He Put Charge Into Troops Once Before

San Diego Charger Coach Bobby Ross could have used a Super Bowl comeback Sunday like the one his 1984 Maryland team once unleashed.

At Miami that year, Maryland trailed, 31-0, at halftime before launching an NCAA-record comeback victory, 42-40.

Ross, after berating his team at halftime and threatening his players with a practice that night after the game, replaced starting quarterback Stan Gelbaugh with Frank Reich.

The Miami quarterback: Bernie Kosar.

Said Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson afterward: “This is the most disappointing loss I’ve ever been associated with.”

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Trivia time: Name two future Super Bowl most valuable player quarterbacks who played in a game at Pierce College on June 15, 1985.

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Name game: San Francisco’s Recreation and Parks Commission, which runs Candlestick Park, is trying to recruit private sponsors to pay for a $21-26-million renovation of the stadium.

Mayor Frank Jordan recently sent letters to eight corporations: the Gap, Chevron, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Pacific Telesis, AirTouch Communications, Charles Schwab and Transamerica.

This opens the possibility that Candlestick will lose its name. Are you ready for:

--Chevron Park?

--Schwab Schtadium?

--The Big Gap?

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Don’t forget Jimbo: Reader George Kiseda wonders if maybe Jim Thorpe couldn’t have been given at least an asterisk Sunday, when ABC announcers were trumpeting Deion Sanders’ becoming the first athlete to play in both a World Series and Super Bowl.

Thorpe played in one game of the 1917 World Series and also for the 1916 and 1919 Canton Bulldogs, acclaimed then as champions of pro football.

Kiseda: “It’s not Thorpe’s fault they didn’t call it the Super Bowl then.”

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Different strokes: Dallas Morning News columnist Blackie Sherrod wrote recently about the 50th anniversary year of golfer Byron Nelson’s 11 consecutive tournament victories. He pointed out critics often knock the feat by saying Nelson’s World War II-era competition was thin.

Responds Sherrod: “The most significant statistic is usually overlooked; Nelson’s scoring average during that stretch was 68.33 strokes, and on final rounds, it was 67.68. Those are fantastic numbers regardless of time, place or conditions.”

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Add Dallas: Frank Luksa of the Morning News asked Sonny Jurgensen last week if he could think of any way the Chargers could beat the 49ers.

“Can (Barry) Switzer coach the other team?” Jurgensen quipped.

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Irish No. 1: Notre Dame was given the No. 1 ranking for its recent football recruiting haul by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Topping Notre Dame’s list is Kory Minor, linebacker from La Puente Bishop Amat, named USA Today’s prep defensive player of the year.

The Sun-Times’ top 10: Notre Dame, Nebraska, Penn State, Auburn, Florida State, Texas A&M;, Florida, Tennessee, Illinois and USC.

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Doing it all: Boxing commentator Larry Merchant recalled a long ago conversation with baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial, who was discussing Babe Ruth.

Ruth, who died in 1948, would have been 100 Monday.

“Musial told me that on his all-time team, Ruth would hit third. . . . and pitch,” Merchant said.

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He’s got a future: Tony Kornheiser, in the Washington Post, writing about the hotel scene in Miami last week:

“I did run across one geek in my lobby, a 300-pound man wearing a dirty white T-shirt decorated with lightning bolts that said, ‘Thunder Thumpin’ Bolt Packin’ Butt Kickin’ Machine.’ A potential anchorman for ESPN4.”

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Trivia answer: Steve Young and Doug Williams, in the final home game of the U.S. Football League’s Los Angeles Express, against the Arizona Outlaws.

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Quotebook: John Helyer, commenting in the Wall Street Journal, on the Rams’ move to St. Louis: “Can (the franchise) really adjust from having Disneyland as a neighbor to the Bowling Hall of Fame?”