Huskies to Stay at Occidental

The University of Washington’s football team will become the Occidental tourists next week.

The Huskies will practice at Occidental in preparation for their Rose Bowl appearance.

Occidental’s proximity to Pasadena appealed to Washington, which will practice on the Eagle Rock campus from Dec. 20 through Dec. 31. Washington will have use of the practice fields, weight room and locker rooms, will provide its own security and pay Occidental for operating costs.

And although Occidental hopes for a continuing relationship, Washington will wait and see. The Huskies are certainly glad to be using Occidental’s facilities, but they were also happy using Rams Park in Anaheim the last two years.

The reason for the change? Pasadena likes to have one of the Rose Bowl representatives stay in the city for public relation purposes, and Michigan stayed in Pasadena last year. This year Michigan is staying in Huntington Beach and using the facilities at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

Previously, Occidental has put up two teams from Minnesota.

The last time Occidental had a Rose Bowl team was in 1962, when the University of Minnesota’s team and band stayed in the dorms and used the facilities. Minnesota went on to defeat UCLA, 21-3.

Another Minnesota team, the Vikings, played at the Rose Bowl in the 1977 Super Bowl and practiced at Occidental. The Vikings lost to the Oakland Raiders, 32-14.

Football lives on at Claremont-Mudd. The Claremont McKenna Colleges board voted last Thursday to keep the program.

Injuries and a diminishing number of participants threatened to cripple the program, which finished the season with only 28 sound players and an 0-9 record. Several options were available, including dissolving the program, combining with Pomona-Pitzer, and leaving the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to play an independent schedule against colleges of similar academic standards and size.

After seeing alumni and student support for the program, however, the board voted to keep it and support it better financially. The additional money pledged will probably be used to hire another assistant coach and for mailing and recruiting.

This is the season the Azusa Pacific men’s basketball team gets above the rim.

The Cougars have never won a Golden State Athletic Conference championship, and they have not appeared in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics tournament since 1974.

But this season the NAIA District 3 coaches gave the Cougars 10 of 12 first-place votes in the preseason poll.

So far, Azusa Pacific has not disappointed, winning its first eight games. The Cougars won their tournament and also have defeated three Division II teams. The last time Azusa Pacific got off to such a quick start was in 1972, with 11 consecutive victories to open the season.

Four starters and four reserves are back from last season’s 17-14 team, including junior guard Scott Day. Day averaged 16 points and five assists last season.

Azusa Pacific is also strong on the boards with Nigerian forward Dele Aribigbola and guard Eric Peters, each of whom averaged more than 13 points and seven rebounds last season.

The Cougars’ strength up front might be a deciding factor in guard-heavy District 3.

Westmont and Biola figure to be the top challengers.

When Chet Krammerer left after 17 years to assist Randy Pfund with the Lakers, Jeff Crosby inherited an experienced Westmont team. Guards Deron Oates and Lester Smith run the team, but Westmont has little experience up front.

Biola is inexperienced, but several transfer students might help keep the Eagles the top independent in District 3.

Keishaun Darthard, a senior guard, is the only returning starter from last year’s 33-4 team. His backcourt mate will probably be junior Shane McKim, who led the District in scoring as a sophomore with 23 points per game at Christian Heritage. Glen Fox, a junior from San Joaquin Delta College, averaged 20 points, five rebounds and seven assists last season.

Another transfer might help Biola under the backboards. Chris Samdahl averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds as a sophomore at San Jose City College.

College Division Notes

Azusa Pacific’s Shawnee Daniels, a senior guard for the women’s basketball team, broke the school’s single-game three-point field-goal record when she made five of nine shots against Redlands. Daniels shared the previous record of three three-point goals with three other players. Daniels, in her second season, also is Azusa Pacific’s career leader with 27 three-point goals. . . . Cal Baptist lost to Brigham Young Hawaii in the NAIA women’s volleyball championship match, 15-8, 15-8, 15-10, at Point Loma Nazarene. . . . Rich Hill, Cal Lutheran’s baseball coach, was selected the coach of the year for NCAA Division III by the American Baseball Coaches Assn. Hill’s team was runner-up in the NCAA last season.

Andrew Wind, a junior defensive back for the Occidental football team, finished first in the nation in punt returns in Division III. Wind averaged 18.7 yards per return and had two touchdowns, one of 72 yards against Whittier. Not surprisingly, Occidental finished first in team punt returns. Occidental also finished fifth in rushing offense despite not having a rusher finish in the top seven in the SCIAC. Occidental ran an option offense for the first time this season. Redlands was seventh in rushing. Sean Cheatham, the SCIAC offensive player of the year, rushed for 1,236 of Redlands’ 2,603 yards. . . . Two Occidental players, senior wide receiver Mark Crock and senior running back Gary Little, were selected to the Academic All-American team for the College Division District 8.