Newspaper Page Text
JIBF '■ ■ ’' v * gR
v -olß* »
dip <’ . ? >' - -' Be
W . jggßr HP
<3K C7W V \
I *C i
— , , IL * J
™W & IMF’ 1 w
U / n-T»> >R -*«
■C3U \V 1 w
X wSl\ '&M i lib
W"*>*• 4 .4bf Ip
..j|BL;
X W J®'
\ > wRIF <wh
W jsr y .
' Ray Graves BHHHHHf Doug Dickey
Ray Graves Denies
He’s Stepping Down
By CHARLES S. ALDINGER
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (UPI)
—The biggest question about
Saturday’s Gator Bowl football
clash between Florida (8-l-l)i
and Tennessee (9-1) is not who
will win. It’s which coach will
be sitting where when the
music stops?
Tennessee Coach Doug Dick
ey isn’t ready to say. In fact,
his terse admission that Florida
had offered him Ray Graves’
coaching job was barely out of
his mouth Tuesday before the
motel operator stopped switch
ing calls to Dickey’s room.
Tennessee’s athletic director,
Bob Woodruff, himself a former
Florida head football coach,
wasn’t happy about the whole
Graves, Dickey Predict
Shootout In Gator Bowl
By DAVID MOFFIT
UPI Sports Writer
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (UPI)
— Both head coaches, Ray
Graves of Florida and Doug
Dickey of Tennessee, predict
Saturday’s Gator Bowl game
between the two Southeastern
Conference teams will be a
high-scoring shootout.
“I look for both teams to
open up,” says Graves, whose
17th - ranked Gators averaged
more yards per game (434.8)
than any other team in league
history enroute to an 8-1-1 sea
son. “I think it will take four
touchdowns for either team to
win it.”
Dickey, who guided the 11th
ranked Vols to a 9-1 record,
says Tennessee will win, as fa
vored, if we play a great
game.
“But we’ll have to outscore
them from the start.”
The 25th annual Gator Bowl,
only post-season game involving
two teams from the same con
ference, starts at noon EST.
The early start, hopefully,
would avoid a television con
flict with the NFL playoff game
between the Rams and Vikings,
which starts two hours later on
another network. However, the
two games, obviously, will over
lap.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
and
HAPPY NEW YEAR
to my friends
and customers.
R. L. MARTIN
Fire Extinguisher
Sales & Service
WE OFFER YOU THE
CASH
YOU NEED
SIO.OO
TO
2500.00
For any worthwhile
purposes.
GRIFFIN FINANCE
THRIFT CO
111 8. Hill St.
Phone W-iin
G. B. Robinson, Mgr.
thing being out in the open just
before the big game. Not good
for morale, you know.
“I have no comment,”
snapped Woodruff from his
motel room near Dickey’s.
“And I’m sure Coach Dickey
has said all that’s going to be
said about it for right now.”
Graves, 51, denied that he is
giving up his job as head coach
to devote his full time to being
Florida athletic director, the
other cap he wears on the
20,000-student Gainesville, Fla.
campus.
But the fact that Dickey, 37,
had been offered the job
confirmed what a number of
southern newspapers had been
reporting for several weeks:
The largest Gator Bowl crowd
yet, in excess of 70,000 is ex
pected since the game was as
sured of being a sellout even
before the participating teams
were named.
If they stick to their regular
season style of play, Tennessee,
the SEC champion, will depend
on power, featuring the running
of sophomore fullback Curt Wat
son, and its defense, anchored
by All-America linebacker Steve
Kiner.
Florida, on the other hand, is
expected to come out throwing
with sophomore quarterback
John Reaves, the nation’s No. 1
passer, zeroing in on All-Amer-
Kentucky, LSU
1-2 In Scoring
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (UPI)-
It’s never happened before, but
two Southeastern Conference
basketball teams are running
1-2 in the nation in scoring.
Statistics through Monday
night’s games show Kentucky,
the nation’s No. 1 team, scoring
an average of 99.2 points per
game through six games. LSU,
led by Pete Maravich, was
close behind with 97.9 for seven
contests.
Maravich, off to his best start
ever as a senior, was the top
collegiate scorer with an aver
age of 48.6 points.
