They Know How to Coach a Long Drive

As NFL coaches, the Washington Redskins’ Joe Gibbs and the Atlanta Falcons’ Jerry Glanville have very little in common. For starters, Gibbs has won three more Super Bowls than Glanville. And then there are personality differences. Gibbs is low-key and analytical in his approach. Glanville is high-strung and emotional.

But they share a similar passion away from the game: stock car racing.

Gibbs will make his debut as a Winston Cup team owner in qualifying Sunday for the Daytona 500.

Glanville, as one might expect, wants to be a little closer to the action, a point he made Monday by doing about 30 laps in a Chevy Lumina at the North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham.

Glanville, 50, later told reporters that he signed up for the Buck Baker Driving School with the intention of getting a ride for the Goodwrench 200 Busch Series Grand National NASCAR race at the Rockingham track Feb. 29.

“I don’t golf, I don’t fish and I don’t hunt,” he said. “Instead of wanting to sink a 50-foot putt, I’d rather go into Turn 2 as hard as I can.”

Add racing coaches: Glanville showed up for his driving stint in Rockingham dressed in his usual black. His racing helmet, also black, bore the Falcon team logo on one side and the words “Elvis lives” on the back.

Trivia time: In their 25-year history, the Denver Nuggets have retired the numbers of only two players. Name them.

Doesn’t he read the Star? While attending this year’s Super Bowl, former Notre Dame football coach Dan Devine spent 20 minutes talking to a woman he did not know after the woman told him that she had been present at Devine’s last game as coach of the Irish, the 1981 Sugar Bowl.

According to Bob Jacobsen of the Arizona Republic, Devine had no clue who the woman was until he was later informed that he had been talking to Marla Maples, frequent companion of Donald Trump. Seems Marla was a student at the University of Georgia 11 years ago when the Bulldogs met the Irish in New Orleans.

Too much in a name? Fans of University of Colorado football are already fired up over the prospect of watching Koy Detmer, a high school quarterback from Mission, Tex., who is expected to sign with Buffaloes today. Detmer is the brother of 1990 Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer of Brigham Young and owns the Texas high school record for passing yards in a season (8,221).

However, one recruiting analyst, Costa Mesa-based Allen Wallace, says the Buffaloes should not get their hopes up over Detmer II.

“Colorado will get a lot of credit for (signing) Koy, but that may be because of his last name,” Wallace told John Henderson of the Denver Post. “In terms of elite quarterbacks around the country, he’s not one of them.”

Trivia answer: Dan Issel, the Nuggets’ all-time rebounding leader, and Byron Beck, one of the first players drafted by the franchise (then the Rockets of the old American Basketball Assn.) in 1967. The No. 33 worn by David Thompson, probably the greatest player in Nugget history, has not been retired because his career was marred by a drug problem.

Quotebook: Former UCLA and NBA star Bill Walton, on why he is still recognized during his travels as a broadcaster: “Well, I’m 6-11, have red hair, a big nose and walk with a limp.”