The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 17

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1977 BATES VILLE'S BOMBER HAS THAT TOUCH Curt Clawson Kindles Mount PAGE 2-SEC. 2 Memories has appeared in the final game Loogootee. "One-half of the tournament field (201 schools with enrollments over 700) has supplied 45 finalists; the other half (200 schools with enrollments below 700) has supplied only one just one! Some people and apparently Bobby Plump can be Included among them, seem to feel that any basketball championship short of a one-class championship carries with it less prestige. I would invite him and all those who feel that way to walk the halls of Blackford High School, Boonville, Greenfield Central, Clarksville Providence, Tippecanoe Valley, Plymouth, Indianapolis Ritter, Garrett, North Knox, Mishawaka Marian, Lawrenceburg, Jasper and the other Indiana high schools which proudly possess the state championship and runnerup football trophies awarded by the IHSAA. "I WOULD INVITE all those who feel that A and AA championships carry less prestige than AAA to talk with those students who played on those teams, the students who supported those teams, and the legions of proud citizens who stand ready in these communities to talk endlessly of their teams' athletic exploits." Miller goes on to point out "those schools of A and AA size seek for basketball what is already guaranteed in football; namely, the same recognition that has been pretty much the domain of the larger schools.

With class basketball, each class (as with football) would get a weekly poll, an all-state team and, most importantly, the tournament. It would as it has in football enhance the prestige of many schools, enable them to build an individual lore of their own, and allow them a place in the sunshine of the Final Four far more frequently than they could ever hope for under the current system." Johnson, Aurora; Jack Moore, Muncie Central, and Ben Davis' Randy Wittman. COACH PAUL EHRMAN says Claw-son's movement without the ball is much better than last year, and this is the reason that Batesville is off to its best start since the 1970-71 ball club went to the Sweet 16 with Kirby Overman. "Curt squares himself to the basket as well as any high school player I ever saw," Coach Ehrman adds. "But he has learned to move without the ball and this is his biggest improvement over last year.

"He has everything it takes to have an outstanding future in the game. Curt is an excellent A-B student, he is a perfect gentleman and his biggest worry right now is finding a place to shoot during the Christmas layoff." Batesville's only loss before Christmas was to Jac-Cen-Del by a 44-43 eyelash. A big weekend is coming up with South Ripley and Greensburg on the road Jan. 6-7 and then the Ripley County tourney follows at home Jan. 12-14.

Batesville draws unbeaten Aurora (10-0) in the county tourney opener. SULLIVAN PRINCIPAL Jerry Miller jotted down some more thoughts this week on Hoosier Hysteria's class tournament discussion. Jerry writes "I have been reading with a great deal of interest your recent articles on class basketball, most particularly your interview with Bobby Plump (Sunday, Dec. 18). Indiana has long had a love affair with the Milan team of 1954 and that's as it should be.

"However, isn't it about time, we began to face up to the truth. The truth is that since Milan's tremendous victory 23 years ago, there have been a total of 46 teams compete in the championship game for the state title. Of these 46, only one school with an enrollment below 700 RISING SUN'S STEVE Rohlfing will always be able to tell his grandchildren how he scored 35 points one night and still had to settle for second fiddle Batesvil-le's Curt Clawson exploded for 50 in the same game. Clawson broke 50 for the second time in three weeks while defense was out to lunch Friday in this 89-85 shootout won by Batesville's 7-1 Bulldogs on the home court. As it turned out Curt had to get that many because the 6-5 Rohlfing was pouring in 35 and gobbling up 16 rebounds at the other end.

Old-timers will remember vividly another classic scoring duel in the North Central Conference almost 20 years ago. Who could forget how New Castle's Ray Pavy blazed away for 51 and Kokomo's Jimmy Rayl 49 in that 1959 barn burner captured by the Trojans, 92-81. PAVY IS RECOVERING from a heart attack in a Muncie hospital and all Hoosiers send Ray their best on Christmas Day. Clawson, the 6-4 long range gunner who moved in from Mississippi a year ago, got his 50 on 18-for-28 shooting from the field and a 14-of-16 night at the charity stripe. It was only one shy of his 51-point school record performance against Brookville the first week in December.

Curt's 21-for-29 Brookville show wiped out the 49-point Batesville record he established as a junior. Young Clawson is being compared to all great Hoosier Hysteria outside shooters, and many coaches (high school and college) insist that his range is the best since Lebanon's Rick Mount in 1963-66. In fact, he even resembles Mount in build and the way he likes to shoot off the dribble. MADISON'S BUD Ritter announces Dec. 16 as the date for next year's second Hall of Fame basketball classic at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Gary Emerson took the inaugural beating Fort Wayne North in the final on two free throws in the closing seconds. Bloomington South and Frankfort com- pleted the cast and first reports show that it was a financial success. After -expenses, each school's share may amount to $750 and Hall of Fame benefits could top $3,000. Ritter's selection committee will send out letters in the next month to 1978 tournament potentials. Muncie Anderson, Valparaiso and a few more already have expressed an interest.

