Banner Graphic, Volume 15, Number 177, Greencastle, Putnam County, 26 March 1985 — Page 7

North Putnam class AA now, others remain same

IHSAA expands football classes and tournament

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) The Indiana High School Athletic Association, ending a two-year experiment with the football “cluster” system, today announced the assignments of schools for 40 sectional tournaments in an expanded five-class playoff format. For the first time since the IHSAA tournament was inaugurated in 1973, every team will automatically advance to the playoffs after the regular season, which has been shortened from 10 to eight games. Instead of 16 cluster winners in each of four classes advancing to the playoffs, all 316 teams will be in the tourney this year, grouped according to school male enrollment. Those from 536 to 1,281 will be in Class AAAAA; 347-536, Class AAAA; 232-343, Class AAA; 167-230, Class AA; and 72-164, Class A. There will be three rounds of sectional games on the weekends of Oct. 25-26, Nov. 1-2 and Nov. 8-9. The eight sectional winners in each class will go to the regional round on Nov. 15. The four regional winners in each class will advance to the semistates on Nov. 22, and the two semistate winners in each class will meet for their respective state championships on Nov. 29-30.

McGuire says Redmen must know they can win

By DAVE ANDERSON c. 1985 N.Y. Times News Service NEW YORK Thirty-three years later, the St. John’s scenario is almost spooky. The Redmen will oppose Georgetown, their nemesis and the nation’s No. 1 team, on Saturday, when the Final Four of the national collegiate tournament gather at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. The only other time St. John’s qualified for the national semifinals was in 1952. They had stunned Kentucky, then ranked No. 1, following a humiliating 81-40 loss earlier that season to the team coached by the late Adolph Rupp, for whom the Lexington arena is named. “That loss stung and hurt,” Frank McGuire, then the St. John’s coach, said at the time. “But the boys said someday, somehow, if we play them again, we would win. No one else thought they could.” The loss early in the 1951-1952 season didn’t sting and hurt any more than St. John’s two recent losses to Georgetown, 85-69 and 92-80. Those defeats deflated the impact of the Redmen’s previous 66-65 triumph that lifted them to No. in the newsagency polls for five weeks. And because of Georgetown’s recent domination, not many people think St. John’s can dethrone the defending national champions, but McGuire does. “The first thing that has to happen,” he said from his home in Columbia, S.C., “is that it has to be instilled in the players’ minds that they can win.” Beyond that, the patriarch of St. John’s basketball, a Redman player half a century ago, has two strategic suggestions for Lou Carnesecca, the coach. “Looie doesn’t have the speed to press the whole court, but he has to use a halfcourt press,” McGuire said. “And don’t try to cover Patrick Ewing from behind. Deny him the ball, put Bill Wennington in front of him. And put Chris Mullin in a defensive matchup so that he can drop off to help Wennington cover Ewing. ’ ’ McGuire had another thought about what St. John’s needed. “Mullin has to have a great day shooting the ball,” the old coach said of the allAmerica guard. “But he knows that, everybody knows that. Mullin is the best player St. John’s has ever had and Looie lets Mullin play his game.” McGuire knew Carnesecca as a second baseman on the St. John’s baseball team that went to the 1949 College World Series,

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KATHY KISSINGER Finished coaching?

The sectional pairings will be determined in a blind draw three weeks before the start of the tourney. Unless approval is given by the IHSAA, all sectional games will be played on Friday, and the top team in the draw will be the host team unless both agree to switch the site. In the second and third sectional rounds, the home team will be the one that was not a host in the first round, unless both were hosts or non-hosts. In that case, the top team in the draw will be the home team. The sectionals are numbered 1-40, and winners will be put into regionals and semistates geographically that is, there will be no draw for those rounds. The host will alternate each year. Money from the sectional games will be divided, after expenses, equally among the seven or eight schools in each sectional. Two percent will go to the IHSAA, which will make up any deficits from any of the sectionals. The current assignment of schools will be for the 1985 and 1986 seasons. Eight former champions are in Class AAAAA this year, with two of them Merrillville and Portage in Sectional 1. The only 5A sectional without a former state champion is Sectional 4, which is

