The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 15

Gamble next Buc coach? Board expected to approve late Thursday night By KEVIN SHERR1NGTON News Sports Writer Fulfilling a rumor that had floated around the Island like the ever-present fog, the O'Connell school board was expected to approve High Island football coach Lucky Gamble as head coach late Thursday night in an executive meeting. Gamble, who led the Cardinals to the state's class runner-up spot two seasons In a row, was reportedly one of the candidates considered for the head coaching job vacated after Willie Huggins resigned the post last (alt. As late as Tuesday, Gamble denied his transition to the District 1-2A school. "It's purely rumor," said Gamble, whose squad was whipped by Wheeler 33-14 for the state title. "It's not least not as of right now.

I'm not closing the door, though. If 1 get the right offer I might take it." But Gamble had already been offered the job from athletic committee president Joe Ahern. Ahern said Tuesday the committee had decided on a prospect and would submit that person's name to the regularly scheduled school board meeting Thursday night. What ortginaiiy held Gamble's decision back, said sources, was the committment made by O'Connell. The former Cardinal coach requested more assistant coaches and two full-time coaches for the Junior high school, which has been staffed by volunteers.

"If the offer was right, I'd take It. 1 think anybody would," said the 28-year old Gamble, who has been in the hospital for treatment of high blood pressure. "If they made some changes, I'd consider it. But not right now. "I'm not committed to them." In his three seasons at High Island, Gamble has posted a 30-5-1 record and has lost only one game in the past two years.

Prior to his coaching reign at High Island, the Cardinals won only eight games In three full seasons. LUCKY GAMBLE Heiden new king of ice with fourth gold in Olympics Sports Section Page 1 Local, State, World Sports Friday Morning, February 22,1980 Sports Phone 744-3611 Just the beginning Season ends Friday but Aggies hope to continue winning By United Press International The Southwest Conference's regular season comes to an end Friday night for all but two of the league's nine teams, but Texas hopes that it is really just the beginning. Texas has clinched a tie for the SWC title and the Aggies will go after the whole thing Friday night in a meeting with the Houston Cougars. But a Houston upset would give Arkansas, currently resting in second place a game back of the Ag- gies, a chance to tie for the title with a win over Texas Tech in Fayetteville Saturday afternoon. The Aggies, an overwhelming pre- season favorite to win the league title, steadily improved after a shaky start and developed into the kind of team that could make waves in the NCAA tournament.

The Southwest Conference has had a team Arkansas reach at least the regional finals the past two seasons. The Razorbacks made it to the final four in 1978 before losing to eventual champion Kentucky and last year Arkansas reached the Midwest Regional finals before falling by two points to Indiana State. "Texas is a fine ball club," said TCU Coach Jim Killingsworth, whose team lost to to the Aggies last Tuesday. "Everybody picked to win it and then people said would screw it up somehow. But the Aggies came on and got better as the year went along.

"Shelby (Coach Shelby Metcalf) did a fine job with them." The Aggies must play Houston on the Cougars' home floor, where Houston upset Arkansas two weeks ago. Friday night's other season-ending games will have the Baylor Bears visiting last-place TCU and Texas hosting the Rice Owls. The final weekend of regular season action will firm up the pair- ings for the SWC's post-season tournament, which opens next Monday night at three locations and then continues the following Thursday in San Antonio. If this weekend's favorites Texas and Arkansas both win their games it would set up a Monday night schedule involving Baylor at SMU (which is assurred no matter what happens this weekend), TCU at Texas Tech and Rice at Houston. Texas would finish in third place and receive a bye into the quarterfinals.

Arkansas and Texas will both receive byes into the semifinals. LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (UPI) Like a true king, America's Eric Heiden reached out for a regal effort Thursday and prevented his speed skating crown from literally slipping away at the Winter Olympics. Heiden, showing the determination which has earned him the title of "King of the Ice," made a remarkable recovery from a near fall on a rain-slickened track and made Olympic history by winning his fourth speed skating gold medal. The 21-year-old skater from Madison, added the men's gold medal to his collection by beating two Norwegians, Kai Arne Stenshjemmet and Terje Andersen, in Olympic record time of 1:55.44.

Meanwhile, World Champion Linda Fratianne of Northridge, put herself into solid position for the women's figure skating crown by turning In a powerful performance in the short program the next-to-last phase of the three-part competition. Fratianne, In third place after Wednesday's compulsory figures, moved into second place behind East Germany's Annet Poetzsch and can win the gold medal Saturday night with another strong performance in the free skating competition. Poetzsch is not considered as good a free skater as Fratianne. Later Thursday night, Charlie Tickner of Littleton, tried to add another medal to the U.S. collection in the finals of the men's figure skating competition.

