One Year After His Firing, a Fired-Up Smith Fires Back

Fired by USC and hired by Missouri, here’s what Larry Smith had to say, according to the Kansas City Star, about the football team he formerly coached:

“They hate to be called Southern Cal. That’s what I’m calling them now.”

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Add Smith: Here’s what Dan Devine, Missouri’s athletic director, had to say about his new coach:

“In a crunch ballgame, there’s nobody better than Larry Smith. Nobody ever was, or ever will be.”

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Last add Smith: Now this from Bernie Miklasz, columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

“We don’t know what to make of his year out of football. Smith drove around the nation, soothing a bad case of coaching burnout, getting in touch with nature and himself.

“This we know: Smith is fired up. He is hungry to coach again. And, if we can trust first impressions, Missouri seems to have located a coach who can fill a room with his presence.”

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Trivia time: What two NCAA Division I-A football teams have played the most games against one another?

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Slow learner: Mike Colandro’s temper got the better of him again when he was disqualified from the Coolum golf tournament in Australia after the third round. The American was only two strokes off the lead.

Colandro admitted to changing the shape of his putter--he bashed it on a sprinkler head and again on a cart path--in anger. He was disqualified from the $1-million Daikyo Palm Meadows Cup two years ago for the same violation.

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Deep-sixed: The Morgan State women’s basketball team made only six field goals in 64 attempts while losing to Louisiana Tech, 109-21, Friday night. Karla Warfield led the Lady Bears with six points--including a three-pointer.

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Just asking: If the Mighty Ducks ever play the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Stanley Cup, will it be called the Bird Series?

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Imagine that: There have been only nine unassisted triple plays in major league history, all with runners on first and second.

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Looking back: On this day in 1972, the Lakers gained their 27th consecutive victory by beating Baltimore, 127-120. The record streak ended at 33 on Jan. 9 in a 120-104 loss to Milwaukee.

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Marketing tool: Green jackets worn by Masters champions have received so much publicity that the Class A South Atlantic League baseball team in Augusta, Ga., hopes to capitalize on the notoriety. The Pirates, a Pittsburgh farm team, have changed their name to the GreenJackets for the coming season.

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Any takers? The United States is a 50-1 shot to win the World Cup, according to Ladbrokes of London. Germany is the favorite at 7-2.

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Advanced thinking: John Eisenberg of the Baltimore Sun has a novel suggestion for cutting down on NFL field goals. “You make a field goal, you kick off from the 20-yard line,” he wrote.

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Discovery channel: Author and golfing raconteur Dan Jenkins recently underwent an angioplasty procedure because of a heart blockage. In a memo to fellow staffers at Golf Digest, he wrote: “The balloon thing they did to my heart dislodged a pack of Winstons from one artery and a pound of Owens country sausage from another.”

Jenkins added that he has given up smoking and greasy foods.

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Trivia answer: Wisconsin and Minnesota, 103 games.

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Intimidation factor: Xavier basketball Coach Pete Gillen explains what it’s like to coach against Indiana: “When Bob Knight comes out and 40,000 red sweaters stand up, what do you think the officials do? Custer had a better chance at Little Big Horn. You don’t (run a) pick against Indiana in Indianapolis too often.”

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Quotebook: Bruce Coslet, coach of the New York Jets, on free agency in the NFL: “It’s like recruiting for college, only the money’s on the table instead of under it.”