Is There No End to Elway’s Athletic Talents?

Most everyone knows that John Elway’s talents extend to the baseball field, but did you know he was a one-time basketball whiz? That’s the word from USC basketball Coach George Raveling.

Raveling revealed that Elway was a ballboy for him when he coached at Washington State. At the time, Jack Elway, John’s father, was a WSU football assistant coach. He is now Stanford’s coach.

Of the young Elway, Raveling said: “I used to call him Shotgun when I had him in my basketball camp. He could really shoot the ball, and he was only in the seventh or eighth grade.

“He could have been an outstanding player if he had concentrated on the sport.”

From Denver linebacker Tom Jackson: “The Super Bowl may be the ultimate win, but it’s also the ultimate loss.”

20 Years Ago Today: On Jan. 15, 1967, the first Super Bowl was played at the Coliseum, with Green Bay of the NFL defeating Kansas City of the AFL, 35-10. The star of the game was Max McGee, who caught 7 Bart Starr passes for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Add Super Bowl I: After the game, Green Bay Coach Vince Lombardi said that seven or eight teams in the NFL could have beaten Kansas City, but Hall of Fame coach Weeb Ewbank claims that Green Bay wasn’t even the best team on the field.

“I think the Chiefs should have won the game, but there was too much playoff experience going against them,” Ewbank said. “I had won two in the NFL and had been in four others as an assistant when I was in Super Bowl III.”

In that one, his New York Jets beat Baltimore, 16-7. The following year, Kansas City returned to beat Minnesota, 23-7.

Trivia Time: Has any player scored both in a Rose Bowl game and a Super Bowl game played in the Rose Bowl? (Answer below.)

Lawrence Taylor has been named the NFL’s most valuable player, but Carl Banks is the New York linebacker some foes have come to fear most.

Banks was coached at Michigan State by George Perles, former defensive coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Perles told Peter King of Newsday: “I told the Giants that they were getting a great football player who in four or five years would be the captain of their team. He reminded me so much of Joe Greene, who I had with the Steelers. People ask, ‘How could the Steelers win four Super Bowls in six years, with all the self-praise and envy, and everyone wanting more of the pie?’ Joe kept everybody going. Carl’s like that. He was such a leader for us. He’d call team meetings when things weren’t going well, and he’d really help.”

From Marty Noble of Newsday: “Sick of those silly, long and rarely funny messages people record for their telephone answering machines? Then you’ll appreciate the message on one of Reggie Jackson’s California telephones: ‘This is Reggie. I ain’t here. Leave a message.’ ”

Trivia Answer: Yes, Lynn Swann. He scored for USC in its 42-17 win over Ohio State in the 1973 Rose Bowl, and he scored for Pittsburgh in its 31-19 win over the Rams in the 1980 Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl.

Quotebook

Boston’s Larry Bird, after hitting only 4 of 19 shots in a win over New Jersey: “Now I know how Fred Roberts feels every time he takes a jump shot.”