10—The Daily Collegian Friday, Dec. 12. 1980
Losing not Rooney's game plan
By The Associated Press
Having once been a loser for 40
years doesn't make it any easier for
Art Rooney.
His Pittsburgh Steelers, the Na
tional Football League's most domi
nant team of the 19705, are on the
brink of becoming just another team
once more.
Not since 1973 have they been
anything but division champions. Not
since 1971, the year before they won
their first title of any kind, have they
lost as many games as the six they've
lost this year.
And for the patriarch of the
Steelers, every one of those losses
this year has been as painful as the
hundreds his boys absorbed from the
1930 s to the 19605. He is, after all, a
winner.
"I don't think, whether you've lost
for 40 years or won for 90, that you
ever get used to losing. Win 'em all or
lose 'em all, I think every game you
lose, you feel that same frustration,"
said the gentle man with the big
cigar.
"I think that's the way it went for
George Halas, for Paul Brown, for
Vince Lomardi, for Steve Owens ...I
think they were just as frustrated
when they lost maybe one game and
won 10 or 11 in a season,'"Rooney ad
ded. "It hurt them just as much as it
hurt the guy who won maybe one and
lost the rest."
It would be nice, he mused, if par--
, y, that long-desired goal of NFL
Commssioner Pete Rozelle, was
finally being reached, wherein just
about every team in the league had a
chance to make the playoffs.
"I guess," Rooney said, "in the
overall picture, that would be best,
for everybody to have a chance."
Not that the Steelers are giving the
Lady fencers shoot to finish in top 24
Four members of the women's fencing
team will be making .a special trip to
New York tomorrow to fence in the
America Cup tournament.
Jana Angelakis, Cathy McClellan,
Phyllis Wert and Donna Perna will be
trying their best to finish in the top 24 at
the tournament. Those who succeed will
.be awarded points toward the national
squad.
The tournament is an open meet which
the Amateur Fencing League of
America sponsors four times a 'year. A
fencer must attend at least three of the
opens to be considered for the Olympics.
"If you make the top 24, you break into
the squad," Lady Lion coach Beth
Alphin said. "And Cathy is already high
enough, but Jana has to attempt to
regain her position in terms of points to
Cleveland Browns or Houston Oilers
or somebody else a chance willingly,
mind you. "We're not doing this by
design," he said with an ironic sort of
cackle. "But I think the teams, the
best and worst, are getting closer
together.
Art Rooney
"The day of the powerhouse team is
probably gone. There's no doubt in
my mind that that saying, 'On any
given day. . .' has arrived."
And Rooney, who never lost faith in
each of those long, long seasons,
when even mediocrity seemed like
something beyond the Steelers'
reach, hasn't lost faith that they'll get
that fifth championship ring, that
"one for the thumb.
"I still think right now that we're on
our way to the Super Bowl," he said.
"Even with all our injuries, we're
capable of getting there. Unfor
tunately, we need help. Other than
Watch out for bikes
winning our last two games, it's out of
our hands. But we still plan to win
those two."
Rooney was portrayed by Art
Carney in "Fighting Back," the re
cent made-for-television film about
running back Rocky Bleier, who was
wounded in Vietnam and, thanks to
Ronney's gratitude, was given a se
cond chance to make it with Pitt
sburgh in the early '7os.
"Long before I ever thought there'd
be a movie, Carney was a favorite of
mine," said Rooney, who still lives in
the same working-class neighborhood
where he was raised. "He portrayed
especially with Jackie Gleason
my neighborhood, my people, the
people I came up with."
He met Carney briefly at a crowded
party, he said, and enjoyed the film.
But it seemed to bother him that, in
the eight or so days that the movie
people swarmed around Three Rivers
Stadium, nobody not even Carne3
bothered to come into his always
open office to sit down and chew the
fat.
"I didn't have anything to do, but I
didn't want to bother them. . .Maybe
I should've," Rooney said, his voice
sounding almost sad. "I would've
given him a much better chance to
know me, and I would've liked to
know him.
"And I'd have liked to gotten him to
know my friends, the friends that I
loaf with. . .It would've been good for
him and good for me.
"I'm glad it was Carney who
played me," he said. "If anybody
could've done it that is, if he
would've known me he would've
been the guy who would have been
able to do it. And I blew an opportuni
ty to meet a guy I'd admired for all
these years."
stay on the national squad."
McClellan, who is ranked 19th in the
country and has a B rating, said she is
ready for the tournament.
"I've worked really hard for this
weekend," she said, "and I'm going to
try really hard to place in the tourna
ment and gain as many points as I can to
see if I can qualify."
—by Laurel Jacobs
Navy guard in dry dock for bowl game
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) Frank McCallister,
Navy's third-team All-American offensive guard, is used to be
ing shifted around but he never dreamed he'd be drilling the
scout team defense for Sunday's Garden State Bowl meeting
with the University of Houston.
McCallister is one of Navy's few healthy offensive linemen
he split the season between guard and tackle out of necessity
- 7 but he entered college six years ago and fell victim to a Na
tional Collegiate Athletic Association rule that permits four
years of competition within a five-year period.
"I knew about it, but I kind of forgot about it until now," the
255-pound McCallister said yesterday. "It was part of the
agreement for me to get into the Naval Academy. I was more
than willing to make that sacrifice."