sports

not as a basketball player. “His players love Looie, they’ll do extra for him,” he said. “And he doesn’t overcoach. Some coaches have X’s and O’s for everything, but Looie lets the kids play. You feel free out there. And he doesn’t show up players. If a kid makes a bad pass, Looie won’t yank him right away. If he does, he’ll double-substitute; he’ll take out another player, too. Looie doesn’t show up guys.” McGuire remembered a day at practice at North Carolina, after having left St. John’s following the 1952 NCAA tournament. “I rolled out two balls,” he said, laughing. “The players kicked one back, but I rolled it out again. They kicked it back again, I rolled it out again, then I looked around. ‘We need two balls,’ I told them. ‘One for Tommy Kearns, one for everybody else.’ Kearns liked to keep the ball more than he should. He got the message.” That team won the 1957 NCAA championship in a triple-overtime game against Kansas, 54-53, despite Wilt Chamberlain’s 26 points. “Later on,” McGuire said, “when I coached Wilt with the Philadelphia Warriors, he told me that he felt like he was surrounded by Indians in that game. Everytime he got the ball, all my players swarmed around him.” McGuire described the difference between what the NCAA championship was then and what it is now. “Kentucky had one of its best teams Cliff Hagan, Frank Ramsey, Lou Tsioropoulos, those guys,” he said. “Adolph Rupp had already chartered a plane and had arranged to take his own water from Raleigh, where the regional was, to Seattle for the semifinals and final.

Kissinger once again giving up basketball

ROMEOVILLE, 111.-Proving once again basketball is not the most important part of her life, Kathy Kissinger has resigned as head women’s basketball coach at Lewis University after consecutive 20-win seasons. The former Greencastle High School coach will move with husband Scott, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Kissinger of Greencastle, to Indianapolis in late May, where he has accepted a job. LEWIS SPORTS INFORMATION Director Mike Altobella said they would miss coach Kissinger, a sentiment Greencastle expressed when she resigned after leading the Tiger Cubs to back to back sectional titles and into the 1980 Ben Davis semistate. Kissinger finished her three-year coaching career with a 59-25 record, two Great Lakes Valley Conference championships and two “Coach of the Year”

made up of Anderson, Anderson Highland, Madison Heights, Jay County, Kokomo, Lafayette Jeff, Marion and Muncie Central. Other former champions in 5A are Valparaiso, in Sectional 2; Penn, 3; Carmel, 5; Warren Central, 6; Columbus East, 7; and Castle, 8. Class AAAA has nine former champions, including two each in Sectional 11 (Fort Wayne Dwenger and Goshen), 13 (Brownsburg and Indianapolis Washington), and 14 (Greenfield and Indianapolis Chatard). The other former winners in 4A are South Bend Washington, Sectional 10; Blackford, 12; and Franklin Central, 15. Class AAA has only two former champions, with Plymouth in Sectional 18 and Hamilton Southeastern in Sectional 19. Class AA has six former champions, with only Sectional 27 having two of them (Oak Hill and Tippecanoe Valley). The other former champs in AA are Mishawaka Marion, Sectional 25; Garrett, 26; Indianapolis Ritter, 30; and Lawrenceburg,3l. The three former state champions in this year’s Clas A are Fountain Central in Sectional 37, and Lafayette Catholic and Sheridan, both in Sectional 38.

But when we won, Adolph gave us his plane and his water. ” It wasn’t known as the Final Four in those years. It was just the NCAA, and in New York the National Invitation Tournament was more important. “As I remember, St. John’s got something like $40,000 for finishing second that year,” said McGuire. “Now the teams in the Final Four get $708,000 each. Aside from the team and me that year, I think the only people in our party was Walter McLaughlin, our athletic director, and one of the St. John’s priests. Now a team can take 25 people to the Final Four, all expenses paid. And we didn’t have one fan go out to Seattle that I remember. This time St. John’s will have a few thousand in Lexington. “We had a good team that year. We went to Seattle to play Illinois in the semis. We won that game, 61- 59, but in the final against Kansas, we couldn’t handle Clyde Lovellette. He wrecked us, 33 points. We lost, 80-63, but after the game, I don’t remember one writer coming around to talk to me. I don’t think any of the New York writers came out there. They were too busy with the NIT. ” As the director of college basketball at Madison Square Garden now, McGuire will attend the NIT there this week before leaving for Lexington. “Looie had me talk to his team the day they started practice last October,” the old coach said. “I told them: ‘Looking at this group, you can win the national championship this season. Just remember, there’s only one ball.’ And now they have a chance to win it.” To win the title, St. John’s must beat Georgetown, which nobody expects to happen. But 33 years ago, nobody expected St. John’s to beat Kentucky.

