I
pan
SPORTS/The Charlotte Post
Thursday, May 15, 1997
For the Week of May 6 through May 12, 1997
THANKS,
BUT NO
THANKS
Jackson State Sports Photo
ONEAL: Tops all college
golfers in scoring average.
▼ JACKSON STATE GOLFER DECLINES
NCAA INVITATION AFTER TEAM SNUBBED
UNDER THE BANNER
WHAT'S GOING ON IN AND AROUND BLACK COLLEGE SPORTS
PAID OUT: Alabama State product, Eddie
Robinson, now a linebacker with the Jacksonville Jaguars is
the highest paid black college player
in the National Football League's
(NFL) American Football Confer
ence (AFC) according to a listing of
salaries in last Wednesday's (May
7) USA Today. Robinson's take to
tals $2,351,900, just above Pitts
burgh all-pro linebacker Greg
Lloyd's $2,325,000. Lloyd played
at Fort Valley State. The two are
the only black college AFC players
whose salaries exceed the $2 million mark. Ten players make
over $1 million. Next week we'll give a list of black college
player's salaries in the National Football Conference. Here is
the list ranked according to salary:
W-S State Sports Photo
THIGPEN: Former
W-S state star makes
just over $1 million.
BASE
TOTAL
PLAYER, COLLEGE, TEAM
SALARY
BONUS
SALARY
Eddie Robinson, Alab. St.-Jacksonvl
1,500,000
851,900
2,351,900
Greg Lloyd, Ft. Valley St-Pittsburgh
1,400,000
925.000
2,325,000
Steve McNair, Alcorn State-Houston
1,228,800
760,900
1,989,700
Orlando Brown, S. C. State-Baltimore
1,100,000
462,500
1,562,500
Ben Coates, Livingstone-New Engl.
1,300,000
206,000
1,506,000
Shannon Sharpe, Sav. State-Denver
1,350,000
110,400
1,450,400
Howard Ballard, Alabama A&M*Seattle
355,000 1,058,000
1,413,000
Dwayne Harper, S. C. State-San Diego
950,000
496,000
1,446,000
Ashlely Ambrose, Miss. Valley-Cinn
700,000
500,400
1,200,400
Yancey Thigpen, W-S State-Pittsburgh
775,000
273,300
1,048,000
Eddie Anderson, Ft. Valley St.-Oakland 553,800
400,500
954,300
Hugh Douglas. Central State-NY Jets
512,500
425,000
937,500
Albert Lewis, Grambling-Oakland
196,000
740,500
936,500
Jimmy Smith, Jackson St.-Jacksonvl
540,900
367,200
908,100
Jamain Stephens, N. C. A&T-Pittsburgh
1 458,000
245,000
703,000
Wally Williams, Florida A&M-Baltimore
372,000
283,300
685,300
James Brown, Virginia St.-Miami
600,000
53,100
653,100
Robert Massey, NC Central-Jacksonvl
480,000
21,400
501,400
Anthony Cook, S. C. State-Houston
327,500
173,800
501,300
Herman Arvie, Grambling-Baltimore
196,000
290,600
486,600
Bryant Mix, Alcorn State-Houston
260,500
210,000
470,500
Roger Jones, Tenn. State-Cincinnati
350.000
67,100
417,100
Dan Land, Albany State-Oakland
275,000
50,000
325,000
Mario Perry, Jackson State-Buffalo
229,500
88,900
318,400
Richard Dent, Tenn. State-Indianapolis
275,000
25,000
300,000
Jaime Brown, Florida A&M-Denver
164,000
62,500
226,500
Everett Mclver, Ellz. Clty-Miami
200,000
22,500
222,500
Reggie Barlow, Alab. State-Jacksonvl
131,000
72,000
203,000
Earl Holmes, Floria A&M-Pittsburgh
136,000
65,000
201,000
Randy Fuller, Tenn. St.-Pittsburgh
196,000
1,700
197,700
Rupert Grant, Howard-New England
164,000
3,600
167,600
Marcus Hinton, Alcorn St.-Oakland
164,000
2,200
166,200
Emanuel Martin, Alabama St.-Buffalo
164,000
900
164,900
Jose White, Howard-Jacksonville
164,000
0
164,000
Devin Wyman, Ky. State-New England
143,000
8,200
151,200
James Roe, Norfolk State-Baltimore
131,000
15,500
146,500
Clarence Benford, Albany St. -Seattle
131,000
5,000
136,000
Jerry Wilson, Southem-Miami
131,000
0
131,000
Kendall Shello, Southern-indlanapolis
131,000
0
131,000
SPRING FINISH I The Mid Eastern Athletic
Conference will hold its annual Spring Meeting May 28-30
(Wednesday - Friday) in St. Petersburg Beach, Floridaat the
TradeWinds Resort. MEAC Commissioner Charles S.
