Wanted: a Few Cold Remedies

In a New York Times story on cold-weather games, announcer Jack Buck recalled the game known as the Ice Bowl, the 1967 NFL championship game between Green Bay and Dallas at Lambeau Field in which Bart Starr’s quarterback sneak with 13 seconds left gave the Packers a 21-17 victory.

The temperature was 13 degrees below zero with a wind-chill factor of 60 below.

Said Buck, who worked the telecast with Ray Scott, Frank Gifford and Tom Brookshier: “CBS had four electric blankets. They put them on the cameras. I was drinking coffee spiked with VO, and Gifford asks, ‘Can I have a bite of your coffee?’

“A fan strolled past me before the game wearing a T-shirt. A T-shirt! He says, ‘Buck, you stink!’ I tried to cry but I couldn’t. The tears were frozen.”

Add Buck: After the game, he, Gifford and Brookshier boarded a two-engine plane for Chicago.

“We get up in the air,” he said, “and Gifford breaks the armrest on the door, and it flies open. We were frozen all over again. We had to emergency land in Wisconsin. We got the door closed and made it on to Chicago. I think I drank that night.”

Trivia Time: In the 1967 Ice Bowl, who was the reserve running back from Yale whose running and receiving sparked Green Bay on the game-winning drive?

Larry Smith, asked what kind of football team USC will have in 1989, told the Daily Trojan: “It depends on who comes in and takes over at quarterback. That’s going to be the key. The defense should be totally dominating, and our kicking and running game will be better. The two biggest factors affecting us will be our offensive tackles and quarterback.”

Add 1989: Notre Dame has most of its starters returning, including quarterback Tony Rice, but the last two games are at Penn State and at Miami. The Irish have lost four straight at both places.

Add Forgettable Quotes: Said Nebraska linebacker Broderick Thomas after being named to the Associated Press All-America: “I think every defensive player would like to play for the Raiders, because they play defense the way it’s supposed to be played.”

Add Thomas: He’ll be facing Miami in the Orange Bowl, and he told the Associated Press: “You watch that game, because you’ll see No. 89 all over the field. I don’t see anybody in college football who can control a game like me.”

Said Stan Jones, mulling his future after being fired as an assistant coach by the Denver Broncos after 35 years in the game: “I’d like to say I’m going to be a brain surgeon, but realistically, I don’t think that’s going to happen. And I’m too old for the space program.”

For What It’s Worth: From Richard Justice of the Washington Post: “One of the perks in Nolan Ryan’s 1-year, $2-million contract with the Texas Rangers is use of the Rangers’ corporate jet 15 times a season to fly to his home near Houston.”

Where Are They Now: According to the Boston Globe, former Nevada Las Vegas sharpshooter Freddie Banks, a No. 2 draft pick of the Detroit Pistons in 1987, is a greeter at Bally’s in Las Vegas.

Trivia Answer: Chuck Mercein.

Quotebook

International Boxing Federation lightweight champion Greg Haugen, on his pending fight with Pernell (Sweet Pea) Whitaker: “When I get done with Sweet Pea, he’ll be Split Pea.”