Wednesday, December 18, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
11
Bubba's second year an experience gainer
NEW YORK (UPI)—Have you gotten a load of Charlie Smith lately?
No, not the one the Yankees peddled to the Giants the other day. The one doing a job on defense for the Baltimore Colts.
What's that you say? You don't know any Charlie Smith with the Colts? Sure you do. You know ol' Bubba Smith now, don'tcha? That's the same guy, Charlie Smith. Only nobody ever calls him that. Everybody calls him Bubba.
Charlie Smith ... sorry,
Bubba ... doesn't hear that so much anymore playing defensive end for the Baltimore Colts.
"I still hear it in spots, but not like I did at Michigan State," says the 6-foot-7, 295-pound colossus already showing distinct All-Pro signs although this is only his second season in the NFL.
Remember him with Michigan State, how he disintegrated the opposition so regularly that all the football nuts in the country began going around babbling, "Kill, Bubba, Kill!"
"Who knows, maybe one day they might be saying it again," reflects Bubba. "I hope I can turn into the type ballplayer that'll cause them to say it. Maybe when I get a little more experience."
Getting Experience
Getting Experience
Some of those people on the other side of the line who have tried containing Bubba this season say he's soaking up experience so fast he's likely to
be a 10-year man by the Super Bowl Game.
Performing at one of the toughest positions in pro football, a position at which Deacon Jones set the pattern and then supposedly throw away the mold, Smith has become one of the key figures in what is generally regarded the top defensive unit in all football.
Bubba attributes his remarkable improvement to one thing: unity.
"What is unity?" he said, trying to interpret it in a pro football sense. "It's something that has to grow. You just can't say, well, man, we're gonna have unity. It's something that has to form by playing together.
"This is my second year with the group. I wasn't really with them last year because I was hurt. This year it's entirely different. We're close, all of us. We know we lost the big one last year and we don't intend losing it again this year. You can see in the way we play. If one guy misses, the other guy is backing him up."
When Bubba Smith was signed by the Colts and reported to them last year a lot of people said goodbye, Billy Ray Smith. Billy Ray is a 10-year veteran, 33 years old and a defensive tackle.
A lot of people thought Bubba Smith was going to ease out Billy Ray Smith at defensive tackle. But Billy Ray suddenly became a better tackle the moment he saw Bubba there. He
held on to his position, Bubba took over one of the defensive end positions and now there are no two warmer friends.
"They don't come any better than Billy Ray," says Bubba. "He helped me tremendously. How? A lotta ways. He talks to me a lot during the game, you know, watch this, watch that, keeping me conscious of what's happening all the time. He'll say 'watch the trap, Bub. Don't let the quarterback get outta the pocket, Bub.' He's constantly helping me like that."
Knee Slowed Bubba
What is not generally known is the depressed state Bubba fell into last year when he came up with a severely sprained knew during training that kicked up again later and kept him inactive a good part of the season.
There was one amusing episode during Bubba's long period of idleness. Sitting on the bench, he had only one job to do during the few occasions he'd be called into the game. He'd be sent in when the other team would try a field goal and he knew what the Colts expected of him. Block it. Bubba. Block it!
"I had to throw 'em right back quick," he remembers. "It was really embarrassed."
He got the call one Sunday and he was so excited about getting in he ran onto the field still wearing his big hornrimmed eve glasses.
Ol' Bubba hasn't been embarrassed lately, though.
MIAMI (UPI)-Deposed heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay when he won the title, is back in training—this time for a scheduled five years in federal prison.
Clay begins conditioning for 5-year prison term
Ali answered the call Monday of a two-year-old traffic violation conviction to begin serving a 20-day sentence in Dade County jail. But the main event—a five-year federal sentence for refusal to be drafted-won't begin until later, if at all.
"I might have to do five years for that other thing." Clay said in a brief news conference, "so this will be conditioning for me. The U.S. Supreme Court will have the final say on that case.
"I hate to go to jail because it upsets too many people on the whole planet—even in Asia and Africa. Just because of a traffic ticket."
But looking on the brighter side, the former champ said the
jail term will enable him to "get a rest and also get the feeling of being in contact with the black people in jail."
About two years ago, Ali was ticketed by a Miami policeman for making a wrong turn, and couldn't show a valid license at the time. He was released on bond and when he didn't show up for his July 5, 1967, hearing, Judge Robert Deehl sentenced him to 10 days.
His attorney, Henry Arrington, said they planned to appeal the sentence today with Deehl to see if it couldn't be cut back.
Ali, wearing a white, long sleeved turtle-neck sweater and dark pin-striped trousers to his new training quarters, took it all in stride, pausing outside the hall to sign autographs and inject his own brand of humor.
"Is this what a jail looks like?" he asked, mustering all the awe he could. He said this was his first time in jail.
Hayes increases his scoring lead
NEW YORK (UPI) - Elvin Hayes is making the National Basketball Association his private shooting gallery.
The Big "E" is averaging 30.3 points a game and at a corresponding period through 31 games is 70 points ahead of the pace set by Dave Bing of Detroit in winning the scoring title.
Bob Rule of Seattle is second with 817 points for games that include last Sunday's action.
Angeles dropped below the .600 mark in field goal percentages for the first time, but continues to lead the NBA in that department with 241 of 403 shots for a .598 mark. The Laker center also is first in rebounds with 637 for a 21.2 average.
Adrian Smith of Cincinnati has 119 for 138 free throws which rates him the best foul shooter and Len Wilkens of Seattle tops everyone in assists with 295 scoring feeds.
Wilt Chamberlain of Los