Harris will welcome the governing body including the
Council of Chief Executive Officers (Presidents and Chan
cellors, the Faculty Representatives, the Directors of Athlet-
icsand the Senior Women Administrators). The MEAC All-
Sports Awards winners will be announced and honored
during the meetings.
OAZEEZ Communiciitions. Inc. VOL. III. NO. 38
BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL PLAY-INS
Atmlctic Conference
THE STAT CORNER
WHO ARE THE BEST PERFORMERS IN BLACK COLLEGE SPORTS
MORE
BLACK COLLEGE NFL ROOKIE
FREE AGENT SIGNINIGS
OAKLAND RAIDERS
Chris Thompson, LB, Bowie State
ST. LOUIS RAMS
Billy Jenkins, DB , Howard
BALTIMORE RAVENS
Tony Lanier, WR, Virginia State
at Cleveland, OH
Fri., May 9
GAME ONE
Florida A&M 4.
Cleveland State 2
GAME TWO
Cleveland State 8
Florida A&M 0
Sat., May 10
GAME THREE
Cleveland State 12
Florida A&M 0
(Cleveland State wins best 2 of 3)
Athletic Conference
Southern University will play at West Coast Conference champion
Santa Clara in the NCAA Baseball Play-in game
Best 2 of 3
Friday, May 16 - one game
Saturday, May 17 - doubleheader
Jackson State golf team denied NCAA bid, again
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
It's deja vu all over again
for the Jackson State men's gol f
team and head coach Eddie
Payton.
Despite posting an excel
lent 298.21 stroke average, win
ning their ninth consecutive
Southwestern Athletic Con
ference (SWAC) title and three
other tournaments along the
way, and posting rather deci
sive wins over two teams that
received bids, the Tigers were
snubbed by the three-member
NCAA selection committee for
entry to the 21 -team field for the
Central Regional Champion
ship. The committee selects the
top eight in the district for entry
to the Regional. The top ten
teams in regional play advance
to the national championship.
"That’s the way it goes,"
said Payton, resigned to the fact
that there is no appeals process
available. He said he has turned
his focus to the National Minor
ity Golf Championship sched
uled for next week in Cleve
land.
"1 thought we played well
enough to get in. We played a
strong schedule and we played
pretty well. We soundly beat
two teams that got in (South
western Louisiana and Rice) in
head-to-head competition. I
think we should have gotten in."
But he doesn’t blame the
selection committee. He blames
the process.
Top JSU golfer says no to NCAA
Jackson State senior
golfer, Tim O'Neal, ranked as
the nation's number one golfer
by Golfstat Inc., is choosing
not to play for the NCAA indi
vidual champion-ship because
his team didn't receive an invi
tation to the NCAA Central
Regional beginning this week.
Instead, he will join his team in
the National Minority Golf
Championship, May 19-21 in
Cleveland.
O'Neal, who leads the na
tion with a 71.83 stroke aver
age is the frontrunner for the
Golfstat Cup awarded each
year to the men's collegiate
golfer with the lowest scoring
average adjusted for condi
tions. Last year's winner was
Tiger Woods, then of Stanford
whose average was 70.61.
