No Desire to Be Rebel Without Applause

Pete Newell, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended St. Agnes High and Loyola University, might never have become a Hall of Fame basketball coach had his mother Alice had her way.

She wanted her son to be an actor.

“She was a stage mom,” Newell said. “She pushed me and my older sister into acting at a very early age.”

Newell, featured in several “Our Gang” movies, at age 4 was up for the title role in one of Charlie Chaplin’s most famous movies, “The Kid.”

Newell was beaten out by Jackie Coogan.

“That was the happiest day of my life,” said the 90-year-old Newell. “At that age, the last thing I wanted to do was get up at 4:30 every morning and go to a studio.”

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Trivia time: Newell, the Laker general manager from 1972 to 1976, coached the University of California to a national championship in 1959 and a return trip to the title game in 1960.

At what other colleges did Newell coach?

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Writer gets smart: The recent death of Don Adams, star of the 1960s TV show “Get Smart,” reminded former Times employee Jerry Clark that Bill Shirley, then the newspaper’s sports editor, banned staffers from writing the overused line, “Would you believe ... ?”

But Clark said one writer, Frank Finch, got around the ban by slipping the following lead past the editors and into the paper: “Conjure, if you will ... “

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Gem of a game: This weekend, the NFL plays its first regular-season game outside the United States, but Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel isn’t overwhelmed by what will be on display Sunday at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.

“The catch is that the teams are the Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers,” he said. “That’s like promising diamonds and sending zirconia. In the case of the Cardinals, cheap zirconia.”

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Almighty TV: Boston outfielder Johnny Damon said that a pivotal New York Yankee-Boston Red Sox series to end the season was “God’s way.”

In response, Red Sox Manager Terry Francona, according to the New York Daily News, said, “I wouldn’t have thought that was God’s master plan. I thought it was Fox’s.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1961, Roger Maris hit his 61st home run, eclipsing Babe Ruth’s 34-year-old single-season home run record. The homer, hit off Tracy Stallard of the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, gave the Yankees a 1-0 victory.

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Trivia answer: Newell, who coached at Cal from 1954 to 1960, also coached at the University of San Francisco (1946-50) and Michigan State (1950-54).

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And finally: NASCAR drivers are known for being fan friendly. Fox commentator Darrell Waltrip, a three-time champion, told HBO’s “Real Sports”: “When we get to the track, we’re basically turned loose to the masses. And you’d better be willing to deal with that politely, slightly, lightly, all nightly, whatever it takes.”

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