Marvin Miller

Marvin Miller

Note: Posted noon on Wednesday.

College Football Quiz: Continuing with the theme of the last quiz, college football programs whose former quarterbacks started in the NFL…since 1970, name the two top QBs for NFL starts (# of starts given as hint) at the following schools as of games played Nov. 18.

For example…Alabama…397 NFL starts (146, 108)…Kenny Stabler, Richard Todd

California…386…(127, 126)…this is tough
Arizona State…358 (136, 92)
Kansas State…299 (135,111)

Answers below.

College Football

Thank god the SEC title game on Saturday will be worth a look, No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Georgia. 

And No. 16 UCLA vs.  No. 8 Stanford is mildly interesting (though who wants to watch two teams play each other back-to-back weeks?!) given the stakes and the impact on the winner of the MAC championship, No. 17 Kent State vs. No. 21 Northern Illinois. Both of these are Friday evening.

But these other conference championship matchups are pathetic.

ACC – Florida State vs. Georgia Tech (6-6)


Big Ten – Nebraska vs. Wisconsin (7-5)

Anyway, what you need to know is that if UCLA and No. 18 Texas (which plays No. 6 Kansas State) both lose, the MAC winner is going to get a BCS berth for a first time. Yes, Northern Illinois, should they win, would jump up to 16 with UCLA and Texas losing, thus also passing Michigan and Boise State. It’s the Bar Chat Guarantee! So any good football fan wants this scenario, which would relegate the Big East winner on Thursday, Rutgers or Louisville, to the Sugar Bowl while the MAC winner would get the nod for the Orange vs. Florida State. [This isn’t guaranteed.]

On a different topic, coaches, Tracee Hamilton / Washington Post

Gene Chizik epitomizes what is wrong with college football – or at least one thing that’s wrong with college football. It’s a little like shooting fish in a barrel, picking on college football, but let’s take aim at awarding hefty guaranteed contracts to average coaches.

“Chizik, I’m sure, is a perfectly nice guy, but he’s also the luckiest guy in America this week despite being fired by Auburn. Forget trying to win PowerBall – rise to mediocrity in college coaching and you don’t have to work another day in your life!

“In your wake, you’ll leave schools who will bitch and moan about their athletic budgets, using the cash hemorrhage they created as an excuse to spend more cash on yet another coach destined to be fired, yet cry poor when it’s suggested they pay a modest stipend to the athletes who, after all, are the reason for college sports. Aren’t they?

“In 2007, Iowa State gave Chizik a six-year deal worth $6.75 million, guaranteed. For their investment, the Cyclones got five wins over two seasons – $1.35 million per victory. For that kind of dough, you’d expect a conference title or an NCAA investigation or something.

“Yet because of that performance – and the way Chizik handled the Tigers’ defense as an assistant from 2002 to 2004 – Auburn hired him as head coach in 2009. He made $2.05 million in that season alone. In 2010, with a guy named Cam Newton as his quarterback, Chizik led Auburn to a national title – or rather, with a guy named Chizik as coach, Cam Newton led Auburn to a national title. Chizik earned $2.1 million in salary and $1.1 million in incentive bonuses. Two years later, Chizik, is unemployed.”

But after the national title, Auburn renegotiated Chizik’s deal, “giving him $3.5 million annually through 2015 and a buyout clause. It was a tapering scale that started at $10 million if he had been fired last season. This season, he gets just $7.5 million. Auburn’s total tab for the firing is $11.09 million, including Chizik’s assistants. That’s not enough to buy your way out of the ACC, but it’s not chump change, either. And just four years ago, Auburn bought out Tommy Tuberville for $5.083 million. That’s Hollywood alimony money….

“How do Auburn fundraisers ask their alumni for money without bursting into flames?”

Chizik’s coaching record:

2007…Iowa State…3-9
2008…Iowa State…2-10
2009…Auburn…8-5
2010…Auburn…14-0
2011…Auburn…8-5
2012…Auburn…3-9

Total…38-38

Meanwhile, Arkansas apparently has made LSU head coach Les Miles an offer in the neighborhood of five years, $27.5 million. Good lord. Miles’ agent, though, said his client wasn’t interested.

–The ACC is suing Maryland, seeking full payment of the $50 million exit fee for the school’s move to the Big Ten. [Actually, the league is looking for $52,266,000.] The ACC raised its exit fee in September after adding Notre Dame in all sports except football.

At the same time, the ACC invited Louisville to join today (for 2014). Oh brother. The ACC’s reasoning is that Louisville has options so get them now, while Cincinnati and UConn have none and can always be pulled in later. Cincy desperately wants to be invited. Personally, UConn is the only fit.

–The Washington Post’s Norman Chad on Maryland’s move to the Big Ten.

“Now, nobody is questioning the financial wisdom of Maryland’s move – though it comes with a $50 million exit fee it now owes the ACC – and everybody is applauding the likely restoration of several non-revenue sports cut from the budget a year ago.

“But sitting in my off-campus ivory tower, I must ask the same question I’ve asked before:

“Is it possible for a great university not to have Division I athletics? Actually, I would argue it’s preferable for a great university not to have Division I athletics.

“Simply put, it makes sense to say no to intercollegiate athletics and yes to intramurals. If we’re trying to follow the Greeks’ sound-mind-and-body ideal, why should it just apply to a handful of elite bodies?