awards. She guided the Lady Flyers to a 22-7 record and their second straight NCAA Division II tournament berth. Clark College defeated Lewis 64-63 in the opening round of the tournament despite a 16-point, 15 rebound performance by Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Player of the Year Julie Fruendt. HER FIRST YEAR at Lewis, Kissinger guided the Lady Flyers to a 16-10 record. But improved upon that greatly the second year, registering a 21-8 mark. Lewis University officially announced Kissinger’s resignation Monday and Athletic Director Paul Ruddy started a search for her replacement. When the Kissingers moved to Chicago in 1982 so Scott could earn his law degree, Kathy felt her coaching career was over, only to find the Lewis Univeristy position at the last minute. It is unknown if she will try to coach in Indianapolis.

Last year’s four winners in the state finals at the Hoosier Dome were Warren Central (AAAA), Brownsburg (AAA), Indianapolis Chatard (AA), and Sheridan (A). The five-class tournament with every school participating replaces the controversial “cluster” system that the IHSAA had used the past two years to determine playoff teams. Under that system, each team had to play every other team within its own geographic ‘cluster,’ and only those games counted toward making the playoffs. Thus a team could lose one cluster game, finish 9-1 and fail to make the playoffs, while a team could win all of its cluster games but finish 4-6 overall and still get into the tourney. Now, as in basketball, every football team regardless of record will get a chance to become state champion. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Sectional assignments of schools in the 13th Indiana High School Athletic Association football playoffs, beginning Oct. 25 (Firstround pairings and sites to be drawn in early October): Class AAAAA Sectional I—Crown Point, Gary Roosevelt, Gary Wallace, Gary West, Highland, Lake Central, Merrillville, Portage. 2 Chesterton, LaPorte, Mich. City Elston, Mich. City Rogers, Mishawaka, S.Bend LaSalle, S.Bend Riley, Valparaiso. 3 Elkhart Central, Elkhart Memorial, Ft. Wayne Northrop, Ft. Wayne North, Ft. Wayne Snider, Huntington

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The Putnam County Democrats' Century Club gathering at Windy Hill Country Club turned into a heavyweight affair with (from left) Indiana Secretary of State candidate Evan Bayh, Democratic Party State

Dick the Bruiser remains larger than life legend

By STEVE FIELDS Banner-Graphic Sports Editor Saturday nights on my grandparent’s farm in Daviess County weren’t as exciting as exploring haylofts and corn cribs during the day, but there is a certain warm memory of those evenings that will never be forgotten. The Putnam County Democrats rekindled some of that feeling Wednesday night during their Century Club gathering at Windy Hill Country Club. It wasn’t the delicious steak, or Evan Bayh’s air stirring speech, in which he did everything but wave the flag, that brought back the memories. RICHARD AFFLIS, A.K.A. Dick the Bruiser, brought back that feeling of family love I so associate with those Saturday nights. You see, it was tradition, a weekly habit, that after having the results of my explorations washed away, my brother and I would grab a bottle of Pepsi and curl up on grandma’s or grandpa’s lap and watch professional wrestling on television. Recalling that feeling Wednesday evening while talking with the symbol of professional wrestling, it came as no surprise he spent most of his visit talking to children at the Allison Home and those in Putnam County Hospital. Democratic County Chairman Tom Buis said he didn’t have to introduce the Bruiser to anyone, they recognized him immediately. “That’s mainly what I do. I like to give out a little something besides take,” the son of the late and very active Democrat Margaret Afflis Johnson said. DON’T GET THE impression he’s retired from the ring. At age 55 the Bruiser still wrestles five or six nights a week at the Indianapolis Convention Center, Tindal Armory or at Market Square Arena. Injuries haven’t taken their toll as with many other professional wrestlers and he hasn’t set a retirement date. “Most of them are retired and quit wrestling by the time they’re 40. I’ve just lasted longer,” the Bruiser said. Possibly one of the reasons he’s lasted longer and has stayed away from so many injuries others have suffered is because of his training program. “I was one of the first professional football players that trained most extensively with weights. Now that’s the way they all come,” the Bruiser said of being ahead of his time. HE PLAYED FIVE SEASONS with the Green Bay Packers back in the 1950’5, making $6,000 one year as line captain. The minimum was $3,500 in the NFL back then. “At that time wrestling turned out much more lucrative than the football so I finally stayed with wrestling.” During the off-season from football, the Bruiser took classes at the University of Nevada, working on a degree in physical education. He earlier attended Purdue University and had planned to be an engineer. But while in Nevada he worked security at Earl’s Club in Reno and from there started making trips into San Francisco to

