In a Few Years, She May Be a Football Widow

Amid the celebration of the USC football team, the disappointment of UCLA, the bands playing on both sides and the strange looks of curiosity from the players, the true center stage at the Rose Bowl--the 50-yard line--last Nov. 17 belonged to Keith Bereskin and Margaret Russell. He asked, she said yes.

One of the most memorable chapters of the USC-UCLA football rivalry became especially memorable for them after a friend helped get them onto the field moments after the game. Bereskin liked the idea because it was unique, but it didn’t hurt that the Bruins were involved--he has missed only four UCLA football games, home and away, since 1980.

“And 98,000 people came to our engagement,” he said.

For the big event, he thought of going to the Coliseum for the 1991 USC-UCLA game and a halftime wedding on the field, this time with permission and the opportunity to buy enough tickets for family and friends. They settled for June 22 in Orange.

“I was very tempted,” said Bereskin, a 1981 UCLA graduate. “But she squashed the idea right away.”

Trivia time: Baseball expanded by four teams in the early 1960s, two in each league. Name the player who has been with those four, and only those four, franchises in his career.

‘Canes will be ‘Canes: Proving they have a sense of humor to accompany their reputation, members of the University of Miami football team, who last season had a pregame fight with Kansas at the Orange Bowl and a during-game fight with Florida State at the Orange Bowl, concluded spring practice with an intrasquad game and brawl at the Orange Bowl.

It was all in a playful manner. But the orange team didn’t appreciate the white team running through its practice space, so the two sides mixed it up. It continued into the coin toss at midfield, where captains Anthony Hamlet and Hurlie Brown grabbed each other’s face mask and applied a few head slaps. Probably the Miami version of a handshake.

Said Dan LeBatard, who covers the Hurricanes for the Miami Herald: “It was the only part of their game that was in midseason form.”

Farm hands: We’re not talking the minor leagues here, but coming from down on the farm had its advantages. So said Bob Feller.

“There aren’t as many good arms in baseball,” the Hall of Fame pitcher told the Des Moines Register. “Most of the players in the past were brought up in a rural area on a farm or a ranch where they had to milk the cows, pick the corn by hand, work the fields and dig the post holes. That’s how we got our exercise. We had three good meals a day, then turned it into muscle while we were helping out on the family farm. We had no time for television. There were fewer distractions.”

Knick knock: The New York Knicks have had five coaches in the last five seasons and, going back another half a season to January 1986, five executives in upper-management positions, each with different titles but key decision-makers all.

“How can you blame the players for not achieving when the organization doesn’t know what it’s doing?” one playoff coach, requesting anonymity, told Jan Hubbard of Newsday. “That may be the craziest situation in the league. It’s a joke. An absolute joke.”

Trivia answer: Nolan Ryan, who pitched for the New York Mets, the Angels, the Houston Astros (formerly Colt 45s) and is currently with the Texas Rangers (formerly Washington Senators).

Quotebook: George Brett of the Kansas City Royals, on his play at the Bob Hope Golf Classic: “I was three over: One over a house, one over a patio and one over a swimming pool.”