Tickner was in third place in the standings entering the final free skating program. Tickner will have to perform superbly in the free skating competition to beat Britain's Robin Cousins for the top prize. East Germany's Jan Hoffman currently leads the competition but he is not a strong free skater. "I'd be happy with any medal but I know that in order to win and I think I can I've got to do the best program I've ever done," said Tickner. "I'm in good shape, but I should have been in better shape." Tickner will have to go some, however, to equal the kind of com- eback effort that Heiden turned in Thursday.

By winning the 1,500, Heiden became the first male athlete in Winter Olympic history ever to win four gold medals. Speed skater Lldia Skobfikova of the Soviet Union won four gold medals at Innsbruck In 1964. Heiden will go after his fifth gold medal in the race Saturday. However, Heiden's victory did not come as easily as his previous ones In the 500,1,000 and events. He almost let the medal literally slip away.

Paired with Stenshjemmet, Heiden slipped rounding a turn at the 550- meter mark and came very close to tumbling to the ice. His hand appeared to touch the ice as he fought to regain his balance but, somehow, be avoided falling. The near fall cost him valuable time but he made it up with a blistering final lap to capture the medal. "What happened was there was a rut in the ice and the pressure of my left foot broke the ice," Heiden said. "I came very close to falling and I had to put my arm down to keep my balance.

But it didn't sit in my mind too long and I was able to concentrate on the race." Heiden's amazing recovery was similar to the one made by Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden in last Monday's first run of the men's giant slalom. Stenmark, regarded as the world's best in the giant slalom, nearly fell halfway through the race but made a miraculous recovery and went on to clock the third best time. He won the event the next day. Heiden wasn't the only one to have trouble with the track. Rain made the speed skating oval so slick that the event had to be delayed for 40 minutes midway through the competition so the track could be resurfaced.

"I felt good today and the track was very fast," said Heiden. "Actually, the race wasn't very hard because I was psyched up to do well. I thought the slip might make it hard. I'd say it cost me a couple tenths of a second." Martin ties knot with A's to bring together 4 riends' CHICAGO (UPI) Like two newlyweds, Charlie Finley and Billy Martin exchanged vows Thursday as owner and manager of the Oakland A's in an attempt to rebuild the troubled franchise. Martin's selection as Finley's llth manager was sealed in a two-year contract at an undisclosed salary after Martin and his former employer, New York principal owner George Steinbrenner, reached an agreement to buy out the remaining two years of his Yankees' pact.

Finley emphasized he would be paying "100 percent" of the 51-year old manager's contract. Both Martin and Finley went to great lengths to say they have had a long friendship and will not likely have any confrontations during the upcoming season. "Billy Martin and Charlie Finley will give them hell," Finley told a packed news conference in Chicago, Finley'shome. Finley emphasized he was still trying hard to unload the A's and was asked if Martin would be retained if he managed to sell the team. "A deal could come in a couple of days, or it may not," Finley said.

"I would think a new owner would have the perogative to hire who he wants, but I would also think he would honor someone's contract." Finley said he discussed the hiring with American League President Lee MacPhail but not Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who has been Finley's arch-enemy. "He (MacPhail) wished Billy the best of luck and was glad to see him Dack in the American League," Finley said. Martin, replacing Jim Marshall, who was not rehired after one year at Oakland, said he was approached by Finley about 10 days ago. Martin said he agreed to manage his fifth AL team because of his family ties in nearby Berkeley, Calif. "If I had waited another two months," noted Martin, who has previously managed the Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers in addition to the Yankees, "I could have had six other offers.

1 could have worked for Charlie after I left Detroit, but we never came to an agreement. We have been friends for 20 years." Martin, who has won divisional titles at Minnesota and Detroit plus three AL flags and a world championship in New York, was fired as Yankees' manager Oct. 28,1979, after he was involved in an alleged fight with Joseph Cooper, a marshmallow salesman, at a Bloomington, bar. Finley paid tribute to the fiery Martin by calling him one of the most knowledgeable men in baseball, one who gets 100 percent from his players. "When you are like that, you are a winner," Finley said.

"He's been there as a successful manager." Finley has had a history of having a direct involvement with the running of the team, even during Oakland's three straight World Championship seasons in 1972-74. UPITelephoto HANNI WENZEL of Liechtenstein flashes through the Olympic giant slalom course Thursday in the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid to win the gold medal in the event. Oilers ease by Stings 9 old men By PAUL ARNETT News Sports Writer TEXAS not the Boston Celtics. Nor the Harlem Globetrotters. They'd even have problems stopping Texas City's own Stingarees.