Others who would like to be considered should write Bud Ritter, 420 Fairmount -Drive, Madison, Ind. "I think we've already proven that we -can put on a pretty good tournament," I the Hall of Fame tourney chairman says. 3 "There probably won't be a holiday tour- ney in the whole state with four teams better than ours. "We hope to reach a decision on next year's field by mid-January and this will give teams time to adjust their schedules if that's necessary." Ritter's Hall of Fame selection committee will be made up of Herb Schwomeyer, Howard Sharpe, Sam Scheively, Phil Eskew, Tom Carnegie, Ray Crowe, Jerry Birge, Bill Fowler, Jimmie Angelopolous and Shootin' the; Stars. EMERSON'S NO.

1 ranked Tornados saw purple long before they blew that 20-point lead in last week's 69-67 Market Square Arena loss to Ben Davis Coach Jerry Hoover of the Giants blinded everybody with his purple suit and checkered vest. Shoot in The Stars By Bob Williams- NOBODY COULD ARGUE with his shooting stats averaging 32 6 for eight games through the holiday break and hitting the bucket at an incredible 57.5 percentage. He averaged 29.0 his junior year with 667 points and shot 53 per cent from the field. Clawson bombed nine of his 14 field attempts and nine straight free throws in his 27-point first half against Rising Sun. He shot with comfort from the 20-25 foot range in the early part of the game and then in the second half bucked up a couple of steps.

It would be fair to say that the rest of his game still doesn't measure up to that basket eye, but Curt puts the ball on the floor with great confidence and against Rising Sun's man to man defense drove to the bucket with pretty good quickness. Curt has a gifted crossover dribble that allows him to beat a lot of the gimmick defenses that he faces. And sometimes he unloads three or four tape measure shots before the defensive man realizes that it's not out of his range. Clawson was named to Hoosier Basketball magazine's first team all-state (on sale at most newsstands this week) along with Brian Greene, Carmel; Craig Buffie, Bloomington South; John Teague, Anderson; Dale White, Covington; Will Uzzell, Terre Haute South; David Wright, Indianapolis Marshall; Thad Garner, Hammond Noll; Wallace Bryant, Gary Emerson; Landon Turner, Indianapolis Tech; David Magley, South Bend LaSal-le; Tres Sowder, Jeffersonville; Tim CURT CLAWSON VO.V A BATTLER 'LITTLE-BITTY9 PASS Catch By Casper Ends Frustration Winningest Rams Coach Perseveres (C) The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Chuck Knox likes salmon fishing, poker, scotch and water, Italian food, John Philip Sousa marches and Elizabeth Barrett Browning poems. Baltimore (AP) Dave Casper as he spoke of Ken Stabler's "little the pantyhose which protected his cold weather.

The Oakland tight end spoke of one of the most frustrating games he's ever played, one which he ended by catching his third touchdown pass 43 seconds into the second overtime period Saturday The 10-yard toss from Stabler in the third-longest National Football League playoff game gave Oakland's defending Super Bowl champions a 37-31 victory over the Baltimore Colts. IT SENT THE American Conference wild card team into the New Year's Day championship game against the winner of the Denver-Pittsburgh playoff. "I don't know if it was the toughest game I've ever been in but it was a frustrating one," Casper said. "We'd go ahead and then they'd go ahead. It seemed like it would go on that way forever." Casper caught only four passes but three went for touchdowns and his 42-yard reception with two minutes left in regulation time set up Errol Mann's 22-yard tying field goal with 26 seconds remaining.

"The balls were right there right where they should have been," Casper said. "Stabler doesn't throw as hard as some other quarterbacks, but he throws a little bitty ball that you can catch in one hand. If you get hit in the chest like receivers on other teams do, you often drop it. Your chest has very bad fingers." "AS SOON AS I saw him." Stabler said of Casper as the latter moved into the left corner of the end zone, "I knew it was six. He had his guy beat.

I knew he'd 'catch it." LA r'-'fy i i Alt "-r- 7v I ft (r BIG looked and sounded a bit out of place bitty" passes after stripping down to hulking 230-pound frame against the The winning touchdown came on a second-down play and Oakland Coach John Madden said he decided he wouldn't go for a field goal until fourth down Late in regulation time, however, the Raiders ran 23 seconds off the clock with the ball on the Baltimore four before kicking the tying field goal on fourth down. "I never considered going for a touchdown then," Madden said. "I figured we could get the ball and have as good a chance to win in overtime." Baltimore Coach Ted Marchibroda. whose teams have lost in first-round games for three consecutive seasons, said, "The Raiders rank with the great teams in the league, but they beat one of the great ones, too. Our players go out with their heads high." QUARTERBACK Bert Jones of the Colts, sacked six times and held to 114 yards net passing, credited the Oakland defensive backs for his sub-par performance.

