If Bruins Are the Standard, He’s Optimistic

Bill Walsh, Stanford’s football coach, is optimistic about his team this season, saying that the Cardinal may have the best talent since the John Ralston era in the 1970s.

“A lot depends on the conference,” Walsh told Glenn Dickey of the San Francisco Chronicle. “If there is a great team out there, well, we can’t compete with that.

“But if the standard is UCLA, a team we probably should have beaten last year, well, we can compete with them.”

Bulletin board stuff for the Bruins, who will play the Cardinal on Oct. 29?

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL single-season scoring record?

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Yum-yum: A popular ice cream flavor in University Park, Pa., is Peachy Paterno, named after Penn State football Coach Joe Paterno, who is reportedly fond of peaches.

Be advised, though, not to call Paterno “Peaches.”

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Omen? Last year, the Houston Oilers got off to a 1-4 start before rallying to get into the playoffs.

Before the Oilers lost to Indianapolis on Sunday, 45-20, wide receiver Ernest Givens said, “If we start out bad again, it will be a disaster. We won’t be able to overcome it this time.”

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Yawn: Kory Hallas, leading scorer last month for the Canadian team in the World Championship of Basketball in Toronto, on the placid reaction of Canadian fans:

“It’s just the way we are. We are boring people.”

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Only 60%? Some results of a Golf Digest poll of 52 college golfers:

--75% said they would dress like Payne Stewart for $200,000 a year.

--60% said they would rather give up golf than sex.

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Say what?: From a Q and A column in the London-based Independent newspaper on cricket:

Q: Are left-handed batsmen inherently elegant or is it merely an illusion prompted by their relative exoticism?

A: A right-arm-over-the-wicket bowler is likely to leave the southpaw more room outside the off-stump to play off and cover drives. If he straightens his line a little, he is apt to find the ball whistling past midwicket.

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Tunnel vision: Atlanta wide receiver Andre Rison says he doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

“That’s probably because I’m an underground receiver,” he said. “You’ve got your commercial receivers, then you’ve got your underground receivers. Just like music. You’ve got commercial music, you’ve got underground music.”

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Borrowed time: Bill Parcells, New England Patriot coach, recently celebrated his 53rd birthday.

“I thought I’d be shot or hung by the time I was 40 anyway, so it’s no big deal,” he said.

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Looking back: On this day in 1892, James J. Corbett knocked out John L. Sullivan in the21st round in New Orleans to win the first world heavyweight title fought with gloves under the Marquess of Queensbury rules.

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Trivia answer: Paul Hornung of Green Bay, with 176 points in 1960. Hornung, a running back, also was a kicker that season. He scored 15 touchdowns, 41 extra points and 15 field goals.

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Quotebook: NBC’s Mike Ditka on Fox TV’s Jimmy Johnson: “If my hair can look better than his I’ll have it made.”