Arizona Hopes Not to Follow Wilma Wildcat

In what could be a chilling Arizona omen, Wilma Wildcat, the school mascot, took an accidental in-costume 15-foot plunge into the ocean from a pier at the 32nd Street Naval Base during Holiday Bowl festivities Monday in San Diego.

The mascot apparently was running near the edge of the pier as players from Arizona and Nebraska gathered for a ceremony aboard the USS Peleliu when she tripped and toppled over a two-foot-high cement wall.

After five minutes in the water, the woman inside the costume--whose identity was tightly guarded by Arizona officials--was fished out by Navy personnel.

Wilma’s mascot head detached during the fall, and Navy personnel launched a rowboat to recover it, said Lt. Cmdr. Matt Brown, a Navy spokesman. But one paw was lost at the bottom of the sea.

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Trivia time: How many Rose Bowl games have resulted in ties?

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Opposite directions: Bill Lyon in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Two of the teams that wear green in the National Football League pass like ships in the night.

“The Jets, rust and barnacles scrubbed away, jinxed history jettisoned, steam toward glory.

“The Eagles, the SS Ship of Fools, founder in high seas, lurching toward that part of the world the early map makers ominously described thus: ‘There will be dragons there.’ ”

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Minor annoyance: Jerry Izenberg of the Newark Star Ledger on the Jets routing the Patriots, 31-10:

“It was men against boys. Limited by both injuries and their own emotional problems, the losers moved as though they were on the way to a casting call for a remake of ‘Citizens of Zombie Island.’

“[It was] no more of a chore for the Jets than swatting the last sluggish fly of summer or removing a stubborn piece of boiled beef wedged between molar and gum.”

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Taking the cue: Skip Bayless writing in Monday’s Chicago Tribune: “If Michael McCaskey likes and admires Dave Wannstedt as much as others of us do, McCaskey will fire him.

“He’ll free Wannstedt from his hopeless misery. He’ll let Wannstedt go onward and upward and open the heavens for the Bears to do likewise.”

On Monday morning, Skip’s wishes were granted.

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FYI: The Rose Bowl deal between the Pacific 10 (formerly the Pacific Coast Conference) and Big Ten was inaugurated in 1947.

Big Ten teams won the first six games before USC beat Wisconsin, 7-0, in 1953.

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Looking back: On this day in 1974, the Minnesota Vikings defeated the L.A. Rams, 14-10, in the NFC championship game.

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Trivia answer: Three, the last in 1927, when Stanford and Alabama played to a 7-7 tie.

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And finally: Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writing on the surprising 14-2 Atlanta Falcons:

“Seems to be an increase in bird emblems around town. Used to be that you only put on Falcons gear to clean out the gutters or rebuild a transmission.

“Now, it’s just about formal wear. That was one of Dan Reeves’ promises to the team when he arrived. ‘We will see people proud to wear their Falcons stuff again,’ he vowed. And the day has arrived.”