Golfstat is the company
hired by the NCAA to admin-
isterthe NCAA Collegiate Golf
Rating system, which is used by
the NCAA for selections for
their Championship.
"Tim is a strong team player
with real strong convictions,"
said Jackson State golf coach
Eddie Payton who spoke with
BCSP Monday while his team
practiced for the Minority
Championship. "To put the
team's goals ahead of individual
goals in this day and age is rare."
O'Neal said in interviews
published last week that the se
lection process that left his team
out is political.
"I think the (selection) com
mittee feels it they send me, it
will shut up the coach," said
O'Neal in a story published in
the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. "It
hurt me whien I found out we
didn't make it because the two
teams ahead of us (Rice and
Southwetern Louisiana), we
beat them like a drum. It’s all
politics, I guess."
Payton would not discuss
when O'Neal would turn pro
saying his star and the team is
only concentrating on the tour
nament coming up in Cleve
land. Jackson State has won the
titlesixtimesin the ten years the
tournament has been played.
Jackson State Sports Photo
O'NEAL: Jackson State
star says if team doesnl
go he won't eiher.
MEN’S GOLFSTAT CUP Rankings
Tim O'Neal
Sr., Jackson State
71.83
-0.43
Alberto Ochoa
So.. TCU
71.81
-0.36
Chris Hanell
Sr,, Arizona State
71.61
-0.29
Chris Wollmann
Sr,, Ohio State
71.13
-0.28
John Rollins
Sr., Va. Comm.
71.62
-0.15
Joel Kribel
Jr., Stanford
71.81
-0.10
Brad Elder
So., Texas
72.19
-0.07
Richard Couglin
Sr., Clemson
72.54
-0.02
Michael Connell
Jr., Miss. State
7-1.70
0.08
Robert Russell
Sr., Mo. KC
72.21
0.16
The low scoring average is figured on scoring average versus par,
adjusted for conditions. The Golfstat cup will be awarded after the
NCAA Championship.
"The process itself is un
fair," he said. "These teams get
in more on reputation than per
formance. Because of their con
ference affiliations and friend
ships they've established over
the years, it's hard for them to
vote my team in when I'm not up
there."
Payton served three years
on the selection committee and
watched them bypass his squad
two years ago despite another
sterling season. Last year, JSU
became the first black college
ever to receive a bid to the tour
nament. His team finished 16th
in the Central Regional.
"We are judged differently
because we are a historically
black college," said Payton. "It's
like we're not supposed to be
playingon that level so we don't
get in."
The best system said Payton
would be to give automatic
berths to conference champions
as is done in NCAA basketball,
baseball and tennis with addi
tional at-large berths. Another
method could be to split the
districts in half for playoffs and
take the top four teams from
each section. Currently, selec
tions are supposed to be based
on head-to-head competition,
overall winning percentage in
the District and stroke differen
tial.
JSU beat Rice twice by a
combined three strokes and beat
SW Louisiana twice by 13
strokes. The selection commit
tee includes SW Louisiana
coach Bob Bass, Southwest
TexasStatecoach Jim Bob Jack-
son and David Foster, coach at
North Texas State. Go figure.
llth Minority Golf championship tees off
Sixteen black college golf
teams will descend on the Highland
Park Golf Course just outside Cleve
land through the weekend for the llth
Annual Minority Golf Championships
staged amid a flurry of acti vites over the
four-day event.
The 36-hole golf course lo
cated in Highland Hills, Ohio, is the
staging ground for four days of golf for
black college teams, high schoolers and
celebrities with a mixture of corporate
schmoozing and job recruitment. The
par-71 Red Course covering 6,090 yards
and the par-71 Blue Course which is
6,562 yards are the city-run public
courses frequented often by blacks in
the Cleveland area, said Brown.
Begun by local physician, the
late Dr. Herschel Cochran as a United
Negro College Fund fundraiser, the event
has grown into a major fundraiser for
the black college golf programs.
