Post Office Prognosticators Have Faces Shaded in Rebel Red

Post offices in Las Vegas canceled about 400,000 pieces of mail last Monday with the message, “UNLV National Champions, Las Vegas, NV.”

The postmark was made up before Duke upset the Rebels in a semifinal game the previous Saturday.

Las Vegas postmaster Joseph Ryan, a UNLV fan, says technically the postmark was right because the Rebels still were national champions until Duke won the title Monday night by beating Kansas.

“We were gambling on UNLV becoming national champs,” Ryan said. “Our ace in the hole was that we only ran it that one day, April 1, and on that day they were the national champs.”

Trivia time: Who was the only Kansas basketball coach with a losing record?

Those were the years: Bob Sudyk of the Hartford Courant predicts that 1991 will be a memorable baseball season because momentous events have happened in years that end in “1”.

1941--Joe DiMaggio had a 56-game hitting streak, and Ted Williams became the last player to bat over .400.

1951--Bobby Thomson’s dramatic home run lifted the New York Giants to a miracle comeback over the Brooklyn Dodgers and the National League pennant.

1961--Roger Maris endured a season-long, star-crossed struggle to surpass Babe Ruth’s home run record, hitting No. 61 in his next-to-last at-bat of the season.

1971--Outfielder Curt Flood retired prematurely in a challenge to baseball’s reserve clause, sounding the drum roll of its death, the birth of free agency and an escalation of salaries that continues today.

1981-- Baseball endured a 49-day players’ strike, creating an image of greed at the fans’ expense; saw the sad last hurrah of the once-noble New York Yankees in their last World Series appearance, and reveled in Fernandomania.

Trivia answer: Dr. James Naismith, inventor of the game, who compiled a 55-60 record as the Jayhawks’ first coach from 1898 to 1907.

What’s in a name?: Armon Gilliam, nicknamed Charmin by his Philadelphia teammates who think he’s too soft, is out to change his image.

With injured Charles Barkley and Rick Mahorn, the 76ers’ resident enforcers, out of a game against the Indiana Pacers, Gilliam had 22 points and 12 rebounds.

Running last: Zoe Koplowitz takes pride in having finished last in the last three New York City Marathons.

Her last-place times, ranging from 19 hours 15 minutes to 21 hours 35 minutes, are remarkable because Koplowitz has multiple sclerosis, a chronic and often disabling neurological affliction.

“I’m somewhere in Brooklyn when the pack passes me, and it’s always a thrill to see them go by,” said Koplowitz, who begins the race several hours before the official starting gun is fired. “I’ve been passed by some of the best.

“I’m not in it for the time. I do it for the personal satisfaction.”

No hits, no win: Chris Otten of Santaluces (Fla.) High pitched a no-hitter and lost because opposing pitcher Kory Kiper of Wellington (Fla.) pitched a no-hit shutout.

Kiper walked the leadoff batter, then retired 21 in a row for a 1-0 victory. Wellington scored in the bottom of the sixth inning when a throwing error by the Santaluces shortstop allowed an unearned run to score after three walks.

“I’ve been in the game about 25 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a double no-hitter,” Wellington Coach Scott Benedict said.

Quotebook: Billy Cunningham, on Wilt Chamberlain: “How would Wilt do today? All I can tell you is, he’d be the best center in the NBA, still be the dominant player in this league.”