The Town Talk du lieu suivant : Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 15

The Town Talk, Alexandria-Pinpvilte La Saturday, May 18, 1996 B-7 Sports Digest Reasons a good Hall of Famer 7 9 "(Former NSU standout Gary) Reasons was a vital member of the Giants' Super Bowl XXI and XXV championship teams." Tracy Renck The Town Talk In the spring of 1980, standout football player Gary Reasons of Crowley, Texas had never even heard of Northwestern State University. Four years later, his name would never be forgotten in Natchitoches. The inside linebacker firmly etched his name into Demon history, setting a career school record with 394 tackles, en route to capturing the distinguished honor of being the first player in Division I-AA history to earn first team All-American honors three years in a row from 1981-83. During his brilliant NSU career, Reasons was also selected as an All-Louisiana performer from 1981-83 and was named the state and team's defensive Most Valuable Player his senior year. The 6-foot-4, 234-pound Reasons highlighted his final Northwestern campaign with a single-season school record of 172 tackles.

Reasons' career and single season tackle records were later broken by linebacker Andre Carron, who played with the Demons from 1988-91. Reasons, who had his No. 34 jersey retired by NSU in 1984, spectacular college days will no longer be confined to the Natchitoches community. The National Football Foundation and the College Hall of Fame announced Friday afternoon in South Bend, that Reasons has been selected for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of inductees for players other than Division I-A. Joining Reasons at the induction ceremony is a star-studded cast of nine other players, including Louisiana Tech quarterback Terry Bradshaw, Grambling State offensivedefensive lineman Buck Buchanan, Cental (Iowa) College's defensive end Vern Den Herder, Widener College running back Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, Billy Allgood to be honored A reception will be held for retiring Athletic Directior Billy Allgood on June 1.

Allgood will be stepping down after 37 years of service as athletic director. The reception will begin at 1 p.m. in the Martin Performing Arts Center at Louisiana College. For more information call Lori Thames at 487-7406. Big softball tournament starts today The first Amateur Softball Association (ASA) tournament to be held in Alexandria starts today and concludes Sunday at the Alexandria Youth Complex.

A total of 26 teams from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas will compete in the tournament The age groups are 18-and under; 16-and-under and 14-and-under. Admission is $3 for all-day entry and children 6-and-under are admitted free. JrTHigh school physicals The annual high schooljunior high school physical day will be held on May 25 at Bolton High School gym. The physicals will begin at 7:30 a.m. and will end at noon.

Physicals are for all high school athletes, junior high football players, and all junior high athletes moving to high school sports. Hall of Fame festivities planned NATCHITOCHES Tickets are now on sale for the June 22 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremonies with seven stars, including football greats Joe Delaney, Isiah Robertson and Rosey Taylor, slated to officially join the ranks of state sports legends. Also honored June 21-22 in Natchitoches will be Olympic gymnast Kathy Johnson Clarke, baseball's Earl "Moose" Wilson, and Oliver Marcelle, and basketball Ail-American Mike Green. They will be formally inducted in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame at a Saturday night June 22 banquet capping two days of festivities. Also honored will be veteran sportswriters Jerry Byrd of Shreveport and Baton Rouge's Joe Planas, who will receive the state's Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism.

Banquet tickets at $20. Entries are also accepted for spots in the golf tournament, played at Natchitoches Country Club, with entry fee set a $40 per player. Banquet tickets can be reserved and golf entries can be made by calling the Hall of Fame at 318-357-6467 during business hours. The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame was established in 1972. the seven 1995 inductees join only 158 previous honorees enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

Tournaments Softball: Isle of Capri Tournament will be held in Lake Charles on May 18-19. Cost is $100. For more information call Carliss at 318-478-7340. DSoftall. Cajun Classic Youth N.I.T.

WhenWhere: May 18-19, Pelican Park, Carencro, Louisiana. USSSA World Qualifier, Girls Slo-Pitch, 8 under, 10 under, 12 under, 16 under, and 18 under. Cost $125, with deadline May 16, 12 noon or earlier if filled. Contact Robert Boudreaux 318-896-5000. Softball: Steeles Exhibition Worth Power tour Home Run Derty.

WhenWhere: May 24, Pelican Park, Carencro, Louisiana. Friday Night One Pitch Extravaganza, Men, Women Mixed Division, four game guarantee. Cost $40, with deadline May 23, 12 noon or earlier if filled. Contact Joey Odom, 318-896-5000. Softball: Cajun Classic Major Class N.I.T.

