October 1994
PUBLISHER ? Ernest H. Pitt
EDITOR ? Ffichard L. Williams
PRODUCTION
Scariat! Summons Cow
Ka*yLw .
Chaflon# Newfrtin I
STAFF WRITERS
LangMonWtou. Jr.
Owricfc Mahon*
Qragcxy C*y
Activities For The
Well, the baseball season ended early and, no one
could get it. started again. Here are seven things that base
ball-less fan* can do with their free time now.
1.) Forget you liked baseball anyway. V
The games are too long. There's too much spitting.
There's not enough scoring or . action (sounds like we're
talking about soccer).
But then, baseball is about honored tradition, about
pitchers riding golf carts from the dugout to save the day,
never mind the fact that they take enough to time for tne to
watch "Living Single" to finish an inning or I can go to the
movie and the score will be the same when I come back
that is was when 1 left.
(True story: Went to see Ah-nold in his big box office
bomb of last year, "Last Action Hero" and Pittsburgh was
playing the Mets. The score was 1-0 when 1 left and Trm
. McCarver was talking about Doug Drabek's pitching arm.
When I returned three hours later, the game was in the
eighth inning, the score wasJ-O, and yes, McCarver was
talking about Doug Drabek's pitching arm.)
2.) Watch the NFL on Fox.
Football, in case you've been in Asia or somewhere, is
America's sport now. The games are great, the players are
great, as we've found out more and more now that Fox is
giving us more coverage of the players without their hel
mets on.
The Fox broadcasts with old standbys Pat Summerall
and John Madden arc excellent and don't you just love the
stereo sound, the improved camera angles and that little
scoreclock in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. -
3.) Take the little woman to the park.
Hey, she'd sure appreciate some attention, and besides
with no rotisserie pools to discuss with your friends on the
telephone, you've got the time. ,
And picnics are way cool.
4.) Forget you liked baseball anyway.
Did we already say that?
5.) Go see some college football, especially black col
lege style.
"Hunk all the big-time names are playing for Okla
homa, Miami and Florida State? Well guess again, friend.
Great players are playing in the black colleges this year and
. _ every year. _ . ?
If there's a player more exciting than Alcom State QB
Steve McNair, a guy who threw and ran for nearly 1 ,000
yards in his fust TWO games, well, we ain't seen him in a
helmet. And the one thing black colleges have that the big
ger white ones don't is ...
6.) Go to halftime of a black college game.
If you don't like football, just slip in?about an hour
after kickoff and catch the halftime show. You've got
bands, dancers, announcers saying "we're the greatest, most
splendiforous, exciting, collection of instruments in the
nation, "the ultimate progression of sound, we're going to
shakt-you, quake you and wake up your grandmother."
Never mind that it doesn't make sense, it sounds good.
And the bands, well to quote our rap friends, they're
slammin'. ,
7.) Forget you liked baseball anyway.
Oh, we definitely said that before.
? Langston Wertz Jr.
Black Col lege Sports Review is published by Black Sports inc . 817 N Liberty St.,
Winston- SaTem, N.C. 27101. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs will not be
rstumad. Inquiries should ba addressed to Ernest H Pitt, Publisher. Black College
Sports Review, P O Box 1836, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27102. - ^
Cover photo by Wads Nash
BCSR is a supplement to these newspapers Atlanta Voice. #ie Bulletin, Baltimore
Atro- American, Baton Rouge Community Leader, Birmingham firms, Carolina Peace
maker Caronna Timee, Charleston Chronicle. Charlotte Poet, Dallas Tax** Weekly,
Iredell County News, Philadelphia Tribune. Pittsburgh Courier. Richmond Afro-Amari
can* itnptdn rt to* American and *ia Winston-Salem Chronicle
Hope Springs Eternal; Smith Needs Better
Resources To Improve Its Footbair Program
I Johnson ?. Smith Coach Ray Lee looks at the type pf
program that Joe Taylor has so quickly turned Hampton
into, after two consecutive losing seasons before he got
there, Taylor has made Hampton so strong that after two'
CIAA titles in a row, the Pirates will play Division I-AA
next year, and has hope that he can do the same thing at
Smith. I V ,
The Bulls haven't had a winning had a winning sea
son since 1982. Smith started out the *94 season 0-2. But
with Lee, hope springs eternal. He is, in a few words,
Smith's biggest believer. Still, Lee knows that to take
Smith where Hampton has been and where Hampton is
headed, he, needs one very precious thing.
"It's resources," Lee said. "They have resources.
How do you say this in print? In trying to make compar
isons, it's like when you have a horse that you're training
for the Kentucky Derby, you'll make sure it's the best
bred horse. You can't take a jackass to the derby and
expect to win.
"You've got to give that jockey something to ride
on," Lee continued, "to give him a chance. Hampton just
has resources. People look at coaching ability. If you
bring anybody somewhere that has no resources, I don't
care who it is, Bill Walsh or Jimmy Johnson, they can't
do it without resources. Not taking anything away from
ccfach Taylor, he's a good coach. He's just added his
coaching ability with resources and taken the program to
the next level."
Literally. ? ? 1 L_ : ,
Lee can see how things could go at Smith. He's con
sidered one of the CIAA's bright young coaches. He led
the Bulls to a 5-5 record his first year, but Smith slipped
to below .500 last year. Winning at Smith has never been
easy. ;
"It's something we want to do here," Lee said.
"We're trying, but it all goes back to resources."
Hampton's are among the best in the CIAA.
Smith's are among the worst.
'(Lee) is a hard-working guy," Hampton's Taylor
Haywood Cloud of Winston-Salem State University
runs part N.CA&T defender in 5-3-7 loss Sept 10.
" You can't take a jackass to the derby and expect to win . . .You've got
to give the jockey something to ride on."
. . . - ? Ray Lee
said. "In fact. Bill invited 25 (mainly minority college
and NFL position) coaches to spend a week with him at
'Stanford last spring and Lee was there. He works hard.
But it goes back to this: people feel like you can Jine up
and just outcoach people. You really can't do that. The
resources must be in place. I don't know what the budget
is down there, but you've got to have resources, you've
got to be able to bring in young men in and your facilities
must be in place."
Smith is coming along. But slowly. ,An on-campus
football field has been built and is always undergoing
renovations to improve it. But the team shares a locker
room facility with the basketball team, and a basketball
lockcr room is quite cramped for a football team.
- Smith's weight room is tiny, built for basketball, not
football. The Bulls did get new uniforms this year. The
team had been playing in what amounted to practice gear
until then. But right now, more than facilities or pretty
outfits to wear on Saturday, Lee wants more scholarships,
a larger recruiting budget. He wants to make Smith win
again. \
"The administration has to makeva commitment,"
Taylor said. "That was something coach (Darryl) Mudra
(former Florida State head coach) always told us: always
see that the commitment is there. If they want you to put
on a halo and be a miracle worker, then it's just a grave
yard.
But as much as (Lee) works, if he has some more
help financially and some support from the administra
tions, and the community is buying tickets and-not beg
ging, then he'll make Smith into a super program;"
. Said Lee: "I will tell you this. I'm going )o keep on
trying."
? Langston Wertz Jr