The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 25

Tuesday, Aug. 8, 1978 Philadelphia Inquirer 5-C Eagle Rick Engles' punting future is up in the air By Gary Ronberg Inquirer Stalt Writer He, in Mexico. She, in the Caribbean. From what the travelogs say about such garden spots of the world, you might think this is going to be about Mick and Bianca Jagger, still married but globe-trotting their separate ways. Or maybe Burt Reyno'ds and Sally Fields, on location but preserving their relationship by international telephone.

But actually, this does belong in the sports section after all, for it is about Rick Engles and his wife, Deborah, a young couple whose immediate future is as up in Lie air as some of the footballs Engles has beei kicking for the Eagles. Engles, 24, is seeking to become the Eagles' punter, and while he is in training camp at Widener College nis wife is back home In Tulsa, vhere she treats kidney patients at Hosnital. The last two weeks, noweer, she was in Haiti, in the backwoods of that Caribbean Li-land, jeiping the East Tulsa Cnris-tian Church vaccinate people and consuuu ouiiuings Iji hcm. Just haw long Engles remains with the i ok gue.s. A ong Mitch Hoopes, he is trying to an eighi ea: veteran who has been the Eades' the last three seasons.

Since there is only cne punting vo oi these three will have disappeared bv the time the team opens the regu'a- seasnn Sept. 3 against the Lis Angeles Rams. "To beat out veteran, you've got to do a let more than the veteran," said Er.g'es. "Not just as well, but a whole lot better." If thoie so 'nd like the words of experience, they are, for Engles is no in 16, aiter finishing second in the nation with a 46.5 average at Tulsa, Engles was drafted third by the Seatt'e Seahawks. He played the entire 1976 season in Seattle, punting SO times for a 38.3 average, but last fall he was released.

Eng'e-was in Tulsa, teaching elementary education, when the Pittsburgh Steel-ers cal'ed in earb December. Bobby Walden had suffered a knee injury, and the Steeiers needed a punter-fast. "I told them I hadn't touched a football for a month and a half," Engles re ailed. "Thev said, 'Why on't you r.me on up anyway. Your leg is probably In the final game of the regular season, a 10-9 triumph in San Diego, Engles fashioned a 38-yard average on five punts.

Then, in the AFC playoff game in Denver, he punted five more times for a 40.8 average. After one had been blocked, setting up the Broncos' first touchdown, Engles' SS-yarder gave the Steeiers field position that enabled them to tie, 21-21, before losing, 34-21. "It was just a breakdown up front, Coach (Chuck) Noll told me it wasn't my fault," said Engles. "After the season, he thanked me for coming and said he would see me in training camp this year. That's why I was kina sfneked when they drafted a punter (Tennessee's Cra'ig Colquitt) 'he third round." When a team drafts a specialist that high, it can be assumed he figures in that team's future.

As a result, Engles wasn't even "kinda shocked" on July 21, when the Steeiers traded him to the Eagles for an-undisclcsed draft choice. Last Saturday, against the New Orleans Saints in Mexico City, Engles made his first appearance in a green and white uniform. He shanked his first punt for only 20 yaMs, then boomed one for 57. The only problem was that it may have outflown the Eagles' coverage and, aided by several key blocks, Wes Chandler returned it 92 yards for a touchdown that tied a game New Orleans eventually won, 14-7. After punting twice more for 51 and 47 yards, Engles' final effort sailed off the side of his foot for a mere 29.

"The ball seemed to carry better (in the thin air), but you still had to hit it good," Engles said. "I can do better. I'll have to, because in this league you can't afford many bad ones." In the same game, Jones punted twice for a 42-yard average, Hoopes twice for a 49. So the Eagles' punting sweepstakes would appear to be an open one for the moment, except that the job belongs to Jones until somebody takes it away. NOTES: Eagles yesterday asked waivers on four players, tight end Steve Cosmos (California State-Ful-lerton); running back Jim Kelleher (Colorado), and defensive backs Wayne Ricks (Kansas) and Bob Salla (Temple third preseason game is next Monday night vs.

the Oilers in Houston. eing Joe Frazier' son hasn't turned his head ftel ii 1 its 5 "'Is "I know the talent he'll have to go up against. He can punch. He stopped a boy in New Jersey in the second round and he never hit him in the head, only body shots. The other week on an amateur show here in the gym, Marvis knocked out a kid in 45 seconds of the first round with one right hand.