North, Penn, Warsaw. 4 Anderson, Anderson Highland, Anderson Madison Heights, Jay Co., Kokomo, Lafayette Jeff, Marion, Muncie Central. 5 Carmel, Indpls Arlington, Indpls Broad Ripple, Indpls Marshall, Indpls Northwest, Indpls N.Central, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North. 6 Connersville, Indpls Ben Davis, Indpls Howe, Indpls Manual, Indpls Tech, New Castle, Richmond, Warren Central. 7 Center Grove, Columbus East, columbus North, Jeffersonville, Jennings Co., New Albany, Indpls Perry Meridian, Southrpot 8— Bedford-N. Lawrence, Bloomington North, Bloomington South, Castle, Evansville Central, Martinsville, Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South. Class AAAA 9 Calumet, E.Chi.Roosevelt, Griffith, Hammond, Hammond Morton, Hammond Noll, Lowell, Munster. 10— Andrean, Gary Mann, Gary Wirt, Hobart, S.Bend Adams, S.Bend Clay, S.Bend St.Jo6eph’s, S.Bend Washington. 11— Columbia City, Concord, Culver Military, DeKalb, E.Noble, Ft. Wayne Dwenger, Goshen, Homestead. 12— Bellmont, Blackford, Ft. Wayne Elmhurst, Ft. Wayne South, Ft. Wayne Wayne, Ft. Wayne Harding, Logans port, New Haven. 13— Avon, Brownsburg, Decatur Central, Indpls Pike, Indpls Washington, Mooresville, Northview, Plainfield. 14— Delta, Greenfield, Indpls Chatard, Laf.Harrison, McCutcheon, Muncie South, Noblesville, Pendleton Hts. 15— E. Central, Franklin Central, Greenwood, Madison, Rushville, Seymour, Shelbyville, S.Dearborn. 16— Boonville, Evansville Bo6se, Evansville Harrison, Evansville North, Evansville Reitz, Floyd Central, Jasper, Vincennes Lincoln. Class AAA 17— Benton Central, E.Chi.Washington, Hammond Clark, Hammond Gavit, Kankakee Valley, Knox, New Prairie, Twin Lakes 18— Angola, Carroll (Allen), Ft. Wayne Concordia, Northridge, North Wood, Norwell, Plymouth, Wawasee. 19— Frankfort, Hamilton Southeastern, Maconaquah. Northwestern, Peru, Tipton, Western, W. Lafayette. 20— Alexandria, Eastbrook, Elwood, Madison-Grant, Mississinewa, Muncie North, Winchester, Yorktown. 21 — Crawfordsville, Lebanon, N.Montgomery. Owen

Chairman John Livengood, special guest Dick the Bruiser and Putnam County Democratic chairman Tom Buis on hand. (Banner-Graphic photo by Steve Fields).

