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8 • The Red and Black • Friday, January 5, 1990
SPORTS
Star running back Rodney Hampton didn't.returntori£e football
teams' Thursday night meeting. Assistant Athtebc Dirertw
Claude Felton said he had permission to miss the> meetngwn e
at Georgia or enter the NFL draft.
FOOTBALL
From page 1
that this situation is a micro
cosm of the situation around the
country in college athletics. My
intent was to identify a problem
in college athletics, not to single
out the University of Georgia,"
Sanoff said.
“I had no idea of graduation
rates of the school, the team, or
the 12 guys I didn’t know who
graduated' and I told Vince
Dooley that we couldn’t do the
story on 24 guys and I told Mr
Dooley that we would do the of
fense because of Herschel
Walker,” Sanoff added.
Dooley disagreed.
“I encouraged Mr. Sanoff to
use the entire team to get a
clearer picture of the situation.
He didn’t do that and 1 plan on
calling him and asking him
about that,” Dooley said.
Dooley stated in his letter
that “11 of the 19 seniors on
that team did receive their de
grees (58%) which was consis
tent with the graduation rate of
the University student body for
that class (60%)."
In the story, athletes also
were quoted on athletic life out-
Yoculan takes UGA gymnastics program to top
By CHRIS LANCETTE
Sports Staff Writer
Ed. Note: This the first of a series
spotlighting different Georgia
sports during the decade of the
eighties. Today, Chris Lancette
lottks at gymnastics.
On Dec. 31, 1981, the Georgia
gymnastics team had little to cele
brate — but that was before Suz
anne Yoculan came to town.
Yoculan arrived in 1984 and she
has already led the Bulldogs to two
national championships.
In addition, Yoculan’s Dogs have
won three regional championships
(’86, ’88 and ’89), two SEC
championships (’86 and ’87) and
had nine athletes amass a total of
30 All-America awards, five NCAA
individual titles and 13 SEC indi
vidual titles
She left couching at a private
Pennsylvania gymnastics club to
replace Rick Walton and take over
a team that had only seven schol
arships available. Most teams had
about 10 at the time.
“I knew I had a lot of work to do,
but I had a good foundation,” Yo
culan said.
With the support of Liz Murphey
and Vince Dooley, Yoculan got the
scholarship number increased. Yo
culan credits both administrators
for allowing her a free hand in de
veloping the program.
The sprightly coach then re
cruited assistant coach and uneven
bar expert Scott Bull, a six-year
staff member at UCLA. Bull joined
a staff that included assistant
coach and vaulting technician
Doug McAvinn.
Their expertise, combined with
Yoculan’s coaching ubility and re
cruiting of elite-level athletes,
quickly mude the program a
winner.
In Yoculan’s first year, the Gym
Dogs finished ninth nationally.
Georgia moved seventh in 1985,
and fourth in 1986 before topping
the charts in 1987.
A dazzling performance at the re
gional competition, the meet that
determines the 12 teams that are
to be invited to nationals, boosted
the Gym Dogs to the fifth seed at
nationals in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“We got reully psyched up be
cause of the regionals,” said Lucy
Wener, a three-time uneven bars
national champion and member of
both team championships. “We had
a team meeting and decided that
we needed to try to put ourselves in
a bubble, be concerned with only
what our team was doing — not
watching what everybody else was
doing."
“All the teams were equal athlet
ically but our attitude gave us a
mental edge,” Wener said.
In 1988, the Lady Dogs again
turned in a strong performance at
regionals but couldn’t repeat at na
tionals, finishing fifth.
Georgia started slowly in 1989,
but midway through the season,
the freshmen became more consis
tent and the team developed a
strong sense of unity, which thrust
the Gym Dogs back into national
contention.
After winning the regionals,
Georgia roared back to Athens and
edged out UCLA by .05 to win its
second national championship.
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18,19 and 20 year olds admitted
side of academia.
J
Fullback Jimmy Womack
spoke of “padded handshakes"
where he received wadded-up
$100 dollar bills from alumni
and boosters And right tackle
Nat Hudson said he “feels like a
social outcast” when he visits
Athens and he believes that
racism is at the root of the less-
than-warm reception.
Dooley said he was concerned
about these statements.
“Nat Hudson was a hard
working player and it concerns
me that he feels this way,"
Dooley said. “Something is nag
ging him and that is not right.
I'm going to talk to him about
Sales of the magazine were
brisk and nury an issue can be
found in Athens, according to
Curl Smith, manager of Bar
nett's newsstand on College
Square.
“We normally don’t sell 20-25
copies a month and we've prob
ably never sold them so
quickly," Smith said. ‘They
came in on Tuesday and they
are all gone. We are trying to get
some more.”
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