Life Is Just a Bowl Full of Explanations

He has been to the Pro Bowl more than once in an 11-year career, but guard R.C. Thielemann of the Washington Redskins is making his first trip to the Super Bowl, and he says there’s no comparison.

“You go to the Pro Bowl,” he told Ken Denlinger of the Washington Post, “and people looking at your T-shirt ask you what your average is. They think you’re part of the Pro Bowlers Tour. But you can always show ‘em the Super Bowl ring. They know what the hell that is.”

Add Thielemann: He spent his first eight years with the Atlanta Falcons, a collection of characters he likened to a band of brigands.

“The major character had to be our center, Jeff Van Note,” Thielemann said. “He played till he was 41. Had to be the cheapest guy ever. Took the toilet paper from hotel rooms and the Band-Aids from the training room.

“One guy, defensive tackle Jeff Yeates, had a big scar on his face. He and the rest of the defense looked more like outlaws than athletes. But they could play.

“They were the Gritz Blitz, held our opponents to 129 points my rookie year. Jerry Glanville was their coach. He also had a screw loose. And from what I’m reading lately, he probably still does.”

He never was big enough, and at age 34, Rick Meagher of the St. Louis Blues has decided he’s no longer young enough--to fight, that is.

“I don’t know how guys come to the rink and do that all the time,” Meagher said. “If some big slug gets me out there, I’m in a lot of trouble. I’m through with that.”

Meagher stands 5 feet 7 inches and weighs 170 pounds.

Trivia Time: Who was the big attraction on Dec. 23, 1969, when UCLA set a Pauley Pavilion attendance record of 12,961 that still stands? (Answer below.)

Notre Dame football Coach Lou Holtz, on Cotton Bowl executive director Jim Brock: “I know why he calls everybody Hoss. He can’t remember anybody’s name. He got in trouble. He said to my wife, ‘Hey, Hoss.’ That didn’t go so well.”

For What It’s Worth: When Bret Saberhagen of Cleveland pitched a no-hitter to beat Palisades, 13-0, in the 1982 City high school baseball championships, one of the pitchers for Palisades was Steve Kerr, playmaking guard for Arizona’s No. 1-rated basketball team.

Kerr was tagged for 6 runs, 3 earned, in 4 innings.

Utah Jazz Coach Frank Layden told the Boston Globe that former Harvard guard Keith Webster came close to making the team in training camp.

“But don’t worry about Webster,” Layden said. “Someday he’ll own the team, and I just hope he’ll remember the old coach.”

Louisiana State basketball Coach Dale Brown, calling for an overhaul of National Collegiate Athletic Assn. rules and regulations, told Sport magazine: “Do you realize if a player calls me in the middle of the night with a horrible toothache, I’m not allowed to drive him to the dentist?”

Trivia Answer: Pete Maravich of Louisiana State. UCLA beat LSU, 133-84, setting a scoring record that still stands. Maravich scored 38 points, but hit only 14 of 42 shots and had 18 turnovers.

Of the Bruins, who were led by Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe with 23 points apiece, Maravich said: “They’d could play in the NBA right now.”

Quotebook

Don Sutton, to a reporter who had been interviewing Tom Lasorda: “You know what you can do with all those notes you took? Shred ‘em and put ‘em around the shrubs at home and watch them grow.”