Morning Briefing : Looking Back, Issel Salutes the Colonels

Denver’s Dan Issel, who is retiring this year at age 36, said his biggest thrill came in 1974-75 when he and Artis Gilmore led the Kentucky Colonels to the ABA championship.

“If that team had gone into the NBA intact, it would have been one of the better teams,” said Issel. “With a center like Artis and an outside shooter like Louie Dampier and several others who put in some time with the NBA, that was a pretty decent ballclub.”

Note: In 1971-72, the Colonels set an ABA record for wins with a 68-16 record. However, they were eliminated in the playoffs by the New York Nets, led by Rick Barry. The coach of the Nets was Lou Carnesecca, currently the coach of No. 1 St. John’s.

Trivia Time: In 1975, Kentucky traded Issel to Baltimore, an ABA expansion team. The Baltimore franchise collapsed before the season, and Issel subsequently was dealt to Denver. What was the nickname of the ill-fated Baltimore team? (Answer below.)

As a receiver for Penn State and the Miami Dolphins, Jimmy Cefalo has run some elusive patterns, but on Saturday he outdid himself in State College, Pa.

Scheduled to meet Suzie Baker at the altar at 4 p.m., Cefalo called an audible at noon. He told the pastor he had changed his mind, citing personal reasons. The wedding was canceled.

None of the principals was talking after the cancellation, the first in the history of the Grace Lutheran Church.

Asked about Cefalo, Miami Dolphin lawyer Daniel Paul said he knew nothing of Saturday’s events but said: “Jimmy has always cut quite a Romeo figure. He’s apparently much desired by the ladies.”

Cecil Gates, a retired school teacher of Lake Almanor, Calif., was showing off his 34-foot model of the USS Arizona at the Boat Show at the Convention Center when a man offered him $50,000 for the boat.

Gates rejected the offer for the model, which is fully operational. The man then offered $75,000. Again, Gates turned him down. After rejecting the next offer of $100,000, Gates asked the man why he wanted the boat.

According to Gates, the man said: “I want my wife to be the first woman in Texas to water ski behind a battleship.”

Asked about Lou Carnesecca’s lucky sweater, ESPN’s Dick Vitale, a former coach, told Owen Canfield of the Hartford Courant: “We won 21 in a row, at Detroit U., a school record, before we were upset by Michigan. I wore the same clothes, everything, including underwear, for the whole streak. But I was so cuckoo, I went a step further. I did everything the same, shaved the same way, ate the same way. Everything.

“I love Looie. He’s on my all-wacko team, with that hot dog and mustard schtick of his. He’s gotta believe it’s Chris Mullin, Walter Berry and Bill Wennington are winning for him, not a sweater.

“But, boy, he’s got that sweater going for him. Well, listen, all coaches are goofy. Anybody out there depending on somebody’s jump shot for his living is a little cuckoo.”

Trivia Answer: Claws.

Quotebook

Oklahoma basketball Coach Billy Tubbs, asked if David Johnson felt bad after his technical almost cost the Sooners a win over Oklahoma State: “He’s going to feel worse after doing 45 sprints on Monday.”