He Has Found Another Rocket Somewhere in His Back Pocket

Rocket Who?: Expect Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz to whine--who wouldn’t?--about the loss of dazzling flanker and return specialist Raghib (Rocket) Ismail to the Canadian Football League. But help is on the way, much to the dismay of Indiana’s Bill Mallory, whose team opens at South Bend, Ind., Sept. 7.

In the recent 61st annual Blue Gold Game, Notre Dame’s version of a spring scrimmage, sophomore flanker Clint Johnson returned five kickoffs for a total of 220 yards, including a 96-yard touchdown run. He also had the longest reception of the day for his Gold team, a 28-yard play.

After the touchdown return, the Blue team was instructed to quit kicking the ball to Johnson, who, coincidentally, is 5-10, 175 pounds--the same as Ismail.

The similarities, though, end at the nicknames. Johnson is called, “Cosmic,” not “Rocket Jr.”

Roundball with Lou: According to the South Bend Tribune, Holtz is happy as Notre Dame’s football coach and never was interested in pursuing the once-vacant basketball opening made possible by Digger Phelps’ recent “resignation.” However, Holtz kiddingly said he might be interested in a future coaching job with the government.

Say what?

“I really wanted to coach a basketball team for several reasons,” Holtz said. “I coached basketball when I was doing my student teaching. I coached basketball at Kent (Ohio) High School and I might tell you I thought I was a pretty good basketball coach. I know this, my shooting improved (while) coaching basketball. I’d like to coach basketball for the Postal Service, that way they’d only require one nasty letter. If they were going to reach the basketball coach and myself, they could confine it to one letter.”

Trivia time: Center Bill Russell led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive national championships and went on to win 11 NBA championships with the Boston Celtics. Name the three other players who were on an NCAA title team and followed it up with an NBA championship the next season?

Making up is hard to do: If Raider rookie Todd Marinovich proves the critics wrong and develops into a productive NFL quarterback, owner Al Davis once again will bask in the glory of yet another gutsy draft day gamble. Of course, there are some people who might be a little slow to congratulate Davis. The rips come courtesy of the book, “Football’s Greatest Quotes.”

From former Raider quarterback Ken Stabler: “I’d like to bury the hatchet--right between Al Davis’ shoulder blades.”

From former Cleveland Brown coach Sam Rutigliano: “He’s the kind of guy that would steal a guy’s eyeballs and then tell him he looks better without them.”

From writer Hunter S. Thompson: “He makes Darth Vader look like a punk.”

Trivia answer: Earvin Johnson, Henry Bibby and Billy Thompson.

Quotebook: Owner Ted Turner of the Braves, as quoted by I.J. Rosenberg of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, during a pregame speech to his surprising team: “Hey, guys, nice going. A real baseball team. I was sick of losing. Ya’ll don’t know what it is like, because you’re new . . . and good. We’ll be playing in October.”