"After he gets his confidence as a national fighter, I can turn him loose against anybody. "Any trainer would give his right arm to train this kid. He's very disciplined and well mannered a coach's dream. I look for him to do something. He's gonna grow and get stronger and better." Marvis has his father's face, the big, luminous brown eyes and the wide smile, but there the resemblance ends.

Joe is a stocky 5 feet 11 inches with wide hips and enormous shoulders and thighs and he generally fought at 210 pounds. The bny is a lithe 6-1 and weighs about 190. Their stvles also are contrasting. Joe was an aerrressive slugger with a potent left hmk. He smashed his onninpnts like a demolition crew's '-on ball knocks town a brick wall.

Man-is ts a boxer-nnncher, well-c-ho'ed on defense with good speed an agility. Benton, unlike Hickman, is look-in nast 'he Olympics. "No matter what haonens in the amateurs," the trainer said, "he'll mm June Jones QBs Falcons over Jets Asxnrnfit Substitute June Jones came off the bench and rallied the Atlanta Falcons to three second-half touchdowns and a 20-17 victory over the New York Jets in a National Football League exhibition game last night at East Rutherford, N. J. The Jets had built a 17-0 lead on touchdown passes by Richard Todd and Pat Ryan and a 30-yard field goal by Nick Lowrey on the final play of the first half.

After Ryan's 13-yard pitch to Chuck White made it 17-0 in the first nw'fe of the th'H nnarter, Jones went to work, combining with Al Jackson for three clutch completions, including the winning touchdown. Jones hit Jackson on a 46-yard pass moving the Falcons in position for their first tnchdwn. The second-year quarterback from Portland State took the ball in himself for the score four minutes into the third period. On At'ta's pos'e'on, Jones moved the Falcons smartly down-field, completing a 29-yard pass to Ricky Patton and an 18-yarder to Jackson to set up the score. James Wright scored the touchdown, grabbing a 10-yard pass from Jones with less than two minutes left in the third quarter.

Giants 21, Browns 7 Willie Spencer ran far one touchdown and broke away on a long run that set up a second score as New York beat host Cleveland. spencer's three-yard run with 5:56 left in the first half broke a score-'ess deadlock. Then, with three minutes gene in the fourth quarter, the 6-foot-4, 235-pound running back from Massillon, Ohio charged through a big hole and galloped 55 yards to the Cleveland 15. Three plays later, Giant quarterback Jerry Golsteyn hit Billy Taylor with a 15-yard touchdown pass. Joe Danello took the extra to make it 14-0.

Fury face the acid test in Detroit FURY, From 1-C said. "They are our options. I can't say now whether we'll ask him back I'm only one of 11 owners." Barsalona said that if Osgood was simply let go, the Fury would lose a "load of money." He then gave Osgood the type of vote of confidence that George Steinbrenner keeps giving Billy Martin. "If Peter felt that physically and mentally he would be okay next year, and if you got a coach who felt he could motivate him, then we would consider keeping Peter," Barsalona said. Perhaps that's why the young forwards came out of their shells the past few games they finally were getting the full-time shot.

Tonight's lineup will have Rich Reice, Martino Henderson and Tony Glavin at forward, with Pat Fidelia in reserve. That group has scored five goals in the last two games. MacRae will be in goal, carrying the honor of being the NASL's Defensive Player of the Week. He is the first Fury to have won a league-wide honor. Ball, John Giles and Pat Byrne will be the midfield, with Colin Waldron, John Dempsey, Bill Straub and team MVP Fran O'Brien on defense.

The Fury lost, 3-0, in Detroit on May 31, but this is a much better team than that one. How much better will be determined tonight. He won't tell me directly but he'll tell George 'He's not throwing the jab Once in the dressing room he told me, 'That was no way to throw a left Pop tells me not to use so much offense and to work more on my defense. He told me, 'I don't want to get hit with nothing, not even a "When I first started my Pop said, 'You don't have to come in like me. You have the reach and the So what I do now depends on the other fighter.

If a guy's bigger, I'm not going to battle him. If a guy is mv size then I'll try to crowd him a little bit." Marvis revealed that the one time his father interfered was after he had won the Pennsylvania Open title and was eligible to compete in the National AAU tournament. "I had messed up my leg playing basketball," the boy said. "I was going for a layup and this kid got under me trying to block it. He hit my leg and I came down on the side of my right foot and sprained it.

So Pop said, 'You're not right and so you don't go to the Nationals." When Marvis first went into the gym he s.ent a lot of time just watching the other boxers. "That's the secret. Not to imitate them just to try to put together what I saw and then try to make it wo-k for me. Another thing is, I listen to what my trainer tells me. Then I try to do what he says.

