What’s Next? Ferris Wheels, Roller Coasters?

Rick Neuheisel, Colorado’s 34-year-old coach, was jogging near Boulder Creek one day when he noticed kids in inner tubes.

“I said, ‘You know, that would be a blast for our freshmen,’ ” said Neuheisel, always trying to invent ways to keep fun in football.

So, for the final day of summer practice, he surprised the team by letting them go tubing.

“The next thing I know it was national news as though I’ve been stomping on Woody Hayes’ grave,” he said.

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Trivia time: Who has participated in the Rose Bowl game the most times as a coach and player?

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Trivia time II: What was unusual about the 1922 Rose Bowl?

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Long, longshot: What were Northwestern’s odds of winning the Rose Bowl before the 1995 season began?

According to the Caesars Palace sports book, the odds were 200 to 1. USC was listed at 7 to 2.

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Foot crisis: Jay Leno on Converse basketball shoes leaking fluid from their soles: “And just when you thought basketball shoes couldn’t get any more expensive. Now when they break, you have to call a plumber.”

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Drill sergeant: Richard Williams, father of tennis players Venus and Serena, has a unique teaching method in developing youngsters, according to Tennis magazine:

Put a child against a fence and have two people hit balls at him or her as hard as they can. After seeing this drill, one parent told Williams:

“I’m paying you a lot of money [to teach], but I’m not paying you to kill my kid!”

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Opinion: From Herm Rogul’s book, “Winning Sportswriting”:

“Some people who should know better argue that [Bill] Russell was superior to [Wilt] Chamberlain because Boston won so many titles. Was Tom Heinsohn better than Elgin Baylor, who never won a title? Was Sam Jones superior to Jerry West, who never won until Wilt joined the Lakers? Was K.C. Jones better than Oscar Robertson, who never won until he joined Lew Alcindor [Kareem Abdul-Jabbar] on the Bucks?”

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Dry ‘em up: John Steigerwald in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “The fans who attend Oakland Raiders games at Oakland-Alameda County Stadium make Cleveland Browns fans seem like puppies. They make a great case not only for alcohol-free stadiums but the return of prohibition.”

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Tark talk: Sign held by a Santa Clara basketball fan on Dec. 12 welcoming Jerry Tarkanian’s visiting Fresno State team: “Shark, i Can Play Four Ur Teem.”

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FYI: UCLA’s Neuheisel shares a Rose Bowl record with USC’s Pete Beathard--most touchdown passes in a game, four.

Neuheisel’s were against Illinois in 1984, and Beathard’s against Wisconsin in 1963.

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Trivia answer: Marv Goux of USC, twice as a player, 11 times as an assistant coach.

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Trivia answer II: California and Washington & Jefferson played to a scoreless tie.

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Quotebook: Golfer Brad Faxon after the birth of his third daughter, Sophie: “Now I’ve got a sleeve of girls.”