PAGE FOUE
THE PILOT
Sideline Tobacco Chews
By BOB MYERS
Prom the reports I’ve heard this year, Gardner-Webb is usually onf
of the leaders in the junior college sports circuit each year. Since fol
lowing the teams for the past eight months, I’ve learned that these re
ports are true. Gardner-Webb, in this student’s opinion, is one of the
finest junior colleges in the state — perhaps nation.
The school year is almost history. Its athletics were terminated
May 14, ending a year of the most successful athletic programs
many moons. This little space is de-
signed to wake up the sleeping and
help the forgetful to recall just what
has happened in G-W sports
Naturally we can’t forget
ball, the king of all sports among
the smaller colleges and larger high
schools. Football, we know, is a sport
that sometimes strains the pocket-
book of a junior college. That’s why
a few of the junior schools over the
state have discontinued the art.
rt takes much work to produce a
football team in a junior college;
some schools consider it a waste of
time to attempt to build a football
team one year, have a fa
and watch half of the material
graduate the next year. That’s £
problem in junior colleges, bul
Gardner-Webb’s football accom
plishments in 1951 probably started
other coaches who were not interest
ed in football to begin hunting eleven
men for next year.
Gardner-Webb won eight games
last season, enough to win the North
Carolina state championship, at
tain national recognition, and to
play in the first junior college bowl
game ever offered to this college.
G-W lost the bowl game, 6-0 in
Brunswick. Ga. on Novemb|er 30 to
South Georgia. But the 40 football
piayers and two coaches who jour
neyed to the Peach state carried the
true spirit of a well-trained, well-
disciplined group of boys, and
brought back more fruitful results
than just winning a ball game ever
could have brought back.
It was the first year that G-W
had ever gone undefeated in the
junior college conference. It may
be the last, but fans around here
will be attracted to the games next
season whether the team wins or
The successful campaign was ac
complished by the work of Coaches
Wayne Bradburn and Norman Har
ris, who mentored a group of boys
who didn’t play on scholarships or
for glory. The only scholarships
Gardner-Webb gives to its athletes
are work scholarships, which also
go to any student athlete or what-
have-you who applies for one. The
boys played as a unit for GARD
NER-WEBB, the only combination
that could have produced a grid
team of such high moral and physi
cal caliber.
The foregoing comments were not
written to boast, but as a tribute to
the coaches and players of one of
the finest football teams ever to
come out of Gardner-Webb.
Basketball brought out the fact
that it’s hard to produce two
pionship teams in a row, 1
Bulldogs came through with
worthy team despite the fact that
powers such as Wingate, Campbell,
and Lees-McRae proved far out of
the scope of the locals’ squad. The
cage squad possessed some fine ma
terial and there’s already optimism
in the Bulldog camp concerning
next year’s forces. G-W won nine of
18 conference games during the
basketball season and gained
forfeit over North Greenville. ’
of course, was a .500 percentage,
nothing to moan about.
In the state tourney at Shelby,
the locals grabbed a fourth place
slot, winning over Oak Ridge and
losing to Campbell and Louisburg '
a close scrap for third place. In
regular play the Bulldogs
1,097 points in 18 games, ai
age of approximately 60 points per
game.
Then baseball came. And it came
'ith a bang, for the sphere wrestl-
rs lost their first three games and
orman Harris didn’t know whether
3 send his gang on the field
early season losses, one conference
' ' lon-circuit bouts, the Har-
rismen proceeded to win eight tilts
', and at this time occupy
first place in the conference with
an 8-2 mark. They possess an c
all mark of nine wins against
defeats.
As these humble words are belch
ing forth from the typewriter, two
solutions to the problem of who’s
going to win the baseball crown are
sight. First, there is a possibility
a tie for the top spot between
G-W and Oak Ridge. Since the lo
cals have terminated conference
play, winning eight in 1
they sit back and await the final
results of Oak Ridge’s fifteen
loop slate. The Cadets have
games to play, and by winning both
games can tie the locals’ .800 per
centage with a 12-3 mark, also .800.
Should this happen a play off for
place will be necessary. Of course,
should Oak Ridge drop one of the
tilts, G-W would take over undi-
:puted first place. At the moment,
he whole affair is just one big, ex
citing dispute. There may be a play
’ there may not be. It all de
pends on the play of Oak Ridge, and
the decision of conference officials
should the two teams wind up dead
locked.
Win, lose, draw, play it off, or
have two league champs, no matter
which way it goes, the team would
like to take this opportunity to pay
a tribute to Coach Norman for his
untiring efforts as the chief this
year. A coach (if we may use such
an unfitting simile) is as important
;o a team as the glue on an enve
lope. If the seal breaks, the con
tents are lost, and Gardner-Webb’s
team certainly would have hit rock
bottom had it not been for the
guidance of one Norman Harris.
Before we present the results of
football, basketball, and baseball
(through May 14) this writer would
like to make a couple of prognos
tications which we feel should be
A second is that Gardner-Webb
has a first sacker on the baseball
squad that will be heard from later
in the national pasttime, if not
more members. Ernie Beheler is
what everyone calls this Gastonia
high school product.
