Spartan Coach Is Up for Opener With USC

Michigan State opens the football season in three weeks against USC, and George Perles can’t wait.

“This is probably the biggest opener in the history of this school,” the Spartan coach said of the game at East Lansing. “I wouldn’t trade that game for anything.

“ABC. Monday night football. Labor Day in the state of Michigan. I get chills when I think about it. Labor Day in the state of Michigan. September 7th, Michigan State makes history with its first home night game.”

Asked about his team, which features 1985 rushing champion Lorenzo White, he said: “‘We’ve got a good football team. We have most of our players returning offensively and defensively. I think we should expect to do well. We are very confident about the ability of this team to succeed.”

Note: The last time USC went to East Lansing, it had a tailback named O.J. Simpson, and Michigan State had a defensive back named Steve Garvey. The year was 1967. USC won, 21-17, and went on win the national championship.

Add Forgettable Quotes: Said Darryl Strawberry on Aug. 5 after the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 13-3: “As a team, we have taken charge in the East.”

Apparently the word didn’t get to Chicago. Saturday, the Cubs made it three in a row over the Mets.

Trivia Time: In the movie, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” who was the third member of the song-and-dance team with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly? (Answer below.)

From Peter Pascarelli of The Sporting News: “Cubs General Manager Dallas Green took some heat for dealing Steve Trout to the Yankees, but it should be pointed out that over the previous three seasons with Chicago, Trout had won exactly three games after August 1.”

Trout, who pitched two straight shutouts for the Cubs before the trade, is winless since joining the Yankees.

After William Perry carried three times and scored on a five-yard run in a Chicago Bears scrimmage, the Chicago Tribune said: “He looked like the agile appliance of old.”

Perry was operating in a backfield with 245-pound fullback Calvin Thomas, and Coach Mike Ditka said, “As good as Walter Payton is, we may use two big backs at the goal line.”

Said backfield coach Johnny Roland: “That’s 550 pounds of flesh coming right at you.”

Add Payton: “If Jim McMahon had been healthy the last three years,” he said, “we would have won three Super Bowls.”

In playoff losses last seson and in 1984 the quarterbacks were Doug Flutie and Steve Fuller.

After Floyd Bannister of the Chicago White Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 10-3, Thursday night, the Toronto media went looking for him in the clubhouse.

Bannister’s number was not posted on a locker, so one reporter took out his Chicago media guide and tried to match faces in the locker room to the White Sox photos.

Thinking they had found their man, the mob approached Neil Allen and started to question him about his performance. Allen wasn’t amused.

“I’m not Bannister,” he yelled. “I can’t pitch nine innings. I can’t even win a game.”

Allen is 0-7.

Trivia Answer: Jules Munshin.

Quotebook

Senior golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez, defending his diet which is heavy on meat: “Have you ever seen a bad-looking lion or tiger?”