This Extension Shortened a Career

Before he decided to go to college, Colorado State placekicker Steve DeLine worked on his father’s ranch in Walden, Colo.

In 1981, to help with his work, he took an extension course in horseshoeing at Colorado Mountain College. The classroom was a shed outside of Steamboat Springs.

DeLine today rates as one of the nation’s most promising kickers. This season, he converted 12 of 19 field goal attempts, including one for 60 yards. He was hoping to win some honors next year as a senior at Colorado State, but the NCAA ruled this week that his eligibility has expired.

According to NCAA rules, an athlete must complete his eligibility in five years. DeLine has been told that his 1981 class in horseshoeing has been counted as one year.

DeLine, as you might guess, was somewhat flabbergasted by the ruling.

“If you stopped somebody on the street and told them the situation,” he said, “they’d just laugh.”

Or cry.

Trivia Time: If either Bo Jackson of Auburn or Chuck Long of Iowa wins the Heisman Trophy, he will be the second winner from his school. Who were the first? (Answer below.)

From San Diego Chargers scout Ron Nay, on how Lionel (Little Train) James caught his attention when Auburn beat Michigan in the 1984 Sugar Bowl: “What impressed me most, was every time there was a crucial play, they gave the ball to Lionel, not Bo Jackson. That said something to me.”

Said Darryl Dawkins, when asked the most dangerous moment of his life: “I once jumped off a house when I was 11. I had just seen ‘Mary Poppins’ and thought I could fly. I almost broke my neck and got a beating for breaking an umbrella.”

Add Forgettable Quotes: Said Atlanta Coach Mike Fratello after the Hawks picked up Ray Williams on waivers from the Clippers: “I think you can find fault with every player in the league, if that’s what you’re looking for. When we looked at Ray, we felt that his abilities and his pluses outweighed his minuses.”

He was subtracted from the Atlanta roster Wednesday.

From an editorial in the Melbourne Herald after John McEnroe was eliminated in the Australian Open: “It’s time to ban the brat. With great relief and not a trace of sadness, we say goodby to John McEnroe, the champion no one should call a sportsman.

“He lost the Australian Open yesterday the way he arrived--with a display of boorish behavior which labeled him in words he likes to use ‘as the pits’.

“His petulance, foul and loud mouth, and all-around bad sportsmanship, should not be tolerated in a 3-year-old.

“He is arrogant, selfish, sulky and immature. . . . He claims to be misunderstood but his behavior allowed no misunderstanding. Australia now has the chance to set the standard. Simply, we should not invite him back.”

Trivia Answer: Nile Kinnick (Iowa), 1939, and Pat Sullivan (Auburn), 1971.

Quotebook

Fight promoter Don King, after his acquittal on charges of income tax evasion: “If I were in the Soviet Union, the KGB would have gotten me by now, and I’d be a black ice block in Siberia.”