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SEC honored in every phase of football Hall of Fame
Two more inducted to foundation's elite group
The Southeastern Conference is a strong, steady contributor, in every phase, to the National Football Foundation's Hall of Fame.
The 31st annual awards banquet was held early this
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	u t J	Scoop Hudgins Cats' Pause Columnist
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month at the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, and of the three special awards made by the foundation, SEC alumni received two of them.
Sportscaster Lindsey Nelson of Tennessee received the Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award and Joe M. Rodgers of Alabama, now U.S. Ambassador to France, the Distinguished American Award. The Gold Medal Award went to Clint Frank, the 1937 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback from Yale.
NELSON, THE POPULAR, ARTFUL pioneer of college network broadcasting, went to Tennessee from Columbia to study English and work part-time for Gen. Bob Neyland, the legendary UT head coach and athletic director. He tutored athletes in English and spotted for
radio announcers, including NBC's Bill Stern.
Lindsey organized the Tennessee Network and eventually did the play-by-play for all major bowl games. He also advanced to the faculty of Tennessee.
Rodgers was captain of the Sidney Lanier High School football team in Montgomery, Ala., quarterbacked by Bart Starr. He accompanied Starr to Alabama, but sustained an injury which ended his football career. Joe earned a civil engineering degree, entered construction in Birmingham, then in Nashville and on to international projects.
THE 11 PLAYERS inducted were: center Maxie Baughan of Georgia Tech. UCLA quarterback Beban. Nebraska tackle Forrest Behm. Michigan halfback Bob Chappius. TCU center Darrell Lester. Wisconsin tack Jack Riley. Florida State receiver Ron Sellers. Oklahoma tackle Lee Roy Selmon. Michigan State end Bubba Smith. Notre Dame quarterback Bob Williams and Lafayette halfback Mike Wilson.
The foundation awards S2.000 fellowships to II scholar-athletes in Division I football and this year, for the first time, to II Division I-AA. Division II and I)i\i sion III scholars.
Wesley Walls of Ole Miss, a tight end. defensive back, linebacker and occasional passer, an all-SEC player who maintains a 3.39 grade-point average in English minoring in business, responded for the 22 honorees.
The small college group included guard Tim Corbin of Sewannee (a member of the original SEC) and linebacker Bill Edwards m, grandson of Hall of Famer Bill Edwards, a former Vanderbilt head coach. Young Edwards leads the Tigers in tackles, studies pre-law and
tutors English in the Writer's Workshop. He is a Rhodes Scholar nominee.
Joseph McKenney of the Eastern Officials Association was the fifth official to be inducted. George Gardner of the SEC was honored last year.
Vincent DePaul Draddy, of Manhattan College, is chairman of the foundation. Doug Kenna, a native of Jackson. Miss., who played at Ole Miss before transferring to Army where he was All-America in 1944, is vice-chairman.
Fred Russell of Vanderbilt. sports columnist for the Nashville Banner, has served as chairman of the Honors Court (selector of nominees) since the foundation's inception in 1951. Jimmie McDowell of Ole Miss is in his 25th year as executive director.
Through the \ears fi2 SIX' football players and 31 head coaches have been inducted into the foundation's Hall of Fame. Scholar-athletes now number 29. and there are several in the special honors.
RECIPIENTS OF the Distinguished American Award, other than Rodgers. are SEC alumni Gen James A. Van Fleet of Florida and Vanderbilt's Fred Russell. Outstanding Contributors to Amateur Football Award winners other than Nelson are Rex Farrior of Florida and these men who have built football in the SEC area: Earnie Seiler. founder of the Orange Bowl; Ambrose (Bud) Dudley, founder of the Liberty Bowl; and Gov. William Winter of Mississippi.
Hundreds of alumni and SEC colleges are working each year to expand the opportunities of the great American game of football. Some 135 have been honored nationally. It's a wholesome, healthy, fun feeling.
