Overheating Not a Problem That Is Confined to the Car

The common belief that stunt people and race car drivers are daredevils couldn’t be farther from the truth, claims Will Harper, who is both.

“The same type of person probably is going to be good at both, but the wild and crazy guy isn’t going to be good at either,” says the Tarzana stock car driver who has done movie and TV stunt work. “A hotheaded stuntman is going to be in the hospital and a hotheaded race car driver will wind up in the wall.”

Trivia time: Who was the first woman to earn points in a Formula One world championship Grand Prix?

Pressure: “When we lost to Purdue, or when Stanford wins, I find an article about (Stanford Coach) Bill Walsh taped to my front door,” Keith Gilbertson, California football coach, told Art Spander of the San Francisco Examiner. “I think somebody who knows where I live is trying to tell me something.”

Archery, anyone? Glenn Parker, a noted designer and builder of bows, was asked to compare primitive longbows with the shorter S-shaped recurved bows and the unaesthetic cable-and-pulley compound bows used today.

“To put it in firearms terms that most sportsmen can relate to,” he said, “a longbow is like a smooth-bore muzzle-loading rifle compared to to a recurve bow, which is more like a 30-30 saddle gun when compared to a compound bow which is the bow-hunting equivalent of a bolt-action 7mm magnum with a variable power Leupole scope.”

Sounds about right.

History lesson: The huddle in football originated at Gallaudet University in Washington, a school for the deaf. By closing in a circle, the deaf players could sign to one another in private.

Not worth it: The new owners of the Pebble Beach golf course have pulled out as hosts of the 1994 U.S. Amateur tournament because they didn’t want to lose all those $200 greens fees for eight days of practice, qualifying and match play.

Sweet talk: One of the public relations staff for the Hawaiian Super Gran Prix motor race is named Sweetie Aiwohi, which has already caused nervous moments for several drivers who answered calls from her with “Hi, Sweetie.” It took some explaining to convince their wives that Sweetie really was her given name.

Mr. Consistency: One of the knocks against John Daly was that by over-swinging on nearly every shot, he didn’t have enough control of his game to win consistently, that his victory in the 1991 PGA was a fluke. Not only did Daly come back to win the B.C. Open last month, he played 56 consecutive holes without a bogey.

Trivia answer: Lella Lombardi of Italy with a sixth at the Spanish Grand Prix in 1975.

Pick and choose: National Dragster, house publication of the National Hot Rod Assn., recently advertised an opening for an editorial staffer. The response, in addition to applications from professional and free-lance writers, included those from mechanics, air-conditioning technicians, computer programmers, a clothing buyer for ritzy Giorgio Armani of Beverly Hills and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army whose list of combat decorations filled 13 lines on his resume.

Quotebook: Former umpire Ron Luciano: “Umpiring is best described as the profession of standing between two 7-year-olds with one ice cream cone.”