Sooner’s Honeymoon Looks as If It’s Later

Is this any way to start a marriage?

University of Oklahoma defensive tackle Jeff Tupper was married Saturday in Joplin, Mo., and then had to rush with his bride, Johnna, to Miami because Coach Barry Switzer decided to start Orange Bowl practice for the third-ranked Sooners a week earlier than in past years. The newlyweds had originally planned a short honeymoon by themselves.

So, until Jan. 2, the day after Oklahoma meets No. 1 Penn State, Tupper is married to the Sooners.

“I still got the national championship to get,” he said. “That’s the most important part of my life right now, and I don’t want to let down because I got married.”

Merry Christmas, Petr Klima.

Klima, who defected from Czechoslovakia in August with the help of the Detroit Red Wings and then joined the NHL club, returned home from practice last Friday and found a surprise waiting for him: His fiancee, Irena Zelenak.

“He (Klima) didn’t say anything when he saw me,” Zelenak said, through an interpreter in an interview with the Detroit News. “He didn’t have to say anything. I knew.”

Zelenak, 19, said she decided to defect to America after Klima told her of his plans. She left almost immediately, going to Hungary and then Austria and finally to West Germany, where she had been living with a family since September until receiving a visa to enter the United States.

Washington football Coach Don James, recalling a remark by Texas’ Fred Akers that everyone is an expert on college football: “Fred compared football coaching to prostitution. Fred said, ‘It’s good work, but we’ve got an awful lot of amateur competition.’ ”

From Gary Pomerantz of the Washington Post: “Because America has Bears on the brain, perhaps you may not realize this, but there is something called the American Football Conference.

“Just maybe, the Chicago Bears ought to stop preening in front of the mirror, dancing their Super Bowl shuffle and maybe all you Bearwagon members ought to look at the sensible truth:

“Although the Bears must be considered the prohibitive favorite to reach the Super Bowl as representatives of the National Conference, the AFC has two teams called the Miami Dolphins and the Los Angeles Raiders. And if you don’t think they can beat the Bears in Super Bowl XX, you better think again.

“Remember when the Redskins went 14-2 during the 1983 regular season, then struck bottom in a 38-9 loss to the Raiders in Super Bowl XVIII.”

Add Bears: Preparing to play the winner of the New York Giant-San Francisco 49er contest in the first NFL playoff game in Chicago since 1963, several players are hoping for typical January temperatures in the Windy City for the home-field advantage. But running back Matt Suhey isn’t planning to settle for typical.

“I hope it’s 90 below,” he said.

Quotebook

Chicago Bear defensive lineman Steve McMichael, on the sophistication of modern-day football: “All the computers and genius coaches aren’t worth a thing on Sundays if you don’t have a bunch of guys who go out and play as though somebody called their mommas a nasty name.”