The Tampa Times from Tampa, Florida • 10

Sports The Tampa Times Thursday, February 8, 1979 Section --W4r V- John BordTAMPA TIMES if? A wnnng style Steve Kinser is one of the brightest minedly guns around the track at East high-speed racing shows on the stars on the sprint car circuit. He shows Bay Raceway. At right, the strain of Bloomington, native's face, his winning style above as he deter- Ay-- -s: looking for repeat performance Outlaws xhamp Kinser didn't begin until three years ago. "I had been racing go-karts little," he remembered. "Dad had two cars and when I was 2 1 he let me race one of his.

At the time it, was hard to find somebody who put young guys in racers." After driving and eventually winning the Bloomington track championship his first year, Kinser knew what he wanted to do. "All I'm doing now is racing for a living," he said. "I'm going to race the rest of my life; that's for sure. If the right money ever comes along it may be with NASCAR, but one thing I know is that I'll be racing." Kinser and cousin Carl teamed last year for the first time and" were successful. "Carl is super good with a race car and we work good together with no problems," he said.

"In the offseason (October through January) Carl puts in at least By BO GRAY Times Sports Writer Steve Kinser has learned quite a bit in the three years he has been driving the sprint car circuit, but the educational stint involves more than cars, engines and tracks. Among other things, this 24-year-old champion has had to develop a' knack for changing in and out of his racing suit in some rather tight spots like the back seat of a pickup truck. But even though his lifestyle lacks some of the conveniences of home, Kinser gives the impression he wouldn't trade his current existence, no matter what the offer. And why should he give it up? Since March, 1978, when Kinser joined up with a brand new group of sprint drivers who called themselves the World of Outlaws, he has been establishing his kingdom. And last year when he won 11 races on the circuit, the friendly young man from Bloomington, accumulated enough points to be named king of the Outlaws.

The second Outlaws season began Wednesday at East Bay Raceway's Southern Sprint Nationals, which will conclude with Saturday night's main feature. Kinser would like to win the season opener, and Outlaw organizer Ted Johnson said it's possible since Kinser is a talented driver and his cousin, Carl Kinser, is a top-notch mechanic. "He's going to be hard to dethrone," said Johnson. "Carl is a tremendous wrench and has never had a slow car in his life and Steve has a lot of natural ability. They are not unbeatable, but the combination will be tough to beat." 4 Kinser was the 132-pound Indiana high school wrestling champion his senior year and although his father Bobby had been racing for 20 years, the young the next season." Kinser has aspirations to one day drive an Indianapolis-type racer, but said he will never completely sever his ties with the sprint cars.

"Since the Outlaws is the toughest sprint car circuit, the only thing I can do in sprint cars is try to repeat as champion, so I look to championship cars," he said." "It's fallen off a little, but it'll come back." Sprint cars can reach up to 120 mph on the straightaways but Kinser said danger is seldom in his thoughts. "You've got to watch other drivers and cars all the time, but I never think about the danger when I'm driving," he said. "Sure there are times when you squeeze by something you hold your breath for a minute or two, but I never just worry. See OUTLAWS, page 3-C 12 hours a day working on the car, getting it ready for Hawks stumble against Polk race waiting game till playoffs Rv Rl ISSELL MANLEY POLK (95) anH uinnnH nn with a hnr By RUSSELL MANLEY and wound with a ban campus, up Grier 8 5-5 21, Turner 5 10-11 20, Baker 1 0-0 2, Wvnn 7 2-2 16, Niemann 7 4-4 18, King 8 2-2 18. Totals 36 23-24 95.

HCC (85) Crawford 4 2-2 10, Hilt 13 3-4 29, Magadan 2-2 12, Fulton 4 0-0 8, Reynolds 8 0-0 16, Bruns 2 0-0 4, Brown 1 0-0 2, Harvin 0, Vasquez 2 0-0 4. Totals 39 7-8 85. Halftime-Polk 56, HCC 53. Total fouls-Polk 11, HCC 21. JXrM.

i'- 11. Times Sports Writer There were plenty of places to lay the blame for the Hillsborough Community College basketball team's startling Wednesday night loss to Polk, a team that had been able to produce just one Division III win before the 95-85 triumph at HCC. Some of the Hawks were ready to lay it on the officials, who called 21 fouls against HCC and 11 against Polk, giving the Vikings 24 free throws to the Hawks' eight. Some, like HCC Coach John Pellegrino, pointed to Polk's conversion of 23 of those free throws, a factor that offset the Hawks' 39-36 advantage in field goals. Still others agreed that HCC had not played well, and that perhaps something like this had to happen sooner or later.

Hawk forward Joe Magadan, though angered by the game's officiating, shrugged it all off since the loss didn't really deprive the Hawks of as much as it might have seemed. "Even if we hadn't lost, we still probably wouldn't have finished in first place," said Magadan. 'Tf Manatee doesn't lose twice, they'll win it. If we beat out Manatee, we'd probably still be tied with Brevard. "That would leave us in the same situation we are in now waiting for the playoffs." The Divison III champion will au- ner 29-point performance.

Hill's aerials were welcome news to Pellegrino after the Vikings slowed his first battle plan, a mas-. sive frontal assault by 6-foot-8 Vince Reynolds and 6-foot-5, 225-pound Tyrone Fulton. "We're an inside team," said Pellegrino. "We shoot 20 to 25 free throws some games. But tonight we shot eight.