Other statistics released by
SEC headquarters today show
Tennessee to have the league’s
best defensive team, allowing
an average of only 56.2 points
in four outings. Georgia was
second with a 74.2 yield and
Auburn third at 73.2.
Behind Kentucky and LSU in
the offensive department were
Vanderbilt with 85.4 over 10
games, Ole Miss with an 80.4 in
seven games and Alabama with
an even 80 for six tries.
A distant second behind Ma
ravich in the individual scoring
department was Kentucky’s Dan
Issel with a respectable 32.7 av
erage, followed by Andy Owens
of Florida at 29.2, Bob Lienhard
of Georgia at 24.4 and John
Mengelt of Auburn at 23.7.
Issel was the SEC’s top re
bounder, having pulled down 85
for a 14.2 average. Auburn’s
Bill Alexander was averaging
NEW YORK (UPl)—The
second U.S. Olympic Invitation
indoor track meet will be held
Feb. 20 in Madison Square
Garden. There will be six
running events for men, three
running events for women and
three field events for women.
Graves is tired from the
demands of two jobs and will
quit despite an all-sophomore
backfield which promises at
least two more years of gravy
at the Gator helm.
If Dickey, a graduate of
Florida who played quarterback
for the Gators in 1951 and ’52,
turns down the Florida job,
then it apparently will go to
Florida assistant head coach
Gene Ellenson, 48, a specialist
in mobile defenses.
Both Dickey and Graves have
compiled strong records at
their two schools and both jobs
are considered top plums in the
college ranks.
Dickey, who makes $26,500 a
year in salary and about $25,000
ica receiver Carlos Alvarez,
also a sophomore.
Tennessee, which has won
eight or more games in each
of its past five seasons, won its
first seven games this past fall
and was ranked No. 3 nationally
before being upset, 38-0, by Sug
ar Bowl-bound Ole Miss.
“We were a good football
team when we had our starters
healthy and available,” said
Dickey. “We lost our team
unity because of injuries and
had to scramble in the last
three games; but we played
badly only against Ole Miss.”
Florida Lacks Receivers
This year’s Gator Bowl game
13.2 and Vandy’s Perry Wallace
13.1.
Steinmark Saluted
By The Astrodome
By DARRELL MACK
HOUSTON (UPI)“The Astro
dome salutes Freddie Stein
mark—the No. 1 team’s No. 1
guy.”
Fred Steinmark, the junior
defensive back for the national
champion Texas Longhorns who
had his leg amputated five days
after the close of the regular
season, smiled at the words
printed on the $2 million
scoreboard in the domed
stadium.
“This typifies the way people
down here have treated me,”
Steinmark said Tuesday. “This
is the reason I’m in such a
cheerful mood today.”
The Oakland Raiders sent
Steinmark the game ball from
their 56-7 victory Sunday over
the Houston Oilers in the AFL
playoffs. A message ac
companying the ball said: “The
motto of the Oakland Raiders is
Pride and Poise. We feel that
you, by your courage, have
earned this award.”
Steinmark smiled and often
chuckled mildly in his first
public appearance since his
cancerous leg was amputated
Dec. 12, less than a week after
he starred for Texas when the
Longhorns beat Arkansas, 15-14,
to win the national champion*
ship. The only time his voice
quivered was when he spoke of
the Texas’ Jan. 1 Cotton Bowl
date with Notre Dame.
“I plan to be at the Cotton
Bowl and also the Hula Bowl
in fringe benefits such as
television shows, has compiled
a 46-14-4 mark in six years at
Tennessee.
And Dickey has won cham
pionships in the tough South
eastern Conference in two of
the last three years including
this year. That’s something that
Graves has never done at
Florida despite a good 69-31-4
record in 10 years at the Gator
helm.
“As I said before,” Dickey
said Tuesday, “I don’t know of
any better coaching job in the
country than at Tennessee.
“This is a heck of a time for
this to come up.”
has an unusual twist. Dickey is
a former Florida quarterback,
leading the Gators to a 14-13
win over Tulsa in the 1953 Ga
tor Bowl, and Graves played
his college ball at Tennessee.
