Liberty Dance Ended by Bolt of Carolina Blue

When Liberty University won the Big South tournament and an NCAA tournament bid, folks around Lynchburg, Va., had to look for other sobriquets for the event besides “The Big Dance.”

“Baptists don’t dance,” the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of Liberty in 1971, was quick to note. “But we’re going to dance this year. By special dispensation.”

Falwell brings to mind the Rev. Oral Roberts, who recruited long and hard for his school, but Falwell goes Roberts one better.

He provides entertainment at the Flames’ games.

During a recent home-game timeout, Falwell--captain of the 1956 Springfield (Mo.) Baptist College team--marched to the free-throw line and knocked down his shot. Nothing but net.

“When Brother Falwell swished that, the place just erupted,” said one school official to Newsday.

“But then,” the official confided, “after Brother Falwell made the free throw, he went back to the three-point line and shot an airball. I guess he should have quit while he was ahead.”

There’s a saying at North Carolina, Liberty’s first-round opponent: “If God isn’t a Tar Heel, how come the sky is Carolina blue?”

“We granted that, temporarily,” Falwell said.

Well, maybe a little longer: North Carolina 71, Liberty 51.

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Trivia time: Other than UCLA, how many West Coast schools have won the men’s NCAA Division I basketball championship?

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Spirits change sides: The Celtics, once thought to have mystical help at the Boston Garden, have found that ghosts can be impish, and they have given a name to the one that keeps their shots from going in. Said guard Dee Brown: “The Lottery Man is on top of the rim.”

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Why not? A caller’s question the other day seemed to stump KMPC’s Bob Rowe: Why would baseball hire Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) as commissioner? When the game needed a lawyer, Bowie Kuhn was the choice. When a marketing man was needed, Peter Ueberroth was a natural. When a fan was sought, Bart Giamatti was an easy pick. When Giamatti died, Fay Vincent, his friend, simply moved in. Why Mitchell? Baseball’s greatest fear is the loss of its antitrust exemption through Congressional action. Hence, the need for a man in Washington.

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It worked once: Everybody worries about injuries to key players in spring training, but Baltimore General Manager Roland Hemond puts them into perspective--sort of--from experience.

“I remember when I was with the (Milwaukee) Braves, we acquired Bobby Thomson and he broke his ankle in spring training,” Hemond said. “We had to call up a kid who wasn’t even with us in camp--a kid named Hank Aaron.”

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In case you missed it: Stanford had the No. 1 recruiting class in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball for the third consecutive year in an annual ranking by Volleyball magazine. Notre Dame was No. 2.

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Trivia answer: Four: Oregon in 1939, Stanford in 1942, San Francisco in 1955 and ‘56, and California in 1959.

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Quotebook: Coach Nolan Richardson on Arkansas fans: “You know how fans will say if you cut ‘em, they bleed school colors? Cut these people open, they don’t bleed, little hogs run out.”