Meet the press
Even in defeat Sutton still has a reason to smile; gives lesson to media on proper way to rebound
By associate editor Nick Nicholas
Three days after his team's poor outinga humbling 81-65 loss to Notre DameEddie Sutton said there was a reason to smile. As he started to answer a question during his weekly press conference at Wildcat Lodge, Sutton, whose team had lost three of its first five, turned to glance over his shoulder. "I'll bounce back because I look out before what a gorgeous day," said Sutton, peering out a window which on this day was a passageway to spring fever. "It's just great to be alive. If you're not happy then, well, there's something wrong with you.
"It's not hard for me to bounce back. You've got to always remember basketball is a very small part of the overall life one lives. There's life after basketball, that's for sure."
"Even if you get out-rebounded two to one?" quipped one scribe in reference to Notre Dame embarrassing UK on the boards 53-27.
"That makes it tough," responded Sutton to the jocular inquiry. "You have to give yourself a little pep talk."
Sutton's on-the-court and off-the-court woes of late are enough to drain anyone's spirits. But the 50-year young coach ("I consider myself young." says Sutton), at least on the outside, retains his familiar smile.
With that in mind, it's time to report some of the quotable quotes from the UK coach's
Dec. 6 press conference:
From the We Need Help Department:
Sutton took timeout to say that "if there was a team that needed support from a student body, from the general public it's this ballclub."
He went on to add: "I think our players understand that they just have to go out and play basketball. They can't be worried about other things. That's part of our responsibility as coaches is to drive that home.
"When you start worrying about that channelling your energy into being concerned about thatyou're going to fall short of what you're attempting to do, as a coach and as a player."
You don't say, Digger? Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps, before and after his game with Kentucky, believed that the Wildcats would be good enough to receive an NCAA invitation.
What are your thoughts on that, Eddie?
"We're going to have to make a lot of improvement, I think, if we're going to get in the NCAA tournament," answered the Wildcat coach, the day before his team fell to Northwestern State. "Right now, if you were to take the top 64 teams, we're not one of them."
When was the last time Eddie Sutton coached a team that was not of NCAA material?
"I didn't say they weren't," said the coach, correcting a member of the media. "I said
they are (not an NCAA team) right now."
Timeout! Let's talk this over: Obviously, with Kentucky having problems on the boards lately, the No. 1 concern of the coaching staffs was rebounding. Let's get in the huddle and see how the coach diagrams the proper techniques of rebounding, both offensively and defensively.
"I'll give you a little coaching lesson, not that any of you need it," laughed Sutton, the teacher, as he said to his pupils, in this instance the media. "The way you should rebound as an offensive player, if you're the shooter and your team is disciplined, everyone should know when that shot is going up.
"When the shot goes up, the guy shooting the ball has got to say 'I hit it, I hit it, I hit it.' He's got to believe he's going to put it in the hole. The other four guys take just the opposite attitude: 'That sucker missed it again.' You assume every shot that is taken is going to be missed.
"Now, if you're assigned as an offensive rebounder we tell 'em, 'Go early, don't go late; go in there and find a position where you can rebound. If he starts to shoot then you go and if he doesn't shoot it then you come back out.'"
"If you stand there like we did the other day (against Notre Dame) you're not going to get any offensive rebounds. Now, if you're assigned for defensive balance, when the guy shoots it you start back.
"You show me a ballclub where you've got people going to the glass, people going back when the ball is going through the air then I'll show you a very good basketball team.
"A shooter, once the ball is released from his hands, he too must take that same attitude. He's got to say, T missed it. I'm either going to follow up or I'm going to get back. I can't stand here and admire my shot.' That's what too many players do.
"From a defensive standpoint, when the ball is shot you assume it's going to be missed. If youre man goes to the glass your responsibility is to get your behind on him. check him and react to the basketball. If your man remains on the perimeter then you fall back to 15 feet and play the long rebound. You, too, become active.
"If there's somebody uncovered inside then you've got to go in and screen him off."
Keeping the faith: Senior Mike Scott has gotten off to a slow start, setting off the question: "Is he still going to be able to contribute to the future of this team?
"I certainly do," said Sutton, keeping the faith. "He did not play well Saturday (against Notre Dame). He got some good shots early in the ballgame that he can hit.
"I don't think he's going to be one of the 'stars' of the team. But I still think he's going to contribute."
Scott, the fourth-year senior from South Shore, had averaged 2.8 ppg., in his first five games, four of which he started.