wrestling. “IN TRAINING TO become a wrestler I wrestled all the old professionals,” the Bruiser recalled, “like when I was 20, I wrestled guys who were 50 then and they could beat me up in a second until I learned a lot.” The newcomers today are much like the Bruiser was when he first came into the sport. They’re either professional athletes in the offseason, or kids who wrestled in high school or college or both. Who knows maybe Tom Shuee, one of Wednesday night’s youngest guests, will go on from being a Greencastle High School heavyweight to being a world wide celebrity like the Bruiser. “THERE ARE MANY as good as I am, some of them a little better. But I have a little more knowledge than a lot of them,” the Bruiser said of today’s competition. Professional wrestling has always been one of the nation’s largest spectator sports. It died down a little on television, but it’s coming back. “It’s exactly the same, except there is a lot more television,” the Bruiser said comparing wrestling today as to when he started. “When television first started, wrestling was one of the fey things that was on television, so there was a lot of hype. As things progressed more and more things were shown on television and now the cables (television networks) are coming up with more wrestling like the (top three) networks did 30 years ago,” the Bruiser said. JUST AS BUIS PROMISED there were no body slams. Except for a special request from Steve Michaels there were no headlock holds or other demonstrations from the Bruiser. I didn’t even ask him is wrestling was fake, fearing he might make it possible for me to visit the kids at the Putnam County Hospital. However, the Bruiser did say the stories about wrestling being faked have been around for years, just like he has. From the sound of things Dick The Bruiser will be around for years yet. I think I’ll buy some Pepsi and stay home Saturday rbght.

March 26,1985, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

Valley, S.Vermillion, Western Boone, W Vigo, Zionsville 22 — Brookville, Franklin, Indpls Attucks, Indpls Cathedral, Indpls Roncalli, Mt. Vernon (Hancock), New Palestine, Whiteland. 23 Batesville, Brown Co., Charlestown. Clarksville Providence, Edgewood, Greensburg, Mitchell, N Harrison. 24 Evansville Memorial, Gibson Southern, Heritage Hills, Mt. Vernon (Posey), Pike Central, Princeton, Sullivan, Washington. Class AA 25 Cass, Delphi, Glenn, Lake Station, Mishawaka Marian, N.Newton, Rensselaer, Rochester 26 Ft. Wayne Luers, Garrett, Heritage, Lakeland, Leo, Prairie Hts., W.Noble, Woodian. 27 Bluffton, Manchester, N.Miami, Oak Hill, Taylor, Tippecanoe Valley, Wabash, Whitko 28— Cambridge City, Centerville, Hagerstown, Knightstown. Northeastern, Shenandoah, Union Co., Wes-Del 29 Cascade, Danville, Greencastle, Monrovia, N.Putnam, Seeger, Southmont, Tri-West. 39—Beech Grove, Frankton, Hamilton Hts., Indpls Brebeuf, Indpls Ritter, Indpls Scecina, Speedway, Triton Central. 31— Brownstown, Corydon, Indian Creek, Lawrenceburg, N Decatur, Paoli, Salem, S.Decatur 32 Evansville Mater Dei, N.Central (Sullivan), N.Knox, N.Posey, Southridge, S.Spencer, Tell City, Wood Memorial. Class A 33 Bremen, Culver, LaVille, N.Judson, River Forest, S.Central (LaPorte), Triton, Whiting. 34 Central Noble, Churubusco, Eastside, Fairfield, Fremont, Hamilton, Jimtown. 35 Carroll (Carroll), Frontier, N.White, Pioneer, S Newton, Tri-County, W.Central, Winamac. 36 Adams Central, Caston, Eastern (Howard), Northfield, S. Adams, Southern Wells, South wood 37 Attica, Cloverdale, Covington, Fountain Central, N.Vermillion, Rockville, S.Putnam, Turkey Run 38— Clinton Central, Clinton Prairie, Lafayette Catholic, Lapel, Sheridan, Tri-Central, Westfield 39 Eastern Hancock, Edinburgh, Indiana Deaf, Indpls Park-Tudor, Milan, Tri High, Union City. 40— Clarksville, Dugger, Linton, N.Daviess, Perry Central, Springs Valley, Tecumseh, W Washington

Fields' Findings

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