"I nunch pretty even-handed. I have hit guvs with good right hands anH hooks and I also have a good 'eft ab. I throw it with a lot of snap. What I want to be is a complete fighter bv 1980. Any style that comes along I want to be able to adapt to it and to make the other guy do what I want him to do." The bov also inherited his father's love of music, "except that classical jazz.

I used to buy a lot of records but I don't now. I always wanted to play the trumpet and I took some lessons when we first moved to White-marsh. "I also like to dance, but I don't do too much partying now. I'm not too enthused about parties since I got into boxing. I go out some mostly to the movies with my girlfriend.

I also take out Yank Durham's three sons. (Durham had been Joe Frazier's trainer until he died a few years ago. His sons are Yank, 14, Mark, 10, and Chan, 7.) Marvis said he had seen his father fight quite a few times. "The first one I saw was his fight with (Oscar) Bonavena here," said the boy, "and I also saw the second fight with (Jerry) Quarry, both (George) Foreman fights and two (Muhammad) Ali fights one on closed circuit and the one in Manila. "I worked his corner in the Manila fight.

Yes, it bothered me seeing him out there. I thought the fight should have been stopped. His eyes were puffed. He couldn't see. There was no sense in Pop going out again to get hurt bad." There is a sign in the gym office that reads: "Joe Frazier Sons Limousine Service" How many sons does Joe have? "Only one," said Linda Malinow-ski, Frazier's secretary.

"The sign painter left out the apostrophe." "I'm a silent partner," said Marvis. "He sure is," said Lee Grant, the No. 1 driver for the limo service. "He don't want to do anything but box and talk on the CB." "It's my hobby," said Marvis, whose only luxury is that he drives a Cadillac Seville. "They call my father KO I and they call me KO II." And that 1-2 punch of the Fraziers might just carry Marvis to Moscow and the Olympic gold medal he hopes to win.

MARVIS, From 1-C his amateur record to 12-0 with six KOs as the Joe Frazier team won seven of eight bouts in a tournament in Indianapolis. "It would be great," said father, "if we could be the first father and son to win the heavyweight gold medal in the Olympics." "I think his ability is greater than mine when I was 17." Marvis lives with his family in a 16-room stone split-level home on 2Vi acres in Whitemarsh. The house cost in the range of $100,000 when Joe bought it in 1970. The father said he made a lot of improvements and built a swimming pool that is shaped like a left-handed boxing glove. Marvis got into boxing through desperation.

He had been a superb athlete in junior high school in Ply-mouth-Wiiitemarsh. He bad played baseball, football, basketball and he won a Junior Olympic wrestling title. At his father's insistence the boy agreed to attend Wyncote "The school had no sports, no athletics," Marvis said. "It was strictly for the brain. After a while I said to my Pop, I gotta do to stay in shape.

I asked him I would be allowed to train at tile gym. I started out by hitting tite heavy bag and the speed bag. It came naturally to me because I learned from watching my father. "After a while, I asked him, 'How about a He said, 'No, this is no So I stayed in the gym for a year and a half. I had my cousin, Russell, in the gym with me and we would work with each other.

But then he quit "and I kept going. "I asked my Pop again for a figh' and this time he said OK. So I had my first fight and I stopped the guy in the second round. "I'm really into boxing now and I love it. My Mom doesn't like it.

My mom doesn't discourage me, not now, but she'd rather that I played football and some of the other sports that I used to do. "She said to me, 'Seeing your husband getting hit is one thing; seeing your baby getting hit is But my sisters all four oi them like to see me "I plan to go to college to take business management. I will graduate (from high school) in 1979 and then I'll take a year off from school to train for the Olympics." The strategy and preparation for getting Marvis into the Olympics at Moscow are already on the drawing board. George Benton, a former No. 1 middleweight contender and one of the best boxers ever to come out of a Philadelphia gym, is his trainer.

Sam Hickman, wno nas worked with amateurs for 18 years and has taken U. S. boxing teams all over the world, is his amateur coach. Hickman explained that the road to Moscow is all uphill. "Amateurs have to move up gradually," said the coach.

"First they compete on the local level, then move up to the national, then the European and finally the Olympics. We've got to put Marvis in that same channel. "I am responsible for his amateur career. He has great potential. This is his open year and I've already started getting him ready for top heavyweight competition.

