Photo Got Their Attention, but the Price Was Not Right

Under the headline “Cougars Zero In,” readers of the final Sunday edition of the Spokane Spokesman-Review found a shot of Washington Coach Jim Lambright being carried from the Orange Bowl by victorious Husky players after a victory over Miami.

It was supposed to be a photograph of Washington State Coach Mike Price leading his players in a salute to fans after the Cougars had beaten UCLA at the Rose Bowl.

Sports Editor Jeff Jordan said the newspaper received hundreds of calls from angry readers pointing out that Price does not wear purple.

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Add Cougars: “All these Washington coaches apparently look alike,” writes Mike Lopresti of USA Today.

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Trivia time: When did Washington State last play in the Rose Bowl game?

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Hold the mustard: Jackie Slater’s demonstration Sunday, mimicking Kansas City defensive end Neil Smith, recalled a game in which the veteran Ram offensive tackle became irritated with another NFL hotdog.

In a 1983 game against the New York Jets at Shea Stadium, Slater shoved Mark Gastineau on his backside for performing his sack dance over quarterback Vince Ferragamo after beating Slater for the sack.

Slater believes that hot dogs have a place: in a bun.

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Wind him up: Defensive coordinator Floyd Peters of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, describing rookie running back Marshall Faulk of the Indianapolis Colts:

“He’s electric. He’s a darting, water-bug type. He’s Bambi the deer bouncing around out there.”

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Put down: Joel Buchsbaum, sometimes identified as an NFL draft expert, is not too high on the prospects of USC quarterback Rob Johnson.

“I’m not sold on him,” Buchsbaum told Steve Schoenfeld of the Arizona Republic. “He’s too stat-conscious and holds onto the ball too long.”

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Rebuttal: Another view on the television documentary, “Baseball,” from Peter Gammons of the Boston Globe:

“Ken Burns didn’t spend years on ‘Baseball’ for the amusement of Beavis and Butt-head journalists whose idea of sports video is Don Cherry’s rock-’em sock-’em hockey.

“How great was seeing the entire at-bat when Babe Ruth hit his 60th?”

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Outraged: Gene Collier, taking a wry look at the NCAA Division II football poll in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“How anybody can rank Texas A & M Kingsville over Carson-Newman is beyond me.”

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Overheard: U.S. swimmer Jenny Thompson on possible steroid use by the Chinese women’s swim team:

“A few of us American women were in the locker room, and we heard people talking and we thought, ‘My God, there’s men in here.’ It was Chinese women swimmers.”

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Trivia answer: Washington State made its only Rose Bowl appearance in 1931. The Cougars lost to Alabama, 24-0.

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Quotebook: Edward Bennett Williams, late owner of the Baltimore Orioles, once said of his second-division team after a short winning streak: “That’s like a muscle twitch on a cadaver.”