The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 10, 1989 Page: 14 of 16
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14 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1989 THE RICE THRESHER
SPORTS
Owls celebrate team
effort despite defeat
by Myra K. Rucker
When the Owls played the Arkan-
sas Razorbacks last Saturday, Rice
Stadium was the sight of several mini
victory celebrations. The offense
celebrated when senior place kicker
Sammy Hartmen's fifth straight field
goal put the first points on the score-
board. The fans celebrated when
they wanted "six" and freshman
quarterback Greg Willig, replacing
the injured Donald Hollas, passed to
sophomore Eric Henley for the first
Rice touchdown. And no one could
miss the defensive high fives when
freshman defensive tackle Corey
Seymour and junior linebacker 0. J.
Brigance each started the game by
sacking Arkansas quarterback
Quinn Grovey. But, according to
Antonio Varnado, a freshman defen-
sive tackle on the Rice scout team,
most football fans probably missed
the celebrations because they were
not looking at the big picture. "They
don't ever look at what the line
does...or notice when someone
makes a good block," Varnado said.
"They just want to see some guy
running 50 yards down the field and
the defense making an interception."
They also want to see their team
win. Unfortunately, the Owls were
not able to celebrate the ultimate
victory over Arkansas.
It all started when Willig, who had
led the Owls into'the inzone twice,
was sacked in the first few secbnds of
the infamous fourth quarter. All was
not lost, however, as sophomore
Bobby Schrader produced the long-
est punt in his career. Unfortunately,
Schrader's 55 yard punt was forgot-
ten several minutes later, when one
of Willig's passes was intercepted
and turned into a Arkansas touch-
down. Another sack and several in-
complete passes later, Arkansas
made another touchdown making
the final score 38-17.
Many people expected the Owls
to be down, but they weren't. "We're
too young to be down. We just go out
there and have fun," sophomore
defensive back David Griffin said.
Watching the films isn't always fun,
but it makes the team better. And
while Goldsmith's new defensive
rotation may be more exhausting
than fun, it has made the team
fresher. The fact that the Owls didn't
deflate, even after Hollas exited the
game with an ankle injury, made
Goldsmith proud and put the team in
the inzone. After the two extra weeks
the Owls have had to prepare for
Baylor, the same drive that earned
seventeen points against Arkansas
will beat the Bears.
Worth Mentioning
According to Monday's Houston
Chronicle, freshman quarterback
Greg Willig is the "Best Newcomer"
in the SWC. Willig's 18 completed
passes resulted in 188 yards and two
touchdowns.
Willig wasn't the only note wor-
thy Rice freshman in the game
against Arkansas. Running back
Trevor Cobb replaced senior Rich-
ard Williams as a Rice starter and
managed to set a new Rice record for
rushing yards in a season by a fresh-
man. Cobb's 20 carries added 50
yards to his season, making his sea-
son total 381 yards on 106 carries.
Sophomore running back Eric
Henley set a new career high with
117 receiving yards. His season total
is now 840 yards, giving him the
second highest season total. After
the Arkansas game, Henley only
needs three catches to set a new Rice
record.
Junior quarterback Donald Hol-
las saw a lot of the Arkansas game
from the sideline after he broke his
leg. While he was on the field, how-
ever, Hollas moved into third place
for total yards and total completions
in one season. His 156 completions,
which total the record set by Randy
Hertel in 1976 and 77, total 1,816
yards.
Lads advance to soccer nationals
©
One player called last week-
end's soggy tie between Rice and
Texas A&M for the Texas Soccer
Championship, "Soccer blue
balls." After the game was aban-
doned in the second half as a 3-3
draw, breaths were held in antici-
pation of how it would be re-
solved. There was, after all, a na-
tional tournament bid on the line.
We hadnt given a season of sweat
and muscle fatigue for a tie. There
had to be something more than
waiting and wondering. Then
there was a phone call about a
wild card. BOTH teams will go to
nationals.
The National Collegiate Club
Soccer Association Tournament
is being held in Lawrence, Kan-
sas, this weekend, and the Rice Lads
will be there. There are eight teams
in the tournament from five leagues.
The teams are Rice, University of
Texas-El Paso, Michigan, Mankato
State, Texas A&M, Kansas, Wiscon-
sin Steven's Point, and the winner of
the Illinois-Minnesota game. Illinois
is the defending champion. Rice will
play Michigan, which will become a
varsity team next year, on Friday and
Mankato State and UTEP on Satur-
day. The semi-finals, consolation,
and final matches will be played on
Sunday.
