Texas Arlington Coach Was a Foe of Prothro

Chuck Curtis, football coach at Texas Arlington, who found himself out of a job Monday when the school dropped football, is be the answer to this trivia question: “Who was the man who got into a shoving match with Tommy Prothro at a Pennsylvania high school game in 1965?”

The game, played at Hershey, Pa., matched all-star teams from Pennsylvania and Texas. Prothro, head coach at UCLA, and Curtis, assistant coach at Southern Methodist, were wooing Jerry LeVias, a blue-chip running back from Beaumont, Tex.

Recalling the incident earlier this year, Curtis told Danny Robbins of the Dallas Times Herald: “Prothro was gonna kidnap him. That’s the word we got. Jerry said he didn’t want to go, but Prothro had a private plane there.

“After the game, I went on the field to walk Jerry off. There was Prothro. I said, ‘Coach, he’s going to SMU, and he’d like to be left alone.’ Coach Prothro said, ‘We made a deal.’ Then we had a little shoving match up against the fence.”

LeVias, of course, wound up going to SMU, where the head coach was Hayden Fry.

Said Fry of the incident: “All the coaches there still laugh, because Coach Prothro still had the imprint of the chain-link fence on his suit when he left.”

Add LeVias: He was the first black player to play in the Southwest Conference, and he immediately made an impact. Wrote Robbins: “In 1966, his first varsity season, he led SMU to its first SWC title since 1948, the Doak Walker era. He averaged 17 yards every time he touched the ball, playing wide receiver and returning punts. By the time LeVias was a senior, Fry had reshaped the offense to fit him. One play was called simply ‘Levi get open.’ ”

Trivia Time: Denver Bronco Coach Dan Reeves, who played at South Carolina and with the Dallas Cowboys, had what in common with Tom Matte and Paul Hornung? (Answer below.)

After a reader noted that Paul Waner had more hits his first four years than Wade Boggs, G.N. Van Essen of Temple City wrote to add a punch line: “Lloyd Waner, Paul’s brother, also had more hits.”

Van Essen added these names to the list of those who top Boggs’ total of 771 hits: Joe Medwick 827, Earle Combs and Shoeless Joe Jackson 809, Harvey Kuenn 796, Al Simmons 794, Joe DiMaggio 791, Earl Averill 787, Lloyd Waner 779 and Hal Trosky 772.

Some people in Denver are calling Steve Sewell, the rookie from Oklahoma, another Marcus Allen, so Joseph Sanchez of the Denver Post put the question to Bronco safety Dennis Smith.

Said Smith, who teamed with Allen at USC: “They’re about the same in size and style, but they’re kind of different on the field. Marcus can be a little nasty at times and Steve’s just not like that. Plus, Marcus has tremendous vision for seeing the whole field.”

How good is the defense of the Chicago Bears? Said defensive tackle Steve McMichael: “There might have been better defenses, but they probably played in Russia.”

Trivia Answer: All three were quarterbacks in college and running backs in the pros.

Quotebook

William (The Refrigerator) Perry, on his one-yard touchdown dive for the Chicago Bears Sunday: “Once I got up and was coming down, I believe everybody was getting out of the way.”