It’s a Shame Both Teams Can’t Win It

The biggest loser in college football plays another loser today in Montgomery, Ala., and it’s desperation time for Prairie View A&M.;

It has been more than a year since Alabama State last won a football game. But that’s nothing compared to Prairie View, which has lost its last 73 games, dating to 1989.

During the Panthers’ long drought, they were humiliated by Alabama State in 1991, 92-0.

“We know what we have to do in order to get our first victory and I think we’re hungry enough right now,” Prairie View Coach Greg Johnson said.

“Famished” might be a better word.

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Trivia time: What was the largest crowd to watch a USC-Notre Dame football game?

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Reasonable assumption: New England Patriot kicker Adam Vinatieri, a distant cousin of Evel Knievel, says, “Maybe that’s why I drive crazy.”

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Yum, yum: Jack Magruder in the Arizona Daily Star, on the “health” diet of former Arizona State basketball Coach Bill Frieder and his wife, Janice:

“One night last week, they had broccoli, carrots and sweet potatoes for dinner. I don’t know what’s worse, the meal or [that] they actually wanted to eat it.”

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King of the mall: Ricky Watters, the talented Philadelphia Eagle running back who has been portrayed as selfish, is working on a new image.

“I don’t think I have a negative image, not at all,” Watters told Pro Football Weekly. “You can go to the mall with me, and you’ll see how these little kids maul me when I go to the mall. People around here love me.”

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Long-range viewpoint: Quarterback Ryan Leaf of unbeaten Washington State, in an interview in the San Francisco Chronicle, on being compared to New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe, a former Cougar:

“You can’t compare us until I’m making $42 million and playing in Hawaii in January [in the Pro Bowl].”

Guess reaching the Super Bowl, as Bledsoe did last season, wasn’t that important to Ryan.

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Looking back: On this day in 1977, Reggie Jackson hit three consecutive home runs, leading the New York Yankees to an 8-4 victory over the Dodgers and a six-game triumph in the World Series.

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Looking back again: On this day in 1969, USC and Notre Dame played to a 14-14 tie in South Bend, Ind. The Trojans finished the season with a 10-0-1 record, beating Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

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Trivia answer: An estimated 120,000 watched the Irish beat the Trojans, 7-6, in 1927 at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

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And finally: NBC’s Bob Uecker, a former major league catcher, after umpire Eric Gregg was stunned momentarily by a foul tip off his mask:

“That’s why I got out of the game. I started liking that.”