Now if Dewey Beats Truman, Something’s Up

Some sage once said, “What goes around, comes around.” Well, 1948 just came around again.

At this time in 1948, points out Northwestern alum Jim Bendat of Los Angeles, the Wildcats were about to play in the Rose Bowl, UCLA was looking for a new football coach after Bert LaBrucherie left, and the Indians and the Braves had just completed a six-game World Series.

Just like today. The only differences are that they were the Boston Braves, not the Atlanta Braves, and in 1948 the Indians won, not the Braves.

But it did come around.

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Trivia time: Notre Dame, with seven, has the most Heisman Trophy winners. Which school has the most runners-up?

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Changing luck: After drag racer Larry Morgan won $100,000 in the Ohio lottery, he said, “I guess I’ll have to put the Ohio Lottery on my car as an associate sponsor.”

Maybe it will be his major sponsor. The oil company that had backed him has announced that it will be not be with him in 1996.

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Typical American: Denver center Dikembe Mutombo, who is from Zaire, said during a TNT studio interview, “I want to take a trip to Africa with [Dennis] Rodman to see how my people would react to him.”

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Get me rewrite: The Indy Racing League release for its opening race reads, “Young lions among 41 entries for the Indy 200 at Walt Disney World . . . “

Robin Miller, Indianapolis Star sports editor, says it should have read, “Old hazards and new nobodies fill out lame lineup for Dog & Pony 200 at Orlando.”

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Double good: Don Newman, Cal State Sacramento basketball coach, was impressed when he saw Arizona State’s Rodger Farrington play. After inquiring about the power forward he was even more impressed.

“If I could get a player like Farrington, I wouldn’t mind taking a recruiting trip to the Bahamas,” Newman quipped.

Actually, Sun Devil Coach Bill Frieder didn’t go to the Bahamas to find Farrington. He recruited him from Eastern Oklahoma State, a junior college.

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Waiting in Miami: Despite having Dan Marino, one of pro football’s greatest quarterbacks, Coach Don Shula hasn’t taken the Miami Dolphins to the Super Bowl since January, 1985. And he hasn’t won one since January, 1974.

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Mistaken identity: Promoter Don King stayed in the presidential suite of a hotel for the Mike Tyson-Buster Mathis Jr. fight, but left immediately after for Germany.

However, he failed to tell his assistants, and, reports Ron Borges of the Boston Globe, a member of the King entourage pounded on the door a day later. When it finally opened, there stood presidential candidate Sen. Robert Dole.

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Bad call: In the Southeast Asia Games, Thai soccer coach Thawatchai Sajjkul let his players wear warmups saying, “Singha Dream Team,” because he thought it would bring good luck.

On the contrary. Thawatchai was fired after learning that Carlsberg Beer, a Singha rival, had paid nearly $2.5 million for exclusive sponsor rights.

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Trivia answer: USC, with four: O.J. Simpson, 1967; Anthony Davis, 1974; Ricky Bell, 1976, and Rodney Peete, 1988.

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Quotebook: Michael Jordan, 32, on Michael Jordan: “I’m old. Age-wise, I think I’m old. But skill-wise, I think I’m still capable of playing the type of basketball I know I can play.”