Perhaps He Found Notes From an Old Pep Talk in There

Stanford Coach Bill Walsh is exhilarated over his team’s 33-16 upset victory of Notre Dame last Saturday at South Bend, Ind.

“Notre Dame has an intimidating football team,” Walsh said. “It has a great crowd and a hallmark stadium. . . . I may have used the restroom Knute (Rockne) did.”

If so, Rockne didn’t use it often. Notre Dame Stadium was constructed in time for the 1930 season. Rockne died in an airplane crash on March 31, 1931.

Trivia time: Stanford scored 33 consecutive points to beat Notre Dame. Name another Pacific 10 Conference team to score as many, or more against the Irish.

Cheap shot? An advertisement in Tuesday’s Times congratulated the Dodgers on losing 99 games. The ad was placed by “99 Cents Only Stores.”

Cheap shots: Jerry Rice, San Francisco 49er receiver, was knocked out of the season opener against the New York Giants with a concussion and has been pounded by defensive backs this season.

“I told the trainers they needed to design a certain helmet for my head because I’m getting TKO’ed out there,” Rice said. “If (defenders) get an opportunity to hit on me, they try to take me out.”

One of a kind: Tommy Henrich, a New York Yankee teammate of Joe DiMaggio from 1937 to 1950, subtracting World War II years, said:

“In all that time, I never once saw (DiMaggio) throw to the wrong base.”

The new breed: Red Auerbach, president of the Boston Celtics, turned 75 Sept. 20. Noting changes in the NBA over the years, he said:

“Years ago when a guy would come to practice, he’d have a gym bag with his own stuff in it. Today (players) come to practice with an attache case and they can’t wait sometimes for practice to be over so they can meet somebody to talk about a commercial or business transaction or investment.”

Refund demanded: Seton Hall Athletic Director Larry Keating on the Syracuse basketball team’s two-year probation for NCAA violations: “Does this mean they give us back those last 15 games they beat us?”

The Frying pan: Mike Deupree, a columnist for the Cedar Rapids Gazette in Iowa, chides Iowa Hawkeye Coach Hayden Fry:

“Not a season goes by without a Fry tantrum directed at some hapless reporter who dares treat the Hawks as mortals.

“This year was a record of sorts, not only because the tirade came in the first week of the season, but because it was directed at a newspaper column he later admitted he hadn’t even read. Somebody told him it was critical; enough said.”

Trivia answer: USC scored 55 consecutive points to beat Notre Dame, 55-24, in 1974 after trailing, 24-0, just before halftime.

Quotebook: PGA Tour player Greg Twiggs: “We really have to play with 15 clubs. We have 14 in our bag and the 15th is in our head.”