25-26, Pelican Park, Carencro, Louisiana. USSSA Major World Series Qualifier, Open to all Mens classes. Cost $175, with deadline May 23, 12 noon or earlier if filled.Contact Robert Boudreaux 318-896-5000. Softball: Ouachita River Classic will be held at the NLU Softball Complex in Monroe on June 1-2. Tourney is a State and Divisional Qualifier for men, women, co-ed, girl's fast pitch and slow pitch and boy's slow pitch.

Cost is $110. For more information call 318-323-0820 or 320-2439. Items for the Sports Digest can be phoned in until 9 p.m. each night following the completion of the das event. Advance notices for Coming Up should be mailed (P.O.

Box 7558, Alexandria, LA 71 306), faxed (487-631 5) or delivered to The Town Talk at 1201 Third Street. Blanton back at LSU as coach dent, graduating in four years with a degree in business administration. Actually, Reasons may never even have ventured to Natchitoches if it wasn't for the help of Crowley High School coach Dennis Burke, who had coached and taught in Louisiana. "I didn't have a lot of scouts knocking on my door because a lot of them weren't used to coming to Crowley, Texas," said Reasons, who was on the 1989 All NFL and All-Madden teams. "Dennis knew some people in Louisiana and was able to get me a visit to Northwestern and it changed my whole life." Present NSU coach Sam Goodwin, who coached Reasons in 1983, had nothing but praise for his former pupil.

"It's a tremendous honor for him to get selected into the College Football Hall of Fame and I'm very happy for him," said Goodwin. "Gary had a lot of ability, good size and was just so smart and he played a lot faster on the field than he ever timed. "I remember my first game as the new head coach in 1983 against McNeese which had a running back by the name of Buford Jordan (who used to play with the Saints). Reasons made 24 tackles that game against Jordan and I've never seen an exhibition of two players going at each other like they did that day." Reason agrees with Goodwin's assessment: "I wasn't the fastest player in college, but I was still able to achieve success because I Neil Lomax, Portland State, 1977-80; offensive guard Tyrone McGriff, Florida 1976-79; running back Wilbert Montgomery, Abilene Christian, 1973-76; linebacker Gary Reasons, Northwestern State, 1980-83; and linebacker Jim Youngblood, Tennessee Tech, 1969-72. Three of the coaches named for induction Harold Burry of Westminster College, Gil Steinke of Texas and Lee Tressel of Baldwin Wallace are deceased.

The only living former coach named for induction is Edgar Sherman, who compiled a 141-43-7 mark at Muskingum College from 1945-66. Burry had four undefeated teams in 20 years at Westminster, compiling a 127-31-5 record. He had only one losing season, won the NAIA Division II national championship in 1970 and was named the Small College Football Coaches of the Year in 1967 by the Football Writers Association and died on June 15, 1993. Steinke won six NAIA championships in 23 years with the Bradshaw, Payton enter Hall was always prepared to accomplish what I needed to and translated that onto the field." Reasons clearly has found memories of Natchitoches. "When I was in college at Northwestern, those were some of the best times in my life," said Reasons.

"At the top of the list was that I met wife while I was going to school there, along with a lot of other quality people." NFL stud Reasons, a fourth-round choice of New York Giants, continued his success at the next level. He was a vital member of the Giants Super Bowl XXI and XXV championship teams, leading the squad in tackles in the second Super Bowl victory. "We had such tremendous team success from 1984-90 with the Giants and won two Super Bowls," said Reasons. "There is just no way to describe the feeling of playing with a team that believed it was the best in the league every week." From an individual standpoint, Reasons remembers one play vividly. "The play that sticks in my mind and that people are always coming up and talking to me about is in 1989 when I stopped Denver Broncos running back Bobby Humphrey on a 4th-and-goal play at 1-yard line which helped us to a victory," said Reasons.

Reasons' bone-crushing collision with Humphrey is known throughout the Northeast as "The Hit." Reasons, who is 34-years old, has been a college football analyst for ABC sports the past two years and is looking forward to an exciting year in 1996. Additionally, he owns an amusement machine company in the Houston area and is an independent representative for Excel Telecommunications and of a course a college football legend. Tracy Renck covers NSU for The Town Talk. He can be reached at 487-6354. Javelinas, where he compiled a 182-61-4 record.

He had three consecutive undefeated teams from 1974-76 and was named NAIA coach of the year four times. Steinke died in May 1995. Tressel, part of the first father-son combination to win national championships as a coach, compiled a 154-52-6 record and won the NCAA Division III title in 1978. He coached the Ohio college from 1958-80. His son, Jim, won an NCAA Division I-AA championship in 1991.

He died on April 16, 1981. In addition, Gene Corrigan, commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Father J. Donald Monan, president of Boston College, Robert M. "Scotty" Whitelaw, former commissioner of the ECAC, will be honored in December at a dinner in New York. Corrigan will receive the Gold Medal award.

