Black-White Situation Had Her Seeing Red

Minna Wilson says racist chanting by the crowd at Guildhall in Southampton, England, is what prompted her to climb into the ring, take off one of her high-heeled shoes and start beating Steve McCarthy over the head during his bout with Wilson’s son, Tony, in September.

McCarthy and Wilson, who was declared the winner when McCarthy was unable to continue, are scheduled to fight again Wednesday in Reading, a town about 50 miles away.

Minna Wilson, 62, said she has nothing against McCarthy.

“The chants and shouts did it,” she said. “I had never had anything like that happen in my life.”

The Wilsons are black; McCarthy is white, as was most of the crowd at the Guildhall.

Trivia time: California colleges produced 35 NBA players last season, the most of any state. What state was second?

Watch for the take sign: Houston Oiler Coach Jerry Glanville has invited Astro Manager Art Howe to stand on the sideline during tonight’s game against Cincinnati in an effort to confuse the Cincinnati Bengals.

“We’re going to have Art dress exactly like (linebacker coach) Floyd Reese--they look identical--and have them both stand there and flash defensive signals,” Glanville said.

“The Bengals may be the greatest team in the league at stealing hand signals. But they won’t know which one’s Floyd and which one’s not.”

Add Glanville: He wants the team’s fans to be noisier tonight than they were Nov. 5 against the Detroit Lions. “Tell those people to start the party at 4 p.m. and send me the bill,” he said.

That’ll be the day: Ernie Accorsi, executive vice president of the Cleveland Browns, predicting the result of Saturday’s Penn State-Maryland game: “Years ago, Beano Cook said that before this century was out Germany would win a war and Maryland would beat Penn State in football. Maryland could win . . . and the way things are changing in East Berlin, don’t rule Germany out, either.” Maryland and Penn State played to a 13-13 tie.

Devil of a time: The Hartford Whalers’ Pat Verbeek, formerly of the New Jersey Devils, on playing for fired Devil Coach Jim Schoenfeld last season: “He was treating me like a minor leaguer, like a fool out there. The coach said things to me that he shouldn’t have said, embarrassed me in front of the guys. The thing that bothered me the most was, when you made a mistake, the coach expected you wouldn’t (ever) make it again. For me, it settled into anger. Losing your confidence, you can’t do anything right. Then frustration. It got to the point where I just said, ‘Forget it.’ ”

One thousand points of spite: Chicago Bull Coach Phil Jackson on the Detroit Pistons’ rough style of play: “That’s who they are. They want to do that on the floor. It’s a product of coaching. Everyone would like to have a team like that, but it’s hard with fighting not an alternative. I don’t know what their practices are like, but I’d sure like to see them. Maybe they’re a kinder, gentler team when no one is watching.”

Trivia answer: North Carolina, with 24.

Quotebook: Don Larsen on his perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956: “The Yankees never gave me nothing for that. I had trouble getting a $2,000 raise the next year.”