Graves, referring specifically
to the loss of his No. 2 receiver,
Andy Cheney, who was injured
in the Gators’ season finale
against Miami, says Florida’s
“major worry...is our shortage
of pass receivers. Wideout re
ceiving is one of our weakest
areas from the standpoint of
depth. We simply don’t have
many people left.”
It would appear Graves is
crying “wolf.” Reaves, a 6-foot
3, 205 - pounder from Tampa,
Fla., broke SEC passing records
right and left as he completed
222 passes for 2,896 yards and
24 touchdowns. His total offense
mark (2,852 with a minus 44
yards running) was second only
to Dennis Shaw (3,186) of San-
Diego State.
(in Honolulu) Jan. 10,” he said.
“They dedicated that game to
me.”
The news of Steinmark’s
amputation jolted the sports
world and even Steinmark
admitted the leg “only bothered
me in one game and that was
the (Texas A&M) Aggies,” on
Thanksgiving day. “It hurt
some before the Arkansas
game. I thought it was a
calcium deposit or something.
“I knew what the chances
were before surgery,” he said.
“The doctors said there was a
real good chance I would lose
my leg. They never pulled any
punches with me.”
COACHES NAMED
HOUSTON (UPI) - George
Wilson of the Miami Dolphins
and Lou Saban of the Denver
Broncos were named Tuesday
to coach the East and West
teams in the American Football
league’s All-Star Game in the
Astrodome on Jan. 17.
Each of the coaches will
name 10 players to the 22-man
squads already selected by the
league’s coaches.
WINS THREE
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (UPI)
—Jockey Jacinto Vasques rode
a triple at Tropical Park
Thursday, scoring with McCol
loughs Leap ($8.40), Tinsley
($4.80) and Eneas II ($6.00) in
the feature race.
SPORTS
Plane Club
To Hold Clinic
For Beginners
Members of the Griffin Model
Airplane Club will hold a clinic
for boys and girls, who receive
gas operated model planes of
cars, on Saturday, Dec. 27 at the
Spalding Junior High parking
lot.
“A lot of boys and girls will
receive model planes and cars
on Christmas. Some may not
know how to operate them. We
will hold the special clinic and
all boys and girls, who need
assistance, may attend,” a
spokesman for the club said.
The assistance will include
flying instructions.
The clinic will be held from
noon through 5 p.m.
NBA Standings
By United Press International
East
W. L. Pct. GB
New York 29 6 .829 ...
Baltimore 22 12 .647 6%
Milwaukee 22 13 .629 7
Philadelphia 18 17 .514 11
Cincinnati 15 20 .429 14
Detroit 13 21 .382 15%
Boston 12 20 .375 15%
West
W. L. Pct. GB
Atlanta 22 13 .629 ...
San Francisco 16 17 .485 5
Chicago 17 20 .459 6
Los Angeles 15 19 .441 6%
San Diego 15 21 .417 7%
Phoenix 14 21 .400 8
Seattle 13 23 .361 9%
Tuesday’s Results
Boston 117 Chicago 112
San Fran 119 Seattle 115
San Deego 115 Los Ang 109
(Only games scheduled)
Wednesday’s Games
(No games scheduled)
ABA Standings
By United Press International
East
W. L. Pct. GB
Indiana 23 5 .821 ...
Kentucky 20 11 .645 4%
Carolina 14 17 .452 10%
Pittsburgh 13 17 .433 11
New York 14 22 .389 13
Miami 9 22 .290 15%
West
W. L. Pct. GB
New Orleans 22 10 .688 ...
Washington 17 16 .515 5%
Los Angeles 14 15 .483 6%
Dallas 16 19 .457 7%
Denver 13 21 .382 10
Tuesday’s Results
Pittsburgh 105 Kentucky 100
Carolina 125 New York 104
Denver 102 Dallas 96
(Only games scheduled)
Wednesday’s Games
(No games scheduled)
| Sports Briefs |
WOLVERINES DEPART
DETROIT (UPl)—The Michi
gan football team departed
Detroit Metropolitan Airport in
snowy weather Thursday for
the wanner climate of Califor
nia where the wolverines will
play Southern Cal in the Rose
Bowl New Year’s Day.
The official parly of 103 will
be followed by a Dec. 26 flight
carrying wives and families of
coaches and players.
