Weary Mascot Knows His Team Is Offensive

Air Ware means wear and tear for Jason Lee, the University of Houston’s mascot.

Every time the Cougars score, Lee must perform a push-up for each point the team has at that time. At the end of Saturday’s 95-21 victory over Southern Methodist, during which Andre Ware threw six touchdown passes in the first half, Lee had done 682 push-ups.

“If they scored 100, I could have done it,” he said. “I just didn’t want to do 98 (for a field goal).”

The Cougars moved inside the Mustangs’ 20-yard line in the closing seconds of the game, but Houston’s backup quarterback, David Klingler allowed the final seven seconds to expire.

Said Lee, who had to do 401 push-ups two weeks ago in a 66-10 victory over Baylor: “The last few had me shopping for a coffin. I’ll have to start working out a little harder.”

Meanwhile, Mike Pede, the former Cougar mascot who started the push-up tradition, left the Astrodome smiling.

“I got out just in time,” he said.

Add blowout: Southern Methodist Coach Forrest Gregg said he wasn’t bothered by the fact that the Mustangs were 59-point underdogs against Houston.

“I don’t get roped into point spreads, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Gregg said. “We got beat by Baylor, 49-3, last week and the team we’re playing beat them, 66-10, the week before.”

Noms de turf: Jay Ward, creator of “The Bullwinkle Show” who died Oct. 12, got plenty of fan mail in the form of thoroughbred names inspired by his cartoon characters.

There have been thoroughbreds named Snidely Whiplash, Mr. Peabody, Sherman, Natasha, Fearless Leader, Boris Badenuf (perhaps a cousin of Boris Badenov), Bullwinkle, Whatsa Matta U., and Rocket J.--after Rocket J. Squirrel, or Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

But Ward, who was owner of Bullwinkle Stable, steered away from his own creations when naming his horses. His runners included Chief Duffy, Chief Dudley, Chief Hawk Ear, E. Eddie Edwards, Lucky Coloullah and Professor McGargle.

Trivia time: What was the last team to sweep a World Series against a team with a better regular-season record?

Price of intensity: Skip Novak, American adviser aboard the Fazisi, took over the helm of the Soviet Union’s entry in the Whitbread round-the-world sailboat race when its skipper committed suicide after reaching port in Uruguay recently.

Angus Phillips of the Washington Post quotes Novak on the death of Alexei Gryshenko, 43: “To me it’s just a yacht race, and certainly nothing to kill yourself over. But he was very intense and the Russians take this thing seriously. To them, it represents the whole future of the new U.S.S.R. Maybe he suspected failure.”

Trivia answer: The 1963 Dodgers (99-63) swept the New York Yankees (104-57).

Quotebook: Notre Dame quarterback Tony Rice, on USC players celebrating their 10-point halftime lead at South Bend Saturday by singing the Irish’s fight song as they filed to the locker room: “It sounded pretty good. They actually knew some of the words.”