The Lads plan to take Kansas by
storm this weekend. They've prac-
ticed hard, fought through injuries,
and played tough games all season.
While the teams in the tournament
are unknown to the Lads , they
know they can take on anyone.
"We've played well against teams
that had better skills.. .[but] we're
out there because we want to be,"
Dave Freeman said. "About 70
percent of soccer is how much you
want it"
Except for the loss of Hanszen
freshman James Young, to an ap-
pendectomy, the Lads are healthy
and hungry. According to senior
Jean-Pierre Baizan, "(To win]
would be a dream come true.
Beyond my wildest dreams." Feel-
ing unappeased by last weekend's
rainout, the Lads are ready to
wake up and bring a victory home
to Rice.
- John Shepard
Losing team revived after 75 year hiatus
by Charles Kuffner
At the risk of getting myself into a
rut after only one column, I am going
to talk about college football again.
Last week one of the local tabloids
contained an item that caught my
eye. It seems that after a layoff of
forty years, Cumberland College is
Vine
Bill Stone follows the example of teamates O.J. Brigance and Corey Seymour, sacking Arkansas quarterback Quinn Grovey.
resuming its football program.
Yes, yes, I know. What is Cumber-
land College and why do we care
about their football program? Well,
Cumberland has the, ah, distinction
of being on the wrong end of the
most lopsided score in college or
professional football history. Back in
1916, Georgia Tech defeated our
heroes by the score of 222 - 0.
And you thought the University
of Houston ran up scores.
This was not your run of the mill
blow out, however, because Tech
achieved it in roughly three quarters
of play. You see, Cumberland was so
outmanned they kept shortening the
length of the periods. The first half
was 25 minutes, but the second half
was reduced to 17 minutes. I mean,
we're not talking run-of-the-mill
blowout here.
Tech scored every time they had
the ball, and almost every time Cum-
berland had the ball as well. After the
first quarter, Tech was leading by
more than 70 points. To say Cumber-
land couldn't do anything right that
day is like saying Rice's chances of
going to the Cotton Bowl this year
are fading.
Before I get carried away here, let
me give you a little background.
While Tech was coached by the leg-
endary Johnny Heisman (as in the
trophy) and was in the middle of a
three-year winning streak, Cumber-
land was not exactly a complete no-
oody. In fact, Cumberland had had a
1 three-year winning streak from 1901-
o 1903. However, their program was a
s small one. They only agreed to play a
'monster like Tech because they
were guaranteed $500 to do so.
While $500 would be chump change
to a Southern Methodist linebacker
a few years ago, it was a fortune to
Cumberland, and so their coach, also
a student, rounded up every warm
body he could find. One of the guys
he found had not known what a
"down" was previously.
Aside from the obvious abun-
dance of scoring records that came
out of the game, there were some
interesting sidebars as well. The offi-
cial scorer of the game credited
Cumberland's tailback with a ten-
yard reception as their longest gain
from scrimmage. The tailback him-
self, however, demurred. "Our long-
est gain from scrimmage," he in-
sisted, "was when I lost five yards
around right end."
Needless to say, Cumberland got
lots of practice returning kicks. Un-
fortunately, they weren't very good
at holding on to them. At one point,
one of the return men fumbled, and
the ball bounced towards the other
returner. "Pick it up!" the first one
yelled. The second one looked at the
ball, then looked at the swarm of
Tech players closing in, and said,
"You dropped it. You pick it up."
Tech distributed the scoring
fairly well. One of the Tech players
who scored a touchdown was a sen-
ior offensive lineman who had never
scored before and desperately
wanted to before his career ended.
So, on One of their many trips inside
the Cumberland 5-yard line, his
teammates let him run one in. How-
ever, they had some fun first On his
first three attempts, his teammates
refused to block for him, and each
time Cumberland stuffed him they
enjoyed a good laugh. On the fourth
down, they finally agreed to block,
and he scored his coveted touch-
down.
Now, almost 75 years later, Cum-
berland will pljiy again, mostly
against schools no one has ever
heard ot That's too bad. I mean, I
don't know about you, but I'd pay to
see the rematch.
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Kahn, Greg & Leedy, Sarah J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 10, 1989, newspaper, November 10, 1989; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245734/m1/14/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.