The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 1, 1973 Page: 2 of 8
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threshlng-it-out
Of Collins, Conover, and coaches in general
To the editor:
There is a fascinating con-
versation in James Baldwin's
Tell Me IIow Long the Train's
Been Gone. Caleb and Leo are
discussing white folk:
"Caleb," I asked, "are all
white people the same?"
"What do you mean, the
same ? "
"I mean — you know — are
they all the same?"
And Caleb said, "I never met
a good one."
I like this passage because
it expresses the way I've al-
ways felt about coaches, par-
ticularly football coaches
I've never met a good one.
Football coaches are exalted on
T.V. programs and in news-
paper articles as being models
of masculine conduct, paragons
of integrity and civic virtue. In
the media these men seem to
radiate the essence of affec-
tion and respect for their
players, "my boys" they often
call them. As a former athlete,
I know what all football players
know: that more often than not,
the good old coaches are crude,
brutal, self-serving men, peo-
ple who will use any mani-
pulative or coercive technique
to achieve their purposes. I had
hoped Coach Conover was dif-
ferent; I still hope so. His re-
cent act in dismissing Edwin
Collins from the team makes me
wonder. Edwin Collins is an im-
pressive person, a gifted ath-
lete, a highly intelligent, ar-
ticulate human being. Yet be-
yond this Edwin is a strong,
rugged individualist and, for
what it's worth, a real man.
A man doesn't grovel for any-
one, not even a football coach.
If Edwin Collins called Coach
Conover "a white mother-fuck-
er" after a hard day's prac-
tice and four punishment "gas-
sers" (ask a football player
what a "gasser" is; it makes
my side hurt to think about
it), then it was truly regret-
table. Collins owes Conover an
apology, and I understand the
coach has received one. But let's
face facts: Conover, like most
coaches, curses freely, and he
certainly cursed Collins the day
of the incident. Around the
locker room dirty words are
an expected part of the atmos-
phere.
If, on the other hand, Con-
Hoffing comes fo Peterson's defense
To the editor:
For the second week in a row,
"Black Bill" Bell has used the
Thresher in an attempt to up-
hold the supposed virginity of
the Rice football program.
Judging by his two attempts,
hi.- primary method seems to
be character assassination on
those persons who don't jive
with his image (apparently held
S-y a number of Rice weenies
as h-insr somehow above the
general rabble of SWC football
jocks. I mean, you wouldn't
want your sister marrying one,
would you?)
To believe Bell, Bill Peterson
was some sort of a Captain
Biigh at Florida State, bated
by Jocks and non-jocks alike.
And yet according to the Hous-
ton Oiler players, Peterson was
well liked, and according to the
sports writers, his main personal
failing was that he might be too
the rice thresher
editorial
Once again last week, there was a fire in a Rice dorm.
Once again, luckily, no one was seriously injured . . .
although one man came close. Once again, fire equip-
ment, supplied for our protection, performed like comic-
opera props. It isn't funny.
Unless, of course, you think three security men
fighting a fire with one mask between them is funny.
Or unless leaky, jammed fire hoses are amusing. Or un-
less our gigantic steam-operated, monster central fire
alarm whistle is a joke. Come to think of it, that last one
is pretty funny. It didn't work the last time it was tested,
and it sure didn't go off Monday.
On August 80, the Thresher reported a fire at Sid
Richardson in which the sprinkler-system failed to oper-
ate. The fire alarm system was turned off. On October
4, we printed the results of our own investigation, begun
early this year, showing that the situation at Richard-
son was typical. Rice University is a fire hazard.
The responsibility for this situation is shared by
the Campus Safety Committee and Buildings and
Grounds. The Committee is fully aware that we have too
little equipment, and that what we have is in poor repair.
Tt takes no action. B&G, through sloppiness, laxity, and
outright criminal stupidity, is responsible for the dis-
repair of what apparatus exists.
If Rice can't be bothered with anything as mundane
as fire safety, inevitably, someday, someone will be
roasted in their sleep. And we know whose fault it will
be.
