Hurricanes Will Still Blow Into Rose Bowl

Apparently, it won’t be necessary to apply for ticket refunds for the Sept. 2 Miami-UCLA game at the Rose Bowl.

Miami will indeed have a football team next season.

Sports Illustrated, in a recent story, suggested the Hurricanes drop the sport. Citing a lengthy list of sins--including a charge that one of every seven scholarship players last season was arrested while enrolled at Miami--the magazine called the Miami football program “a cancer” and “beyond repair.”

“As far as I know, we’re still planning to play UCLA at the Rose Bowl Sept. 2,” said Miami spokesman John Hahn, in jest.

The article was directed at Miami President Edward T. Foote II, who later responded with this statement:

“The people at Sports Illustrated have a right to their opinion. I disagree with them. We have no intention of disbanding the football program and have great confidence in [Coach] Butch Davis, who says his team will do it right.

“We intend to play football in the fall, by the rules, as good sports and do it right.”

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Trivia time: What batter holds the record for most home runs in one season against one club?

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Utes’ bounty: Not only did Salt Lake City win the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics, but the University of Utah football program also benefited.

The Utes already had plans to raise the capacity of on-campus Rice Stadium from 32,000 seats to 42,000 in 1997. But now the local Olympic committee will pay for an added expansion, to 50,000.

The stadium will be the site of the Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies.

Utah, coached by Ron McBride, had its greatest season last fall, going 10-2 and beating Arizona in the Freedom Bowl.

Sudden thought: Why not move Utah into the Pacific 10? The Utes could trade places with Washington State, which hasn’t been to the Rose Bowl since 1931.

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Poodleman: The Ventura Star’s Woody Woodburn, on the Lakers’ Vlade Divac: “He’s not a pit bull in the paint yet, but at least he’s become a poodle with an attitude.”

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Foreman vs. Patterson? What’s that? You say all ex-heavyweight champions become fat slobs? Floyd Patterson was recently appointed chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission.

Patterson, 60, said he weighs 185 pounds--five pounds less than his fighting weight.

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Iron Horse: Joe DiMaggio, talking recently about his early Yankee years and playing with Lou Gehrig:

“I was placed alongside Lou in the locker room. We dressed together and talked. You know, we were a quiet pair to the press and the public. But alone we talked mostly about the game, the opposing pitchers, injuries and maybe about our families.”

In 1939, at the end of his career, DiMaggio recalled, Gehrig was barely able to stand.

“He’d lean into me trying to get up,” DiMaggio said.

“The man had an iron will. . . . He dressed so slowly. He’d get up and go out and try. It was so sad. We knew he was sick, but we didn’t know why.”

Two years later, at 37, Gehrig was dead.

“That man was one of a kind,” DiMaggio said.

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Trivia answer: Lou Gehrig, who in 1936 hit 14 against Cleveland.

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Quotebook: George Foreman, after saying Don King will never promote one of his fights: “He’ll never count my change.”