He’s Throwing the Book at the Sooners Again

“The Games Behind the Game,” a book by Walter Byers, executive director of the NCAA from 1951 to 1987, will be published in late summer or early fall of 1991.

According to the Associated Press, the book “will deal with his suggestions for reform in collegiate athletics as well as look at the personalities, economic power and politics that influence intercollegiate sports.”

Is it ironic--or fitting--that “The Games Behind the Game” will be published by the University of Oklahoma Press?

He broke the story: There was Woodward, there was Bernstein and now there’s Bailey.

Arnold Bailey of the Providence Journal-Bulletin, another in the growing legion of collectibles columnists, wrote in his “Collector’s Corner” of Dec. 8: “Way back on Oct. 7, we provided a peek at what Topps is planning for 1991--a special 40th anniversary production that mixes 792 new cards with bonus samples of every card produced during the past four decades.”

Trivia time: There have been no tie games in the NFL this season. When was the last time the league went a full season without a tie?

Way back payback: After Miami’s recent 23-20 overtime victory over Philadelphia, the Dolphins’ Jim Jensen said teammate Jeff Cross told him an Eagle had said Coach Buddy Ryan offered $100 to the defensive player making the best hit on Jensen.

Said Ron Howard, the Eagles’ media relations director: “This has absolutely nothing to do with Buddy Ryan. Our players felt Jim was a jerk. There was no bounty on him, but our players thought, yeah, if we can get a good shot on him within the legality of the rules and in the spirit of play, they would take one.”

Howard said the Eagle players were angry at Jensen for playing too rough in an off-season “Best of the Beach” basketball game in Jamaica.

Add “bounty”: Wednesday, the Eagles wore T-shirts that read, “Buddy’s Bounty Hunters.”

Said guard Mike Schad: “We just found them in our lockers today. Buddy said an anonymous guy brought them in in a box and gave them to the PR department.”

Said Ryan: “Nobody gave me one.”

Dallas Coach Jimmy Johnson, who last year accused Ryan of putting a bounty on Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman and kicker Luis Zendejas, commented on the T-shirts: “Was that the bounty on us or was that the one on (Jensen) we heard about this year?”

The Cowboys and Eagles play Sunday in Philadelphia.

Trivia answer: 1985.

Quotebook: Princeton basketball Coach Pete Carril, explaining his team’s deliberate style: “We’re not very fast. It’s like Whitey Ford. The guy didn’t have a fastball, so he’s gotta throw spitballs.”