This School’s Football Fans Prove Doggedly Goal-Oriented

Twenty years ago, the words student unrest at the University of Washington meant blocking bridge traffic during rush hour on the day after the United States invaded Cambodia.

This week, students are demanding that they be allowed to tear down the goal posts at Husky Stadium if Washington defeats UCLA. After last year’s Apple Cup victory over Washington State, police used Mace to break up a postgame riot that included tearing down the goal posts.

Thursday’s edition of The Daily, the campus newspaper, included a letter from a student who listed, David Letterman-style, 10 reasons the university should let students demolish essential stadium hardware.

“Reason No. 9: Because they don’t want us to.

“Reason No. 7: Cal and Oregon did it when they beat UCLA.”

Add goal posts: Finally, the student invoked the name of Washington’s athletic director, who forbade the stadium announcer at last week’s Washington-Arizona game to give updates of the UCLA-Oregon score. A riotous student reaction was feared if it was announced that the Bruins had lost, clinching a Rose Bowl bid for the Huskies.

“Reason No. 1: Mike Lude. Mike Lude. Mike Lude.”

Last add goal posts: The paper reported that campus police had been instructed to remove the bridges across the “moat” separating the playing field from the stands, should students attempt to rush the field after the game.

Even Husky Coach Don James got into the act, writing a letter that appeared in Friday’s edition of The Daily. Abandoning the Letterman style and using strict numerical order, James listed five reasons the students should not tear down the goal posts, beginning with:

“No. 1: Because we are Huskies.”

Trivia time: Name the only person who played on an NCAA basketball championship team and an NBA championship team, was an assistant coach on an NBA champion and was head coach of an NBA champion.

Whoop, whoop, whoop: Lorenzo Benet, a relocated Boston Celtic fan, publishes Celtic Scene in Chatsworth. The unofficial newsletter’s October issue included an interview with character actor George Wyner.

At the end of his Laker-bashing wish list, Wyner throws in a “Special Award for Laker Fan of the Year: To Arsenio Hall for showing up in Phoenix wearing a Suns hat after they had eliminated the Lakers. Still, Hall is probably the most knowledgeable Laker fan, and he thinks Happy Hairston still starts in the frontcourt.”

You could tell: The Associated Press reported that the Peterborough Petes, severely hampered because 12 players were suffering from flu, skated to a 3-3 tie with the Belleville Bulls in a recent Ontario Hockey League game.

The wire service listed six Peterborough players who were too sick to play and added: “Brent Tully, Jason Dawe, Troy Stephens, Dale McTavish, Chris Longo and Chris Hunt suited up but were very weak.”

Trivia answer: K.C. Jones.

Quotebook: George Steinbrenner, former managing general partner of the New York Yankees, who was barred by Commissioner Fay Vincent from negotiating with free agents, when asked about Darryl Strawberry’s signing with the Dodgers: “I wouldn’t have let him get away.”