Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Are OIy.r McClure: blatant rules violation BY JIM HERSH Sports Writer (see related story, page 15) Bob Seagren went to Munich for the Olympics as the best pole vaul ter in the history of the universe. He was, and still is, the world record holder in the pole vault. A committee of officials banned the type of pole that he was using from competition, and Seagren lost the gold medal to Wolfgang Nordi wig of East Germany, whose pole was not affected by the ban Carolina's head track coach Bill McClure was in charge of the American vaulters in Germany and he is obviously embittered by what he calls "the most blatant violation of rules I have ever witnessed." "It was an out and out subterfuge :4~ to eliminate the United States' vaul ters," McClure said in his office at : USC last Friday. "It was a violation of their own rules," McClure claimed. "Rule 202 of the International Amateur Athle tic Federation Rule Book says that the pole may be of any material, any weight, any length or any diame ter." The amazing pole vault con- Carolina quarte troversy started in July, a month himself for a fal before the games opened, when the IAAF, the governing body of the Olympics, banned the Cata-pole, a green fiberglass vaulting pole used by all of the American vaulters as well as vaulters from Canada and Sweden. Reacting from a protest filed by the U. S., the IAAF Congress met before the Olympics, reversed its By STE earlier decision and reinstated the Asst. S poles. But the day before the pole Nationally-ranked N vault competition was to start they hams Brice Stadium S reinstated the ban, causing Seagren tions are they will mar and the others using the Cata-pole the Gamecocks still s to vault in the world championships of the season. with an unfamiliar pole. Twentieth-ranked M The night before the competition 14-point pregame favor started all of the poles that were point spread depends going to be used had to be checked Ole' Miss will be fired by the officials. At that time with USC. McClure talked with Adrain Paulen of Holland and F. W. Holder, secretary-treasurer of the IAAF, b og qa r who were running the pole vault. ' truhwt 42 "I asked them what criteria they "Tenrovity were going to use to judge the legal- o, xlie S ity of the poles," McClure said. ponscreontm "They said that they were going to t ukedw o use the date of manufacture. TeRblsotn "I told them that there was no date taeheGmcksl on the poles and no way to tell just hv u ad ula by looking at a pole when it was thscu. made. They said, 'There are other TeRbl r o ways.' , Gmccsaprn "I said, 'Tell me, I'm interested,.' anso Gog 'We're going to weigh the poles and Stra feno.' the lightest poles will be illegal, Caoialsa346g they said. Well, every pole is differ- si h eot,"u ent and old poles weigh more 1-natelsot because of the tape and dirt that tr n h aeol builds up on them. Also, vaulters tebl eldsiet use different length poles and the t e ocdw. guys that use the shorter poles DitesrvewoC would be discriminated against isflewthpaef because their's would weigh less. net"Suranih "Then they said, 'We're going to judge the flexibility of the poles.' oeo h raetf I asked them how they were going atCrln,sidDe to measure flexibility and they said, Ms,btw etil 'We're going to build a machine.' "n fteedy "The night before the competition tksadte el and they are going to build a o h il, de machine to measure the flexibility TeRbl ol of a pole! ue oobl em "So they had three criteria-date untrunsomat of manufacture, weight and flexibil- Thfilgerafo0 ity. I asked them who was going to Wee h nwa make the determination as to what inldgtocow poles were legal and what were his Truhtearas (See McCLUE,Caageli6aColumnte npics Jus 12;. w I Troup gets wreck rback Bill Troup braces setback to the ,as three Georgia Tech Moments later, Tr 1 during last week's 34-6 a minor head injur Miss fav VE PARKER Two of Weese's touc ports Editor America tight end cand [ississippi marches into Wil- sive firepower is also aturday night and all indica h out later that evening, witl eking their elusive first win against MSU, and taill hauled the ball 22 times ississippi has been listed as threats. ites, but the variance of the on whether the source feels The offensive line is up or let down for the affair proven itself consistent On the defense, the s barely escaped being upset consisting of two sonho gav thm omehin t wok lnac inh flc relai hachlPaulheietel. "Havinge2 thrgvnMissip arao este 2 oit eefotaanu.iThl ofene ne tha up or tdonforh farprvnisl cosisten sgbarly "escape bigupe cossngftwshReb m Mepht,"sate, siditwens. and seni oom. byos,thein tialMist drubi ath sohnt wokeiebcinforlt a ch aDitz. "Hvn ag in t Roe as given that ipiaresn Dept thet29int ine tfortaantu. tsol Teh,neutha epsoresd no "er ie tihtsird