• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1987-10-29_Vol53_No11_09

The Western Carolinian Thursday, October 29, 1987 Musings on the World Series, NFL Strike, and Bob Waters Last Thursday night I was sitting at my desk, doing my homework and watching Game 5 of the World Series on a black and white television. Thoughts of the past Series drifted through my head, and I thought about where I had watched each Series, what was so memorable about each and so on. Last year's Series was, for me, the ultimate. The New York Mets won in seven games over the Boston Red Sox, and not only was It an exciting Series,— who could forget Game 6? — but, believe it or not, the teams playing were my Nos. 1 and 2 favorite teams. (If you don't believe me, check The Western Carolinian of Sept. 26, 1986.1 said so right there. You can find It in the library.) Anyway, as I sat through this so-called unexciting Series last Thursday night, I decided it was becoming more interesting than my French homework, and I headed down top my Albright- Benton dorm lobby to watch it in color. A few guys were watching it there, but the picture wasn't that good, so I decided to cruise up the hill to Reynolds, where I had watched the deciding game of the National League play-offs the week before. The guys on the second floor of Reynolds were pretty nice about letting an outsider watch their hall TV, and they had good reception, so I figured I'd go back. On my way up, I hit the first floor of Reynolds, and the sound of Al Michaels' voice was emanating from everywhere — the Series was on TV's in the RA's office, in the main lobby and up and down the halls. When I got to the second floor, I found about a dozen guys sitting in front of the tube watching the Cardinals and Twins. They were eating chips and drinking Coke and having a good time. I decided not to spoil it and to look for a place where there were some seats to watch the game. As I walked down the hall, I could hear TV's coming from every room and people dropping by and asking others for the score. Well, as I was on my way to Harrill, which has a nice color TV and gets good reception, I thought: Wow, for an uninteresting Series this game is getting a lot of attention. I hit Harrill and found all CHRISGEIS Sports Editor the TV's tuned in watching the game, and then I decided to check around campus, get a flavor for this Game 5 viewing audience. I stopped in every dorm lobby, and everywhere I checked, the Series was tuned in with plenty of people watching it (that is, everywhere except for the Helder and Walker lobbies, but what can you expect from women, anyway?). Leatherwood had a packed house, where WC U tennis player Tad Gratton was asking WCU baseball player Skip Nel- loms (who might be playing in a Series himself one day) what the Twins' hitter at the plate could expect on a certain key pitch. A large crowd was gathered around the tube in Leatherwood, and I stayed to watch the """Cards wirTthe~game in the ninth Inning. It was fun to sit and listen to a bunch of guys talk about, argue over, and root for the teams in the Series. And everywhere on campus — from the second floor of Reynolds, to the lobbies of Leather- wood and Scott — the scene was the same. Kind of gives you a warm feeling about such a great tradition. War Is distasteful, but you usually have to pick a side. The National Football League players' strike was war, and I picked a side. For anyone who didn't choose a side, read this excerpt from a recent Sports Illustrated ar- ticle authored by Ron Mix, a former San Diego Charger tackle and Hall of Famer. "This Is the public's perception of a group of men who, from the moment training camps open until the season is long over, do not have a day that is free of some degree of injury and pain; a group of men for whom the cumulative trauma and stress add up to a life expectancy that is believed to average 55 years, as compared with 70 for American men in general; a group of men who work in a field In which the high injury rate has reduced the average career to 3.5 years, but whose counterparts in basketball (3,8 years) and baseball (4.9) years earn about twice their average salary of $230,000 a year and several times their pension benefits. Surely an athlete giving up 15 years of his life for a salary that fore the most part falls well on the shy side of that $230,000 average should not be offensive just because he wants to find out if he's worth more (and