Cal State Northridge Planning a Real Shakeup With Moniker

Miami has the Hurricanes, Alabama the Crimson Tide, UC Santa Cruz the Banana Slugs and Iowa State the Cyclones, so why not the Quakes for Cal State Northridge?

What started out as a playful suggestion, after the Jan. 17 earthquake, that the school change its nickname from the Matadors to Quakes, is becoming serious.

Basketball Coach Pete Cassidy, who has long winced at the existing moniker’s echo of an ignominious tactic--the “matador defense,” backs the change. So does Rodney Lazar, CSUN Associated Students vice president who drafted a formal resolution proposing the name change be put to a student vote on April 12-13.

“It would help the campus be recognized nationally,” Lazar said. “Everyone knows where Northridge is now.”

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Trivia time: When and where was the first NBA game played?

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Warm welcome: Former Texas football and track star James Lott went to the dinner to be inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame. Instead, he was arrested for outstanding warrants midway through the banquet.

Lott, an assistant track coach at Indiana, was called from the dais by being told there was a family emergency. When he stepped outside, McLennan County sheriff’s deputies arrested him.

“I don’t understand why they couldn’t have waited until afterward,” Lott said after being jailed briefly for an outstanding felony theft-by-check warrant from Travis County and warrants in Fayette County for speeding and failure to appear in court. He posted $1,000 bail and paid the fines before being released.

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Waiting for him: Senior golfer Walt Zembriski said he expects Deane Beman, who has announced that he is retiring as commissioner of the PGA Tour at the end of next year, to leave the job within three months. “Then, he’s coming out on our tour,” Zembriski said. “There will be a number of guys out here who will enjoy beating (him).”

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Different ideas: Hakeem Olajuwon is an All-Star center, but the Houston player doesn’t think of himself as such.

“My game is putting things that guards and forwards do into a big man’s game,” Olajuwon told Hoop. “I don’t compare myself with 7-foot centers. My game is for those who like to shake and fake.”

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Different perspective: Arnold Palmer and Don January, a pair of 64-year-olds, were chatting on the practice tee at Ojai Valley during the GTE West Classic when Palmer asked, “How’s your health, Don?”

January, known as “Bones” on the senior tour, replied: “I don’t worry about my health. I’m just glad to be alive.”

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Losing winner: Dean Smith’s North Carolina basketball team keeps winning games, but the arena named after him keeps losing money.

Except for 1987-88, when a string of concerts helped it turn a profit, the $34-million Dean E. Smith Center has lost money every year since it opened in 1986. Last year, the arena lost $611,000, even though North Carolina won the NCAA basketball championship.

“It is at the critical point, because we cannot afford to continue the trend any longer,” said Jeff Elliott, Smith Center director.

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Trivia answer: Nov. 1, 1946, in Toronto, where the New York Knickerbockers beat the hometown Huskies, 68-66.

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Quotebook: Fred Couples, to the audience at a golf clinic: “As far as swing and techniques are concerned, I don’t know diddly squat. When I’m playing well, I don’t even take aim.”