Oilers Had a Coach to Remember

Hugh Campbell is gone, and Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams is looking for his 14th coach in 26 years.

By all rights, Bill Peterson should still be the coach. Adams signed him to a “lifetime contract” in 1972. A pair of 1-13 seasons contributed to his “premature death.”

According to Michael A. Lutz of the Associated Press, Peterson is better remembered for his malapropisms than his coaching.

“Gentlemen,” he once said, “I want you to look sharp for the National Anthem. I want you standing on your helmets with the sidelines under your arms.”

Coming into Thursday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Manute Bol of the Washington Bullets had made only 2 of 15 free throws. So, down the stretch, Milwaukee Coach Don Nelson ordered his players to deliberately foul the 7-7 center. Bol responded by hitting 8 of 12.

Bol also scored 18 points and had 12 blocked shots in the 110-108 overtime win.

Said Nelson: “That was the most dominating performance by one player I’ve seen this year. We tried many things to stop him, and it’s a tribute to him that we couldn’t.”

Note: Bol broke the club record of 11 blocked shots by Elvin Hayes. The NBA record is 17 by Elmore Smith of the Lakers.

At the baseball meetings, Al Campanis and Yogi Berra were talking about a minor league playoff series in which they once opposed each other.

Said Yogi: “You wouldn’t have won it if we had beaten you.”

Have you figured out which teams will meet in the Super Bowl? Says Chicago Bears defensive tackle Dan Hampton of today’s game against the New York Jets: “We think after watching film that the Jets are the best team in the AFC East. We need to beat them because they are the team we think we’ll face in the Super Bowl.”

Rod Laver, the last man to win the Grand Slam of tennis, thinks that Boris Becker is the only player today with a chance to win all four tournaments.

Of John McEnroe, Laver says: “McEnroe is disinterested and his game is showing it. I don’t see him coming back with a new lease on life.

“I think he’s flat, dejected about not winning a Grand Slam tournament this year. He has a few dollars in his pocket, and the pressure is not there anymore.”

From Stanley Borowski, the Harrisburg, Pa., security officer who arrested Gerry Cooney the other night after a brawl: “I know a lot of professional athletes--football players, Giants and Washington Redskins--and college athletes, too, and I’ve never seen any one of them act so badly.”

Quotebook

Michael Downs of the Dallas Cowboys, asked if the lopsided losses to the Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals were embarrassing to him: “Hey, I played at Rice.”