"My line gave me plenty of time." Jones said, "but so often there was nobody to get the ball to. They covered us perfectly." The Oakland dressing room was comparatively quiet for a winning team, with veteran back Pete Banaszak perhaps expressing it best for the winners when he said: "I'm emotionally drained." Marchibroda, asked if the narrow loss left a better feeling than the two smashing playoff defeats by Pittsburgh the last two seasons, said: "No, the final result's the same." Arbuckle's of Noblesvllle TO BE OFFERED ATA TRUE AUCTION! AT THE CARRIAGE HOUSE (On Hw groundi of Railroad Ptooj) WED. DEC. 28, 1:30 'HI? Reg. price Brand new, warranted and in the carton! To most business people, this is a tax deductible item.

Also many other tax deductibles. Office furnishings File cabinets Desks Chairs Lamps. All brand new and in the cartons. BOTH THE REGULAR STORE AND THE CARRIAGE HOUSE Will BE OPEN FOR THIS EVENT. REGULAR STORE FOR FABRIC SHOPPERS THE CARRIAGE HOUSE FOR All INTERESTED IN THE AUCTION.

IT tAof J) HE'S A WINNER Oakland tight end Dave Casper is congratulated by Raiders' Coach John Madden (upper left) as Casper leaves the field at Baltimore Saturday after catching the Ken Stabler pass which won the American Football Conference playoff game against the Colts, 37-31. Casper holds the ball he caught for the triumph in overtime. Errol Mann (14) joins in the celebration. (AP Photo) 'Can't Believe Loss Colts' Cook Claims homework at the kitchen table with their mother helping them. "He said his father put his hand on their shoulders and told them to remember that there is only one giant step between the penthouse and the outhouse and that they should work hard and be good to their mother.

"I've been with Charlie at a lot of football games but I'll-never forget that game against Dallas. At a time when he was reaching out, it impressed me he could find consolation in thinking about his family and how they bore up in their difficulties. "Then we left. He said he knew his wife, Shirley, was waiting in the car." KNOX WORKS long and late. His wife often waits dinner until 11 p.m.

at their home in Huntington Harbor. For the Christmas holidays, "we are working around his schedule," said Shirley Knox. The tree was decorated ahead of time with the presents underneath "so we were ready to have Christmas when Chuck wants." Because of the NFC playoff game here Monday, Knox scheduled a full work day on Christmas Eve and morning work today. Christmas Eve was devoted to gift-giving and midnight church services. Three of the four Knox children will be at home for Christmas dinner.

Daughter Chris, 23, an airline stewardess based in Denver, will be on duty. MRS. KNOX will visit Christ Lutheran Church in Long Beach at 5 p.m. today to play the piano for a performance by the Cherub Choir of 5- to 7-year-olds. At 7:30 p.m., Knox will join the Rams' coaches and players at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the night.

"We always say there are long days and short nights," said Shirley Knox, who met her husband in college. "I knew he wanted to be a coach and that he loved football but I didn't realize how hard it would be at first." "I wanted to be a coach for as long as I can remember," Knox said. "I wasn't good enough to play in the pros so I started coaching in high schools and moved up. It's more difficult that way." Rudy Tomjanovich Returns To Houston Houston (AP) Houston Rockets forward Rudy Tomjanovich, injured Dec. 9 when he was punched by Kermit Washington of the Los Angeles Lakers during a Rocket-Lakers game, returned to Houston Saturday.

After spending two weeks in an In-glewood, Calif, hospital, Tomjanovich will be home for the holidays and then return for more surgery. Tomjanovich, team captain and leading scorer for the Rockets, suffered a fractured jaw, a fractured skull and a concussion in the Incident in the National Basketball Association contest. He will not play again this year but doctors say he should be able to play next season. Washington was fined $10,000 and suspended for at least 60 days by NBA commissioner Larry O'Brien. Tomjanovich, his duffel bag in one hand and a sack of Christmas gifts in the other, stepped off the plane at Houston's Intercontinental Airport and waved away an offer of a wheelchair.

His wife. Sophie and small daughter, Nicole, met him at the airport and rode with him in a limousine to their Southwest Houston home. Dr. Paul Toffell, who performed surgery on Tomjanovich in California accompanied his patent to Houston and conferred with Dr. Charles Baker.

