This Prep Coach Has Traded Real Prose for Would-Be Pros

Football coaches don’t like being criticized by reporters, often claiming that writers don’t really understand the game.

Gary Gray is proving this year that writers might know more than coaches realize. A former news editor at the L.A. Daily News who worked 16 years as a journalist before changing careers, Gray, 41, is head coach at North Hollywood High. In his first year, he took a team that had scored only one touchdown during a 0-10 season last year and has turned it into a 3-0 team this season.

Gray’s experience as a football player was limited to one season on the junior varsity at Reseda High when he was in the 11th grade.

Look in the mirror: Gwen Torrance, the Olympic 200-meter champion, says she is looking for endorsements for her track successes--but not necessarily for the money.

“I’m not looking for (endorsements) monetary-wise, but to be on a billboard, life-size, and ride by and see myself up there,” she told the Atlanta Constitution. “That’s the epitome of endorsements to me.”

Trivia time: Who was the highest scoring American-born player in the NHL last season?

Beef on the hoof: The offensive line of undefeated Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa, averages 354 pounds. From tackle to tackle, they are 6 foot 7, 420; 6-7, 365; 6-3, 330; 6-3, 330, and 6-5, 325.

“We had to take them down to the grain store to weigh them,” Coach Mike Doyle said.

Remembering Ty: B. LaVange Smith of Claremont recalls a story involving Ty Cobb and one of his few close friends, catcher Gabby Street. After a night of partying in Philadelphia, Cobb tried to spike his friend the next day in a close play at home plate. The startled Street asked Cobb if he had deliberately tried to spike him.

“Of course I did,” Cobb snapped. “I would spike my grandmother if she blocked my way at the plate.”

Serious move: From Fly’s column in the Sporting News: “Here’s what’s wrong with the Angels: Their first move in reshaping a really, really, really bad team is to . . . fire the radio announcers.”

That’s progress: Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News quotes four-time discus gold medalist Al Oerter on the state of the Olympics: “I grew up in the Games when they were truly games. You didn’t bring an ego out on the track, and you didn’t have a sack of chemicals back in the dorm.”

Trivia answer: Kevin Stephens of Brockton, Mass., who plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He scored 54 goals and had 123 points.

High hopes: Janis Kanavin, consul and director of Norwegian information service for the United States, says that the organizing committee for the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics is expecting to sell about 100,000 tickets per day for the 16 days of the events--half to Americans.

Quotebook: Henry Blaha, Baltimore Rugby Club captain, on football: “They say that rugby is a beastly game played by gentleman, soccer is a gentleman’s game played by beasts and that football is a beastly game played by beasts.”