Morning Briefing : Coach Was a Genius, Not Prophet

A week before the opening of the Continental Football League season in 1967, the coach of the San Jose Apaches told the San Jose Mercury News: “I defy the layman fan to look at movies of the Continental League games and detect any difference between this brand of football and that played by the 49ers and Raiders.”

Three months later, after quarterback Chon Gallegos had led the Apaches to an 8-4 record, second in the league, the coach revealed the club had lost $60,000. Pleading for financial help, he said: “I am personally convinced that it would be almost fatal for the valley if the Apaches should go bankrupt.”

Four months later, the Apaches went bankrupt. The valley somehow managed to survive. So did the coach. Today, both are doing handsomely.

The coach was Bill Walsh.

How good a basketball player was Billy Packer? Says his old announcing partner, Al McGuire: “Billy was a great outside shooter. Unfortunately, the games are played indoors.”

Fact is, Packer was a pretty good marksman, as John Wooden and Walt Hazzard would testify.

In 1961-62, the first season Wooden made it to the Final Four, Packer scored 22 points to help Wake Forest beat UCLA, 82-80, in the third-place consolation game. Hazzard scored 15 points for the Bruins.

Cincinnati won the title with a 71-59 victory over Ohio State. In the semifinals, Cincinnati had beaten UCLA, 72-70.

Jay Roulier, whose purchase of the Express has been nullified by the USFL because of his interests with another club, told the Denver Post that the only reason he bought the Express was to make sure Steve Young didn’t jump to the NFL.

“The first thing we settled was Steve Young’s contract,” Roulier said.

Roulier said Young had become disenchanted with the Express, mainly because of “bizarre behavior” by former owner J. William Oldenburg.

“There’s no question Steve thought Oldenburg was a fruitcake,” Roulier said. “If an owner hadn’t come in and the defaults weren’t remedied, he was gone.”

Eric Dickerson said he sees no hope of cleaning up recruiting in college football.

“It’s just like the black market--all you can do is accept it,” he told Phil Rogers of the Dallas Times Herald. “You can make an example out of someone. But if you make an example out of someone that’s doing it, you’ve got to make an example out of all of them, and they’ll have no college football for TV.”

Dickerson said everybody cheats, including his old school, SMU. But he added: “Back when we were 3-7 every year, nobody noticed.”

Darrell Griffith scored 30 points in Utah’s 121-109 win over Dallas Friday night, but Maverick Coach Dick Motta said Mark Eaton was the man who made the difference.

“Eaton has more blocked shots than 14 teams in the NBA,” Motta said of the 7-5 Utah center. “Tonight, he had 12 points, 20 rebounds and 10 blocked shots. That’s a helluva triple. That might be as sensational as some of Magic’s.”

Colorado Coach Tom Apke, on Oklahoma center Wayman Tisdale: “He may be the most difficult guy to play against in the nation. If Patrick Ewing is the No. 1 player in the country, then Wayman Tisdale is 1-a.

“Patrick is not going to beat you offensively night after night like Wayman. On a bad night, Wayman is going to get 18 to 20. On a good night, he might get 40 to 50 and beat you single-handedly.”

Quotebook

Al McGuire, on the outrageous sweater being worn by St. John’s Coach Lou Carnesecca during the Redmen’s winning streak: “Not even the moths will go after that thing.”