GAME TELEVISED
NEW YORK (UPl)—The
American Basketball Associa
tion’s third annual All-Star
Game, scheduled next Jan. 24
at Indianapolis, Ind., will be
televised live and in color by
the Columbia Broadcasting
System. The game will be
played in the Indiana State
Fairgrounds Coliseum.
DORNHOEFER SIDELINED
PHILADELPHIA) UPI )-The
Philadelphia Flyers said Thurs
day a back injury probably will
sideline right wing Gary
Dornhoefer for two games.
Dornhoefer hurt his back in
Wednesday night’s game with
the New York Rangers.
There is a quality of
true helpfulness in our
personal service that is
appreciated by family
and friends.
Haisten
Funeral Home
artffln Phone 227-3231
Griffin Daily News
SEC’s Bowl Record
Shows League Down
By DAVID MOFFIT
UPI Sports Writer
ATLANTA (UPI)-The South
eastern Conference’s poor bowl
showing supports charges that
the league, ever-hungry for the
cash and national exposure
offered by post-season games,
has spread itself too thin.
Most SEC officials don’t want
to publicly admit it, but it’s a
fact, plain and simple, that
Alabama and Georgia shouldn’t
have been invited to bowls this
year.
Alabama (47-33 loser to
Colorado in the Liberty Bowl)
climaxed its worst season (6-4)
in more than a decade with a
humiliating 49-26 loss to Auburn
and Georgia (45-6 loser to
Nebraska in the Sun Bowl)
didn’t win any of its four
November games.
Coaches Bear Bryant of
Alabama and Vince Dooley of
Georgia made no pretense that
their bowl trips were awards,
as bowl games usually are.
Both viewed their post-season
games as a last-ditch chance to
make amends—and wound up
making matters worse.
The SEC’s bowl record over
the past three years is now 4-10
and the immediate future isn’t
bright.
Auburn has to be considered
the underdog going against
Houston, the Nation’s No. 2
offensive team, on the Cougars’
home field in the Astro-
Bluebonnet Bowl and Ole Miss
takes on the third-ranking team
in the nation, Arkansas, in the ,
UCLA Holds
Pete To 28
By United Press International
To say that Pete Maravich,
college basketball’s leading
scorer, was overmatched Tues
day night, might be the
understatement of the year.
UCLA “held” Maravich to a
season low of 38 points, 10
below his average, Tuesday
night while setting a club
scoring record for the second
time in 11 days with a 133-84
triumph over Louisiana State.
LSU was playing its fourth
game in six nights, having
logged nearly 6,000 miles on its
current road trip, but Coach
Press Maravich refused to
make any excuses for his club.
In racking up its fifth
straight win, UCLA placed six
men in double figures. For
wards Curtis Rowe and Sidney
Wicks each had 23 points, while
Henry Bibby scored 17, Steve
Patterson had 15 and John
Ecker contributed 12.
. Calvin Murphy of Niagara,
second only to Maravich in
scoring with a 33-point average,
made a quick recovery from a
pre-game pain in his side to
tally 36 points as the undefeat
ed Purple Eagles downed
Xavier, 91-83, for their seventh
triumph.
Fourteenth-ranked Southern
California used Dennis Layton’s
24 points to rout visiting St.
John’s of New York, 95-59. The
Trojans, in upping their record
to 5-2, ran off 18 straight points
Friday Specials
CHECK OUR AD DAI LY FOR TOMORROW'S SPECIALS
FRIDAY Eveready Electric Blanket
SPECIAL Flashlight Double bed, single
All Weather IV n .. • control. Assorted
Blackwall Tubeless colors.
775-14, 825-14, 775-15 Size D ' only $9.99 each
4.95 each p or those toys you got for ’ year warranty.
P’us Fed- Exc. Tax Christmas.
2.20 to 2.36 All T— ■ z.
Depending on. size. only Oys Le.t —
wbJiteoJn.o.e, 12c Each *, of price.
