Professor Says Celibacy Often Is Overrated

A timeworn topic, worthy of new consideration:

A University of British Columbia psychology professor wrote recently that having sex the night before a big competition can enhance an athlete’s performance.

Susan Butt, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Chicago, recently published her findings in Sports Medicine, a scientific journal in New Zealand.

Butt, a former Wimbledon competitor who was Canada’s top-ranked female tennis player in the 1960s, told Jon Ferry of Reuters that rhythm and timing are essential in both sex and sport.

She added: “In fact, many people refer to sexual activity as ‘a workout’ and sweating, breathlessness, flexing and unflexing and repetition are all parts of the process.”

Add night before: Butt cautioned: “Too much exhausting activity wouldn’t be recommended for anybody. . . . Sore and even pulled muscles after sexual activity are common.”

Noted.

Last add night before: Butt also told Reuters that merely because sex can be viewed as a sport to be mastered does not mean people should be promiscuous.

She said: “(Promiscuity is) not self-enhancing, it’s risky.”

Trivia time: Which player won the Heisman Trophy although his team won only two games that season?

Two-word caption: After USC quarterback Todd Marinovich was knocked to the ground during the Trojans’ 45-42 victory over UCLA Saturday, Daily Bruin photographer Suzanne States trained her lens on a gesture of sportsmanship: UCLA strong safety Matt Darby extending a hand to help Marinovich to his feet.

States’ photograph, which ran in the campus newspaper Monday, also shows Marinovich extending his hand in return--with the middle finger extended.

50-state dragnet: The NCAA News reported last week that King’s College of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., will renew its football program, which was discontinued in 1963.

Next fall, the Division III school (enrollment: 1,700) will play a junior varsity schedule for two years, then plans to compete in the Middle Atlantic States Athletic Conference.

Meanwhile, the NCAA News reported: “John J. Dorish, director of athletics, said a nationwide search for a head coach will continue until mid-December.”

The town weenie: Andre Agassi has been called a hotdog more than once, but after he won the ATP Championship Sunday, the Associated Press took a new approach: “FRANKFURTER, Germany--Stefan Edberg was No. 1 for 1990. On Sunday, he had to settle for being No. 2.”

The Iowa way: College football fans who watched ABC’s telecasts in the 1960s will recall Chris Schenkel’s immortal line, “What better way to spend an autumn afternoon?”

Time was, though, when that didn’t necessarily mean a Saturday afternoon.

Bob Hilton of the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette recently came across an account of Coe College’s 1905 season opener--played on a Tuesday.

Add Coe College: Hilton also noted that in 1905, standards of time and distance had a way to go.

From the Evening Gazette report of Coe’s opener: “The gritty little Presbyterians held the big farmers at Ames (Iowa State) to one touch-down in the first half and were within 12 feet of the Ames goal . . . when time was called.”

Paraphrasing the rest of the account, Hilton wrote: “Then Ames put in 14 fresh men, Coe only three, and ‘the big farmers’ scored four times in a 21-minute second half.”

Trivia answer: Paul Hornung of Notre Dame in 1956.

Quotebook: Tampa Bay quarterback Chris Chandler, who was sacked seven times in Sunday’s 31-7 loss to San Francisco: “By the fourth quarter, I was out of breath. I almost called time out, just so I could go over and rest.”