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Time To Select 20 Years OfSECs Best
Former 'Cat DE Dave Roller Makes List
The end pf the season is time to pick All-Conference teams. It | isn't easy. It also isn't always fair.
Every year two or more dynamite players show up at the same position. This year's example might well be centers Ben Tamburello of Auburn and Wes Neighbors of Alabama. Either was talented enough to be a first-team All-star, but only one of them could make it.
The other side is that every year wealth at one position is accompanied by poverty at others. There are seasons when outstanding quality is lacking at one or two spots, but the voters still have
M	Stan Torgerson Cats' Pause Columnist
	
to pick somebody. The end result is that players deserving get left off and players not truly deserving get put on. So be it!
At the risk of flying into the face of standard operating procedure, here is our list of the best of the best we've seen them over the past 20 years. Positions matter not, nor does duplication. These are the top players in our book of memories.
Two of this year's crop join the list. One is Wendell Davis of LSU. I've tried to think of a better wide receiver in recent years and have drawn a blank. Davis may absolutely be the best. I've seen him in person and seen him on TV and his ability to get open and then catch the ball is absolutely phenominal.
The other all-time great from this year is Cornelius Bennett of Alabama. Bennett will rank high on the all-time list of SEC stars. He's big, he's mobile and he's got a nose for the ball that ranks with the finest we've ever seen.
Others who deserve a full page in the all-star memory book include:
Offensive tackle John Hannah (1970-72) of Alabama. You've got to be something special to be noticed as an offensive lineman. John Hannah was something special.
Center Bob Johnson, Tennessee (1965-67). The same thing applies to offensive centers, Johnson was the finest center I have ever seen. A great blocker and a great leader.
Herschel's A Must!
Running back Herschel Walker (1980-82) of Georgia. Normally when an incoming freshman gets the amount of publicity Herschel Walker received, he has a very hard time living up to it. The first year he was injured when I saw him and I had a few doubts. Not the next two years. His touchdown run against Ole Miss in 1981 was the one greatest offensive plays 1 have ever seen. With the ball on the Rebel six. Walker crashed the line. He was hit low, flew up into the air, turned a complete 360 degree summersault, came down on his feet and literally strolled into the end zone. Unbelievable!
Running back Bo Jackson. Auburn (1982-85). As good as advertised, he was second only to Herschel.
Defensive back Tommy Casanova, LSU (1969-71). What's that old Superman gag line, "He's everywhere, he's everywhere!" So was Casanova.
Defensive back Terry Hoage, Georgia (1980-83). I've never seen a defensive back as consistantly good as Hoage. I never saw him have a bad game.
Quarterback Archie Manning, Ole Miss (1968-70). The Rebels recently released a 60-minute tape of Archie in action taken from | old TV game films. I'd forgotten how good he was until I saw him scramble his way out of trouble time and time again.
Defensive end David Roller, Kentucky (1968-70). I saw him manhandle the Ole Miss line in 1970 in a manner that almost brought fear to the Rebel offense. If his play that day had happened on the street he'd have gotten five years for mugging.
Hey now, I've hardly gotten started and have already run out of space. I've left out Florida's Wayne Peace, Vanderbilt's Jim Popp, Tennessee's Reggie White, Mississippi State's D.D. Lewis, and many more. I thought picking all-time greats would be easier than picking the 1986 stars. It's not!