650-13 Inez
All Weather IV Goodyear u/0
Blackwall Tubeless ANTI-FREEZE A fi
4-ply Nylon D ALL
$10.45 each Permanent Type RADIOS-
Plus 1.79 Fed. Exc. Tax $1.39 Gal. CUAII
To;) Bat,.,, Jumper 10%
with built - m burgular Cables OFF CAI F DDIf-E
,wo on| y s'-00 Set TODAY!
prices start at
$59.95
selection of tanes. <*» HILL’S TIRE STORE
$5jT ■ c.~,s<*>«*«ksu.
23
Wednesday, December 24, 1969
Sugar Bowl.
The SEC’s only good bet for a
post-season victory is in Satur
day’s Gator Bowl game where
league-champion Tennessee
plays another league member,
Florida. And, as some wags
have been pointing out of late,
the way the SEC’s bowl luck
has been running, that game
could very well wind up as a
tie.
SEC Commissioner A. M.
“Tonto” Coleman, emphasizing
that he doesn’t want to appear
to be either making excuses
for, or criticizing any of the
teams in his conference, doesn’t
feel that recent bowl results
are a fair appraisal of the
strengths of various conferen
ces.
“I believe the Sec would hold
its own if our No. 1 team
played the No. 1 team from
another conference, our No. 2
team played another’s No. 2
team, etc.,” Coleman said.
“While our recent bowl
showings don’t indicate it, I feel
the SEC, over-all, is stronger
than ever. Our strength,
however, lies in our balance, in
the fact that no one team
dominates the conference any
more.
“I’m convinced that we are
as strong as any conference in
the nation if you were to make
a place-by-place comparison,”
the SEC commissioner conti
nued.
“I don’t want to appear
critical of any of our teams,
during a second half rally to
wrap up their victory.
Jim Ard scored 26 points for
Cincinnati as the Bearcats
continued their hex over
intrastate rival Dayton, beating
the Flyers for the 14th straight
time, 64-62. The win was
Cincinnati’s fifth in six games
while Dayton dropped to 4-2.
Texas-El Paso successfully
defended its Sun Bowl Classic
championship by upsetting pre
tournament favorite Missouri,
98-79. Mike Switzer led the
Miners’ balanced attack with 20
points. Texas A&M captured
third place with a 78-63 triumph
over Clemson.
Duke held off a late Wake
Forest rally to beat the
Deacons, 98-90; Kent State
surprised Duquesne, 77-69; Min
nesota downed San Diego State,
79-68; Andy Owens’ 39 points
helped Florida beat Harvard,
95-75 and California at Santa
Barbara defeated Stanford, 67-
62, in other major games.
fried /Jkidrcn.
“READY WHEN YOU ARE"
but I believe Louisiana State
would have made a strong
showing against Colorado or
Nebraska.”
It is an irony of this year’s
bowl slate that LSU, seventh
ranked nationally with a 9-1
record and second in the SEC,
stayed home. The Bengals
turned down several lesser bowl
offers after Notre Dame
grabbed their anticipated Cot
ton Bowl berth.
LSU, which won its last sous
bowl appearances, is the only
SEC team in recent years
which has helped league
prestige. Alabama and Georgia
have both lost three straight
bowl games, Tennessee lost its
last two, and Auburn and Ole
Miss have each won only one of
their last three.
But, win or lose, the SEC and
its member schools will rake in
close to $1 million in bowl gold
this winter (they get both ends
of the Gator Bowl’s team
purse).
“It’s not a matter of money,”
Coleman insists.
Perhaps. But the way things
have been going, that may be
all they have to show for it.
NOVEMBER WINNER
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (UPI)—
Willis Reed, captain and star
center of the New York Knicks,
was named monthly winner for
November, Tuesday in the S.
Rae Hickok “Professional Ath
lete of the Year” voting.
Reed, Phil Esposito and Torri
Seaver have been voted mon;
thly winners twice each. Other
monthly winners were Jerry
West, Mario Andretti, Reggie
Jackson, Willie Davis and Donri
Clendenon. The year’s winner
will be announced on Feb. 12;
ASKEW & MORRIS
WELL BORING
& DRILLING
PHONE 227-6712
OR 227-4521
6” and 30” Wells
Water Guaranteed!
Dr. W. Millington
Returns to
Griffin’s
First Assembly Os God
1411 Atlanta Rd.
“Where The Happy
Hundreds Go”