Spurrier’s Golf Game Includes Great Drive

There are differing opinions whether Steve Spurrier will succeed in his new venture as coach of the Washington Redskins.

In an interview with Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post, Gil Brandt, longtime talent evaluator for the Dallas Cowboys during their successful reign under Coach Tom Landry, said: “The guy has the unique knack of being successful in anything he does. All you do is just go play golf with him. The guy competes like there’s no tomorrow.”

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More Spurrier: Bill Lyon in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Next season, the Eagles will get two cracks, at least, against Spurrier, and those games should be especially intriguing, seeing as how the Birds’ pass defense is their forte.

“The temptation is to assume that Spurrier will produce a whole flock of 51-49 games and make the days of Air Coryell seem like the Red Baron and bi-wing planes.

“But it is difficult to see Spurrier’s sideline tirades and his impatient quarterback hook wearing well, or long, in the pros.”

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Trivia time: How many Lakers have scored 60 or more points in a game?

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The Dolphins choked too: Dave Hyde in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “I know what you were thinking when you heard President Bush choked on a pretzel, passed out and sent the country into a national emergency while watching Sunday’s Dolphin game.

“You were thinking what I was thinking: Which Dolphins’ play caused it?”

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Jordan’s rules: Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune, commenting on Michael Jordan’s divorce: “The lawyers ask that the public please respect the Jordans’ privacy. It seems to me that Michael and his corporate benefactors never seemed to care much about our privacy.

“Even when he was retired--pick a retirement, any retirement--he was hawking products in our living room. Even when it was hard to move without tripping over a shoelace attached to an Air Jordan. So it seems unrealistic that Michael can have it both ways....”

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Zamp the champ: Lou Zamperini, 84, who ran a leg with the Olympic torch Tuesday in Los Angeles, was once holder of the interscholastic mile record of 4:21.3 that he established at Torrance High in 1935. That record endured for 18 years.

Zamperini enrolled at USC, where he was the NCAA mile champion in 1938 with a meet-record time of 4:08.3.

He repeated as NCAA mile champion in 1939.

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Trivia answer: Five--Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Shaquille O’Neal and George Mikan.

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And finally: “Monday Night Mayhem,” TNT’s movie starring John Turturro portraying Howard Cosell, recalled this writer meeting Cosell at a luncheon arranged by longtime friend Dick O’Leary, an ABC television executive, during the Lakers’ NBA championship series with the Knicks in New York in 1972.

I was the Laker beat writer for The Times and Cosell asked for my prediction.

I said I thought the Lakers would win it in five games. Cosell then boomed: “You are absolutely correct because you agree with me!”

The Lakers did win it in five games. No telling how Cosell would have reacted if I had disagreed with him.