I've got to get him out of local competition. He's beyond that. He's on the national level and possibly by the end of this year he'll be ready for European competition. I've already had two or three offers from the AAU to take him to Europe, but his dad doesn't want anything to interfere with his school work. third base (2,154) and the most homers in a season by an NL third He managed the Braves from Aug.

7, 19-2, through July 21, 1974. "That's all the managing I'm going to do, said Mathews, who was at the Braves' helm when his onetime slugging partner, Hank Aaron, broke Babe Ruth's major-league career home run record. "I had my shot. I wouldn't want to do that again." Mathews ended his career in the American League with Detroit in 1968. Mi' tWt 4' Philadelphia Inquirer JAMES L.

McGARRITY boxer puncher, quick and agile 4 A looks beyond the 1980 Olympics quired for election. In 1977 he trailed only Banks in the voting. "Euue and I die the wily inficld-ers to hit over 500 homers," Mathews. "I thought when Ernie got in, so would I. But 1 would have waited another 10 years if I had to." Mathews, who played 17 years in the majors, with a .271 Ire'ime average, h.ilds t.ie major-league record mst hime runs by a third baseman, the National League record for most consecutive seasons with 30 or more home runs (nine, 1953-1961), the NL mait for most games played at i "Seeing your husband petting hit is one thing; seeing your baby getting hit is another." Mrs.

Joe Frazier make a great pro. As of now he has as much ability as any amateur fighter. He's still a kid and he doesn't yet have the strength of some of those foreigners who are 25 years old or more. But in a few years he'll have as much strength as any of them and he'll probably wind up fighting at about 210. "This kid is a real, genuine person.

He knows what he wants to do and he won't let anything turn him around. Joe gives him his own head as long as it is beneficial for him. He doesn't interfere unless he believes Marvis is making a mistake. "Marvis is a lot like Bennie Briscoe when it comes to training. I've got to slow him down from time to time.

Marvis makes a lot of sense for a kid his age. Anybody who ever saw him fight says you got a gold mine." Hickman believes Marvis is subjected to more pressure than other kids because of his name. "A lot of guys that fight him think they are fighting Joe Frazier," the coach said. But Benton says the boy can handle it. "The Frazier name won't hurt him," George said.

"Joe could fight like hell and so can this kid. He can back up the name of Frazier." Though Benton is looking forward to a pro career for Marvis, the boy says, "I really don't have any plans right now for turning pro. I'm just trying to get myself together for what is coming now and not too much for. what is in the future. I want to win a gold medal and then see what happens from there." Marvis said his father takes no part in his training but he does offer advice from time to time.

"Sometimes T'll be out there boxing (in the gym)," the boy said, "and Pop will see something I'm doing. "In one game that season I hit two home runs to tie and pass Mel Ott," lti.Ui'Cu. I UC 111 A niui ing my back hurt and soon after I had surgery. I never hit another home run." Mathew's wait to join baseball's immortals was hardly a long one in comparison to the time it took the Veteran's Committee to choose MacPhail, who left baseball in 1947 and died in 1975, or Joss, who died two days before the start of the 1911 season with spinal meningitis at age 31. MacPhail, the "Barnum of Base Unlike his father, Marvis is a 5 George Benton, Marvis' trainer, required time after retirement before a bi'hlayer can be considered for ihe Hall of Fame.

Tae ouVis were spent in anxious anticipation and, until last January, with the same results. "I anticipated it each year, especially last year," s-iid Mathews, 47. "I was disappointed when I missed. This year 1 fought it, used reverse psychology. I didn't u-ant to pet my hopes tip again and not make It." easily ma ie the Hall this year, collecting 310 out of cast, 25 njore than the "5 percent re Mathews, MacPhail, Joss are inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame HALL OF FAME, From 1-C and gotten his two cents in." AJao receiving awards at the ceremonies were Red Barber and Mel Allen, who were given the first Ford C.

Frick Award for broadcasting excellence. Edgar Munzel, formerly of the Chicago Sun-Times, and the late Gordon Cobbledick of the V' Plain Dealer were given the J. P. Taylor Spink Award for distinguished service as baseball journalists. Mathews waited 10 years for yesterday.

Five of those years made up the ball," was responsible for major-league night games, a pension plan, Old-Timers Day, airplane travel by ball clubs and many other innovations. Joss, who pitched nine years for Cleveland from 1902-1910, hurled a perfect game, another no-hitter, seven one-hitters and had a lifetime earned-run average. The Veterans' Committee waived the 10 years of major-league service rule to induct him..