3B
SPORTS/The Charlotte Post
Thursday, October 30, 1997
Barker leads 49ers’ rally
Continued from IB
for us.”
It’s been an up and down sea
son for UNCC. Coming off their 1
9-win campaign last year, expec
tations ran very high. The 49ers
loaded their schedule with
ranked teams so they wouldn’t be
left'out of the NCAA tournament
because of a weak schedule. The
result is a 9-5-2 record, including
4-4 in Conference USA going into
Sunday’s finale against N.C.
State. The 49ers wiU likely enter
the league tournament as the
fifth seed, but winning the cham
pionship means an automatic
berth to the 32-team NCAA tour
nament.
“The best thing I got going for
me right now, is the players on
this team,” Tart said. “TTiey’re the
ones who have made it where
we’re as competitive as we are.
They’re good players and they
have the right attitude.”
UNCC is now playing its best
soccer. Last week the 49ers
scored a season-high six goals in
a win over Campbell and confi
dence is high going into the
league tournament. Barker
believes the best is yet to come.
“I believe we were himgry but
the chemistry wasn’t there in the
beginning,” he said. “But now the
chemistry is there.”
Green book outlines Vikings takeover
Continued from IB
Chicago-based One-on-One
Sports radio network.
Green echoed those statements
in the postgame news conference
after the Vikings’ 10-6 victory at
Tampa Bay on Simday, saying he
was “thinking out loud” when he
revealed a plan to sue the team’s
board of directors rmless they
allowed him to purchase 30 per
cent controlling interest in the
team.
But Vikings president Roger
Headrick and board member
Wheelock Whitney said Green
may be tryirrg to rewrite his auto
biography.
“It was interpreted by me that
way (as a threat),” Headrick said.
“Now the story is (that) it was
never intended to be anything
more than just fiction or fantasy.
My personal feeling is you have to
take people seriously at what
they say. Otherwise why say it?”
“ mean, he had credible detail,
with a draft complaint. That to
me would seem to belie that this
was not a well-thought-out plan,”
Headrick said.
Whitney is thought to be one of
FILE PHOTO
Dennis Green is under fire for comments made in his autobiogra
phy “No Room For Crybabies.” in which he details a plan to take
over the Minnesota Vikings.
the two unnamed board members
who Green believes harmed his
reputation last fall by floating
rumors that Lou Holtz might
coach the team.
Whitney said Sunday he has yet
to make up his mind about what
coirrse of action, if any, the board
should take regarding Green.
“It certainly raises a lot of ques
tion marks about having a long
term relationship with someone
who would bhndside you like that
and take such a radical position,”
he said.
Woods or Irwin for golfer of year?
By Ron Sirak
TRE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON - Player of the
year honors could be deter
mined this week, but not
entirely at the Tour
Championship. Tiger Woods
has the PGA Tour award
I wrapped up. But maybe Hale
Irwin had the best year in golf.
It’s too bad there is not a vote
for the best overall season, no
I matter what tour.
I Then maybe there would be a
little more drama surrounding
the Tour Championship rather
than the feeling that 30 guys
who have already had a good
i year are looking to pick up one
I nfqre check.
' The tension is gone from last
year when Tom Lehman, Phil
Mickelson and Mark Brooks
w^e fighting it out for Player
of the Year. Now it’s simply
this: Wrap up the award and
;d it to Woods.
irhaps the loss of drama is a
byproduct of Tigermania, espe
cially in the dizzy days after
Wfaods won the Masters by an
astounding 12 strokes. Talk
I was of Grand Slam, double-
digit number of victories and
$1 million in winnings.
And some of what was lost
was the remarkable year Irwin
j put together on the Senior PGA
Tour. He did more of those
, things than Woods.
While the top 30 money win
ners on the PGA Tour gather
tljis week at Champions Golf
CSub to play for the $720,000
first prize at the Tour
Championship, Irwin is play-
irig for a more modest sum in
Los Angeles.
But he is also playing for his
tory at the Ralphs Senior
CJassic. For the record, Irwin is
the first player on any single
tour to win $2 million in a sea-
and I don’t care at what level,
on any tour, anybody against
whom you want to talk about,
winning takes its toll.”
Compare Woods and Irwin by
the numbers:
• Woods has
four PGA Tour
victories this
year to nine
by Irwin on
the Senior
PGA Tour.
• Woods has
won
$1,969,233.
Irwin has won
$2,131,364.
• Woods’
stroke average per round is
69.02. Irwin is at 68.93.
• Woods has played 41.5 per
cent of his rounds in the 60s.
Irwin has played 53.6 percent
of his rounds in the 60s.
Perhaps the most amazing
Woods
thing Irwin did was maintain
his level of play for an entire
season. The longest stretch he
went without a victory was six
tournaments, and he had two
seconds, a fourth and a fifth
among those six.
Woods, on the other hand,
peaked early, winning three
times by early May. But he has
not won since the' ■ Western
Open on July 6 - a streak of
seven winless starts - and has
n’t contended in a major cham
pionship since the Masters.
Woods played 20 of his first 34
rounds of 1997 in the 60s but
has been below 70 in only 13 of
43 rounds, beginning with the
final round of the Colonial in
May.
Despite tailing off slightly.
Woods has already wrapped up
Player of the Year as deter
mined by the PGA of America’s
points system.
1&
son.
His nine victories this year
ties the seniors record set by
Peter Thomson in 1985 and is
the most won by a male on the
U.S. or European tour since
Sam Snead won 11 times in
1950.
Jhe knee-jerk reaction might
be to dismiss Irwin’s accom
plishments because they came
on the Senior PGA Tour. To do
so would be to underestimate
the mental and physical strain
of competing - and winning.
“It’s hard to stay on that high
as many times as I have this
year,” Irwin said as he got
ready to try for his record 10th
victory this week. “Winning,
Aggie pride
PHOTOAVAOE NASH
N.C. A&T defensive end Chris McNeil tries to get the Aggies fired
up in Saturday’s 21-13 loss to Howard in Greensboro. The
Aggies, who piay S.C. State Nov. 22 in Chariotte, are ninth in this
week’s Sheridan poli of black college football teams.
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