seek free agency). Particularly when the money Is earned In an Industry that for its owners Is risk free and unusually profitable. "And what becomes of the players when their careers are concluded? They join the ranks of the walking wounded... On the average, veterans of the NFL end up somewhere between 50% and 65% disabled..." Anybody else on the side of the owners, whose taxes equal about the salary of a high-played player? Anybody on campus who has any kind of human characteristics In him should hope that the Catamount football team pulls together in the last four games and wins the Southern Conference championship for Coach Bob Waters. Waters deserves a championship as much as any man who ever loved the game, and it's been almost cruel how he's been denied one over the years. Waters will be Western's Top Gun for, we hope, a long time, but let's hope to get the waiting over and let him win a title this year. Anyone who sits at home for the Cat's next two home games and doesn't root for this man should go to school some place else and hang his or her head in shame as well. As WCU Stlldcnf; Break Tor Fall. Cats Smith and Nowell Break for the End Zone, and N.C. A&T Breaks for Cover By CHRIS GEIS Sports Editor The freshman quarterback from York, S.C, and the senior flanker from Athens, Ga., probably never had better days in their football lives than they did In Western Carolina's 55-34 nonconference victory over North Carolina A&T State on Oct. 17. Mark Smith, who last year lead his high school team to the state 3-A championship, was the quarterback who stepped Into the shoes left by Todd Cottrell, whose broken fibula sustained in the Mars Hill game has sidelined him for the season. His first big test came against A&T, and he passed. And passed and passed. o Smith completed 16 of \is 22 attempts for 290 yards. He had four touchdown passes. No Western Carolina freshman ever threw four touchdown passes in a game. In fact, only two other Catamount quarterbacks have ever thrown five in a single game. Smith was named Southern Conference offensive player of the week for his efforts. Vincent Nowell was on the receiving end of five of Smith's passes — and three of his touchdown throws. Nowell finished the day with 133 yards receiving, and two of his touchdowns deserved double takes: the first, a 32-yarder on which he slipped through three converging A&T defenders and went straight to the goal line; the second, on a 65-yard bomb on which he outraced the Vincent Nowell, a senior flanker from Athens, Ga., caught five passes for 133 yards and scored three touchdowns against N.C. AST's Aggies Mark Hatkolt Photo Mark Smith, a freshman quarterback from York, S.C, completed 16 of 22 pass attempts for 290 yards and four touchdowns during the same game Aggie secondary for almost half the field. What's more, Nowell extended his streak of consecutive games with a pass caught to 30. Only Wayne Tolleson (1974- 77), now the New York Yankees' shortstop, has done better in that department, at 31 games. Nowell was on target to break the record last Saturday against Georgia Southern "I'm pretty pleased overall with the way I played, but the offesnive line helped me a lot by keeping some of the early pressure off me later in the game," said Smith. "I settled down then, and I wasn't that nervous. They blitzed early, but we picked it up and found the receivers open." Said Nowell: "I don , think Mark made any mistakes — none that I can think of." And responding to a question, he added: "Anytime you score three touchdowns, it's gotta be one of your best games." The turning point in the Catmaounts' victory came shortly before halftime, when Smith led the team on a drive from its own 12-yard line with 1:48 left. With Western down by 11, Smith completed eight of 12 passes, including five of six in one stretch, and ended the drive with a eight-yard touchdown pass to tight end John Reed with nine seconds left in the half. That made It 21-17. "That drive turned the see BREAK next page KH Western Carolina freshman tailback Darryl Jackson had to run for his life fron this guy - N.C. A&T's Kirk Graham, a 250 pound freshman defensive tackle -- but it wasthe A&T defense that was on the run most of the day in the 55-34 Western triumph. -Mark Haskett Photo Japan Import Car Repair □ SUPRI# SUPRICO AUTO SERVICE JAPAN IMPORTS Major And Minor Repairs Scheduled And General Maintenance TUNE UP BRAKES ELECTRICAL DRIVE TRAIN FUEL INJECTION