Ditka-Ryan Dislike Was for Real

How much did Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan dislike each other when Ryan was Ditka’s defensive coordinator with the Chicago Bears? A lot.

Wrote Gary Myers of the Dallas Morning News: “Former Bears tell how Ditka ordered live scrimmages during practice and told his offensive linemen to chop-block Ryan’s defensive players. At lunchtime the defense ate together in a meeting room and locked the offense out. Ryan hated the Bears’ offense.”

With all that, the Bears went on to win the Super Bowl.

And who says you can’t win with a quarterback controversy? Washington, with Jay Schroeder and Doug Williams fighting for the starting job, and San Francisco, with Steve Young putting the pressure on Joe Montana, survived the turmoil to win the last two Super Bowls.

Add 49ers: Jerry Rice said he knew it would be a big day Sunday when he made a one-handed catch early in the game.

“After I caught that ball, I knew I was on,” he said. “When I’m on, the football looks like dollar signs coming into my hands.”

Trivia Time: What was the name of the all-night boutique in New York where Mike Tyson got into a fight with Mitch Green? (Answer below.)

From Laker Coach Pat Riley: “There’s no such thing as coulda, shoulda and woulda. If you shoulda and coulda, you woulda done it.”

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has played on 6 National Basketball Assn. championship teams, but he told the Boston Globe it could have been 8 if Lucius Allen had stayed unhurt.

“We were snakebitten in both ’74 and ‘77,” he said. “At Milwaukee we lost Lucius for the Boston series in ‘74, and 3 years later at Los Angeles, we lost Lucius and Kermit Washington for the Portland series. We had beaten them every time with those two in the lineup, but without them we were swept, and the Blazers went on to win the title.”

Add Kareem: Miami Heat center Rony Seikaly, who grew up in Lebanon, said, “They used to sell his Adidas shoes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbars, in Lebanon. Whether you played basketball or not, it was the fashion to wear his sneakers.”

From Mike Tyson, looking to a match with Evander Holyfield, after his fight with Frank Bruno: “It’s manslaughter. I get paid for it and I don’t go to jail.”

Greg Haugen, who put the knock on Hector Camacho and Ray Mancini in this space Tuesday, is not a favorite of Vinny Pazienza, the man he beat for the International Boxing Federation lightweight title.

“People who are supposedly his friends can’t stand him,” Pazienza told Michael Marley of the New York Post. “He’s a little bastard.”

Said Jayson Williams of St. John’s Monday night after facing Georgetown forward Dikembe Mutombo, a sophomore from Zaire: “I don’t know where they list him at 6-11. He’s at least 7-2. He blocked 12 shots, and 9 of them must have been mine.”

Mutombo’s 12 blocks broke the Georgetown and Big East record of 10 held by Patrick Ewing. The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. record is 15 by Navy’s David Robinson.

Said Hall of Famer Gordie Howe, when asked what he liked best about Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux: “His paycheck.”

Trivia Answer: Dapper Dan’s. Note: Wallace Matthews of Newsday wrote that the owner later was arrested for copyright infringement and selling counterfeit designer garments.

Quotebook

Johnny Kerr, former NBA center and announcer for the Chicago Bulls: “I knew it was time to retire when I was driving down the lane and got called for a 3-second violation.”