Even in the Great Indoors, Stars Were Bigger Than Life

Before UCLA, with Lew Alcindor, played Houston, led by Elvin Hayes, in the Astrodome 25 years ago in a game that has been credited with creating national interest in college basketball, Houston Coach Guy Lewis had to convince Judge Roy Hofheinz, owner of the stadium and the Houston Astros, that spectators would pay to watch basketball in such a large setting.

What did Lewis say to convince him?

“ ‘Judge, people sit up here and see baseball players down there and all of my players are bigger than your baseball players,’ ” said Lewis, relating the conversation to Wendell Barnhouse of the Ft. Worth Star Telegram. “ ‘And you play with a little ol’ baseball, we play with a big ol’ basketball.’ ”

Said Hofheinz: “By golly, you’re right. Let’s work on it.”

The game drew 52,963, a record that lasted 19 years.

Trivia time: Who was the Lakers’ leading scorer for the 1971-72 season, when their 69-13 record was the best in NBA history?

Doubleheader: Michael Murphy of Lancaster, who ran in the first six Los Angeles marathons, missed last year’s race because his son was in the hospital with food poisoning.

He plans to make up for it, though, by running the course in reverse, starting at 5 in the morning of this year’s race on March 7, and finishing in time to run the regularly scheduled race, which will start at 9:10 a.m.

Role model: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a 6-foot-3 junior guard and son of the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, wears No. 33 at Brentwood School, but told Basketball Times that his first choice was No. 40.

“That’s Shawn Kemp’s number,” he said.

Halfway there: No team has ever gone 0-18 in Pacific 10 Conference play, but Oregon, which will play USC Thursday night at the Sports Arena and UCLA Saturday at Pauley Pavilion, is 0-9 after losing to Oregon State last Saturday.

Passing the puck: An anonymous King player told the Toronto Globe & Mail: “How could we possibly give up a defenseman of (Paul) Coffey’s caliber for a guy like Jimmy Carson? Coffey is one of the best skaters in the game and the best long passer. We lose him on the power play and got Carson up there. But we have already got Luc Robitaille. That means passes had better be right on the tape because if we ever lose possession, neither one of those two is going to get the puck back.

“Coff had some problems defensively, but everybody knew what they were. So you just make sure that his partner can get the puck to him. Then he takes off. Who’s going to bring up the puck now?”

Get your motor running: Outlaw Biker, a motorcycle magazine, reportedly has been trying to persuade bike enthusiast Gabriela Sabatini to appear as its cover girl.

Trivia answer: Gail Goodrich, who averaged 25.9 points, 0.1 more than Jerry West.

Quotebook: Coach Rick Pitino of Kentucky, asked if there is any chance that junior Jamal Mashburn won’t make himself available for this year’s NBA draft: “That’s like saying the tooth fairy will be here tomorrow. He’s going hardship.”