AIR CONDITIONING 586-3952 Owners Bob Price and Tommy Sumner NEW LOCATION: 68 East Main St., in Sylva (across from Sylva Fire and Police Depts.) SUPPORT WCU CREW, SOCCER AND CLUB FOOTBALL (Support the creation thereof, that is.) Aggies from previous page passes went to senior flanker Vincent Nowell, who caught made Ave catches for 133 yards and delighted the crowd of 7,448 with a 65-yard TD bomb and an almost unbelieveable 32-yard score on which he slipped through three defenders. Smith also put himself in the Catamount record books for the most touchdown passes ever by a freshman quarterback and the third most in a game by any Western Carolina quarterback. As well, Nowell caught a ball for the 30th straight game, leaving him one short of the school record, held by Wayne Tolleson (1974-77). For Waters, who had to be somewhat worried that his regular starting quarterback, Todd Cottrell, was out for the year with a broken fibula sustained In the Mars Hill game, Smith's performance was beyond anything he might have expected. "For a freshman in that situation, I'm not sure that good is the term for the way Mark played," Waters said. "The term great would be more appropriate in this instance. He showed a lot of poise and confidence for a freshman. I don't think we expect that kind of performance from anyone. We never have." Things were not looking too good on the Catamount side in the first half, however. The Catmaounts, hit with a wave of injuries, had already learned that their leading tackier, senior captain and inside linebacker Billy Shepard, was out for the year after injuring a knee in practice during the week, and in the first half alone they watched three more players — outside linebacker Wayne Parker, cornerback Lucius McCowan and kick returner Lee Shaw — walk off the field limping. (Parker and Shaw are probably out for the year.) Then, playing with essentially a second-team defense. Western fell behind 21- 10 with 1:52 left In the first half. "I think that did demoralize us," Waters said. "It took a let out of us. But our players started out not expecting a tough football game, and then all of the sudden they saw that it was and they didn't want to lose." Following a blocked Anthony Bare punt deep in Catamount territory, the Aggies put the 11 -point advantage on the board with a one-yard run by fullback Stoney Polite. The Aggies had made it 14-10 seven minutes earlier when the Catmamounts' secondary collapsed and allowed A&T tight end Joe Johnson to get behind It for a 28- yard touchdown pass from quarterback Alan Hooker. Now, within a matter of seven minutes, the Catamounts had let a 10-7 lead become a 21-10 deficit. Enter Smith. He took over and engineered the crucial drive of the game. Starting from his own 12, Smith completed eight of 12 passes, the last one an eight-yard touchdown toss to Western tight end John Reed with nine seconds left in the half. That made it 21-17. "That was really big," Waters said. "We need a big lift right there. It would have been difficult coming in down 21-10 as opposed to 21-17. It gave us momentum and confidence, gave us a lift." Western (4-2) scored immediately in the second half on a 20-yard run by freshman tailback Carlton Terry to go up by 24-21, and then it was fun time. Roach hit a 25-yard field goal, Nowell made the 65-yard TD reception, Earl Bates returned a kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown (the first Western kickoff returned for a touchdown since 1979), Nowell caught another TD pass, and freshman tailback Darryl Jackson scored a touchdown. A&T (3-3) closed to within 34-27 early in the fourth quarter when Polite scored on another one-yard touchdown plunge, but from there on the Catamounts were not threatened by the Aggies, who were in the Division l-AA playoffs a year ago. "They're tought to cover," Wates said of the Aggies. "Their quarterback is a good one, and he ran most of the offense. I thought we played better second-half defense. The main thing was that the offense kept the football. We put them (the Aggies) on their heels." The *Bro tfiers of Sigma ^fii 'Epsiton "Wish the Cats the (Best of Lucf<i Sigainst Citadel GO CATS!

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 1987-10-29
  • Date digitized: 2019-04-11
• Extent
  • Dimension: 22.75" x 15"
  • Pages: 14 pages
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1987-10-29_Vol53_No11
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library