Banner Graphic, Volume 16, Number 118, Greencastle, Putnam County, 2 January 1986 — Page 6

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The Putnam County Banner Graphic, January 2,1986

Berndt moving to Rice By STEVE FIELDS Banner-Graphic Sports Editor HOUSTON, Tex -Jerry Berndt, who rebuilt football programs at DePauw University and the University of Pennsylvania, is on the move again. The 47-year-old Berndt will be introduced to the Houston, Tex., media Thursday afternoon as the new head football coach and athletic director at Rice University. He succeeds Watson Brown, who resigned earlier to become head coach at Vanderbilt. “I’M CONVINCED JERRY Berndt is the right person to continue the momentum that is underway in our football program,” Rice University president Dr. George E. Rupp said in a prepared statement. “His ability to generate positive momentum at DePauw and now at the University of Pennsylvania is well known. We look forward to having the same kind of success at Rice University.” If Berndt follows his usual pattern Rice should be winning in 1987, his second season. While fashioning a seven-year head coaching record of 38-27-3, Berndt has returned DePauw and Penn football programs to winning after just one year. Moving to DePauw from Dartmouth College in 1979, Berndt’s first team posted a 2-7 record, but gained momentum that led to a 7-2-1 mark for the Tigers in 1980. DePauw has not had a losing season since, present coach Nick Mourouzis having extended the streak to six straight winning records. BUT BERNDT ALWAYS wanted to coach in the Ivy League and returned

Big Ten opens real season

By The Associated Press The Big Ten managed to roll up an overwhelming 89-22 record in non-conference basketball this season, but now the games start to mean something with the opening of conference action tonight. Second-ranked Michigan starts at Indiana, where the No. 15 Hoosiers hope to repeat their upset of a year ago when they wiped out the Wolverines 87-62. Illinois, 9-2, ranked 14th and trying to overcome the loss of guard Doug Altenberger to a knee injury, will take on the Minnesota, 10-3, in Champaign. The other conference openers will match lowa, 10-3, at Purdue, 11-2, and Michigan State, 9-1, at Ohio State, 6-3. Northwestern and Wisconsin will open against each other Saturday in Madison. Michigan ran its pre-season record to 120 without any problem while Indiana is 8-2. Indiana is coming off its worst Big Ten season since Coach Bobby Knight arrived in 1971, but Knight thinks the Hoosiers

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JERRY BERNDT Now AD and coach

to the non-scholarship, NCAA Division I AA league in 1981. His first Penn team went 1-9, but the ground work was laid, the Quakers winning four straight Ivy League championships since, including the first victories over Harvard and Yale in 10 years. “I’m excited about the opportunity to take charge of a football program now headed in the right direction,” Berndt said. “Rice’s athletic program is run on principles in keeping with my own philosophies and I look forward to operating that program within a great conference.” Not only is this Berndt’s first job as athletic director, but also his first running an NCAA Division I A, scholarship football program. Rice, who recruited Greencastle High School basketball star Mike Cooper last year, is a member of the Southwest Conference with Texas Christian University (TCU), Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas A&M, Southern Methodist University (SMU) and Houston.

have improved. “From a record standpoint, we’re the same as a year ago,” Knight said. “But I think we’re a much tougher team to play against than a year ago.” Indiana’s Daryl Thomas will also find out what it takes to be a center in the Big Ten, since Knight moved the 6-foot-7 junior to that spot from forward. Thomas, who has averaged 19.6 over the past seven games, will have to guard Michigan’s 6-11 Roy Tarpley, whose scoring average and rebounds are down from last year’s numbers. Purdue goes into its opener with lowa with a six-game winning streak, including a 15-point win over DePaul. Boilermaker Coach Gene Keady says the game will be his team’s first real test. “There are still a lot of questions about this team and when you get into Big Ten play, that’s when you get tested.”

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County Classic

Cubs and Clovers looking for consistency

By STEVE FIELDS Banner-Graphic Sports Editor Greencastle and Cloverdale, each with only one victory, aren’t worried about playing each other Friday night in the 6:45 p.m. opening game of the Putnam County Classic. For when the ball goes up at Greencastle’s McAnally Center each will be looking at themselves, not the opponent. South Putnam and North Putnam play the 8:15 p.m. second game with the two Friday night winners moving into Saturday’s 8:15 p.m. championship game. McAnally Center doors open at 6 p.m. both nights and single-session tickets are $2.50. BOTH TEAMS ARE off to rough starts and have very little experience. Greencastle is 1-5 and Cloverdale 1-4 after the holiday break. The Cubs scored 70-points in their first two games, but have lost four straight since that 1-1 start, falling to Rockville, Plainfield, South Vermillion and Terre Haute North. Cloverdale has sandwiched a 69-55 win over Eminence between losses to Cascade, Clay City, Danville and Monrovia, as firstyear coach Jim Stewart tries to teach his philosophy. “WHAT WE’RE LOOKING for is some

