A Case of Cabin Fervor Helped to Produce These NFL Coaches

Jerry Glanville, new coach of the Atlanta Falcons, and Joe Bugel, new coach of the Phoenix Cardinals, were roommates while working as assistant coaches at Western Kentucky. They shared a log cabin that had only one bed and no heating.

“We flipped a coin to see who got the bed, and he won,” Glanville told the Pittsburgh Press. “I had to sleep on the floor on newspapers. He could roll me over on Sundays and read the funnies off my back.”

Said Bugel: “The only things we ever ate were pizza and doughnuts. And after dinner we’d sit and talk and draw up plays on those pizza boxes. Jerry doesn’t know it, but I kept some of those pizza boxes. We play him this year, and I know what blitzes he is going to use.”

Add roommates: Said Glanville: “Joe was my hero because he had a car. He had a big, old Ford Thunderbird and I had to walk to work. And he was more handsome than me. He got all the girls.”

Trivia time: Illinois State basketball Coach Bob Bender is the answer to what trivia question?

Low profile: On the course, you would call him gregarious, but Lee Trevino told the Orlando Sentinel: “I’m really kind of a loner, not a partier anymore at all. Room service, putting on the carpet of my hotel room, a little TV, then bed.

“I don’t socialize with other golfers. Orville Moody’s maybe my best friend out here, but I’ve never had dinner with him. Tom Watson, a couple of times.

“But I wake up happy every morning when I know I’m going to play golf. That’s all I know; that’s all I want to do.”

For what it’s worth: For 14 years, Tom Harmon held the Ram record for longest punt return in a game. In 1947, he set a mark of 88 yards. In 1961, Dick Bass broke it with a 90-yard return, a record that still stands.

Whew!: Said Oklahoma Coach Billy Tubbs after the Sooners escaped with a 77-68 victory over Towson State in the first round of the NCAA playoffs: “Late in the game, I was confused as to who was No. 1 and who was No. 64.”

Timber!: Former Philadelphia 76er trainer Al Domenico, still marveling at the all-around prowess of Wilt Chamberlain, told the Philadelphia Daily News: “I remember one time he bet a guy he could bowl an entire game without using the finger holes. He palmed the bowling ball and still bowled over 100.”

Trivia answer: He is the only man to play in NCAA championship games for two different schools. He played for Indiana in its 86-68 victory over Michigan in 1975-76, and for Duke in its 94-88 loss to Kentucky in 1977-78.

Quotebook San Francisco Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius, saying reaction to his suggestion that the Giants trade Kevin Mitchell was split 50-50: “Half of them thought it was a terrible idea. The other half thought I had lost my mind.”