Columnist Ron Kantowski: West Point perseverance pays off for Hunterton

Tuesday, May 18, 1999 | 10:43 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday and Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

If there's anybody outside of coaches Fisher DeBerry (Air Force), Charlie Weatherbie (Navy) and Bob Sutton (Army) who has more respect for the guys who play service academy football, it's the Hasbro people.

Last year, they came out with a line of collectible G.I. Joe action figures commemorating each of the football playing academies. The Air Force doll came with a replica of the Commander in Chief's Trophy (presented annually to the winner of the Air Force, Army and Navy round-robin series) and two UNLV linebackers attached to its cleats.

Army and Navy, on the other hand, haven't been a factor on the national championship scene since the flattop was in vogue and soldiers used to get all the pretty girls. No matter. The guys who play football at Air Force, Army and Navy still exude the kind of character that Mr. Inside (Doc Blanchard) and Mr. Outside (Glenn Davis) did in the 1940s as Army Cadets.

Even in the hip-hop world in which we live, to be named co-captain of the Army football team speaks volumes about a young man's deportment and discipline.

So here's the first chapter on Bishop Gorman's Nate Hunterton, who recently was bestowed with the honor of Army co-captain for the 1999 season.

Hunterton, a senior inside linebacker, was the Army's third-leading tackler from his inside linebacker spot last season. He was in on 78 stops, including 50 of the unassisted variety.

Not bad for a guy who initially thought he had as much in common with West Point as his pet snake does with the Army Mule.

"I struggled when I first got here," Hunterton told the Sun's Steve Carp prior to the bloodletting -- er, rivalry renewal -- against Navy last year. "I wasn't sure West Point was going to be the best thing for me.

"But ... I wasn't going to let it beat me."

Hunterton, who comes from excellent bloodlines (his older brother Gabe had an outstanding basketball career at Yale) carries a 3.0 grade-point average with a major in general management.

He used to be a pool boy at the Mirage but says his goal is to be successful as the guy who once signed his paycheck. Hunterton lists Steve Wynn as one of his inspirations.

* YOUR LINE HERE: Fans upset by UNLV's watered-down basketball schedule can protest in a number of ways, the foremost being not buying a ticket for that refuse serving as a non-conference home slate.

But where's the creativity in that?

I prefer the interactive approach. If you believe a non-conference home schedule comprised of Mississippi Valley State, Fairfield, Nevada-Reno, Georgetown, Austin Peay, Oklahoma State, Cal Poly, Eastern Kentucky and High Point -- where's the University of Phoenix? -- is an insult to your season ticket-buying intelligence, let me hear about it.

The best lines -- heck, maybe even all lines -- will be printed in this space. There's a lot of time between now and the start of the season to get them all into print.

Here's a few to get you started:

-- If the Rebel basketball schedule were any weaker, Oscar De La Hoya would want to fight it.

-- How unattractive is the UNLV basketball schedule? Take the square root of comedienne Sandra Bernhard and multiply it by Tom Petty on a bad hair day. That unattractive.

-- If the Rebel basketball schedule were any more watered down, they'd serve it on the rocks at a local topless club.

You can e-mail (preferred), fax or better yet, write your best lines on the back of an old UNLV basketball schedule card and drop it off in person.

Maybe we can even make it a contest. First place gets two tickets to the High Point game. Second place gets four tickets.

* FIRST THINGS FIRST: A lot of Rebel fans and even local media are speculating how UNLV quarterback recruit Jason Thomas is going to fit in with the Rebel basketball team once the football season is over.

Why not let him become eligible first and see how he works out as a quarterback?

It's going to take an act of benevolence from the NCAA (and you know how few and far between those are) for Thomas to even gain his eligibility this fall on a medical waiver. Chances are he won't be tossing the pigskin around until the 2000 season. Ditto for shooting the hoop.

You can count the guys who have played both Division I football and basketball on one finger -- there was Charlie Ward and then who else? Donald Curry? Antoine Randle-El? They are the quarterbacks at North Carolina and Indiana, respectively, but are little more than bit players on the hardwood.

Thomas, according to a Southern Cal (from where he transferred) source, was good enough in hoops that the Trojan basketball team thought he could fill a reserve role. He's said to be a fierce rebounder.

But at 6-5 and a robust 230 pounds, let's hope he doesn't bulk up too much, as one local news report suggested he might have to do to be of some use to the Rebels at small forward.

He gets any bigger than that, he'll look like South Park's Eric Cartman on the Weight Gain 4000 diet.

* FENCED IN: A fellow by the name of Ellis MacDougall who resides in South Carolina thinks he can build a fence that would protect spectators from flying debris at auto racing events.

In fact, he says he already has done it.

MacDougall in 1986 patented a fence that is straight for four feet, then bends inward to create a curved eight-foot hangover. The fence is anchored by a four-inch pipe that could be made thicker for auto racing, he says.

He already has sold 200 of his fences -- to correctional and mental health institutions.

MacDougall said the curved canopy on his fence would make it almost impossible for a tire or race car parts to leave the track. "It'd have to come from one hell of a long way from the wall," he told The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper.

So far, the fence works pretty good in prisons, although there aren't many inmates trying to go over the wall disguised as Goodyear Racing Eagles.

* PARTING SHOT: Football commentator and former quarterback Joe Theismann: "Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."