With All This Coverage, TV Is Making Up for Lost Time

As inconceivable as it might seem in the blizzard of wonderful Olympic buzzwords like TripleCast, Dream Team and anchor-host, the Summer Games were not televised in the United States until 1960 and not shown live in this country until 1968.

The television rights fees CBS paid for the 1960 Games in Rome were $394,000 for 20 hours of coverage. For the Barcelona Games, NBC is paying $401 million and will carry 161 hours of programming.

Trivia time: Who won the men’s 200 meters at the 1988 Seoul Olympics?

Pretty funny: Someone in the Cal sports information department has a really good sense of humor, judging from what was written about All-Everything freshman basketball whiz Jason Kidd in the Bears’ summer prospectus: “ . . . could possibly earn the starting nod.” Possibly? The only thing that is preventing Kidd from a starting job is that practice hasn’t started yet.

Call Fred Astaire: How good an athlete was Jim Thorpe? In 1912 at Carlisle, he won the intercollegiate championship in ballroom dancing.

But they’re extinct: From Peter May of the Boston Globe: “Robert Parish has a new title. He’s president of the Dinosaur Society (they’re old and wear green, too.)”

Numbers game: Randy Johnson, Seattle Mariner pitcher, changed his number from 51 to 15 for one game and walked nine. So he switched back. Said Johnson: “I guess I can walk nine with any number.”

Resume city: There are nine new coaches in the NFL this season. Jack Pardee of the Houston Oilers is the dean of coaches in the AFC Central. He has been there two years.

Oddball: Baseball is a strange game, all right. When Kirby Puckett hit a foul off Tom Glavine in the first inning of the All-Star game, the ball was caught in the stands by Fred Glavine, Tom’s father.

And Bob Dylan: How can the Minnesota Twins afford not to sign Kirby Puckett? When the Minnesota delegation was called for the vote during the Democratic Convention, the delegation spokesman said: “Minnesota, the state of Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey and Kirby Puckett . . . “

Vote for Todd: Don Pierson of the Chicago Tribune, writing in Don Heinrich’s Pro Preview ‘92, said this about Todd Marinovich: “The Raiders peeked at their future by sacrificing their present, starting the raw rookie ahead of Jay Schroeder at playoff time.

“Marinovich wasn’t ready, but the Raiders may have a head start on the pack for 1992 and beyond.”

Trivia answer: Joe DeLoach of the United States in an Olympic record 19.75.

Quotebook: From Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder Andy Van Slyke on Pittsburgh’s newspaper strike: “Rigor mortis has set in on my vocal box.”