Morning Briefing : Is It Buddy Ryan Or Buddy Hackett?

Buddy Ryan, making his first public appearance in Chicago since being named head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, apologized for not having any prepared remarks.

“I thought Mike Ditka would be here so we could fight,” he said.

Although he has been feuding with his former head coach in the papers, Ryan said the Bears’ defense would be as good as ever next season.

“They’ll be great,” he said. “They know how to win and they know how to play.”

Ryan assured everyone he hasn’t changed since becoming a head coach.

“I just have a bigger office,” he said.

The Eagles play the Bears next season, and Ryan predicted the game would end with a 6-4 score.

And who’ll be the winner?

“The team with the 6,” he said.

This was the line making the rounds Tuesday at the camp of the San Diego Padres in Yuma, Ariz.: “Feb. 24 is famous. It’s the day two dictators stepped down.”

Translation: Dick Williams and Ferdinand Marcos both called it quits.

Trivia Time: Who were the Los Angeles Jets? (Answer in column 2.)

Now-it-can-be-told dept.: Joe Dial, who borrowed a pole to vault in the Millrose Games in New York, later learned that his poles got stranded at the St. Louis airport. They arrived in New York two days later. On that day, of course, he was vaulting in Rosemont, Ill.

Olympic vaulter Earl Bell told the New York Times that in one five-year period he lost 25 poles.

“I’ve never been around the world,” he said, “but my poles have.”

Bruce Tenen, who types up the play-by-play of UCLA basketball games, puts a little extra into his work, especially when describing Reggie Miller’s shots. Some samples from the Stanford game:

--Miller 15 ft ceiling scraper from right wing.

--Miller launches a rainbow from the 818 area code.

--Miller 24 ft right wing looper, comes down wet.

--Miller 15 ft off-balance leaning twine tickler.

For What It’s Worth: The last time Duke was No. 1 in the basketball polls was in 1965-66. The Blue Devils, led by Jack Marin and Bob Verga, made it to the Final Four, where they were knocked off by Kentucky.

Kentucky, led by Louie Dampier and Pat Riley, was upset in the title game by Texas Western. The school now is known as Texas El Paso. The team was coached by Don Haskins, who is still there, and was led by David Lattin, Bobby Joe Hill and the aptly named Willie Cager.

Note: Freshmen weren’t eligible in those days, otherwise UCLA likely would have given John Wooden still another title. That was the first year at Westwood for Lew Alcindor.

Trivia Answer: They were a team in the ill-fated American Basketball League in 1961-62. The team, which featured former Stanford and National Basketball Assn. star George Yardley and was coached by Bill Sharman, folded after half a season.

Sharman then took over the Cleveland Pipers and coached them to the ABL title. He later coached the Utah Stars to an American Basketball Assn. title and the Lakers to an NBA title, thus becoming the only coach to win in all three leagues.

Quotebook

New York Mets outfielder George Foster, normally among the late arrivals at spring training, on why he reported to camp at St. Petersburg, Fla., this week: “It was cold in Connecticut and raining on Maui.”