Cowboy Hosts Get Picture

Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown, back home in Dallas as Notre Dame prepares for the Cotton Bowl, was invited to the Dallas Cowboys’ complex, where he was taken on the grand tour.

At the video lab, they started to introduce him to Bob Friedman, the photography director, when Brown said, “I know Bob Friedman. I used to cut his lawn.”

Add Irish: Steve Walsh, who quarterbacked Miami to a 24-0 victory over Notre Dame, was a Minnesota prep star when Lou Holtz was the coach at the University of Minnesota.

Wrote Don Riley of the St. Paul Pioneer Press: “Ironically, Walsh was turned down by Holtz because he didn’t have quick feet.”

More Irish: The three men involved in hiring Lou Holtz at Notre Dame--Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, president; Father Edmund P. Joyce, executive vice president, and Gene Corrigan, athletic director--no longer are at the university.

Hesburgh and Joyce retired, and Corrigan left to become the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Said Holtz: “In my first month on the job, all three announced they were leaving. I started calling home every three hours to see if my wife had left.”

Trivia Time: What three golfers were involved in the playoff for the U.S. Women’s Open title in 1987? (Answer below.)

How bad were the Atlanta Falcons this year? Greg Garber of the Hartford Courant noted last week that the team leader in sacks was Buddy Moore with four.

Moore, who played in the three replacement games, is a plumber in Lexington, Ky.

They say money talks, but talking doesn’t get you to the Super Bowl. The four teams with the highest payrolls--Raiders, New York Jets, New York Giants and New England Patriots--all failed to make the playoffs.

Coach Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears on the benching of defensive tackle William Perry: “He better lose weight and learn how to play defensive end because I’m not moving Dan Hampton out of the middle. We all think he could play end. We are proceeding on a course to improve our team. We are not changing things in the middle.”

Oklahoma basketball star Ricky Grace, on his chronic ankle injury: “It’s been frozen and defrosted more than a pork chop.”

Coach Hayden Fry, on the Iowa team that faces Wyoming today in the Holiday Bowl: “Each team is different in its personality. I’m not sure what kind of team this one is in that regard. I know it’s a fun group, and I imagine the players will be able to tell you the price of everything in Tijuana, the names of every animal in the San Diego Zoo and which beaches are the most popular.”

Trivia Answer: JoAnne Carner of the United States, Laura Davies of Britain and Ayako Okamoto of Japan. Davies was the winner.

Quotebook

Baltimore Orioles Manager Cal Ripken, on the deal that sent reliever Lee Smith from the Chicago Cubs to the Boston Red Sox: “I don’t know how Boston did it, but they did it. At least we still got seven innings to score off them.”