Outrage Makes Mountaineer Out of Molehill

They hung a bra on the Mountaineer statue at the University of West Virginia this week. They made buttons and bumper stickers saying: “We don’t want a Mountaindear. Give us back our Mountaineer.”

Natalie Tennant won a “cheer-off” last spring and was named West Virginia’s first female mascot.

Tennant will make her debut today when West Virginia opens its football season at home against Kent State.

She told the Associated Press that she expects to be booed. After she won the cheer-off, she said, students began chanting: “Go back to the kitchen!”

Said Tennant: “They didn’t know that I can’t cook.”

Trivia time: Who is the only major league player to hit a home run in each of the first four games of a season?

Mr. Science: At 74, Jerry Barber, golf pro at Griffith Park, is the oldest regular player on the senior tour.

In a recent tournament, Barber approached the green after hitting a good approach shot. When the applause faded, he turned to the gallery and said, “That shot comes from 50 years of research.”

Back door blues: England’s Peter Elliott reached today’s final of the 1,500-meter run in the European Track and Field Championships at Split, Yugoslavia, by way of a jury decision. Officials ruled that Elliott’s fall 600 meters from the finish of his semifinal heat Thursday was caused by East Germany’s Hauke Fuhlbruegge, who was disqualified.

Representatives of Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands, who among them have seven finalists, filed a joint protest, asking for Elliott’s removal, citing a rule that requires a finalist to finish the semifinal.

Elliott told John Rodda of the Guardian: “In my heart of hearts, I don’t really think it is right that I’m in the race. I didn’t run right through to the finishing post.”

Add Elliott: His left arm, strained in the fall, is heavily bandaged down to his fingers.

He told Rodda: “The problem is I can’t do up my shoelaces, but Crammie (England’s Steve Cram) has promised to tie them for me when we get on the track.”

Wrote Rodda: “Separately, one hopes.”

Brain trust: In the closing seconds of Tulane’s football game against Memphis State in 1989, Tulane Coach Greg Davis told quarterback Deron Smith to call the next play at the line of scrimmage--either a pass against an eight-man front or a run against a seven-man front.

Smith threw a touchdown pass for a 38-34 victory.

Davis recently recalled his conversation with Smith after the quarterback came off the field:

“How many down linemen did they have?” Davis asked.

“Three,” Smith said.

“How many outside linebackers?”

“Two.”

“How many inside linebackers?”

“Two.”

“Deron, that’s seven,” Davis said.

“You’re right, coach,” Smith said. “If I was as smart as you, we’d have lost the game.”

Feat of Clay?: Cleveland Brown linebacker Clay Matthews, who ended his five-week holdout Thursday and will report to practice Monday, was unconcerned when asked whether he would be ready for the Browns’ season opener against Pittsburgh Sept. 9.

Said Matthews: “Anybody can play with five warm-up games. It takes a man to play in one week.”

Trivia answer: Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants, April 6, 7, 8 and 10, 1971.

Quotebook: Washington Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs, when asked by reporters whether he planned to keep Earnest Byner as his starting fullback or replace him with Gerald Riggs: “You’ll be the last to know.”