Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 5, 1992 TAG: 9202050071
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
PACKER IS FOUL AT LINE
Billy Packer is a humbled man.Packer, who irritated women's basketball fans with a comment about the legitimacy of NCAA free-throw records set by Richmond's Ginny Doyle, came to town Tuesday to take on the champion.
He lost. Big.
"Obviously, there's a time and a place in life for everything," Packer said after showing that, at this particular time, he probably should stick to his role as a college basketball analyst on television.
Packer banged shot after shot all over the rim and, on several occasions, used the backboard as well, but the net result was he made only 12 of 20 free-throw attempts in his showdown with Doyle.
It was a different story for Doyle, Richmond's record-setting senior forward from Philadelphia. Of her 20 attempts, all were true, and only twice did the ball even nick the rim on its way through the net.
A noisy crowd of 1,200 as well as several reporters and TV cameramen turned out for an event that was spawned by a comment Packer made on CBS-TV about the size of the basketball.
On Jan. 18, Doyle sank her 66th consecutive free throw. That gave her the NCAA mark for most consecutive free throws made - by a man or a woman.
The next afternoon, during a telecast of the Villanova-North Carolina men's game, CBS commentator Andrea Joyce made note of Doyle's achievement. Packer's told Joyce and a national television audience that women use a smaller ball than men do.
A true statement - the diameter of a women's ball is 1 inch smaller than that of a men's ball - but one that failed to take into account that women's hands generally are smaller.
Five days later, Richmond officials announced Packer had agreed to come to the campus and challenge Doyle. They even offered to let Packer use a women's ball and make Doyle use the manly version.
Both ended up using a men's ball.
Packer led the Atlantic Coast Conference in free-throw percentage in each of his three seasons at Wake Forest. However, his career free-throw mark of 81.9 percent was set from 1960-62.
On Tuesday, his rustiness showed.
Packer hit his first shot, but, with the Richmond baseball team harassing him from the other side of the glass backboard, he missed the next four.
After it was over, Packer said his statement about the size of the ball had not been intended to offend anyone.
"The whole context of the comment and any responses, that was a tongue-in-cheek situation," he said. "Maybe I was kidding Andrea a little bit, but I certainly didn't want to detract from Ginny's accomplishment or what any woman has done in basketball."
Doyle, who has made 67 of 68 free throws this season, agreed.
"I thought he was probably just saying it in jest," she said. "He strikes me as a really nice person, and it meant a lot that he would come here to do this."
The shootout earned $5,000 for the women's program at Richmond. An anonymous donor had promised to give $5,000 to the women's team if Doyle won, or $5,000 to the men's team if Packer won.