Ex-Bruin Coach Has Empathy for Toledo

Bill Barnes knows what it is like to be fired as UCLA football coach. He was fired by the late J.D. Morgan following a 4-6 season in 1964.

Barnes, 85, who has been retired from the real estate business for 16 years and plays golf once a week at Riviera Country Club, said Morgan, who was then in his second year as athletic director, called him into his office.

“He said, ‘How do you tell an old friend that you have to let him go? Heck, we were never friends.”

As for Bob Toledo’s firing on Monday, Barnes said, “I think it’s unfair, but I guess the new AD over there had to show everyone who’s boss.”

Trivia time: Tommy Prothro replaced Barnes. Who replaced Prothro when he left UCLA for the Rams in 1970?

What it takes: Barnes, who was the head coach at UCLA for six seasons, says he knows what it takes to win games.

“It’s 85% players, and the rest is coaching,” he said. “The freshman class I passed on to Prothro was the best I ever had.”

That class included Gary Beban and linebacker Don Lee Manning. Mel Farr was a sophomore. Future coach Terry Donahue was a walk-on freshman.

Small world: Barnes and Prothro went to high school and junior high school together in Memphis, Tenn., and were both on Red Sanders’ staff at UCLA. They remained friends until Prothro’s death in 1995.

The real story: Kurt Warner’s wife called a St. Louis radio station last week to say it was her idea to have her husband’s hand X-rayed, not Ram Coach Mike Martz’s.

Said Terry Bradshaw on “Fox NFL Sunday”: “So it appears that she’s calling her husband’s boss a liar.”

No way: On CBS’ “The NFL Today,” Jim Nantz asked Dan Marino if his wife ever called a radio station in Miami.

“My wife doesn’t even call me,” Marino said. “There’s no way she’d be calling a radio station.”

Hitting and hoping: During the final round of the Target World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club, Tiger Woods hooked his second shot on No. 16 into the thickly wooded area.

“There were so many leaves and everything was so loose,” he said, “I could not afford to put my club anywhere near the ball [for fear it might move and cost him stroke]. So I had to start my club at the top and just hit it and hope.”

Woods’ ball hit a branch and didn’t make it to the green, but he ended up chipping in to save par.

Trivia answer: Pepper Rodgers.

And finally: Charles Barkley was a guest on CNN’s “Talk Back Live” last week with Gloria Allred and Michael Jackson. They were talking about Jackson dangling his baby son over a Berlin hotel balcony.

Said Barkley to Allred: “First of all, lady, you act like you ain’t got nothing better to do than worry about Michael Jackson and his kids.... It’s none of your business, basically. He made a mistake and he apologized.

“Every time some high-profile case breaks out, you jump on television and act like you’re God. Only God can judge other people. Why don’t you go back to your office, wait for another case, and shut the hell up.”

-- Larry Stewart