Kush Won’t Make the Last Trip

Bill Tatham Jr., owner of the Arizona Outlaws of the United States Football League, promised his players a free four-day vacation in Acapulco if they won their final regular-season game with the Memphis Showboats.

They didn’t win. Memphis outscored them, 38-28. But Tatham said he might give them a vacation, anyway.

Meanwhile, USFL officials said the offer was illegal.

Asked about this, Outlaw Coach Frank Kush said: “Who gives a bleep if it’s illegal?”

Even if the team takes the trip, Kush won’t be with them.

“I’m going to the Arctic Circle,” he said. “I’m going fishing.”

Cool.

Chuck Nevitt, 7-5 backup center for the Lakers, tried out first with the Houston Rockets.

“I went through a month of training camp with Bill Fitch,” he told Leigh Montville of the Boston Globe. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but I was almost happy when I was cut. I started out weighing 245 pounds, and by the time training camp ended, I was down to 207. I looked as if I were a poster child for world hunger.

“I sometimes wonder what I would have been if I’d spent an entire year with that man.”

Reggie Jackson, who wants to buy into the Oakland A’s after he retires, said he learned plenty about running a franchise from former owner Charlie Finley.

“One thing he taught me,” Jackson said, “was how you have to constantly scan the waiver wires. If Finley owned that team right now, you know who he’d try to get for the stretch drive? Me. I’d be perfect for that kind of pickup.”

For What It’s Worth: Fred Carter, named Friday as an assistant coach for the Washington Bullets, was the leading scorer for the losingest team in NBA history, the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers.

Says Carter of the team, which finished 9-73: “The most unbelievable thing about the season is how we managed to win nine games.

“The funniest thing was what happened to a particular player from another team who was really rubbing it in during one of our many defeats. The next day we got even. We traded for him.”

Note: For the last 31 games, Kevin Loughery was the player-coach, going 5-26. The next season, Loughery became the coach of the New York Nets of the American Basketball Assn., succeeding Lou Carnesecca. And the Nets, who had acquired Julius Erving from the Virginia Squires, went on to win the 1973-74 title under Loughery, beating the Squires in five games.

Said Baltimore Manager Earl Weaver when asked about his philosophy of going for three-run homers: “Actually, I prefer four-run homers.”

Says quarterback Paul McDonald of the Cleveland Browns, who are expected to sign Bernie Kosar: “I’m the starting quarterback until they take it away from me. But I’m a realist, and the reality comes down to this: You take your team to the Super Bowl, or know there might be someone there to take your job.

“They aren’t looking for a quarterback in San Francisco, are they?”

Quotebook

Minnesota Vikings Coach Bud Grant, on the obstacle course installed by last year’s coach, ex-Marine Les Steckel: “It’s still up. It’s going to be like one of those old World War II bombers you see lined up along the airstrips.”