Mother Nature Doesn’t Make Tyson Quake

Two days before the Mike Tyson-Tony Tubbs fight, Tokyo was hit by a pre-dawn earthquake that registered 6.1 on the Richter scale.

Trainer Kevin Rooney told the Sporting News that Tyson already was awake and was eating one of Japan’s famed giant pears.

“His eyes got wide, but he was calm and he kept on eating the pear,” Rooney said.

Said Rosalie d’Angello, a member of Tyson’s entourage: “We thought it was Tony Tubbs falling out of bed.”

Kansas basketball Coach Larry Brown says: “Danny Manning is the greatest player I’ve ever been associated with at any level.”

That would put him ahead of Rick Barry, a teammate of Brown’s with the Oakland Oaks of the old American Basketball Assn.

Among the players Brown has coached are Kiki Vandeweghe (UCLA), Billy Cunningham (Carolina Cougars) and David Thompson and Dan Issel (Denver Nuggets).

Trivia Time: What does Herb Brown, brother of Larry Brown, have in common with Dick Vitale and Dave DeBusschere? (Answer below.)

Idle Thought: Wonder how Gene Bartow’s two-year record of 52-9 at UCLA, including one Final Four appearance, would be accepted today at Westwood?

Two of the losses were to Bob Knight’s Indiana powerhouse of 1975-76, the last national champion to finish with a perfect record.

The previous season, Indiana was 31-0 and rated No. 1 until Scott May got hurt and the Hoosiers lost to Kentucky in the regionals. UCLA won the title in John Wooden’s final season.

Add Wooden: In his first 15 years at UCLA, the Bruins made the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament five times and had a 3-9 record, including consolation games.

He told the New York Times: “I’ll tell you this, there are plenty of alumni at UCLA who think I should have won in earlier years.

“I had to stick with my philosophy, not try to be someone else. If that will get the job done, fine. If it doesn’t, I have a lifetime teacher’s license, a lifetime administrator’s license. I never worried about not having a job.”

Note: One of the consolation losses was 82-80 to Wake Forest in 1961-62 when Billy Packer scored 22 points for the Deacons.

From New York Mets pitcher Ron Darling, who went to Yale: “I heard someone say, ‘How can a guy that intelligent play baseball?’ I say, ‘How can a guy that intelligent not want to play baseball?’ ”

Add Yale: Former Mets pitcher Ken MacKenzie once said: “Do you realize I’m the lowest-paid member of the Yale class of 1959?”

Said Manager Casey Stengel: “Yes, but with the highest earned-run average.”

Said Detroit Tigers pitcher Eric King after giving up a home run to the Cincinnati Reds’ Eric Davis that some observers claimed was the longest ever hit at Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla.: “I told a priest friend of mine in the crowd that Davis reached God before we did.”

Said Davis when asked what kind of pitch he hit: “I’m not sure. Whatever it was, I suggest that King doesn’t throw it again.”

Trivia Answer: All three coached the Detroit Pistons. Note: Herb Brown has been coaching in Israel, where he coached Lon Kruger, current coach at Kansas State.

Quotebook

Richard Justice of the Washington Post, on New York Mets farmhand Gregg Jefferies, who has 19 posters on his wall: “Fourteen are of Ty Cobb, five of Elvis Presley. Between Cobb and Presley, they accounted for 4,298 hits if you count Presley’s 107 singles.”