North and South going in right directions

By STEVE FIELDS Banner-Graphic Sports Editor South Putnam and North Putnam, the county’s two most experienced high school basketball teams, will open the 1986 half of the season Friday night in the 8:15 p.m. second game of the Putnam County Classic at Greencastle’s McAnally Center. Greencastle and Cloverdale, with two wins between them, play the 6:45 p.m. first game. Friday’s two winners meet at 8:15 p.m. Saturday for the championship, immediately after the 6:45 p.m. consolation game. Doors open at 6 p.m. both nights and single-session tickets are $2.50. DESPITE A 1-5 record, North may have played the best basketball of any county teams prior to the holiday break. Yet at 23, South brings the best record into the tournament. “We like to feel some of the competition we’ve played up to the county tourney is going to have us ready to play,” North coach Bill Brothers said. The Cougars have been tough in all but the final pre-holiday losses. They took losses of five, four and one points and an 11-point overtime loss to Owen Valley. North Vermillion blew out the Cougars 8259 just before the break. “I THINK WE were tired. We’ve been on the road. We’ve only had two home games, which other people have been through too, but we’ve been to Covington and Crawfordsville is a tough place to play and North Vermillion,” Brothers said. “We broke that one game there at home (Owen Valley), but then we came back and played what I thought was our best game (at Crawfordsville). We were really in control of all those games we lost. We didn’t do that (break) at Crawfordsville. We stuck

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consistency in our play,” Greencastle coach Doug Miller said. “What we need to do right now is play some ball games. We’ve been going at it since Oct. 20 and have only played six games. It seems like we’ve been playing forever.” That, according to Stewart, it also part of Cloverdale’s problem. “There are a lot of teams that have won three games, but they’ve played nine or 10. If we had played that many games we probably would have won three,” Stewart said. Both teams are fighting inconsistency and inexperience and in each case their most experienced player is off to a rough start. David Rushing, who started nearly every game last year, is averaging 18.6

right in there to the end. The shots just wouldn’t go down.” To Brothers all of those things add up to a positive. “We’re not second-guessing ourselves. When you’re in that position you’ve got to be doing something right,” the coach said. SOUTH MAY HAVE found a few answers just before the break, ripping Southmont 66-46. “We came together a little bit more as a team up there,” coach Bill Merkel said. “The team concept came together up there a little bit more than in previous games. I think the kids started playing with each other a little bit more. “We’re still not satisfied, but it was a much closer ball game.” Both coaches gave the players time off at Christmas. South needed it more so than North after a successful playoff extended football season. “Up to that point (Southmonth) the kids were emotionally and mentally fatigued,” Merkel said. THIS HAS ALL the makings of a classic county rivalry. The teams are nearly the same size across the front lines, South holding a slight edge with 6-5 Greg Phillips and 6-4 Brian Meek against North’s 6-2 duo of Mike Marsteller and Brad Long. Rebounding and defense could decide this game. Marsteller and Long, as well as either 6-2 Mike Spires or 6-2 Chris Lyons, whoever Brothers decides to start, will have to prove they can rebound with South. “We’ve got to do a much better job of rebounding a screening out,” Merkel said. Defensively the Cougars have to be concerned not only with Meek inside, but also 6-1 junior guard Troy Greenlee, the county’s top scorer at 21.6 points per game. “Greenlee is going to get his points. I don’t think you can stop a plaver like him. If he’s

points per game, but the majority of his points came in opening 30 and 35-point nights and Miller even held him out of the Plainfield contest. “AS LONG AS David continues to work hard he’s certainly a potential starter,” Miller said. Craig Whitaker, who missed Tuesday’s practice with the flu, is also in his third varsity season, is averaging 11 points per game. But he hasn’t cracked double figures the last two games. “I’m really not thinking about any opponent. We’re not looking at who we’re playing. We’re working on what we’re trying to do,” Miller said. “We’re not specializing or practicing for an op-

not hurting you scoring, he’s going to be hurting you doing something else,” Brothers said. LYONS, AVERAGING 18.5 points per game, is South’s biggest defensive concern. “He’s a good shooter. He doesn’t shoot that many times. The thing we can’t let them do is get to the boards, get the second and third shot and put it back in,” Merkel said. “They’re kind of a streak-

