No Relief for Rollie in This Ad

After doing a commercial for an antacid product, Tom Lasorda recommended Villanova basketball Coach Rollie Massimino for one, and the sponsor agreed.

“It took all day to film,” Massimino told the Philadelphia Daily News. “I had to keep getting up and down. They said, ‘Take your coat off.’

“I said, ‘I don’t take my coat off. I haven’t taken my coat off in 5 years.’ They said, ‘This is acting. You’ve got to take your coat off.’ I did it for 7 hours. Running up and down those sidelines. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”

Add Massimino: That night, he was scheduled to serve as honorary bat boy for the Dodgers, and he called Lasorda during the filming.

“Where are you?” Lasorda demanded.

“I’m still doing the commercial,” Massimino said.

“Get to the ballpark,” Lasorda said.

“I can’t,” Massimino said. “I got another 2 or 3 hours.”

“You must be awfully dumb,” Lasorda said. “I did mine in 15 minutes.”

Trivia Time: Name the Notre Dame quarterback who took over for injured Terry Hanratty and led the Irish to a 51-0 victory over USC in 1966. (Answer below.)

For What It’s Worth: Saturday will mark the seventh time Notre Dame has come to the Coliseum undefeated and untied for the last game of the season against USC. In the previous six games, USC is 3-2-1.

The last one was in 1970 when USC won, 38-28, despite 526 passing yards by Joe Theismann, the most ever against the Trojans.

Add Irish: Said Coach Lou Holtz of Fiesta Bowl opponent West Virginia: “They seem to be a very good team, better than us right now. I’ve watched them on film, but all I can remember is they wore white on one film and dark on the other.”

Add West Virginia: The team is nicknamed the Mountaineers, reflecting the terrain of the state. Says William Gildea of the Washington Post: “They say if the state were level it’d be larger than Texas.”

Iowa State Coach Jim Walden, on Oklahoma State running back Barry Sanders after the Heisman Trophy candidate led the Cowboys to a 49-28 victory over the Cyclones: “He’s such a phenomenal guy. He makes a 6-yard gain awfully exciting. I felt without Barry Sanders, we could have won the ballgame ourselves by 21 points. He makes that much difference.”

From a paper in Dublin after Boston College upset Army, 38-24, in the first college football game played in Ireland: “It was the greatest upset of the United States Army in Europe since the Battle of the Bulge.”

UCLA will be only the second Pacific 10 team to play in the Cotton Bowl when it faces Arkansas Jan. 2 at Dallas. In 1949, Oregon lost to Southern Methodist, 21-13.

SMU was led by Doak Walker, that season’s Heisman Trophy winner, and Kyle Rote. The Ducks were led by Norm Van Brocklin. Oregon’s leading scorer was halfback Johnny McKay, the future USC coach.

From Darryl Dawkins of the Detroit Pistons: “When it comes to shooting I use a tip taught to me by World B. Free--just keep shooting.”

Trivia Answer: Coley O’Brien.

Quotebook

Chicago comedian Tom Dreesen: “I grew up in an age when we used to pray the White Sox and Cubs would merge so Chicago would have only one bad team.”