee guard scored 29 points, 15 coming in the fourth quarter,
City suing Reds for money lost in strike CINCINNATI (AP) The city has decided to sue the Cincinnati Reds to recover rent money the city lost during last summer’s major league baseball strike, Mayor David Mann and City Manager Sylvester Murray said Wednesday. “I would prefer that this could be resolved without litigation,” Mann said Wednesday. “Mr. Murray has tried to reach a settlement that is fair, but that hasn’t worked. So I don’t feel we have any choice.” Murray directed the city solicitor to file the suit against the Reds, the city’s prime tenant in Riverfront Stadium. The city contends it lost about $900,000 in rent and fees withheld by the Reds’ because the team did not play its full schedule of games. The city’s position is the Reds owe stadium rent despite cancellation of one-third of the season, and that the strike was an internal matter among organized baseball not affecting the team’s lease. Reds President Dick Wagner, who had met with city officials to discuss a settlement, declined to comment on Wednesday’s directive to inititate the lawsuit Toledo tops Fort Wayne By The Associated Press The Toledo Goaldiggers remain on top in the International Hockey League with 48 points after a 6-2 victory over thirdplace Fort Wayne that featured two goals by Mike Labianca. Toledo improved its record to 24-13-0 and Fort Wayne dropped to 17-18-3. In other IHL action Wednesday, Saginaw’s Gordie Brooks scored four goals to lift the Gears to a 7-5 victory over the Flint Generals. Saginaw raised its record to 16-21-2 and Flint fell to 15-21-2. The two teams are tied for fifth place in the league.
victories into the Orange Bowl against 9-2 Nebraska and Coach Danny Ford knows one more win would virtually seal the title. Georgia, 10-1 this season after going undefeated en route to the national championship a year ago, is rooting openly for Nebraska against Clemson. The Bulldogs, who clinched the national title by winning in the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame a year ago, are back in New Orleans, this time against Pitt. But the scoreboard and news of the Clemson-Nebraska Orange Bowl game will be as important to Georgia as the Panthers. Alabama, in the N 0.3 slot, figures it could move to the top, given the right combination of
as the Bucks rallied to defeat the Bullets 107-103 in NBA action. Full details are on AlO. (Banner-Graphic photo by Steve Fields).
December 31,1981, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic
circumstance. First, the Crimson Tide would have to defeat N 0.6 Texas in the Cotton Bowl and then hope both Georgia and Clemson lose. “We would have to be very lucky, even if we won the game,” said Coach Bear Bryant. “It could happen.” For years, New Year’s day and night has belonged the four major bowls Rose, Sugar, Cotton and Orange. This year, though, the Fiesta has squeezed into the picture with an intriguing matchup between Penn State and Southern California. Both schools have been No.l this season and both have standout running backs Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Allen of USC, the first runner in college football to gain 2,000 yards in a
Score, not poll counts By The Associated Press Plymouth, ranked No. 13 in the Indiana high school basketball poll, outscored No. 3 South Bend LaSalle 14-2 in the last four minutes to capture the South Bend Holiday Tournament by upsetting LaSalle 7357. In another game involving a ranked team Wednesday night, N 0.5 Indianapolis Cathedral defeated Columbus North 50-49 in the Columbus Tournament. Scott Skiles, a 6-foot-l guard, led Plymouth with 22 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Plymouth, 10-0, won at the free throw line, hitting 25 of 36 while LaSalle, 7-2, made 7 of 13. Mike Watts, a 6-4 reserve forward, came off the bench to lead the losers with 17 points and 11 rebounds. LaSalle led at halftime 34-30. Junior forward Scott Hicks hit two free throws with 12 seconds left to give Cathedral a 50-47 lead. North’s Jim Hilderbrand hit the last basket of the game with three seconds left. Hicks led the Irish with 16 points. Hilderbrand finished with 14.
single season, and Curt Warner of Penn State, who overcame a string of troubling injuries to gain 1,044 yards. Warner was only the fourth runner in Penn State history to crack the 1,000-yard barrier, joining Lenny Moore, Lydell Mitchell and John Cappelletti. He enjoyed a big game in the Fiesta Bowl a year ago, rushing for 155 yards in a 31-19 victory over Ohio State. Included in his total was a 64-yard touchdown run on the first -play from scrimmage. The Fiesta kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m. EST and opens a marathon football programming day for NBC. After Penn State and USC, the network will show the Washington-lowa Rose Bowl at 5 p.m. EST
Butler falls to St. Louis By The Associated Press St. Louis’ Isaiah Singletary, a 6-foot-3 transfer student, blistered the nets for 36 points to lead the Billikins to an 86-82 college basketball victory over Butler. Butler forward Lynn Mitchem also scored 36 points Wednesday night, 26 in the second half. In other college games, Indiana State lost at Colorado State 65-59, Valparaiso topped Central Michigan 78-71, Evansville captured its tourney 77-58 over Murray State, lUPUI lost at Xavier of Louisiana 97-84, Wabash won the Colonial City Classic 50-49 over Kenyon, Franklin won its holiday tournament 91-82 over Northwood while Manchester lost the consolation 111-92 to Thomas More. Of Singletary, Billikins Coach Ron Ekker said, “Ive been waiting for him to bust loose like that. We played much better offensively, but we had a lot of good shots during the game. We won tonight, but it was a struggle.” Butler and St. Louis were tied 63-63 with 3:08 to go but the Bulldogs allowed the visitors to dash to a 72-63 lead. St. Louis, whose last eight points came at the free throw line, hit 24 of 26 for the game, while Butler was connecting on 18 of 22. In Fort Collins, Colo., Eddie Hughes scored 13 points as Colorado State jumped to a 6-0 lead and never trailed Indiana State. The Rams hit 15 of 23 field goals in the first half to take a 33-29 edge at the intermission. Colorado State then held the Sycamores scoreless for 3:56, widening the lead to 47-39. The Sycamores’ Ken Bannister was high scorer in the game with 20 points. Valparaiso gave Coach Tom Smith his 100th career victory. He is 100-66 now. Five crusaders scored in double figures topped by 18 points from 6-foot-2 senior guard Randy Okrzesik. Melvin McLaughlin had 24 points for Central Michigan, 5-4. Valparaiso, 2-6, led at halftime 38-32. Brad Leaf led Evansville with 28 points as the Aces led all the way and were in front 46-22 at halftime. Also in double figures for the Aces, now 9-1 for the season, were Theren Bullock with 14 and Richie Johnson with 10 points. Ricky Hood scored 16 points for Murray State. In the consolation game, Kevin Jones topped all scorers with 21 points to lead the Eastern Illinois Panthers past Tennessee Tech 68-67. In Mount Vernon, Ohio, Mike HOlcomb pumped in a 12-foot baseline jumper with one second left to life Wabash to victory. Petge Metzalaars, who led the 5-3 Little Giants with 19 points, was named the tour ney’s most valuable player Chris Russell topped Kenyon with 10 points. In New Orleans junior for w'ard Louis Williams of Xavier got 19 of his 23 points and 8 of his 12 rebounds in the first half. The Gold Rush, with all 11 team members scoring, jumped to a 24-10 lead, improved it to 48-35 at halftime and led by as much as 26 points late in the game.
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