He doesn't like to drive and he doesn't enjoy dwelling on misjudgments. Friends say he gets along with the players he coaches, enjoys having a coterie of friends around him, is street-smart, and is fiercely proud of his roots. Knox says his strong points are "perseverance and stick-to-it-iveness; his weakness "a tendency to lead with my heart instead of my head." AT 45, HE IS the winningest coach in Los Angeles Rams history, having guided the football team to five consecutive division titles. His coaching ability and his skirmishes off the field with the Ram organization have been well documented. His personal side hasn't.

Get him alone, hold his telephone calls and turn off his office movie projector and he'll recite Bobby Burns in a Scotch-Irish brogue. And talk with affection about growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in the tiny steel mill town of Sewickley, Pa. "It taught me to take nothing for granted," he said. Knox's early life appears to have strongly influenced his character. THE CLANKING of discarded soda cans rolling down the stone steps broke the silence in the empty Coliseum.

The wind swirled paper litter around two men looking at the playing field. It was 1976 and Dallas had just beaten the Rams in the National Football Conference championship game. Father John Mannion remembers that moment with his friend, Chuck Knox. "Charlie told me he was reminded of when the steel mills were closed and his father would look for any work he could find," Mannion said. "He talked about himself and his brother when they were in grade school working on their JOHNNY WHITE Heart Attack Fatal To Johnny White Johnny White, the promising race driver whose career was cut down by a paralyzing sprint car crash in 1964, suffered a fatal heart attack Saturday in his Indianapolis home.

He was 45. White, the rookie-of-the-year in the '64 Indianapolis 500 with a fourth-place finish, was paralyzed from the neck down a month later after flipping on top of the guard rail while qualifying for a L'SAC sprint show at Terre Haute. Doctors expected White to live only five years, but he eventually regained partial use of his arms and ran a speed shop on the south side ot town trom a wheelchair before it burned down. White came to USAC after winning the 1962 IMCA championship and was also a two-time winner of the Little 500 at Anderson. He is survived by his wife, Shirley, and five children Funeral arrangements are incomplete White was a native of Warren, Mich A.

RAILROAD PLACE I SONY BETAMAX IV-1901 VIDEOCASSETTE SYSTEM 19 37 games fans dream about. We're going out of here with our heads high. Last year, we left with our heads between our tails." Quarterback Bert Jones, injured on a scramble near the end of the first overtime period, credited the Oakland defensive backfield for shutting off the Colts' passing game. Jones, booed several times by the home fans for conservative play calling, said that after a season stretching back to July, "It sure hurts to lose this way." Added White: "It's like an unexpected death." Indianapolis Pair Earn DePauw Honors ITATI RIPOIT Greencastle, Ind. Tom Kleinschmidt and Eric Eichholtz of Indianapolis earned two of the top postseason awards in football at DePauw University.

Freshman running back Kleinschmidt, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Kleinschmidt, 5670 Guilford Avenue, was selected most valuable offensive back for the 1977 season. He is a 1976 graduate of Broad Ripple High School. Eichholtz, a sophomore, was named most valuable defensive lineman.

He is a 1976 graduate of Chatard High School and is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Eic-holtz, 5454 Far Hill Road. Announcement of the awards was made by head football coach Robert Bergman. Kleinschmidt is considering a major in pre-medical science or law; Eichholtz is an art major and plans to enter business Baltimore (AP) Fred Cook's massive body enveloped the tiny locker room stall and it shuddered as he sighed.

"That was a great football game," the Baltimore Colts' defensive end said. "But it could have been greater." Moments before, Cook and the rest of the Colts had watched as the Oakland Raiders scored a 37-31 victory in the second overtime period of Saturday's AFC playoff game. The winning touchdown capped a game that had eight lead changes and produced 792 total net yards. The Baltimore offense, dormant much of the first half, exploded in the second half and the Colts took a 31-28 lead on Ron Lee's 13-yard run with 7:06 left in the fourth quarter. THE LEAD PROVED too small and the time remaining too large for the Colts.

"I can't believe we lost," said Cook, who had one of the two sacks on Oakland quarterback Ken thought for sure we had them when Ron scored." The loss, before a sellout crowd of 60,763 in Memorial Stadium, was the third in a row in the opening round of the playoffs for the Colts. The last two years, the Pittsburgh Steelers had eliminated Baltimore by big scores. The margin and method of defeat were much different this time, but Coach Ted Marchibroda said that didn't take away any of the pain. "The final result's the same," he said. LINEBACKER STAN White said that, despite the loss, the Colts proved "that we could play with anybody "It would have been a great Super Bowl," White said.

"It was one of those 67 ilAILEOAD PLACE 1 1 5 Vine Noblesville, MtMiiiN em ww fam 3 MAIS NOIM Of CONNEI PUfflf iCTTlEMENT ON AlUSONVUi KMC (O THt IMKMO TUCKS. tuin right ivi Mats, too rot mt kg kd caiogk on out iot OPEN DAILY 9-6, FRIDAY 9-8, CLOSED SUNDAY.