McCallister, from Penn Hills, Pa., a Pittsburgh suburb,
spent his freshman year at the University of North Carolina
and started about half the season for the Tar Heels.
McCallister left North Carolina and applied for the Naval
Academy. First he had to spend a year at the Navy Prep
School getting his grades shipshape before entering the
academy as a freshman. It would have been his junior at North
Carolina if he had lasted that long.
But the year at North Carolina plus the year at Navy Prep
and four years at the academy add up to six and that's one
year too many for NCAA-approved postseason play. The ser
vice academies have a special waiver of the five-year rule dur- •
ing the regular season.
"Coach Bill Haushalter, who recruited Frank, came to me
late in the season," head coach George Welsh said. "He shot'sti
ed me the letter we had written to Frank and his parents when
he entered the academy and said; 'Remember this?' Losing
him has got to hurt us because it means another change in our
offensive line.
"He saved the line during the season but now he's gone from
left guard to right tackle to the bench." •
PSU may host prep all-stars
By TOM VERDUCCI
Daily Collegian Sports Writer
The Pennsylvania High School
Football Coaches Association will
meet tonight and tomorrow to decide
where to play its 1981 all-star game,
and one of the more likely locations is
Beaver Stadium.
Penn State athletic officials sub
mitted a proposal to host the game, as
did groups from Altoona, the site of
the game last summer, and Hershey,
host of the Pennsylvania In
terscholastic Athletic Association's
Big 33 game before that.
Penn State's detailed proposal in
cludes a meeting between Penn
sylvania all-stars and New Jersey all
stars in late July, and, possibly as
early as 1982, following that game
with a National Football League ex
hibition game, preferably a Pitt
sburgh Steelers-Philadelphia Eagles
ma tchup.
"Penn State's proposal is awesome
when you look at it," said Hershey
football coach Bob May, president of
the coaches association. "It's so well
done.
"It's going to be a difficult situa
tion; especially difficult because you
have to say no to two groups."
Approximately 30 high school
coaches from the state's 12 districts
will discuss the proposals at the
Sheraton Motor Inn in Milesburg at 8
tonight and at 8 tomorrow morning.
,May said that tonight the group will
attend to normal meeting procedures
before "we make sure we have clear
cut objectives" for the game. Tomor
row morning the coaches will work
toward a final vote on which proposal
to accept.
The Penn State proposal, chiefly
engineered by administrative assis
tant Tim Curley, takes into account
limitations established by the Na
tional Collegiate Athletic Association.
Penn State sports promotion direc
tor Fran Fisher said according to the
NCAA, the University may not assist
in the promotion of the game, may
not use its Sports Information depart
ment fir publicity and may not allow
its coaches to help in the coaching of
the teams.
Fisher said all Penn State facilities
and equipment could be used and that
the NCAA regulations "are not all
that restrictive."
A Steelers-Eagles game in Beaver
Stadium would not be possible for
next year, Fisher said, because the
clubs are already committed to their
1981 schedules. But he said "both pro
teams have indicated a willingness to
sit down and talk about the
potential."
While Penn State officials like a
Pennsylvania vs. New• Jersey high
school game, May said the groups
from Altoona and Hershey also favor
that format.
New Jersey has its own all-star
game a North-South contest at
Rutgers Stadium sponsored by the
New Jersey State Interscholastic
Athletic Association but sources in
volved in that game said it would not
mean the all-stars could not play the
Pennsylvania all-stars. In fact, 20
players from both the North and
South teams would be chosen.
The coaches association's work
"will be a little easier" this year,
May said, because the rival Big 33 all
star game has been dropped.
PIAA Executive Director Russell
Werner said the PIAA passed a mo
tion last Friday to adopt what
amounts to a hands-off policy for all
star games. No games would need
"the approval or disapproval of the
PIAA," Werner said, but eligibility
rules would still apply.
The NCAA limits a high school
senior from appearing in no more
than two post-season exhibitions, and
since other area all-star games were
held along with the Big 33 and
coaches games, the coaches associa
tion could not attract all the all-stars
it wanted in the past.
S y asztiL
• . •• ..
Women thinclads compete at Princeton
Women's indoor track coach Gary Schwartz will get his first
chance this year to look at his freshmen and young runners in
competition at the Princeton Developmental Meet on Sunday.
Schwartz is gearing the Lady Lions towards the major meets
in January and February, so he is only taking a small team of
mostly young runners to Princeton. No team scores will be
kept at this meet and few relay events will be run, taking some
of the pressure off of the women who have little or no ex
perience running in intercollegiate meets.
None of the members of the Eastern Association for Inter
collegiate Athletics for Women championship cross country
team will make the trip, Schwartz said, because the longest
race at Princeton will be 500 meters.
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In the meantime, the distance women are logging miles in
preparation for the major meets, which start in January.
Schwartz said two Lady Lions to watch for at this meet are
freshmen Stephanie Weeks and Tammie Hart. Weeks is a
hurdler from Durham, N.H., and Hart is a sprinter from
Williamsport.
"It's my first college race, so I'm nervous," said Weeks, who
will run the 55-meter hurdles. "I'm anxious to see how I'll do."
"I'm excited," said Hart, slated to compete in the 500-meter
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The Lady Lions' competitors will be mostly Eastern schools,
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The Daily Collegian Friday, Dec. 12, 1980-11
IT=
ege, Pa.
Dec. 13
Sorry No Rainchecks
—by Tom Sakell