—steve jackson
STEVE JACKSON
Editor
WINTON W. BUCKLEY III
Business Manager
Ralph Umbarger Calendar Editor
Tiill Hell Sports Editor
Bill Fulton Head Photographer
Rirthie Melton ... Circulation Maoiager
the
rice
thresher
H. Ijavi'1 f(initio Manaprlntr Editor
Forrest .Johnson Assistant Editor
Gary I! ewt.on Assistant Editor
' Barry Dale . Advertising Manager
Editorial staff: Forest Davenport, Joel Ronnie, Linda Stephens
Business: Kathy Ford, Sue Gaylean, Virginia Jee, Frank Presler, Joel Rennie,
Malcolm Waddell.
News: Dana Blankenhorn, C'athe Krause, Robert Margolis, Tricia Regan, Wendy
Nordstrom, Murk Onak, Joel Rennie, Lee Sowers, Linda Stephens, Carl Tre-
leaven.
Fine Aits: Alcxi Bonifield. Kate Jones, Joel Rennie, Don Shewey, Thomas Zim-
merman.
Sports: Beth Glasser. T. G. Kahuna, Hal Morris.
Photography: Steve Colo, Mickey Meier, Shannon Vale, Roland Wong.
Production : Karen Brady. Tim Cooper, Tom Whittaker, Susie Fields, Lois Hejt-
mancik. Cathe Krause, Dan Miller, Joel Rennie, Terry Trant.
The Rice Thresher, official student newspaper of Rice University, is pub-
lished week'y ori Thursday except during holidays and examination periods by
students of Rice University, Houton. Texas 77001, telephone 528-4141 X221 or
615. The opinions herein are not necessarily those of anyone except the writere.
Obviously.
nice a guy to coach football.
Indeed, there is even talk of
Florida State hiring him back.
Amazing what a year at Rice
will do for a guy's personality,
isn't it? Bell claims that Peter-
son "couldn't understand why
Rice didn't have athletic dorms"
. . . and the like. Apparently,
someone explained it to him as
we still didn't have them when
we left. Contrast this with the
.situation at SMU this year.
As near as I can tell, Peter-
son's main crime was that he
didn't understand "the way
we do things at Rice" until he
got here. Bill Peterson, in his
Texas student
applauds HOB
To the editor;
" If halftime entertainment
results were included in foot-
ball game scores, Rice would
have massacred Texas last Sat-
urday night. That display., of
"talent" was the mockery of
the decade. The boos from the
"Texas crowd when the Long-
horn Band came on field proved
well enough whose entertain-
ment they preferred. Congratu-
lations to the Rice band for
breaking with tradition and
providing a truly entertaining
halftime for the UT students.
A UT grad student,
T. K. Powell
actions and comments over the
last month, has shown a great
deal more class and dignity
than has Bill Bell in exulting
over his downfall.
Having thus disposed of
"Mafia Pete", Bell turned his
pen on Giles Tippette, who had
the nerve to write a book about
Rice football. In vaguely ques-
tioning Tippette's ulterior mo-
tives in writing what he did,
Bell is using the same tactics
Richard Nixon uses to discredit
the Watergate Committee. (By
the way, I wonder if Red Bale
hired John Dean to head up
his crack investigation oC al-
leged Rice violations ?)
From the introduction of Tip-
pette's book (which all I
have read) and from other com-
ments I've read, I get the im-
pression that Tippette has a
genuine affection for Rice and
its football team._ Outside the
hedges his book has been get-
ting good to excellent reviews.
Only Bell considers it "worth-
less."
One final note. Bell claims
to have doubts that any "foot-
ball program in the country will
go near Peterson." I would like
to offer a sporting wager. I will
bet my copies of Paper Lion
and Run to Daylight against
his copy of Saturday's Children
that Peterson gets a coaching
position within a year.
Sincerely,
Glen Hoffing,
Wiess '74
Opinion
over was trying to humiliate
Collins, to make him an ex-
ample, to assert that indeed the
coach was boss; then Conover
owes Collins an apology, and
a place back on the team.
Unlike most of the alumni, I
don't care a rat's ass whether
Rice wins its football games.
