Tonight’s Japan Bowl Stars Brown, McPherson

Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown and All-American quarterback Don McPherson are big-crowd draws here, and a sellout appears likely for this weekend’s Japan Bowl, an annual college all-star game, to be played at Yokohama.

“Ticket sales are at a faster pace than last year, and we expect they will be sold out before Sunday,” an official of the game’s organizing committee said Friday.

The game will be played at the 30,000-seat Yokohama Stadium with a kickoff time of 7 p.m., PST, tonight (Sunday noon in Japan).

It will be the second encounter in 10 days for East Coach Lou Holtz of Notre Dame and West Coach Jackie Sherrill of Texas A & M. Thirteenth-ranked Texas A & M beat 12th-ranked Notre Dame, 35-10, in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1.

Brown, a wide receiver and kick-return specialist at Notre Dame, leads the East team, which has two quarterbacks--McPherson of Syracuse and Kerwin Bell of Florida.

The East also has All-American offensive lineman Stacy Searels of Auburn. Other All-Americans on the East are defensive tackle Dan Stubbs of Miami, linebackers Chris Spielman of Ohio State, Kurt Crain of Auburn and Paul McGowan of Florida State, and defensive back Bennie Blades of Miami.

The West quarterbacks are Mike Perez of San Jose State and Todd Santos of San Diego State. Heading the defense is All-American tackle Chad Hennings of Air Force, the Outland Trophy winner.