Austrian Coach Struck by Case of Island Fever
If you are one of the millions who can’t locate the Faroe Islands, take heart. Before Wednesday, Austrian soccer Coach Josef Hickersberger probably couldn’t either.
Now he has a better idea of where they are, but it doesn’t matter. Austria lost to the Faroe Islands, 1-0, Wednesday in a European Championship qualifying game at Lanskrona, Sweden.
In Vienna, the leading Austrian newspaper, Kronenzeitung , ran a banner front-page headline: “0-1 vs. Island Team. Our Soccer Players--the Laughing Stock of Europe.”
Said Hickersberger: “A longer future with the team is hardly thinkable for me. I would like to step down at once.”
Add soccer: The Faroe Islands (population 46,000) are an autonomous Danish province located between Denmark and Iceland.
Said Coach Pall Gudlaugsson: “These are boys who live on barren islands in the middle of the Atlantic. They’re used to hard work and they have to fight for their living. That approach led us to victory tonight.”
Appropriately, the Faroes will open the European Championships on Oct. 10 in Copenhagen against Denmark.
Trivia time: Who was the first man to coach two Heisman Trophy winners?
Sharing the moment: It’s impossible, even for those who watch every New York Met game on WWOR, to keep up with the season-long cascade of Ralph Kinerisms.
One of his latest came during the Mets’ 12-2 victory over San Francisco on Aug. 30.
Said Kiner: “Darryl Strawberry with the grand slam home run. And it comes on the anniversary of his last grand slam home run--by Kevin McReynolds.”
Schooling the media: The newly spawned San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League won’t move into their new arena until 1993, but Tom McEnery, the city’s mayor, already smells blood.
McEnery told a news conference that Shark players will take the ice to the theme music from “Jaws,” as fans chant, “Shark attack! Shark attack!”
Said McEnery: “Can’t you just hear the music?”
Medical genius: During the NBC telecast of Sunday’s game in Chicago between the Bears and the Seattle Seahawks, commentator Bill Walsh, who coached the San Francisco 49ers in 1979-88, said Bear defensive tackle Dan Hampton should not have been playing.
After the game, when questioned by reporters, Walsh said: “(Hampton) shouldn’t be playing football ever again. He talks about his knees, they’re so stiff he can’t walk. The day before the game, they have to be drained. Every bit of cartilage is gone. He has arthritis. What will he be doing in 20 years? . . . He’s going to be in a wheelchair unless something’s done.”
Add genius: Said Hampton, a 12-year veteran returning from his 10th knee surgery: “I don’t have any doubts about what I can do this year. You know Bill, he’s got an awful high opinion of what he is and what he does. It looks like the 49ers really missed him a lot, so what can you say?”
Blind justice: After an appeal by the University of Arizona athletic department, the NCAA has restored the eligibility McCann Utu, the University of Arizona walk-on defensive back who posed nude for Playgirl magazine’s August issue and was identified as a member of the team.
Trivia answer: Ducky Pond of Yale, who coached 1936 Heisman winner Larry Kelley and 1937 winner Clint Frank.
Quotebook: Earl Morrall, recalling his role as the Baltimore Colts’ quarterback in Super Bowl III, when Joe Namath guaranteed victory for the New York Jets and led them to a 16-7 upset: “I was part of history. I was just on the wrong side.”
