Kentucky Actor Hollywood Bound

Joe B. Hall, retired basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, was recalling that not everyone was happy when he became an assistant coach to the legendary Adolph Rupp in Lexington.

He told Mike Sullivan of the Louisville Courier-Journal that when he introduced an off-season running program, some of the players went to Rupp and complained.

“Coach Rupp came over to the track, and we were warming up with four 220s,” Hall said. “One player went down in a heap at Coach Rupp’s feet, in a cloud of gravel, gasping and drooling. Coach Rupp said, ‘My God, Joe, what’s going on here?’ I said, ‘Coach, he’s just trying out for an Academy Award.’ ”

The player was Pat Riley.

Herman Helms of the Columbia (S.C.) State newspaper tells about the time golf writer Charles Price, who also was a low-handicap player, was passing through Houston and called up the late Jimmy Demaret and said, “What you say we go out and play?”

“I’d love to,” replied Demaret cordially. “What is it you’d like to play?”

Quick now, which of the Southland’s three major league teams has the highest-hitting first baseman?

Would you believe the Dodgers? Greg Brock is tops with a .272 average. He’s followed by Steve Garvey of the Padres at .259 and Rod Carew of the Angels at .253.

Fernando Valenzuela, with his fifth shutout of the year Saturday night, boosted his career total to 23, moving him to sixth place among active National League pitchers.

Ahead of him are Steve Carlton 55, Nolan Ryan 54, Jerry Reuss 36, Jerry Koosman 33 and Joe Niekro 29.

Koosman is 42 years old. Carlton and Niekro are 40. Ryan is 38 and Reuss 36.

Valenzuela is 24.

Former UCLA quarterback Jay Schroeder, who is trying to win the job as Joe Theismann’s backup at Washington, spent four years in the Toronto Blue Jays system as a weak-hitting catcher and outfielder.

They tried to make a pitcher out of him but Schroeder said, “I told them to fly a kite.”

He showed he had a strong arm, however.

“Before games,” wrote Christine Brennan of the Washington Post, “he used to win six-packs of beer in bets by standing at home plate and throwing a baseball over the fence in left, more than 300 feet away.”

If the players strike, the managers will use the time to visit the minor league teams, and San Diego’s Dick Williams says, “These are the times when you wish your Triple A club was in Hawaii.”

The lucky fellow would be Pittsburgh Manager Chuck Tanner, who probably deserves a little luck.

Williams wouldn’t suffer, either. San Diego’s Triple A team is in Las Vegas.

At the New Jersey Generals awards banquet, Herschel Walker got this introduction from Generals radio announcer Charlie Steiner: “Here’s the man who put Eric Dickerson on the map.”

It was Dickerson, of course, who called Walker’s rushing record “minor league.”

According to The Sporting News, Generals Coach Walt Michaels said: “For those who said he did it in the bush leagues or in the minor leagues, I have two words--and they’re not Merry Christmas. Coaching Herschel has been the highlight of my career.”

Quotebook

Seattle Manager Chuck Cottier, on Saturday night’s 13-10 win over Milwaukee in which 10 pitchers were used: “Any more changes and they would have needed a new set of tires for the bullpen car.”