Monan will receive the Distinguished American award. Whitelaw will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football award. Come see (tie Aces "71 players at the Urand Opening Spectacular at the NEW Blockbuster Video at 5101 North Blvd. from l-4pm GATES OPEN: 5:30 PM Using a touch tone phone you just dial three digits 211 -from anywhere in the local Alexandria calling area Just 40 for up to five minutes of access. Charges appear on the phone bill where the call is placed.

Hockey 1600-1625 Motor Sports 1987 Boxing 1988 Soccer 1989 Rodeo 6776 Pro Wrestling 6774 Speedway 6795 McComiick Information Services p3 vlV fair Portland State quarterback Neil Lomax, Florida offensive guard Tyrone McGriff, Abilene Christian running back Wilbert Montgomery, Jackson State running back Walter Payton and Tennessee Tech linebacker Jim Youngblood. The official induction ceremonies will take place Aug.16-17 in South Bend, Ind. ESPN will provide coverage of the events onESPNandESPNZ "I got the letter in the mail about being inducted and I had to read it two or three times to make sure it was not a prank," said Reasons in a phone interview Thursday from his home in Spring, Texas. "The letter turned out to be genuine and it's just an honor to be inducted with this group of guys into the College Football Hall of Fame. I never thought this would ever happen to me." Education first Although Reasons had a wealth of talent coming out of high school, playing someday in the NFL was the least of his concerns when he entered Northwestern.

"The thought of playing in the NFL really never crossed my mind," said Reasons, who played nine years in the NFL from 1984-92 with the New York Giants (eight years) and Cincinnati Bengals (one year). "Getting an education was the first and foremost thing on my mind and I was very proud of the fact that I was the first person to get a college degree in my family." Reasons was an honor roll stu South Bend. All of the former players selected went on to the NFL. Previous inductees had to have been selected as a first team member of a major All-America team. Players from smaller schools are now eligible if they were selected as a first-team All-American at any level.

"We are pleased that this program has been fully enacted and that we have such a tremendous inaugural class of inductees," said John F. Hanson, chairman of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. Joining Payton and Bradshaw on the list of those honored was Buck Buchanan, who played tackle on both offense and defense for Grambling State from 1959-62 and who missed only one game during a 13-season career with the Kansas City Chiefs that resulted in his induction into the Pro Football of Fame in 1968. Buchanan died July 16, 1992 after a two-year battle with lung cancer. The other former players selected were defensive end Vern Den Herder, Central College of Iowa, 1967-70; running back Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, Widener, 1971-73; quarterback the second straight year, are tied for second in the point standings for the Cenla Player of the Year Award behind Earl Humphries.

Denny and Louis Dinnat are another team that could challenge for the title. Some of the other teams to watch could include: Jay Lavespere and John McGilvary, Brad Lowther and Robby Lowther, John Davis and Bill Land, and Jay Branham and Robbie Gueringer. Contacting reporters Sports reporters and the news subjects they primarily deal with are: John college 487-6431 Jeffrey Nixon, LSU 487-6353 Tracy Renck, NSU, outdoor 487-6354 Bob Tompkins, Aces 487-6349 Bruce Viergutz, prep 487-6351 Getting help If you are uncertain which newseditorial section or person to contact, call The Town Talk's switchboard at 487-6397 and you will be referred to the proper party. SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) Terry Bradshaw and Walter Payton will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

The inaugural class of 10 former players and four coaches from the ranks of NCAA Division I-AA, II and III and schools that are, or were, in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, was announced Friday. Bradshaw, who went on to help win four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers, threw for 6,568 yards from 1966-69 for Louisiana Tech. He led the nation in total offense as a junior and was selected the 1969 Senior Bowl's most valuable player and the South's most valuable back in the North-South Shrine Game in 1969. Payton, the all-time NFL rushing leader with 16,726 yards in 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears, played for Jackson State from 1971-74. He ran for 3,563 yards and 66 touchdowns while setting an NCAA scoring record with 464 points.

He led the nation in scoring in 1973 with 160 points and finished fourth in voting for the Heisman Trophy in 1974. The group will be inducted and enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 16-17 in Real, "amily "un! J1P Town Talk wire services BATON ROUGE LSU men's basketball head coach Dale Brown announced late Friday afternoon he intends to make former basketball player Ricky Blanton one of his assistant coaches for the 1996-97 season. Blanton, whose hiring must be approved at the next Board of Supervisors meeting, will begin his position on July 1. "I'm thrilled.