I feel, as I suspect most stu-
dents do, far more affection for
the team when they fight a
courageous and losing battle
against a football factory like
Texas than when they win
against some equally small and
more poorly endowed institu-
tion. What is of greater con-
cern to me is the manner in
which players are recruited and
the treatment they receive once
they get here. The treatment
Edwin Collins has recently re-
ceived is, to my mind, inex-
cusable. The team players read-
ily admit that the punishment
Conover assigned Collins, and
the way he administered it,
was extremely harsh and un-
usual acording to team stan-
dards. The hypothesis of Col-
lins as scapegoat is plausible
to many people. They think
Conover was out to get Col-
lins. That may be the case.
From what I know of most
football coaches, it certainly
wouldn't surprise me.
I still hope this is not the
case. Perhaps Coach Conover
made an honest mistake and
will correct it by ^feinstating
Edwin Collins. I never met a
good football coach, but per-
haps I can draw some encour-
agement. from my analogy to
James Baldwin. Caleb answers
concerning whites, "I never
met a good one." But let me
complete Mr. Baldwin's ac-
count:
Caleb said, "I never met a
good one."
I asked, "Not even when you
were little ? In school ?
Caleb said, "Maybe. I don't
remember."
He smiled at me. "I never
mot a good one, Leo. But that's
not . saying you won't. Don't
look so frightened."
Sincerely,
Dale Gorczynski
ef
Making the detente work
by JIM ASKER and JEFF GIBBS
Another Middle East war seems to be at an
enfa. It is the fourth one in twenty-five years.
The results are not much different than they
were after the Six Days War of 1967. Once again,
Israeli military forces have proved to be vastly
superior. Once again, the United States and the
Soviet Union participated in supplying arms to
the combatants, raising the level of conflict to
that of a world crisis. Once again, having reach-
ed that level, a ceasefire was more or less im-
posed on the Arabs and the Israelis.
A strategic balance of power has been retain-
ed—at least for the moment. Both sides have
again been forced to realize that the U.S. and
U.S.S.R. will allow neither the Arabs nor the
Israelis to gain the upper hand. •
The stakes were high for many nations. East
and West both have a keen interest in keeping
the oil flowing from the region. In this country,
something of a moral commitment to support
the continued existence of the Israeli nation was
voiced, notably by Senators Jackson and Javits.
The Russians had economic and ideological
motivations, too. But they also had great interest
in making the "detente" work. Brezhnev has stak-
ed his career on the detente.
Critics of the detente point to the fact that
the Soviets waited until the military situation
had turned sour for thef Arabs before calling for
not agreed to agree, but merely agreed to talk
and listen. In this respect the detente has work-
ed. Instead of the threats and accompanying
battle of nerves that had marked the Cuban mis-
sile and Berlin crises, Brezhnev simply called
for Mr. Kissinger-—and he came. Only out of
direct communication will understanding develop.
President Nixon's ordered military alert was
a precaution in case the detente did not work.
Had it not, the old techniques of brinksmanship
would have been the only choice. Those who were
sure of the detente or are congenitally supicious
of Nixon said the alert was only to deflect at-
tention given Watergate.
Effects of the Settlement, are far-reaching
and complex. The U.S. has regained some inter-
national respect by showing that despite internal
troubles, Ave can act swiftly toward world peace.
The Soviets are reminded that we still can bar-
gain from a position of strength.
The fragile peace reminds us at home of pos-
sible loss of oil imports in a future crisis. No
doubt this will effect Congress' upcoming deci-
sion on the Alaska pipeline, probably swinging
it for approval over environmentalists' protests.
But the most immediately concerned are the
nations of the Middle East, of curse. It is pro-
mising to note that, for the first time in 17
years, Egyptian and Israeli military leaders
have been able to sit down at the same confer-
f
a negotiated settlement. They say this indicates- —ence table for meaningful talk. It may be too
the shallowness of the detente. much to hope for, but maybe the Arabs and
But the critics never understood what the Israelis can achieve a detente of their own. The
detente was meant to do. The two nations had world prays they will.
the rice thresher, november 1, 1973—p&ge 2
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Jackson, Steve. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 1, 1973, newspaper, November 1, 1973; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245176/m1/2/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.