"We give between $3-4,000
each year directly to the black college
programs that participate," said Marga
ret Brown, the local tournament direc
tor. "We don't charge the teams to
particpate. We take care of meals, all the
greens fees for practice rounds and tour
nament fees and we give each of them
grab bags." All the teams have to do is
get to the tournament.
The colleges will play a six-
man 54 hole tournament (27 holes each
day) while the high schoolers play a 36-
hole format May 19-20. Seventy-five
(75) high schoolers are entered this year.
Black college golfers not on teams are
allowed to compete for the individual
champtionships. The total field this year
is 196.
Celebrities, led by actor Clifton
Davis, play a Scramble May 19 on an
other course. Celebs pay $1,000 for
four-man teams. Individual players pay
$250. The celebrity field is full at 193,
Brown said.
Other activities include a Job
Fair where 10-12 major golf companies
will be recruiting young golfers for vari
ous non-teaching pro positions in the
golfing industry. Brown said this year
Softspike, a shoe company will be re
placing all the teams metal spikes with
the new soft spikes which are slowly
becoming the footwear of choice for
many golf courses.
A United State Golf Associa
tion (USGA) professionial will conduct
a Rules Seminar for the players to ac
quaint them with all the new rules and
rule changes in golf. A banquet, spon
sored by Pizza Hut, begins the activities
on Saturday. On Sunday, Golf World/
Golf Digest will sponsor a barbecue.
"With the high schoolers here,
it gives the college coaches a chance to
replace some of the talent they may be
losing to graduation and perhaps offer
some of the young people scholarships
to their programs," said Brown. "It also
gives these young people a chance to
understand the golf business."
Teams scheduled to play this
year include: Clark Atlanta, Bethune-
Cookman^ Alabama State, Florida
A&M, Kentucl^ State, SouthCarolina
State, Hampton, Texas Southern,
Southern, Jackson State, Fayetteville
State, St. Augustines, Virginia Union,
Talladega and Tennessee State.
The colleges compete in Div. I
and Div. II formats. Fayetteville.State is
the reigning Div. II champion. Hampton
defeated Florida A&M on the first hole of
a sudden death playoff to win last year's
Div. I title.
For more information on the
tournament, contact the Highland Park
Golf Course at 216-3489-7273.
BCSP Notes
▼ "Rape of a Spelman Coed" is the cover
story of a Special Report in the May 1997
issue of Emerge magazine on rape. The
story, written by Lori Robinson, examines
the alleged rape of a female student of
Spelman College by four members of the
Morehouse College baskeball team on
the Morehouse campus last Fall and the
subsequent division that the incident has
caused on the neighboring Atlanta Uni
versity Complex campuses. The four stu
dent/athletes were suspended initially for
one year but were reinstated for the Spring
semester. The story explores attitudes
towards rape and has a sexual violence
attitude survey. A related story from rape counselors is
included.
T Speculation about the fate of the football program at
Central State (Ohio) continues to abound. Word is that
the school has cancelled a date with Vii^inia Union in
the 1997 football season. The Wilberforce, Ohio school
An alleged rape by four
Morehouse basketball
players is the Cover story
of the May issue of
Emerge Magazine.
has been experiencing severe financial diffi
culties that may jeopardize their fielding a
team this year. Officials could not be reached
for comment.
▼ While on the subject of football an intrigu
ing matchup has been scheduled in the open
ing weeksof the 1997football season. Howard
University, the defending Mid Eastern Ath
letic Conference (MEAC) champ, is sched
uled to play Southwestern Athletic Confer
ence (SWAC) champ Jackson State in Jack-
son on Sept. 6 at 7 pm. The game not only pits
the two black college Div. I-AA conference
champs but brings together the top two signal
cal lers perhaps i n al 1 of I-AA footbal 1. Howard's Ted White
led the Bison to the Heritage Bowl championship last year
while being tabbed as the MEAC Offensive Player of the
Year. Jackson State's Grailyn Pratt won the same award in
the SWAC while leading the Tigers to a I-AA playoff
appearance. Early estimates are that the matchup could fill
up Jackson Memorial Stadium's 60,000 seats.