Mr. Outside Tells Tale About an Inside Deal

Glenn Davis, director of special events for The Times, can appreciate the frustration of Napoleon McCallum, the running back from Annapolis who won’t be able to play for the Raiders until 1991.

Davis, coming out of West Point in 1947, was committed to three years of active duty, costing him a considerable amount of income. In baseball, Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers offered him a blank-check contract as an outfielder. In football, the San Francisco 49ers promised to make him and Doc Blanchard the highest-paid players in football.

The 49ers, in fact, worked out a compromise package that Davis said was acceptable to Gen. Maxwell Taylor, head of the U.S. Military Academy.

“The agreement was for Blanchard and me to play three years for the 49ers if we promised to stay in the service for 20 years,” Davis said. “Gen. Taylor personally took the proposal to Washington to get it accepted. But some politician got wind of it and blew it out of proportion. That was the end of it.”

Davis said he and Blanchard both would have earned $140,000 for the three years. That was big money in those days.

“I still have the contract,” Davis said.

Add Davis: After three years in the service, he played for the Rams in 1950 and ’51. In his first season, he led the team in rushing and was second in receiving. In the 30-28 loss to the Cleveland Browns in the NFL title game, he scored the first touchdown on an 82-yard pass play from Bob Waterfield. The next season, he was cut down by injuries.

He said he never recovered from a knee injury he suffered during the filming of “The Spirit of West Point” in 1947.

“I had let myself get out of shape, and I paid for it,” he said. “I was returning a punt in a scene, and when I made my cut, I tore the ligaments in my knee. It was never the same. I was a better football player as a senior in high school than I was with the Rams.”

Trivia Time: Who was the only player to pinch-hit for both Roger Maris and Ted Williams? (Answer below.)

William Perry weighs 318 pounds, but teammate Dan Hampton assured everyone at the Chicago Bears’ camp that the Fridge is in great shape.

“I had him running 5 to 7 miles a day, and doing aerobics at the Chicago Health Club,” Hampton said.

“What about the beer drinking? I heard you quit,” a reporter asked Perry.

“Quit drinking beer? Who you talking to? Is there somebody else here?” Perry said, looking around.

“This guy can drink a case of beer in an hour. I saw it,” Hampton said.

Perry didn’t deny it.

Trivia Answer: Carroll Hardy. As a rookie with the Cleveland Indians in 1958, he pinch-hit for Maris and hit a three-run homer off Billy Pierce to beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-4, in the 11th inning. In 1960 with the Boston Red Sox, he pinch-hit for Williams against the Baltimore Orioles when Williams couldn’t complete his time at bat after fouling a ball off his ankle. Hardy lined into a double play.

Quotebook

George Raveling, USC basketball coach: “We’re going to put in the wishbone offense. We’ll shoot the ball and wish it will go in.”