UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
Greater breadth and depth: NCAA tournament play at Georgia's Henry Feild Stadium,
coach last December, Eric Hayes installed
a demanding workout routine known as
"morning madness" at his first practice on
New Year's Day. "I hate him at 5:30 in the
morning, but it's a great feeling to win and
to have a good attitude," says senior Tracy
Treps. Nor are most players rewarded with
fame, even on campus. The SMU men's
team, for one, has finished in the top 20 for
the past 18 years, but at a recent match it
drew a crowd in the single digits.
Kansas, which has skyrocketed from no-
where to Division I contender since 1982, is
an example of those universities that are
quickly building powerhouse programs.
"To establish a national-level tennis pro-
gram, you have got to recruit at
least one great player a year,
says Scott Perelman, director
of men's and women's tennis at s
Kansas. Freshman John Falbo,
for example, was a three-time
junior national champion and 's it
played for the U.S. Junior Da- sor?
vis Cup team last summer. "If a derin
player is serious about turning Boar
pro, this is one of the best places ed he
in the country to come because athle
of coach Perelman and his pro- rill "
gram," says Falbo. "I was with
physically ready to play pro, actio
but I wasn't mentally mature set of
enough. The mental toughness minis
separates the great pros from the B
the average ones." Pre
More established programs, ver,
such as Stanford's, continue to point
attract good recruits because symb
former players like Fendick butio
and Kathy Jordan are success- Unde
ful. "When girls see [Fendick group
and Jordan] on television, word
gets out that this is the place to
be," says coach Brennan. Stanford players
pride themselves on being able to handle
academic as well as athletic pressure.
Sophomore Jeff Tarango is a double major
in philosophy and creative writing. "I
didn't want to be labeled as [just] an athlete
all my life," says Tarango. "When you get
to Stanford you're looked on as an intellec-
tual as much as anyone else."
Not every college tennis program is
fiercely competitive, of course. At Tufts
near Boston, for instance, team members
insist they play to win their Division III
title-but most can't help calling tennis an
"outlet." Tufts plays only 12 matches per
year, compared to the two dozen or more
SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY
SMU's Richey Renenberg
that larger schools schedule. "They play a
very good brand of tennis, but their priori-
ties are different," says Tufts coach Jim
Watson. Watson has no problems with that
philosophy. An All-American tennis play-
er at San Jose State, he earned a Ph.D. in
Spanish literature from the University of
Missouri. At Tufts, he teaches Spanish and
Latin American literature in the mornings
and relegates tennis-practice sessions to a
couple of hours in the afternoon. Call his
players a bunch of amateurs, and he'd no
doubt take it as a forehanded compliment.
CONNIE LESLIE with TOM STINSON
in Lawrence, EDWARD DEM A RCO Jr. in Athens,
MARCUS MABRYinPloAlto and
SUSAN EVANS in Dallas
the Football Coach Really a Professor?
coach or is it profes-
Aggies have been won-
g since the Texas A&M
I of Regents appoint-
ad football coach and
tic director Jackie Sher-
professor of athletics"-
"tenure." The board's
n-and the debate it has
f among faculty and ad-
trators-is as clear as
razos.
sident Frank Vandi-
who instigated the ap-
ment, insists the title
olized Sherrill's contri-
ns to A&M academics.
r Sherrill, athletes as a
are nowgraduatingata
rate comparable to the rate of
the entire student body. Still,
angry members of the facul-
ty senate passed resolutions
which, after praising Sherrill
personally, declared his new
title to be strictly honorary. It
"carries with it no real or pre-
tended entry into the Texas
A&M faculty of scholars, nor
any supposed establishment
of any academic entity called
Athletics," the faculty group
said. By giving Sherrill the
highest academic rank with
tenure, says faculty senator
David Anderson, the Board of
Regents has reduced it to
"something that you can find
in the bottom of a box of
Cracker Jacks."
Tenure, of course, protects
the teaching position when
granted by an academic de-
partment. Since the coach's
special "Department of Ath-
letics" is a creative fiction,
however, it carries no add-
ed job security, according to
faculty and administrators.
That won't lessen the real val-
ue of Sherrill's job: he has a
five-year contract that pays
$110,865 ayear in salary, plus
an additional $130,000 in tal-
ent fees for the "Jackie Sher-
rill Show" on local television.
TRICIA MORGANinCollegeStation
MAY 1988
NEWSWEEK ON CAMPUS 35