Excuse Us, Maestro, There’s a Real Celebrity in the House

Jack Ham, the Pittsburgh Steeler Hall of Fame linebacker, said he and his wife were dining at a restaurant after the Steelers had won their second Super Bowl in 1976.

Other patrons were all but climbing over a customer at the table next to him to get his autograph.

“The guy at the next table is Andre Previn,” Ham told Dennis B. Roddy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “This guy is a tremendous artist and I’m a linebacker and they don’t know who he is but they recognize me.”

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Trivia time: Who was the first winner of the Los Angeles Open and where was the tournament held?

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Clip and save: Oscar De La Hoya is favored in the much-anticipated fight against Julio Cesar Chavez on June 7 in Las Vegas. But boxing promoter Don King told Ron Borges of the Boston Globe:

“All you who have been poor, take all the money you can find and put it on Julio Cesar Chavez. Chavez will knock Oscar De La Hoya out.”

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Stay away: Woody Woodburn of the Ventura Star Free-Press is not excited about the Seahawks moving to Los Angeles.

He suggested that after breaking so many hearts in Seattle, the team should change its nickname to the Los Angeles Vultures, or the L.A. Home Wreckers, or (shudder) the L.A. Raiders II.

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Lone survivor: Woody Paige in the Denver Post: “Assuming the Seattle Seahawks end up in L.A. next season, the Broncos will be the only franchise in the AFC West to spend its entire existence in the same city.”

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Do re mi: Brazil’s national soccer team is in training with emphasis on--get this--singing!

Coach Mario Zagalo is annoyed that his young players don’t know the words of Brazil’s national anthem. So he gave them lyrics. “We will rehearse to sing it right and pretty,” he said. “I’ll be watching.”

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Hush: Frank Howard, who recently died at the age of 86, coached Clemson football for 30 years. At one point the university’s’ president asked him not to publicize his $25,000 salary, so as not to upset the professors.

“Don’t worry,” Howard replied. “I’m as ashamed of it as you are.”

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Gnaturally: The Savannah, Ga., minor league baseball team, newly affiliated with the Dodgers, has settled on a new nickname--the Sand Gnats.

“With all the humid weather, we’ve got those gnats,” said Nick Brown, the team’s director of marketing. “Either us or Charleston almost had to grab the nickname.”

Lucky Charleston.

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FYI: The McNeese State (La.) women’s basketball team has a player named Miracle Fingers.

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Trivia answer: Lighthorse Harry Cooper in 1926 at the Los Angeles Country Club.

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Quotebook: Michael Wilbon in the Washington Post on the possibility of NFL expansion beyond the 30 teams: “There may be enough cities, stadiums and luxury boxes to go around, but there sure ain’t enough quarterbacks.”