uar- j e aa = aD aid tw sohad movte iall tho me inability iupt Msscr asa e 1 thrdquar- App lac ian"W sel haved nesadD tbll eiriamimeicahee Thimcon thos le're fai alsoOle' thei fist o g ta respect them.balkoldeansu e'll stop making all those mis-no-itatfthyr ave two super football teams aantMsispi letzel. ppear to have the ability of An entire veteran offensiveSe d vu r heir positions of a year ago. .u le' Miss is quarterback Norris Rebel scouts labeled "an off d for 92 yards on 18 carries iy r rips of seven and one yards. Neese fired three touchdown I forS149 yards. tGan 4 II ' Thomas A. Price Rambling Wrecks. )up left the game with Y" orite down tosses were to All idate Butch Veazey. Offen vident in the Rebel ground re Allen, who scored twice )ack Greg Ainsworth, who for 94 yards, providing the also a veteran unit and has ly. Rebels field a young squad nores, seven juniors and just r duo mans the cornerback ;issippi defensive line and rely inexperienced. he unit surrendered to MSU offensive mistakes led to Ll of the MSU total as the if fense suffered two fumbles El interceptions. lina expects to go with essen he same crew as in previous s, as Bill Troup and Thad both injured against Tech, i to action to fill out the still have nine games to go," etzel, "And our future rests a nine games .. If you dwell Le past then you're taking the s way out. Nothing can be out past games but to learn ie mistakes you've commit made enough mistakes in fill an encyclopedia of foot ly realize mistakes must be e to hold any upset hopes questions to twer A. USC ies? Joyce: a great thing for athletes BY DOUG WILLIAMS Sports Editor Although the Munich Olympics left a scar the world will not soon forget, Kevin Joyce's attitude sur vived unmarked. Despite poor officiating, East West politics and the savage mur der of 11 Israeli athletes, Joyce, a guard on Carolina's basketball team, who played for the USA was still able to see the true meaning of free competition. "The Olympics are and will con tinue to be a great thing for the wor ld's athletes," he said. "It was great that people didn't let the Arabs spoil what the Games stand for. "They'll probably have to do some revamping of the Olympic organiza tion in the future," he declared. "We all seem to forget sometimes that the judges are human beings, too. Maybe they shouldn't bring politics into their judgments, but some times they can't help it. They were trying to be totally honest." The question of honest officiating in the recently-completed Games will undoubtedly be a subject of dis cussion for years to come. Munich has already been considered as one of the bleakest Olympics from the American point of view. The U. S. basketball team lost the gold medal for the first time in 36 years and refused to accept the silver; Jim Ryun lost his bid for glory in the 1,500 meters when tripped in a prac tice heat; Rey Robinson and Eddie Hart were disqualified from the 100 meters for missing a qualifying heat. The list goes on. "But keep in mind that we have a guy who won seven gold medals," Joyce contended. "No matter what, no one else can say the same thing. People have to consider that we (the Americans) are out there facing pros. Its everybody's pros against our amateurs." "When people think about the Olympics, swimming and track come to mind. So from my sport, this is a world basketball tourna ment. The best players in the world are there. The atmosphere is great because everyone knows they're the focal point of the world during the Games." Joyce admitted that the kidnap and ultimate murder of the Israeli athletes forced everyone to lose mental contact from their par ticular sport. "Something like that just doesn't leave your mind. When we heard the first reports that they were saved, everyone was sure it was over and the Games would con tinue." But German police refused to deny rumors of the release of the athletes. Hours later, the hostages were slaughtered when sharpshoo ters opened fire on helicopters con taining both the hostages and the terrorists. "After we heard they were safe, we couldn't believe what happened that morning. It was 12:30 at night when we heard that. Then we wake up and hear they're dead. It left a pretty somber attitude." But Joyce can still look to the bright side of an otherwise dismal two weeks. He is not bitter. He realizes that international competi tion is getting stronger. "And even tually, it will get right up with us. I'm sure if we got our pro basketball players out there, it would be no contest." Even though the USA was robbed of a gold medal in the basketball finale against Russia, Joyce remains unaffected. "Sure, I was probably mad right after that game. Everone felt like that on the spot. But then, I realized that there was something beyond just that. There was something bigger than winning or losing."