Pitt Coach Has Passing Thought

When Mike Gottfried, new football coach at the University of Pittsburgh, was introduced to the media at Pitt Stadium, he recalled that he had coached there once.

In 1981, he was the head coach at the University of Cincinnati when the Bearcats lost to the Panthers, 38-7.

Gottfried: “On Pitt’s first possession, Danny Marino threw a touchdown pass and the public address announcer said that Marino was now 10th on the all-time Pitt passing list.

“By halftime, he had thrown two more and he was up to eighth place. He threw two more in the second half and moved to seventh. I turned to my defensive coordinator and said, ‘We’d better get out of here before he goes to No. 1.’ ”

Idle Thought: Wonder what Al Davis said Saturday when he heard one of his employes pick the Chicago Bears to win the Super Bowl? Making the prediction on national TV was John Madden, director of special projects for the Raiders.

Good Thinking Dept.: Here’s how Rick Talley of the Daily News led off his column last Thursday: “Thursday’s sports wash, hung out while trying to remember the words to my favorite fight song, ‘Hail to the Redskins.’ ”

Get it? Or hadn’t you heard that the Daily News had been sold to Jack Kent Cooke?

Trivia Time: What do William Perry of the Chicago Bears and Carlton Fisk of the Chicago White Sox have in common? (Answer below.)

In last week’s story on Gale Sayers, George Allen recalled that the first time he coached against him in 1966, Sayers burned the Rams with a 60-yard scoring run for the Chicago Bears.

“After that,” Allen said, “we defensed him across the field.”

What Allen failed to add was that Sayers, in a rematch that year, returned a kickoff 93 yards to beat the Rams, 17-10.

Add Sayers: He made history in 1965 when he scored six touchdowns against the San Francisco 49ers, but actually he barely carried the day.

On that same December afternoon, Paul Hornung scored five touchdowns as the Green Bay Packers beat the Baltimore Colts, 42-27. Also, Roman Gabriel threw five touchdown passes as the Rams beat the Cleveland Browns, 42-7.

Said St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog after a writer asked him if the Mets were the team to beat next year: “Were you out of the country? We won 101 games. Don’t you think that makes us the team to beat? You must be from New York. The people in New York don’t realize they lost yet.”

Frank Layden, rotund coach of the Utah Jazz, on his weight: “Some people call me fat, but the truth is I only put on weight in certain places, like pizza parlors and ice cream shops.”

Add Layden: At a game in Cleveland, during which he was making repeated trips to the scoring table, a Cavalier fan shouted: “Hey, Layden, sit down. They don’t sell hamburgers over there.”

Said John Wooden, when asked to name the greatest basketball player ever: “Larry Bird is the finest player in the game, but not the most dominating. I wouldn’t pick him over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Moses Malone.

“The best player I’ve ever seen through the years was Oscar Robertson, but Bird may be superior, and a good case could be made for Magic Johnson.”

Trivia Answer: Both wear No. 72.

Quotebook

Bill Walton of the Celtics, on how he’s adjusted to life in Boston: “My biggest adjustment is eating lunch while watching NFL games on Sunday instead of eating breakfast.”