This Little Swoosh Goes a Long Way

Nike’s deal with the Cowboys set off alarm bells all over, but the sneaker company has bought up a large chunk of the collegiate landscape without so much as a murmur.

Remember when Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing was told to stop wearing a T-shirt with the Nike swoosh on the sleeve? Now the swoosh is everywhere.

The University of Colorado, reports the Rocky Mountain News’ B.G. Brooks, just announced a $5.6-million, six-year deal with Nike, joining Florida State, Michigan, North Carolina, Alabama, Penn State, and Illinois in the Nike fold for payments ranging from $6 million to $2.5 million.

Nike is getting its money’s worth too.

In the Penn State media guide, Coach Joe Paterno is pictured wearing a sweater with a swoosh. There’s a swoosh on the back cover of the Illinois guide.

Nike’s largess comes in other forms, such as the $250,000 it donates annually toward Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden’s salary. As they say in Tallahassee, just do it.

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Trivia time: When the 1954 Cleveland Indians won their record 111 games, they had a staff earned-run average of 2.78. Who were their five starters?

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Ulf, as in oof : New York Ranger defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, decked by Toronto’s Tie Domo in a memorable sneak attack, is no choirboy himself.

Samuelsson was a landslide winner in a recent Sports Illustrated poll of hockey players asked to name the game’s dirtiest players.

Quoth Ulf: “Can you vote for yourself?”

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Thunder fades: The scouting report on 38-year-old Darryl Dawkins’ brief tryout with the Boston Celtics: too old, too fat, still funny after all these years.

What did he weigh?

“I haven’t hit a reporter in five years,” Dawkins said, smiling. “Let’s just say I weigh more than I care to. Seriously, I need to lose about 13 or 15, maybe 16 pounds.”

Can he still break backboards?

“No, but I can rattle ‘em pretty good. I am not the man I once was, which may be good or bad.”

How did he like playing in Italy?

“Those fans are crazy. They set our gym on fire. Our team in Forli was winning most of its games at home, but we weren’t doing too good on the road, so the fans from Rimini set our gym on fire. They burned about a quarter of it. The good thing about the fans in Italy is that I’ve always been somewhat of a ham, and they like hams over there.”

His goals?

“I’d like to play two more years in the NBA and then go into coaching. I’m looking to be--if not here, then somewhere else--the George Foreman of basketball.”

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Trivia answer: Early Wynn (23-11), Bob Lemon (23-7), Mike Garcia (19-8), Art Houtteman (15-7) and Bob Feller (13-3).

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Quotebook: Missouri Coach Larry Smith after a 30-0 loss to Kansas State: “Had we been able to generate some points, it would have been a lot closer.”