I think it is an opportunity for me that is hard to pass up since I played here and played for Coach Brown. I couldn't think of a better place to start my coaching career than here," said Blanton. The Miami, native is best known for his role in helping the Tigers to the 1986 Final Four when, as a sophomore, he was asked to move from guard to center after injuries and defections cost the Tigers. In the drive to the Final Four he became known as one of the nation's finest defensive centers. In consecutive NCAA Tournament games, he held Memphis State's Bedford Williams to two points and one rebound in the second half, Georgia Tech's John Salley to three second-half points and Kentucky's Kenny Walker to tour GAME TIME: 6:35 PM RIO GRANDE VALLEY WHITEWINGS VS ALEXANDRIA ACES C.

Rodney McSeal Sons Youth League Bat Night, Cheeks Marine Boat Show May Jubilee starts today GAME TIME GATES OPEN 2:05 PM 1:00 PM RIO GRANDE VALLEY WHITEWINGS VS ALEXANDRIA ACES Fox 48 presents "The Mask Rider, "Blockbuster Video Opening Celebration SUNDAY IS FOX FAMILY DAY WITH THE ACES! points and three rebounds in the final 20 minutes. Bedford, Salley and Walker all became first round NBA draft choices three months later. In the national semifinal at Dallas against Louisville, he held Final Four MVP Pervis Ellison of Louisville to a virtual standoff. Blanton missed the 1986-87 season with a knee injury suffered in the first exhibition game that year, but returned for two more seasons, most notably the 1988-89 senior season when he was called by many of the state's media, "the heart and soul of the LSU Tigers." Blanton finished his career at LSU with 1,501 points and 766 rebounds. He presently is 12th on the school's all-time scoring list and the same on the rebounding chart.

In his final season, he averaged 20.3 points and 8.2 rebounds a game, while teaming with Chris Jackson to lead the Tigers to a surprising 20-win season and an NCAA Tournament berth. He scored the game-winning layup against Georgetown in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans and hit a 3-pointer with three seconds to play in the upset of Nevada-Las Vegas in Baton Rouge. be played May 21-25, will be Seles' final tuneup for the French Open. The Eastbourne is played on grass, June 18-22, and is the traditional women's warmup for Wimbledon. It would mark her first English competition in four years.

Seles, who won three consecutive French Open titles from 1990 to 1992, has not participated in the Grand Slam event in Paris since she was stabbed during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, April 30, 1993. Following the stabbing incident, Seles returned to active play last summer when she won the Canadian Open. In August, she reached the finals of the U.S. Open before losing to Graf. Graf also is among the 28 entries for the Eastbourne event.

SportsNet Plus Corky Yates and Terry Peddy, four-time winners of the May Jubilee four ball golf tournament, will defend their title in the 35th annual tournament at the Rapides Golf and Country Club this weekend. Also in the 98-team field is the twosome of Ralph Boone and Merrill Harbaugh, last year's runner-up team. Billy Trent and Michael Brame, the 1994 champs, are a strong entry. Those two, who won the Dogwood Classic in March for Seles returning at Madrid Open fmrwv 2J l'JUj -wt-wwsHP if jL9iJLJ Contacting Editors, Reporters The Sports staff covers area and state sports events. Messoges for the editor and department can be left between 6 a.m.

and 3 p.m. at (31 8) 487-6351 (Long distance callers may call toll-free at 1-800-523-83911 On-duty sports personnel can be reached between 3 p.m. and midnight, seven days a week, at 487-6351. Numbers for trie Metro and Features departments can be found in Sections and C. MADRID, Spain (AP) Monica Seles will return to competitive tennis next week in the Madrid Open, and she has asked for wild-card entry to the Eastbourne tournament in England next month.

The Madrid tournament will mark Seles' first competition since February, when she lost to Iva Majoli in the quarterfinals of the Pan Pacific tournament in Tokyo. A month earlier, Seles won her ninth grand slam title at the Australian Open. For the past three months, Seles has been sidelined with a shoulder injury that forced her to withdraw from a Federation Cup match in Austria last month. She is co-ranked No. 1 with Steffi Graf by the WTA computer.

The $250,000 Madrid Open, to SportsNet Plus For a complete list of To wn Talk Xtra categories dial 211, then category 6368. NCAA Basketball 1630 -1764 NBA Basketball 1765 -1791 LPGA Golf 1981 PGA Golf 1982 Sr.TonrGolf 1983 Men's Tenuis 1984 Women's Tennis 1985 Transactions 1986 Town Talk Extra is a service of Contacting editors Manoging Editor 487-6370 Asst. Managing Editor 487-6374 Sports Editor 487-6352 Editors should be called if you have questions about content in this section, complaints or corrections. nAnnrtinfl rosilltft Results of sports events should be reported as soon as possible. To report scores after 7 can Norman I nomas, joei Arnota or (ike Mahoney at HI 48 -ojo i.