Not For Broadcast
Bob Barrett, one of the SEC's Assistant Commissioners, in-
vestigates allegations of violations and educates prospective student/athletes, coaches, alumni and friends of the universities about rules governing recruiting. Barrett is a former FBI Agent whose field of expertise was sports gambling and organized crime. . .How much do the SEC Conference teams make from TV and bowl games? Last year the league split approximately $15 milliion. No one team received more than $1,500,000. No one team received less than $850,000. Basketball money is also included in those figures. . The first-ever football game in the Southeast area was played April 9, 1880 at Old Stoll Field at the University of Kentucky. Kentucky, then known as Kentucky A&M was simply host to the contest in which Transylvania College, then called Kentucky University, upset Centre College 13% to 0. Don't ask how you could get% of a point. In 1881 Kentucky A&M played Transylvania a three-game series and the scores were 7Vi to 1; 2 to 1 and 334 to 2V4. Wouldn't today's headline writers have fun with those scores? The SEC was originally a 13-team league which included the present 10 members, plus Sewanee, Georgia Tech and Tulane. Despite the loss of those three, no new member has been added in the 53 years the SEC has existed. . .Alabama's Ray Perkins was the SEC Lineman of the Year in 1966. . .LSU's great pass catcher Wendell Davis drew so little attention from his own school that they failed to include him on a list of nine "All-Star Candidates" sent to the Southeastern Conference at the start of the season. .Speaking of "Lineman of the Year" honors, Auburn's Pat Dye won it in 1960 while playing defensive guard for Georgia. . .Head coach Vince Dooley of Georgia was an all-around athlete at Auburn. He not only lettered in football for three years and served as team captain his senior year, but he also earned a basketball letter as a sophomore. . .Jerry Claiborne's career as a player at Kentucky dates back to the 1940s. Claiborne, the present Kentucky coach, still holds his school's record for most interceptions in a season. As a standout defensive back Claiborne picked off nine
Reed To Write For Lexington Paper
Next month, former Louisville Courier-Journal sports columnist Billy Reed will begin writing a column for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Reed, who recently resigned from the Louisville paper, will also be working with Jim Host (Host Communications). The sportswriter will be in charge of Billy Reed Enterprise Inc., a sister company of Cawood Ledford Productions Inc.
For Host Communications, Reed's assignments will be geared to writing for any one of the 66 Host-run publications which do not cross over into the Herald-Leader's circulation.
With the Herald-Leader, he will write two columns per week, run on Mondays and Thursdays or Fridays. According to H-L sports editor Mike Johnson, Reed, 43, will also have the opportunity to write up to 10 "wild card" commentaries per year. And the week prior to the Kentucky Derby he'll be writing in a daily capacity.
"His role will be to analyze and comment on issues in the sports world," Johnson told H-L's Jerry Tipton. "It won't be often that he'll be at a game writing for the next day."
Reed will be a busy person as he will be doing radio and TV commentaries for Louisville's WHAS. His daily radio spots will run daily, while his television commentaries will be on a twice-weekly basis.
Reed is a native of Mt. Sterling and grew up in Lexington. He graduated from Transylvania University with a degree in English. Reed is also a Lexington Henry Clay alumnus.
Auburn's Jackson (L) with Lionel James
passes in his senior year of 1949. . .Billy Brewer is another coach who participated in the old College All-Star game held each year in Chicago. The Rebel leader played in All-Star competition in 1960. . You have to pay your dues to become a head coach. Rocky Felker served as an assistant at Mississippi State, Texas Tech, Memphis State and Alabama before returning to his alma mater as the Bulldogs head man. He is still the youngest Division 1-A coach in the country. Rocky was born February 1, 1953. . .Has anyone won more individual awards than Johnny Majors? As a player Majors was the SEC's most valuable player in 1955 and '56, All-American in '56, Heisman runner-up, also in '56, UPI National Back of the Year, and is a member of the All-SEC Quarter Century team. As a coach Majors won National Coach of the Year in 1973 and '76, Big Eight Coach of the Year in 1971, and SEC Coach of the Year in 1985. All that, plus a National Championship in 1976! . . .Watson Brown of Vanderbilt was born April 19, 1950. That happens to be a very good day. April 19 is my wedding anniversary. . .Speaking of Vanderbilt. its schedule doesn't get any easier next year. The Commodores have Alabama. Auburn, Georgia, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Maryland and Tennessee to face along with a few lighter weights such as Memphis State, Duke, Tulane and Rutgers. . .Only five SEC coaches have ever played on a Southeastern Conference Championship team and coached one, as well. The five include Johnny Majors. Bear Bryant, Bowden Wyatt, Charlie McClendon and Pat Dye. Majors played and coached at Tennessee, of course. So did Wyatt. Bryant did his thing at Alabama although he also coached Kentucky and coached at LSU. Dye played at Georgia before coaching at Auburn. The Last Word: Utah Jazz pro basketball coach Frank Layden: "I don't jog. I wanna be sick when I die. Sometimes I get the urge to jog. When I do, I lay down until it passes."