Following are the 1951 football
J-W 25; North Greenville 0
J-W 18; Asheville-Biltmore 0
3-W 18; Gordon Military 7
i-W 25; Lees-McRae la
J-W 3&; North Greenville 0
3-W 25; Lees-McRae U
J-W 25; Asheville-Biltmore 0
}-W 34; Mars Hill 7
}-W 0; South Georgia 6
Basketball — 1951-52 (18 confer-
nce games)
r-W 81; Brevard 56
1-W 59; Asheville-Biltmore 67
1-W 49; Asheville-Biltmore 39
}-W 51; Lees-McRae 78
}-W 75; North Greenville 57
;-W 76; Brevard 57
;-W 90; Charlotte 58
i-w 64; Oak Ridge 72
r-W 70; Spartanburg 61
i-W 68; Belmont Abbey 63
i-W 52; Mars Hill 43
r-W 46; Lees-McRae 71
t-W 84; Charlotte 54
r-W 61; Oak Ridge 63
f-W 57; Mars Hill 67
r-W 58; Wingate 94
KW 64; Wingate 98
r-W 52; Spartanburg 48
Stat
Tour
[-W 64; Oak Ridge 61
i-W 65; Campbell 100
1-W 69; Louisburg 71
Baseball 1952 (Thru May 8)
f-W 4; Spartanburg 5
r-W 13; Belmont Abbey 20
I-W 8; Spartanburg 9
r-W 15; Presbyterian 1
-W 10; Presbyterian 8
r-W 12; Pfeiffer 3
r-W 14; Mars Hill 2
-W S; Pfeiffer 2
-W 11; Wingate 3
-W 7; Oak Ridge 1
-W 4; Oak Ridge 1
-W 2; Mars Hill n
-W 1; Wingate 2
-W 11; Belmont Abbey 2
There are some things that never
;me back — the arrow that is
flown, the word that is spoken, the
life that is gone.
right, to follow
i like t
Bush, the Summerville, Ga., flash
who excells in football, basketball,
baseball, ping pong, checkers, and
almost anything involving athletic
Because right i
right
Were wisdom in the scorn of conse
quence.
We probably are the most expen
sive and wasteful people that pos
terity ever will have had to finance.
Elephants and horses can sleep
standing up — not to mention the
father of a three-week-old son.
Now is the time for the fellow
who is broke to decide he is just
too busy to take time for a vaca-
Baseball Windup
The possibility of grabbing the
first junior college baseball flag in
che history of Gardner-Webb col
lege faces the Bulldogs of Norman
Harris at this writing. All eyes are
fixed upon the Oak Ridge Cadets,
who can tie the locals’ 8-2 mark by
winning their final two seasonal
matches.
Oak Ridge had dropped three
^ames already, one more than did
jthe Bulldogs in their ten game sea
son recently completed on May 14
with an inspiring 11-2 triumph over
Belmont Abbey here. However, the
forces of Tee Frye play 15 confer
ence matches of the season and by
sure a final mark of 12 wins against
Therefore, a play-off to decide
ithe first place team in the loop is
highly possible, pitting the Cadets
against the Bulldogs, providing such
1 arrangement can be worked out
itisfactorily.
Gardner-Webb missed the first
place slot by dropping a tough cir
cuit battle to Wingate’s Bulldogs
the latter’s home field May 12,
2-1. The Bulldogs (G-W) lost their
lirst conference bout of the cam
paign early in April, then proceed-
triumph six times in a row
before being outmatched in a pitch
ing duel between G-W’s Ken Queen
and Wingate’s ace, Bob Johnson.
Both boys gave up only four safeties,
but Danny Miller’s crew came
through in the bottom of the ninth
with a tally to ice the tilt.
Here May 14, the locals proceed-
1 to their eighth conference win
by tramphng Abbey 11-3 behind the
homeruns of Jim Huffstetler and
Bill Wallace, and additional hitting
power displayed by Bob Bush, Dar-
xell Wilson, and Ernie Beheler.
addition to the locals’ recent
:-ies, the month of May was a
bright victory for the hard-hitting
.Bulldogs, who claim several of the
top hitters in the circuit today.
On May 1, the locals trounced
Wingate in one of the top tilts in
the conference at that time, 11-3.
Second baseman Billy Bates, right-
fielder Jim Huffstetler, and third
sacker Howie Gamble furnished the
plate power in that tilt, while veter
an Ken Queen and Bobby Myers
combined efforts for mound duties.
It was Gardner-Webb’s fifth win
;ainst one loop setback.
After beating Wingate, Gardner-
'ebb prepared for a shot at the
op leaders, Oak Ridge, Tee Frye’s
undefeated nine who sported seven
consecutive wins. Since an earlier
with the Cadets had been
postponed, the stage was set on May
6 fc)r a double-bill at Oak Ridge.
Taking these two games meant a
lance at the loop flag.
In the first game, the Bulls col
lected twelve hits off the offerings
of the Cadets’ ace. Jack Powell, the
leading hurler in the conference.
Gardner-Webb, led by Bates, Behe-
"Id Gamble at the platter push-
ross seyen runs in the seven
inning affair, and defensively. Queen
shutout when the Cadets
:ross a single tally in the
righthander, Jose Dominjuz
proved a little tougher for the Bull
dog batsmen than Powell. Domin-
gave up only six hits, but a first
' double by Bush, followed by a
— Page 5)
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