THE INSIDE TRACK : Morning Briefing : And Jerry Jones Thinks He’s Biggest Thing in Texas

In Texas, it doesn’t take much to tell what time of year it is. On Sunday, the Dallas Morning News launched a 17-part series--yes, 17 parts--that made it perfectly plain.

Writer Kevin Sherrington explains:

“Nothing in this state in the last 100 years--not cattle, not oil, not cotton, not the Cowboys or Astros or Rangers or colleges, not LBJ or George W. or the sixth floor, not NASA, not the super collider, shoot, not even Tex-Mex--has said as much about the people who live here as high school football.”

Now you know what time of year it is. At least in Texas.

*

Trivia time: What feat did Australia’s Jack Brabham accomplish in 1966?

*

You can say that again: “Few people win their opening games,” Texas Coach Mack Brown said before the Longhorns’ opener. “Usually they are lost rather than won.”

Uh-huh. Final score in one of Saturday’s college football opening games: North Carolina State 23, Texas 20.

*

You can say that again II: “The 12th game, to me, is one of those things where it’s good news and bad news,” Penn State Coach Joe Paterno said before his team’s opener Saturday. “To me, it was good until I saw how good Arizona was. Now I’m not so sure it’s good news.”

Uh-huh. Another final score: Penn State 41, Arizona 7.

*

For love of the game: There was a unique reunion in Williamsport, Pa., last week featuring 18 of the 30 players who participated in Little League’s first season in 1939.

A lot has changed in 60 years, said one of them. Tom Frazier, a former Little League outfielder who helped organize the event, insists money has changed baseball for the worse, even among kids.

“We used to play every day for fun and that was all,” he said. “Now they want something more.”

*

Taking a hit: Spotted in Sports Illustrated’s “Wish List”: “That the NFL would forget about Houston and L.A. and put a new team in a town where pro football hasn’t already failed.”

*

It’s no big deal: Nice to see that Ottawa Senator captain Alexei Yashin of Russia has made the transition to capitalism and all its accompanying entanglements so smoothly. Told that a local businessman was planning a class-action suit on behalf of season ticket-holders if the forward goes ahead with his threat not to play this season, Yashin, who is unhappy with his $3.6-million contract, simply shrugged.

“Whatever they do, it’s fine with me,” he said. “It’s a free country, they can do whatever they want to do.”

*

Trivia answer: He was the first man to design, build and drive his own car to a Formula One championship.

*

And finally: Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State universities in Arkadelphia, Ark., are so close that they can’t be called cross-town rivals. They are more like across-the-street rivals.

The schools have played football 73 times and there are few secrets, so it was a surprise when a Henderson student assistant coach was caught videotaping a Ouachita football practice from a nearby park.

He fled, but left something behind in a trash can--a camera labeled “Henderson State Property.”