Dec. 16, 2003
This is another "B" Line column, a collection of news items of particular interest to members of the Baylor "B" Association. Contribute news about you or your teammates via e-mail to Lee Harrington (leenelaine@281.com), Dutch Schroeder (Dutch_Schroeder@baylor.edu), Reba Cooper (Reba_Cooper@baylor.edu) or Jack Loftis (Jack.Loftis@chron.com). The mailing address is Baylor "B" Association, P. O. Box 8120, Waco, TX 76714.
Houston area Baylor "B" Association members treated the Lady Bear basketball team to a special dinner prior to its participation in the Dec. 5-6 Gene Hackerman Invitational Tournament at Rice.
The team worked the Houston Metropolitan Racquet Club buffet on the eve of the tournament and the menu must have been right. Coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson's troops beat Eastern Kentucky 96-75 on Friday and captured the championship on Saturday with a 79-55 win over Rice.
The Lady Bears, now 7-1, will participate in the Dec. 20-22 San Juan Shootout in Puerto Rico before taking their holiday break.
However, as it is written somewhere, the Best Laid Plans of Bears and Men sometimes head south. And so it was on Dec. 6, when the "B" Association had to cancel its own Houston luncheon in honor of the visiting Lady Bears.
James "Chip" Hubbard, who coordinated the effort, laid the logical blame on the calendar and the difficulty of folks working in one more luncheon or party during the Christmas season.
Began with baseball . . .
For the past two years the "B" event has been tied to the Baylor baseball team coming to the Bayou City for the late-January or early-February Astros College Classic. But since the baseball team will not participate in the 2004 event (the four Big 12 teams in Texas have an agreement that two will drop out of the Classic each year to avoid meeting another league opponent in non-conference play), the Rice tournament seemed to offer the proper opportunity for Houston supporters to honor visiting BU athletes.
"It was definitely the time of year," said one disappointed Baylor booster. "In January and February people are so desperate for fun they will sign up for a service station opening."
But as Hubbard points out, the team dinner was the most important event and it came off without a hitch.
"B" Association president-elect Faith Cederholm Beaty and husband Mike joined Hubbard as hosts for the dinner. Both of the Beatys lettered in basketball in the late 1970s and have two sons now attending Baylor and one waiting his turn.
Hubbard and others worked up a fund that helped provide meals for the team while it was in Houston. Also kicking in some dough were the Beatys, Bill Duncan, J. Michael Duncan, Jeffrey D. Farish, Gordon Goodier, Jack Haney, Howard Lee, Jack Loftis, Dr. Jerry Marcontell, Robert Shelton and Art Whitmer.
SPEAKING OF SONS - Chip Hubbard, who won his Baylor letter as a baseball manager, says his son Matthew is coping with the rigors of being a plebe at U. S. Military Academy at West Point. Chip's late father, Ken Hubbard, played football at Baylor from 1945 through 1949. He died in 1992 . . . Brenda Smith, the law enforcement officer who works security for the "B" Association on game days, says her son Curtis Lerette is showing some improvement after an unexpected setback. The 25-year-old was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in Waco in mid-November and is still a patient at Hillcrest Medical Center. On top of his earlier spine injuries, he recently had to undergo another operation when a pin came loose from his surgical-fixation halo . . . As reported earlier, the young man has no insurance, so a fund in his name has been established at Extraco Bank in Waco (1700 North Valley Mills Drive, Waco, Texas 76710). Anyone wanting to help may contact Reba Cooper in the "B" office at 254-710-3045 . . .
The "B" Line column is written by Jack Loftis, editor emeritus of The Houston Chronicle and chairman of the Baylor "B" Association Communications Committee.)
