Payton Scores One for His Dad

Jarrett Payton, a backup running back for the Miami Hurricanes, dedicated the remainder of this season to his late father, Walter Payton. He changed his number from No. 32 to No. 34, the same number his father wore during 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears.

Wearing a white Bears’ T-shirt before Saturday’s 55-0 victory over Rutgers, Jarrett said the change is permanent. Then he went on the field and played a little bit like his father, rushing for a career-high 87 yards in 20 attempts, with one touchdown.

Payton, who missed two games because of his father’s illness and death, broke two tackles with a spin move and sprinted to the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown that gave Miami a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.

After he scored, Payton pounded his chest twice and pointed toward the sky, paying tribute to his father.

“It felt good for me to put it [No. 34] on,” Jarrett said. “My whole family liked it a lot because they say they see so much of my dad in me.”

Jarrett, a freshman, returned to school two days after his father’s funeral because he knew that is what Walter Payton would have wanted.

But Jarrett still is struggling to cope with his father’s death.

Jarrett said his father wrote him a long letter in the final month before his death. Jarrett could not bring himself to read--or even open--it when he was home.

Jarrett said he wants to be able to read the letter when he returns home for Christmas.

“I guess it’s pretty deep; it’s certain stuff he wants me to do and achieve, so I can’t wait to get that,” Jarrett said. “Right now, though, I’m still trying to get over this whole thing with him. He was my best friend and it’s kind of hard when you lose your best friend and your father at the same time. It’s a big piece of me.

“I know I have a lot more stuff to accomplish in my lifetime, and knowing that he won’t be here physically to watch me do it, it hurts me a lot, because I still feel that he was too young and there was a lot of time left for him. He still wanted to do a lot. And the things that he’s not going to be able to do, I’m going to take on my behalf to do for him.”

Jarrett said his mother, Connie Payton, called him home a week before his father died.

“Being able to spend time with my father for that week was unbelievable even though he wasn’t the same guy that you’d always come home to and talk to and have conversations with,” Jarrett said.

“I was right next to him and I was holding his hand when he passed. I couldn’t cry, because I knew what he had gone through and the way he had been fighting, and I just knew that he was in a better place. It made me feel good to know that he didn’t die some horrible death where he was struggling. It was the most peaceful thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

THE GAME THAT TIME FORGOT

The Yale-Harvard game, one of the most historic rivalries in college football, was played for the 116th time at 60,000-seat Yale Bowl at New Haven, Conn., on Saturday.

With it comes a lot of pride, a lot of history and a lot of empty seats.

Saturday’s 24-21 victory by Yale came before a crowd of over 50,000, the largest to see the Yale-Harvard game since 1989, when Yale won its last league title.

The rivalry that began in 1875 in what many purists consider the cradle of college football no longer is The Game of college football.

Contributing to the swoon is the Ivy League’s long-standing policy against athletic scholarships and the 1982 downgrade to NCAA Division I-AA status, making it nearly impossible to compete with big-time programs.

“That was the category you couldn’t afford to give up,” former Harvard coach Joe Restic said. “Once that happened, it all changed.”

Big-time football also gets big-time exposure. The Yale-Harvard game was last seen on a major television network in 1980.

Yale leads the series, 63-45-8. Traditionally the final game of the season for both teams, The Game has settled 18 Ivy League titles since the league began in 1956 and did so again Saturday.

Yale, 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the Ivy League, clinched a tie with Brown (9-1, 6-1) for their first Ivy League title since 1989.

The rivalry isn’t the oldest in college football--Lehigh and Lafayette have met 134 times; Yale and Princeton have played 121 times.

But within those 115 Harvard-Yale meetings, the flying wedge and the onside kick were introduced. The Game has produced NFL players, coaches, politicians and movie stars. In 1930, it was the first football game in the United States broadcast overseas.

If there is The Game among Games, it’s the 1968 tie at Harvard Stadium, where Harvard scored two touchdowns in the final 42 seconds. The game left both teams with a share of the Ivy League title and led to the famous headline in the Harvard school newspaper, “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.”

STICK A FORK IN HIM--HE’S DONE

Texas Tech Coach Spike Dykes, who made a career out of upsetting rivals Texas and Texas A&M; on the way to becoming the Red Raiders’ winningest coach ever, announced his retirement after Saturday’s 38-28 victory over Oklahoma.

The announcement came after a week of rumors that Tech was hunting for a new coach.

“There really wasn’t any pressure put on me. This is something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” said Dykes, 61.

Texas Tech went 6-5 this season and was 82-67-1 under Dykes, who joined the school in 1984. The Red Raiders have recently gained notoriety for playing spoiler to Texas A&M;, beating the Aggies this season, 21-19, while they were ranked No. 5.

Dykes led Tech to four consecutive bowl games, was Southwest Conference coach of the year three times and was the first Big 12 Coach of the Year in 1996.

“I think you coach because you love kids,” Dykes said. “And if you do that, every day is rewarding. That way you never get your priorities out of perspective. It all boils down to the chance to work with young people, hopefully be an influence on them for the better, help them make something of themselves that is positive.”

WISCONSIN LEFT OUT IN THE COLD

Despite their success, the Wisconsin Badgers’ timing has been off by about one week all season.

They’re done with their regular schedule at the earliest date in the program’s 110-year history. While the elite teams fight for position in the hunt for the national championship, No. 5 Wisconsin will be watching at home.

“It’s weird for me,” said tailback Ron Dayne, the Heisman Trophy front-runner who broke the major-college career rushing record last weekend. “I’m used to playing this time of year, and now all the football we see is going to be on television.”

Two early losses killed the Badgers’ shot at one of the two top spots in the Bowl Championship Series rankings, and Penn State’s late-season collapse put Wisconsin atop the Big Ten standings and left them without a possible high-profile bowl showdown with another BCS at-large team.

Now, Wisconsin is locked into a Rose Bowl meeting with a team from the mediocre Pacific 10: Stanford and its 113th-ranked defense (out of 114 Division I teams). While the players and coaches won’t acknowledge they’re frustrated, all this bad timing has cost the Badgers a chance to show what one of the strongest teams in school history could do against another elite program.

“That’s certainly something to consider, because we’re very good right now,” offensive coordinator Brian White said. “We know we could stay with some of the traditional powers of college football.”

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Running It Up

Texas Christian’s LaDainian Tomlinson broke the record for most rushing yards in a game Saturday. Top rushing games for Division I-A:

406 LaDAINIAN TOMLINSON, Texas Christian vs. Texas El Paso, Nov. 20, 1999

396 TONY SANDS, Kansas vs. Missouri, Nov. 23, 1991

386 MARSHALL FAULK, San Diego State vs. Pacific, Sept. 14, 1991

378 TROY DAVIS, Iowa State vs. Missouri, Sept. 28, 1996

377 ANTHONY THOMPSON, Indiana vs. Wisconsin, Nov. 11, 1989

376 TRAVIS PRENTICE, Miami, Ohio vs. Akron, Nov. 13, 1999

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--Compiled by Houston Mitchell