Granddaddy Isn’t Ready for Social Security

Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was upset that undefeated Penn State was stuck in the Rose Bowl playing Oregon.

“It’s appropriate that the Rose Bowl has become known as the ‘Granddaddy of them all,’ ” Smizik wrote before the game. “Most certainly no bowl game is deeper into senility.

“The Rose Bowl lost its way a long time ago. It talks too much about its glorious past and doesn’t think enough about its future. Once it was the biggest and the best. Now it’s only the Granddaddy.”

Hey, Bob, the Rose Bowl crowd of 102,247--largest of any bowl game--might not agree with you.

Trivia time: When was the last year that UCLA finished the regular season as the No. 1 ranked team in the Associated Press basketball poll?

Here they come: Remember Earnie Shavers? Well, he wants to fight George Foreman.

“I’m four years older than him, 30 pounds lighter and I hit 10 times harder,” said Shavers, who turned 50 Aug. 31 and retired in 1981. Foreman will be 46 on Jan. 10.

“It would be two preachers fighting,” Shavers told Ed Schuyler of the Associated Press, “and I’m the baddest preacher. Tell him, I’ll fight with one hand--the left hand.”

Who’s counting?Warren Sapp, the University of Miami’s outstanding defensive tackle, must have lost his calendar. He said Tuesday that he will make himself available for the NFL draft.

However, three days before the new year, the junior lineman hinted he would stay in school for his senior season, saying, “I’ve been poor for 22 years. Another 368 days isn’t going to hurt.”

Not this year: John Lucas, Philadelphia 76er coach, who tried to send Shawn Bradley back into a game in overtime after he had fouled out during the fourth quarter:

“I thought in overtime you got another foul.”

Party crashers: As 15,000 Nebraska fans crowded into the Bob Devaney Sports Center to greet the Cornhuskers after their Orange Bowl victory, public address announcer Steve Johnsen said: “Anybody who parked on the railroad tracks, the Lincoln police department wants you to move your car. The university would like you to report immediately for IQ testing.”

Financial note: Golf Digest reports that Bill Gates, the billionaire Microsoft magnate, prefers to buy used golf balls.

Sensitive: Cleveland Brown quarterback Vinny Testaverde: “I’m the type of guy who if a thousand people say I played great, I’ll ignore them for the one person who says I stunk. I remember the person who says I stunk.”

Opinion: Brian Burke, NHL vice president, on the labor dispute: “The players keep talking about all their concessions. When they put them on the table, you have to pick them up with a pair of tweezers.”

Trivia answer: 1975, when the Bruins went on to win their last NCAA championship.

Quotebook: Nick Faldo on John Daly’s prodigious drives: “My Sunday best is a Wednesday afternoon compared to him.”