But the Houston Oilers basketball team was more than equal to Elwood Kettler's coaching crew. Led by Gif ford Nlelson and Ronnie Coleman, the Oilers eased past Texas City Thursday night 94-81. Dowtown and clown described the action. If they weren't handing out autographs for the 750 people who braved the foggy weather, the Oilers 1 were locating the bucket from 20 feet and beyond. Oh sure, they made their fair share of layups.

But most of the Oiler shots came from just this side of midcourt. Nielsen's 27 points paced all scorers. The 6-4 quarterback showed a nice outside shot for those in attendance. So did J.C. His 17 points came in right behind Coleman's 18.

All of the Oiler participants broke the double figure barrier. Not so for Texas City. The vigor of youth was missing from Kettler's crew. They looked strong the first three minutes, but as time slipped away, so did the men's enthusiasm. Skip Walker and Jeff Kocurek had a few moments of brilliance.

They scored 25 and 17 respectively. But the key to the contest was fun. No one took it too seriously. Mojo and a couple of Derrick Dolls came along for the ride. Texas City's tiny John Bright Cage was the city's feature atraction.

In the latter stages of the first half and the game, this group com- 'manded more attention than the game itself. It was what the evening was all about. It's why so many people cram: med into Texas City gymnasium. Off the Bench No stalls in playoffs, please By KEVIN SHERRINGTON News Sports Writer OVER A CUP of coffee Wednesday morning, two of the winningest high school basketball coaches in the state agreed on a site for their two young teams to wage war. Clear Lake coach Bill Krueger, with 635 wins to his credit, and Ball High mentor Bob Woodard, claiming 518 victories, mulled their possibilities at a local Sambo's the day after the final district games.

And the pair decided on Rice's Autry Court Monday. Tickets for the affair are going for $3 at the door with students able to get in for $2. There will be no pre-sale tickets for adults and no reserve seats. So when the doors are opened for the bi-district championship there is likely to be great flood of humanity crashing the gates. This game promises to be an interesting one, depending on the strategy employed by Krueger.

All year long, District 23-4A champ Lake has avoided its infamous stall. Krueger used it last year on more than one occasion when he believed the talent on his club was not enough to overtake its opponents. But this season his club has finally come around. Point guard Colin O'Neill, one of the finest ballhandlers in the Houston area, has been the keystone to a championship club that lost only one district game this year and went 7-0 the second round. AH, BUT the Tors are no slouches either.

Woodard's 26-8 crew won 14 straight district games, with an average spread of 16.5 points over its foes. And although wing Reggie Wilcox is obviously the gem of the Tors, Woodard has six to seven other ball players who he has no qualms about putting in the game. Which will probably bring about the stall in Krueger. The Tors have much more talent than any of the teams he faced in 23-4A this season and because of that they will probably be exposed to a lot of standing around and a heavy dose of dribbling from O'Neill. It is not, however, the 5-8 point guard's choice of action.

"That's not my idea of basketball," said O'Neill earlier this year. "I don't like to play that way. But he's (Krueger) the boss. I just do what he says." Or face a tongue-lashing he'd never forget from the gruff-voiced mentor. In putting up more than 600 wins at Clear Creek and Clear Lake, the Falcon head coach has not been a candidate for the Bay Area's Sweetest Guy.

WINNING COUNTS heavy in his book. Putting on a the one that saw Yates clip Milby 14-10 this nothing for my blood pressure, however. There is nothing that bothers my attraction to a game more than watching five players spread out over the width of the court and playing keep-away with the ball. For the final couple of minutes of each period, the strategy is viable. But when a coach resorts to it for the entire game, he's not showing anyone what his players can do.

And he's showing his players that he doesn't have enough confidence in them to play the game. WINNING IS important, and a lot of players wouldn't mind what their coach did as long as they came out on top. But some have a lot of pride and would like an opportunity to take a team Errol Flynn toss- ing an opponent his foil after he knocked it out of his hand. But if there was no other reason, a coach should refrain from a stall merely for the sake of the viewers. Personally, it's too much for my system.

Syndicated columnist and Houston sports writer Mickey Herskowitz once said his idea of Hell would be to forever watch Chris Evert bang away with that tediously-consistent forehand from the baseline. Like all columnists he is entitled to his opinion. But my idea of eternal torture would run more toward watching a capable basketball team drag through a stall. I can see the pained expressions on the opponents' faces as they plead to get on with the game. I can hear Krueger's voice, which sounds like a cross between a garbage disposal and a blender, as he bellows for his team to slow It down.

And I can feel the grumble in my stomach as I head for the nearest exit. Herskowitz has his ideas of eternal torture and I have mine. Personally, I'd rather watch Chris Evert..