Garrett Is Certainly Expecting Quite a Bit

USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett has reasons for smiling these days. For one, he and wife Suzanne are expecting twins in December. For another, the Trojans are ranked No. 1 in football and women’s volleyball and the defending national champion men’s water polo team is expected to be ranked No. 1.

But that doesn’t mean life in Trojan land is perfect.

Garrett, a guest on “USC Trojan Talk,” a show Harvey Hyde does Sunday nights from a Pasadena restaurant for Las Vegas radio station KDWN, said, “I agree with the polls, and it’s great to be ranked No. 1. But that doesn’t lessen the pressure. We’ve still got to win.”

Trivia time: Who was the kicker on the Trojans’ 1974 team that was voted No. 1 in the United Press International poll? Hint: He was the team’s second-leading scorer and made what was then a school-record 50-yard field goal against UCLA.

Expert opinion: Garrett, the 1965 Heisman Trophy winner as a running back at USC, called recent Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Barry Sanders “the best running back I ever saw.”

Added Garrett: “And he did everything with dignity, and there’s not a lot of dignity in pro sports.”

If you build it: Garrett said construction on USC’s 10,000-seat basketball arena will begin in October and will take 18 to 20 months to complete.

Told skeptics won’t believe it until they see it, Garrett said, “I know. We’ve been talking about it for years and years and years.”

One more thing: Garrett, on the likelihood of Mike Williams suiting up for the Trojans this season: “I like our chances.”

100 and 1: UCLA athletes have been on the cover of Sports Illustrated 100 times. Now a former UCLA athlete, high jumper Amy Acuff, has made the cover of Playboy. She’s featured in the September issue that includes “the women of the Olympics.”

A failed pitch: Playboy struck out when it tried to get Olympic softball pitcher Jennie Finch to join Acuff in posing nude.

“For me, it’s not tempting at all,” Finch told “Access Hollywood.” “It’s an easy no for me.”

Promotion flops: A few years ago, track and field promoter Al Franken, trying to generate interest in his L.A. Invitational, featured Acuff in one of his zany promotional ideas.

Franken invited photographers to shoot a contest involving Acuff and a Frisbee-catching dog to determine who could jump higher.

“The problem was, the dog kept jumping under the bar,” Franken said.

On this day: In 1933, Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees played in his 1,308th consecutive game to break Everett Scott’s record of 1,307.

Trivia answer: Chris Limahelu, from West Covina South Hills High.

And finally: Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, offering one reason why Nomar Garciaparra was traded: “In the Red Sox clubhouse, he was as happy as Michael Moore at a Bush family reunion.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.