At 101, Memory Is Longer Than Computer’s

G.C. Blodgett, a living legend as an outdoorsman in New England, drives a car to his favorite fishing spots from his home in West Babylon, Mass., but he almost quit this year when his insurance bill arrived.

His son told the Providence Journal: “He wanted to know why the premium was three times as much as the previous year. So we called the insurance company, and after a while, the fellow there came back laughing and explained that their computer calculated premiums for drivers up to 100 years old. After that, it started at the beginning again, so he was being charged the premium of a teen-ager.”

Blodgett is 101.

Some reporters are calling Arizona State Coach John Cooper the cliche champion of college football, but have they seen the latest from Terry Donahue?

Donahue, known better as the Wizard of Worry, told Jeff Hasen of United Press International: “We’re getting closer to the grand finale and that’s what you want to do. Whether or not we get a curtain call, who knows? Our players now see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our team really believes that it’s not over until it’s over.”

Trivia Time: How did North Carolina get its nickname? (Answer at right.)

Whenever a team changes coaches during the season, it is the hope of management that the players will rally around the new coach and make him a winner the first time out.

However, The Times’ Bob Oates long ago determined that this doesn’t happen.

“What happens,” Oates said after examining the evidence, “is that the new coach wins the second time out.”

Oates’ Law faces its severest challenge Sunday when San Diego’s Al Saunders goes for his first win against Denver.

The Chargers are 1-8. The Broncos are 8-1. The game is at Mile High Stadium.

Oates’ Law may be in big trouble.

Wide receiver Steve Kreider of the Cincinnati Bengals, admitting to political ambitions, calls himself a conservative but says he’s not particularly a fan of another conservative, New York Congressman Jack Kemp.

Kreider: “I think it’s ridiculous that a guy with a physical education degree can criticize Paul Volcker’s running of the Federal Reserve.”

Note: According to the Football Register, Kemp received a Bachelor of Arts degree at Occidental.

For the Record: An item Friday said no USC or UCLA player was among the top 20 in any NCAA statistic. Wrong. Lonnie White of USC is 14th in kickoff returns with a 25-yard average, and David Franey of UCLA is tied for 11th in field goals with 1.5 a game.

Said Fresno State football Coach Jim Sweeney, when asked if son Kevin is tall enough at 6 feet to make it in the NFL: “The idea of height has nothing to do with throwing a football from a five-step drop. You measure a quarterback by what’s in his heart. You’ve got to be the kind of guy that can spit blood on the other man’s shoes. Jim Plunkett is that kind of player. I see that toughness in Kevin.”

Trivia Answer: North Carolina is known as the Tar Heels, the state’s nickname. According to legend, during the Revolutionary War, the British troops were wading across a river near Battleboro when they discovered that tar had been dumped into the water to impede their crossing. Feet blackened when they finally emerged, the British observed that anyone wading in North Carolina rivers would acquire tar heels.

Quotebook

Bill Hanzlik, 6-7 Denver center, after scoring 24 points to 16 for New York’s 7-foot center, Patrick Ewing: “I want to renegotiate.”