He Can Honestly Say He’s Worth a Million

Dwayne Schintzius, a junior at the University of Florida, can sleep nights now that he has insured his future--even if he doesn’t have one in the National Basketball Assn.

The 7-foot 2-inch center recently took out a $1-million insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London for protection in case he is injured before he gets a chance to play professionally.

“From now until I turn pro, if I can’t pass an NBA physical, I get a million dollars,” Schintzius said.

Schintzius’ policy makes life easier on the Florida basketball program, too, because it increases the likelihood that he will return to Florida next year.

However, Linda Schintzius, Dwayne’s mother, said he was planning to remain at Florida regardless so he could play with his brother Travis, a high school senior who signed a letter of intent to play at Florida next season.

The younger Schintzius has yet to contact Lloyd’s.

The Associated Press interviewed 36 members of its All-American football team in the wake of the recent debate over the merits of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. requirements for scholarship athletes.

The survey showed that good players and good grades go together, and some of the athletes explained the reasons, or in some cases, the motivation responsible for that finding:

--Oklahoma’s Tony Phillips: “On the average I think most of your better football players are the more intelligent ones. Sometimes you can make up for a lack of talent with intelligence.”

--Arkansas’ Kendall Trainor: “Coach (Ken) Hatfield knows if you don’t go to class. Sometimes I think he has people following us around. And if you miss a class, you have to do a series of 300-yard runs at 6:30 a.m. called the Razorback Reminder.”

--Washington State’s Mike Utley: “I probably would have been a manual laborer if it hadn’t been for football, but now I’ll get a degree.”

--Alabama’s Derrick Thomas: “I will graduate, and football was my ticket.”

Donald Trump may be new to boating, but when faced with registering his new luxury yacht, the Trump Princess, he wasn’t too hard-pressed to figure a way around the 6% sales tax on the $29-million price tag.

Trump formed an out-of-state corporation to buy the yacht, closed the sale in London, took possession of the vessel in international waters off the coast of France and painted “Bahamas” on the stern.

This didn’t sit well with New Jersey tax agents, who sued for a $1.74-million “use tax” because the ship is used mainly in New Jersey waters.

Trump, however, got around the use tax, saying that the Trump Princess is used for promotional purposes and therefore New Jersey can tax only the $400,000 lease payments.

Only three people showed up last week at a golf course in Grand Island, Neb., to play in the “First Annual Groundhog Day Golf Tournament,” and for good reason.

The temperature was 2 below zero and the wind-chill factor made it feel like 46 below.

“We had to use the golf clubs as a hammer to drive in the tees,” Steve Rasmussen said. Golf balls froze, plastic in the bottom of two golf bags broke out when clubs were dropped, “and the frozen greens were fast,” Rasmussen said.

“The golf balls became crystallized about the 18th hole,” he said. “The shock on the elbows was about like hitting a rock with a baseball bat. We actually thought the balls were going to explode.”

Just being frank: Boxer Frank Bruno, on his chances of beating Mike Tyson for the heavyweight title Feb. 25 in Las Vegas:

“This is a peak time to beat Mike Tyson,” Bruno said, referring to Tyson’s marital and managerial problems in recent months. “What he is going through--I don’t think his mind is 100% on the job.”

Tyson’s response: “After the fight you ask Frank Bruno whether it was such a peak time.”

Quotebook

Louisville center Pervis Ellison, after being injured recently in a game against Ohio State: “I could just see dollar bills flying away. I guess that’s why I couldn’t say anything.”