Greenlee and Mann top county scoring Total WCC Off. Def. Teams Record Record Avg. Avg. South Putnam vc. 2-3 1-3 62.2 61.8 Cloverdale 1-4 0-3 50.8 65.2 North Putnam 1-5 1-1 57.5 64.3 Greencastle 1-5 1-1 53.8 69.0 Individual scoring GP TP Avg. Troy Greenlee, South Putnam 5 108 21.6 David Rushing, Greencastle 5 93 18.6 Chris Lyons, North Putnam 6 111 18.5 Brian Meek, South Putnam 5 79 15.8 Chris Colvin, North Putnam 6 76 12.7 Craig Whitaker, Cloverdale 5 55 11.0 Mark Garrett, Cloverdale 5 53 10.6 Chris Hanson, Greencastle 6 63 10.5 Total WCC Off. Def. Team Record Record Avg. Avg. Greencastle 6-3 4-1 53.9 46.6 North Putnam 4-6 3-1 43.9 53.9 Cloverdale 3-4 2-2 48.3 49.1 South Putnam 2-8 0-6 41.2 50.0 Individual scoring GP TP Avg. Debbie Mann, Cloverdale 7 156 22.3 Sarah Griffin, North Putnam 10 153 15.3 Jannetta Sinnet, North Putnam 10 115 15.1 Tawnya Pierce, Greencastle 9 129 14.3 Pat Archer, Greencastle 9 121 13.4 Amy Tucker, Greencastle 9 114 12.7 Kim McKinney, South Putnam 10 113 11.3 Rene McKinney, South Putnam 10 106 10.6

Baseball and fans lose innovator

CHICAGO (AP) Bill Veeck, colorful former owner of the Chicago White Sox who brought the exploding scoreboard to baseball and spiced up the game with clowns, midgets, ethnic nights and giveways, died early today at age 71. Veeck died at 2:55 am. in Illinois Masonic Medical Center of a heart attack, said Jean Benzies, director of public relations at the medical center. The spokeswoman said Veeck had entered the hospital Monday after suffering from shortness of breath. He underwent surgery in October 1984 for removal of a malignant lung tumor. Veeck began his career as a vendor with the Chicago Cubs, was an official of the club, then went on to operate the St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox twice. He was credited with bringing to baseball the exploding scoreboard, clowns, midgets, ethnic nights and giveaways. Veeck never wore a tie or a coat and there never was a dull moment with him around. Anything for fun and laughs, that was the flamboyant Veeck’s style. He came in a gregarious, hoarse laugh, coarsened by his love of beer and cigarettes. But he lived much of his life in physical pain. It was fitting that he titled his well-

ponent.” STEWART SAYS THE same thing, but carries that philosophy through the entire season. “You spend most of the season playing against yourselves other than against an opponent. You get into trouble when you start watching the scoreboard and thinking about who the opponents are,” the coach explained. “I just want to play some ball games and see if we’ve accomplished anything since the last one (game),” Stewart added. “As far as I’m concerned we’re just playing a tournament. To me it’s like a Friday and Saturday night ball game.” Because of some illness and play during practices over the holiday, Miller isn’t sure who is going to start outside of junior Chris Hanson. “Chris Hanson has been consistent for us every game out. We have to be pleased with how he has played,” the coach said of the 10.5-point scorer and team assist leader. STEWART PLANS TO use 6-1 sophomore Hugh Patton and 6-2 senior Larry Jinkins at forwards with 6-1 sophomore Rick Ford at center. Chris Mann, a 6-1 junior, will go at one guard with either Whitaker or 5-11 sophomore Mark Garrett.

shooting team. They get hot and they can hurt you.” Two factors to watch for on North-how many times Lyons shoots and if Marsteller disappears on the offensive end of the court. Brothers wants Lyons shooting more and the Cougars are more effective if Marsteller works to get himself open instead of letting the defense control him.

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BILL VEECK Dies stage 71

known book, “Veeck, As In Wreck.” He had a pegleg, the result of the World War II mishap, and he used it for an ashtray before he reluctantly broke a three-to-four pack-a-day cigarette habit in his later years because of repeated attacks of emphysema. Veeck’s standard response to “How do you feel, Bill?” was “Not too bad for a balding old man with one leg who can’t see or hear,” even as he turned up the volume on a hearing aid attached to heavy bifocals.