MIKE HISERMAN : College Notebook : Dreams of the Orient, Express

If I were a betting man, here are two bets I would probably pass on:

1) The Express of the United States Football League playing a regular-season game at Pierce College, or any other community college.

2) Cal Lutheran College football Coach Bob Shoup coaching a game in China.

Sounds like a couple of cinches, right?

Maybe not, if a couple of dreamers have their way.

This week, Pierce Athletic Director Bob O’Connor announced that his school will play host to a USFL exhibition game between the Express and the Portland Breakers Feb. 16.

The announcement was somewhat surprising because the capacity of Pierce’s stadium is only 5,500. It was not as surprising as O’Connor’s future plans, though.

O’Connor says maybe, just maybe, he can lure the Express into training and playing regular-season games at Pierce.

“I think they might be interested in coming to the Valley in a couple of years,” O’Connor said. “We haven’t talked about it. We’re going to talk about it. . . .

“If they were interested in coming out here, I’d sure like to get 30,000 more seats for them. It’s sort of wishful thing at this point, but I’d like to have a major stadium in the Valley.”

O’Connor said he talked to Pierce President Herbert Revetch about his plan and was told to go ahead and study expanded seating arrangements.

“The Valley needs a bigger stadium,” O’Connor said. “We’d like to have a (JC) bowl game here next year. . . . I’d like to have rock concerts, expand the big Fourth of July fireworks show they have here every year. Whatever you could use a major stadium for, I’d like to do. If we had more seats, I think we could draw more high school games. We could attract CIF (Southern Section) and City championship games.”

You get the idea. O’Connor has some lofty ideas.

The Express, of course, would be the springboard for O’Connor’s plans.

One problem. It doesn’t sound like they’re going to cooperate.

Chuck DeKeado, marketing director for the Express, said of O’Connor: “I’ll tell you one thing about him--he shoots for the moon. Whether he’ll land or not, I don’t know. He’s a real Valleyite. He loves the Valley and he really pushed it.

“We’re just going to play an exhibition out there. We’d like to generate some interest in the Valley.”

Another Express spokesman put it this way: “Can’t you just see Steve Young playing in a JC stadium?”

Well, maybe O’Connor is dreaming a bit. After all, with Young’s salary he could probably build a better stadium.

O’Connor has at least one strong point, though.

“With a million people (in the Valley), we should have a better stadium,” he said.

Now, about coaching in China . . .

We’ve all heard of table tennis, wrestling and gymnastic all-star teams traveling to China for exhibitions, but a football team? Never. At least not yet.

Shoup of Cal Lutheran, coach John Zinda of Claremont-Mudd College and a world traveler-sports fanatic named Tom Kelly, however, are out to try it.

The trio has been planning a summer trip to Japan and China during which a group of American small-college players would play in two exhibition games.

Shoup said he was approached by Kelly last summer regarding the trip.

“Originally, we were going to leave Christmas night, play a game in Japan, play a game near Hong Kong, then be back by the first week in January,” Shoup said. “But there were a lot of problems.”

The NCAA presented the first obstacle. It prohibits a college from sending more than eight players to an all-star game. With only a few months to plan the trip, the group was going to use a large contingent from Cal Lutheran and Claremont-Mudd to fill out the teams.

Then, a potential sponsor, Mitsubishi Corp., backed out.

“It was a pretty fragile situation to begin with, and with those problems there was no way we could go this year,” Shoup said. “It’s a good idea that needs to be developed further.

“We’re looking at possibly doing something like this on a regular basis, with a lot of pre-trip planning.”

Shoup said that the Chinese do not play football, but are very interested in the sport. The Japanese play on a limited basis, with a few American players.

“We were going to play each other in China,” Shoup said. “But in Japan, we were going to play one of their all-star teams. That’s one of the reasons we lost the sponsor. The level of play there is so different that a group of our players, even guys from small colleges, would be heavily favored over a group of their players. Apparently, the sponsor felt it could be an embarrassing situation--sponsoring a game in which the Japanese could get beaten badly.”

Shoup estimated that it would cost $50,000 for four coaches and 46 to 48 players to make the trip and play two games.

Kelly said the group is still trying to work out a deal for a trip in June.

“The Chinese really want us to come, even if it’s only for a clinic, not a game,” Kelly said. “It looks like we’ll take at least 22 players to China for a clinic. Whether it’s a full-scale game depends on the Japanese and if they can come up with a sponsor enabling us to take more players.”

Said Shoup: “There was a time when this idea was flaming brightly. Now, that’s gradually started to die. What we have now is a dream--a dream I think we’ll eventually be able to pull off.”