VIEWPOINT / LETTERS : Coalition and Writer Haven’t Bowled Over College Football Fans

Gene Wojciechowski’s praise of the bowl coalition (Dec. 6) is as misguided as his game predictions. Without the coalition, Alabama and Miami still would have met for last year’s title. This season, without the inflexible coalition, we could have had the top four teams playing each other--Florida State-Nebraska and Notre Dame-West Virginia.

The coalition is a bad joke, and Gene seems to be the only scribe who doesn’t get it.

DON GALIAS

Pacific Palisades

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Gene Wojciechowski attributes to Lou Holtz the statement, “The Irish always preferred to play (in bowl games) the highest ranked team available, regardless of bowl revenue.” As is the case with many statements by Holtz, this is completely false. Indeed, Holtz won his only national championship by ducking the highest-ranked team available so his team could play and beat a lower-ranked team.

In 1988, Notre Dame was ranked No. 1 and Miami No. 2. Miami’s only loss was to Notre Dame at South Bend, when the officials made some curious calls. Notre Dame went on to play West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. West Virginia was unbeaten but ranked behind Miami.

Notre Dame won easily, being the first top-ranked team in my memory to win the national championship while not playing in its bowl game the highest-ranked team available.

MARK A. WOOSTER

Los Angeles

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Michigan’s Fab Five are derided by Gene Wojciechowski for merely finishing second as freshmen and sophomores and the Fab Four are dismissed for ‘93-’94. But soon they will be No. 1, thus validating the message of the prophet Bo Schembechler: “Those who stay will be champions.”

DONALD F. REEVES

Rancho Palos Verdes

That’s Not Enough, More on the Bowls

Thank heavens NBC has the rights to the Orange Bowl. The ABC programming brain surgeons would no doubt black out the national championship game between Florida State and Nebraska in favor of a Big Ten-Pac 10 intramural basketball game.

WALTER WARD

Los Angeles

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A West Virginia public relations man who once worked for the governor was quoted in today’s paper (Dec. 4) as saying, “West Virginia has been kicked and maligned for years--the old dumb hillbilly portrayal. . . . “

He then goes on to express the feeling that the University of West Virginia football team’s ranking in the polls is important to changing that image. If West Virginians feel that their self-worth is determined by how well their university’s football team does, then West Virginia has more problems than the football team’s ranking in the polls.

WILLIAM HOMANN

San Marcos

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Now that happy days have come to the University of Wisconsin, can we expect Richie, Potsie and Ralph to be the honorary captains of the football team on Jan. 1?

HOWARD COHEN

North Hills

A Brief History of Rams’ Troubles

Early 1980s--The Rams play hardball with Vince Ferragamo, disrupting his career and their best shot for a second Super Bowl appearance.

Mid 1980s--Eric Dickerson gets NFL-record 2,105 yards in 1984 and Rams negotiate him out of town by 1987--in his prime.

1986--Jim Everett becomes a Ram and watches management trade Dickerson, force holdout by Henry Ellard, let Pete Holohan leave, let Greg Bell leave, lose Gerald Perry to the Raiders and question why Everett can’t get them to the Super Bowl.

Come on, Georgia, give your quarterback the luxury of a running game, a possession receiver and a defense that ranks in the top 10. And don’t make lifelong Ram fans your guinea pigs in an experiment on how to make basic business blunders over and over and still profit in a thriving industry by moving to Baltimore.

RENE MOLINA

Laguna Niguel

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Ted Tollner, good riddance!

Anyone who convinced Ram management that Jim Everett was a franchise player should have turned in his resignation long ago.

Coming from USC, I suppose his thinking was anyone who threw the ball was a franchise player.

BILL BECKER

Whittier

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I am sick and tired of all these snide and sarcastic letters about the Rams. These must be from the same jerks who boo Jim Everett on Sunday and come to the games with pumpkins on their heads. I often wonder how they make enough money during the week to afford tickets or how they find the stadium consistently. Most of the true fans show up week after week, suffering in silence but sure that better days are coming.

SID KARSH

La Canada-Flintridge

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Georgia and John Shaw:

Please take the Rams to Baltimore. Then Disney could bring us a new team, to be named “The Mouse That Scored.”

JOHN S. BELLINGER

Santa Barbara

Expansion Brings Joy and Disbelief to Fans

This is a response to Jim Murray’s column of Dec. 2, “They Name Fat Cat No. 30 the Jaguars.”

I wasn’t in the Gator Bowl when Robert Irsay’s helicopter landed. I was too young to go, so I watched it on TV, and like many residents of northeast Florida, I was full of hope. I can recall many times when Jacksonville seemed on the threshold of nabbing an unhappy NFL franchise, only to find out yet again that we were merely being used as a pawn.

I think living in Southern California, one tends to forget what it’s like not to have a local team, football in particular. You’ve got to understand, what basketball is to Indiana, football is to that area.

At this moment, I’d have to say that Jacksonville is the happiest place on earth. Could anything short of a Super Bowl victory from either of our teams bring that to L.A.?

CHRIS CANTORE

La Crescenta

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More expansion in football? Are they insane? As if we don’t suffer enough with teams like the Rams, San Diego, Cincinnati, New England, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay and others. There simply are not enough quality football players to fill 30 teams. I would like to see them get rid of five or six teams.

ROGER FERGUSON

Van Nuys

They Fail to Address Clippers’ Biggest Problem

Am I missing something? The Clippers will not look for another center with the loss of Stanley Roberts for the season. Instead they will activate guard Randy Woods, the smallest man on the roster.

I suspect Elmore Spencer and Bob Martin are both sincere, hard-working young men. I wish them well. But neither has the experience and skills to replace the backup center of an NBA team, much less be a starter on one.

ANDREW J. BYRNE

Alhambra

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Mark Heisler’s article on Bill Laimbeer’s retirement states that in his 14 NBA seasons, Laimbeer never backed down. But I can recall at least one instance when he did.

It was during a playoff game against the Boston Celtics. Laimbeer had been doing his usual hack job against Robert Parish. The Chief finally had enough and gave Laimbeer several whacks upside the head, knocking him to the floor. Laimbeer simply got up and trotted meekly to his position.

Said Parish, after he was fined: “It was the best $10,000 I ever spent.”

DOUG PALAU

Santa Monica

Talk About Kicking Him While He’s Down . . .

If I were Pat Knight’s father, I would have a little talk with his coach.

BOB BRIGHAM

Manhattan Beach