Vince and Tyrone didn't shoot a free throw between them, even though we were taking it inside. "When Everett got so hot outside, I thought things might open up for us some, but they didn't." Instead, Polk riddled the Hawk defense, guard Tony Grier firing for 21 points, aided and abetted by backcourt mate Alford Turner, who scored 20. Forwards Jeff Niemann and Mike King also hurt the Hawks with 18 points each, while Brian Wynn added 16. Meanwhile, the Hawk big guns never quite got loaded. Reynolds managed to up his total to 16 with a last-second slam-dunk, but Fulton never got untracked and finished with just eight.

Magadan, the 6-foot-3 Hawk sophomore, was tough in the first half and wound up with 12 points, while point guard Rudy Crawford earned 10. See HAWKS, page 3-C tomatically qualify for the state tournament, but the conference's other state berth will be determined by a playoff among the remaining teams. If two teams wind up tied for the title, all six divisional schools square off in tournament play, with the higher-finishing teams holding the home-court advantage. The Hawks, 18-8 overall and 5-3 in divisional play, are out of the running for an out-and-out championship behind 6-1 Manatee and 6-2 Brevard. HCC has lost at home to Manatee and split with Brevard.

"But we're still tryin' to have a 20-win season," said Pellegrino. "Shoot, around here, that's unheard of. And we can still do it, if we can regroup from this." Despite Polk's advantage from the free throw line, the Hawks had bundles of chances tb take control of the game in the second half, but HCC shooters seemed to go cold when they really needed a bucket. The exception was guard Everett Hill, who burst from his recent shooting slump to can 13 baskets, some from the outer reaches of the A pelican is a graceful, gentle creature and Florida is fortunate enough to still have a fair population of the bird, which is on the endangered species list. So why are some fishermen killing them? See Archie Blount's outdoors column on page 3-C.

MHMHHMt Lett imilfii "MlHtfll iff John BordTAMPA TIMES HCC Coach John Pellegrino maps out strategy during his team's 95-85 loss to Polk at the Hawks' gymnasium. Ex-Spartan Orndorff making it big in pro wrestling Frank Klein Sports Editor Success in the rough business of pro wres ling for Paul Orndorff, a former University of Tampa fullback-tight end, has been dramatic. Some 30 months after Tampa good guy Eddie Graham gave him the opportunity to learn wrestling under Hiro Matsuda, the man from Brandon had risen to the top of the heap. He and partner Jimmy Snuka are the National Wrestling Alliance world tag team champions. When NWA strikes new belts for your accomplishments you are the best in the business.

There are some other regional tag team championship belt owners but only one team can claim the nationwide belts issued by NWA headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. Fact is, Orndorff and Snuka have had the belt for more than two months and have turned away challengers in title bouts more than 20 times. The team operates out of Char-'lotte, N.C., wrestling throughout the Carolinas and adjacent territory. Paul, who had been wrestling out of Kansas City, says the new territory is 'THE notbed of pro wrestling." It was a bit of a roundabout route from "He was my responsibility and I was his in that game," Orndorff says. "I had to block him all night.

I remember, too, that he played an excellent game, slowing us down a lot after the early scoring as Kent" State nearly caught up with us. I think he finished up the game's MVP on defense." Despite the pass-catching success, Orndorff wound up his Spartan career on a sour note and you won't hear him sing the praises of Earle Bruce, who coached UT that one fine 10-2 season before going to Iowa State and just recently to Ohio State as the successor to Woody Hayes. "I didn't like Bruce at all," says Orndorff. "He did nothing to help my football career. He soured my attitude, screwed me up after moving me to tight end after I had played for so long (high school and three years at UT) as a fullback.

I know he's a good coach but I still don't like him. 'Tight end wasn't a bad position but it didn't help me at all as an NFL prospect to suddenly be switched to tight end." This Spartan watcher of 72 remembers many a practice session ending with Bruce an Orndorff trying to work out obvious differences. That the hard-nosed Bruce prevailed says something for the man. He had Ernie "Bowling Ball" DuBose, older brother of Tampa Bay Buc fullback Jimmy DuBose, at fullback. At 5 feet 8, Ernie could hardly solve the problem at tight end and he was excellent at running the ball.

Orndorff at tight end made sense to Bruce and the Spartans, but not to Paul. "I was drafted as a fullback, but by then my attitude was screwed up," he says. He had successive summers in the NFL, first in the camp of New Orleans and then with the Bears, but didn't stay long either place. "I was behind the others and I was home-sick," he says of both experiences. Paul later gave it a try with Jacksonville in the Football League, but was injured.

He returned to Brandon and worked in construction. -See EX-SPARTAN, page 3-C ft 1 Spartan footballer to pro wrestler. He went out in a blaze of Tangerine Bowl glory after his 1972 season, ending with a victory over Kent State and particular success that Orlando evening playing head-to-head against a player who has reached the top in the NFL. UT jumped away to a 14-0 lead on the way to a 21-18 victory. That lead was a result of two touchdown passes from Buddy Carter to tight end Orndorff.

Both scores came with Orndorff running patterns down the middle and getting the jump on Kent State linebacker Jack Lambert, a member of the world champion Pittsburgh Steelers. A ftu, Paul Orndorff world title I ft.