Raveling Isn’t Jumping at This Idea

When Stan Morrison became the USC basketball coach, he promised that the first time the Trojans made it to the NCAA tournament he would jump off the balcony into the swimming pool at Julie’s restaurant.

When USC did make it, Morrison was true to his word, and all the media were there for the big splash.

George Raveling, the new USC coach, was asked by the Daily Trojan if he would do likewise.

Raveling: “The last time I jumped off a building was during the Watts riots, and I had a TV under my arm.”

Wasn’t it strange that agent George Andrews, at his wedding anniversary dinner, invited Dallas Mavericks General Manager Norm Sonju to discuss the contract of guard Derek Harper?

“Why not?” Andrews said. “I saw three basketball games on my honeymoon. What the heck.”

Trivia Time: When did USC last hire a head football coach who had head coaching experience at the university level? (Answer below.)

For What It’s Worth: Washington’s Jay Schroeder and Denver’s John Elway will be meeting as starting quarterbacks today for the first time since 1977, when they were juniors in high school--Schroeder at Palisades, Elway at Granada Hills.

In the quarterfinals of the City playoffs, Elway threw a decisive 28-yard pass in overtime as Granada Hills won the tiebreaker, 28-27.

The next week, Granada Hills was routed by Banning, 38-6. Banning was led by running back Stanley Wilson.

Remember the Lite beer commercial where John Madden cowers in the dark on the train as it goes through a tunnel? He was literally in the dark Tuesday night on a train going from New York to Chicago.

When three prisoners broke out of Sing Sing in Upstate New York, the power was turned off so police could search the tracks. The lights were out for four hours, but Amtrak personnel managed to keep the club car open by use of flashlights.

“A young lady tried to get everyone to sing Christmas carols, but nobody would join her,” Madden told the New York Times. “So she wound up drinking toasts to the prisoners.”

Trivia Answer: Jeff Cravath in 1942. He had been a head coach at the University of Denver and the University of San Francisco.

The last new coach with big-time experience was Howard Jones, hired in 1925. He had enough credentials to fill the resumes of all his successors. He had coached at Syracuse, Yale (twice), Ohio State, Iowa and Duke. Yale, at that time, was one of the powers.

Quotebook

Promoter Don King, on why fighters have been pulling out of his heavyweight elimination tournament: “Everybody has Tysonitis.”