“Remarkably, Spelman College in Atlanta just made this very decision, announcing its withdrawal from Division III intercollegiate athletics. ‘Hoping to replace organized sports for the few with fitness for all,’ as the New York Times put it, Spelman determined it made little sense to spend $1 million annually on 80 student-athletes when it could redirect time and money to the physical welfare of the entire 2,100-student body.

“I realize my College Park brethren – who refuse to rise and revolt against the athletic industrial complex that rules the day – will reject this option. So I have a more pragmatic proposal that keeps Maryland in the ACC and solves the fiscal crisis:

Open a casino on campus!

“(You don’t even have to recruit ‘student-gamblers’ – they’re already there.) Maryland voters just approved Las Vegas-style table-games gambling. Replace vending machines with slot machines and library tables with blackjack tables, and we’re talking a new weight room for the football team within 18 months!!!

“At a minimum, I’d open a card room in the student union. Heck the gent who just won the World Series of Poker Main Event, Greg Merson, briefly went to Maryland. So let’s break ground on the Greg Merson Poker Room – of course, first I’d make him come back to College Park and complete his degree.”

–As for the Big East, it announced it was adding Tulane as an all-sports member and East Carolina as a football-only member to offset the loss of Rutgers as well as previous defections.

So as of today, Boise State and San Diego State are still slated to join the Big East for football only starting in 2013, along with current Conference USA members SMU, Houston, Memphis and Central Florida. Navy would join for football in 2015.

Boise and SDSU have said they are committed to the Big East, yet there are stories they want to join the Mountain West now that the major players in the Big East have been bolting.

Louisiana Tech and North Texas are among the schools joining C-USA next year.

Just make this all stop!!!

–When Vanderbilt beat Wake Forest last weekend, I should have noted Vandy now has a six-game winning streak, the longest for the Commodores since 1955. The eight wins (8-4) are the most since 1982.

Boston College fired Frank Spaziani, who finished 22-29 in his four seasons, including a god-awful 2-10 this year.

NFL

The New York Post’s Brian Costello is suggesting that New York Jets fans not go to Sunday’s game against the Cardinals as a way of showing their disgust with owner Woody Johnson. Costello says mail the tickets to Johnson directly. He has a point (despite the money season-ticket holders are shelling out for the game).

“What Johnson has done to the season-ticket holders this year is awful. The Jets have the highest average, non-premium ticket price in the league at $117.94, according to Team Marketing Report’s Fan Cost Index. That is on top of personal seat licenses for all of those except the upper deck.

“What have you gotten for that price?

“A preseason with no touchdowns. Regular-season losses by 34, 30 and 21 points. Parking aggravation. Cursing in the stands. And the biggest distraction in the league at backup quarterback.

“Not to mention Johnson begging the NFL to give the Jets a home game on Thanksgiving, ruining the holiday for his fans.

“No wonder the Jets are on every website and radio station trying to hawk tickets that no one will buy.

“Jets fans deserve a refund this year after watching their 4-7 season stumble, bumble and butt-fumble their way out of playoff contention. If the Jets were a steak, you would send it back. If they were a purchase at a store, you would be searching for the receipt. Instead of looking like competition for the Patriots on Thursday, the Jets played the Washington Generals to the Pats’ Globetrotters.”

Costello on Fireman Ed quitting his gig:

“Most true Jets fans I talk to can’t stand him for being an attention-loving, self-appointed face of the fans. The Jets easily can pipe in ‘J-E-T-S’ chants into the stadium to get the crowd going and show the letters on the scoreboard.

“Also if Ed Anzalone felt he was getting extra harassment because he was wearing a Mark Sanchez jersey this year, why not just ditch No. 6 and go back to the Bruce Harper jersey he wore for years?

“His argument that the quarterback situation has divided the fans is a farce, too. I don’t think there are many fans in the stands who actually think Tim Tebow is better than Sanchez. They’re chanting when the team is losing or Sanchez makes a major error.

“Now that there’s an opening, and he’s not doing anything anyway, maybe there is a new role for Tebow – ‘Fireman Tim.’”

College Basketball

AP Poll

1. Indiana…crushed No. 14 North Carolina 83-59
2. Duke
3. Michigan…defeated No. 18 North Carolina State 79-72
4. Ohio State
5. Louisville
6. Syracuse
7. Florida
8. Kentucky
9. Arizona
10. Kansas
11. Creighton
23. San Diego State…beat USC 66-60 without Chase Tapley

–I was watching the Nebraska-Wake Forest game on Tuesday in Winston-Salem and our arena holds 14,400. The crowd was listed at 6,500. It was clearly no more than 5,000. A total embarrassment. The Wake athletic program is in free-fall. It doesn’t help we lost 79-63 to a very mediocre team. Yes, we play six freshmen in the rotation, but it doesn’t look like we have any real Diaper Dandies in the bunch and our two experienced players, junior Travis McKie and senior C.J. Harris, were a combined 3 of 17 from the field. Now that’s leadership!

–Grinnell College’s Jack Taylor had just 21 points after his record-setting 138 points, Sunday, in a 131-116 loss to William Penn. Taylor was 6 for 21 from the field. William Penn (12-0) was 50 of 80 from the floor! [Grinnell played again on Wed., after I’ve posted this column.]

Ball Bits

–The Phillies’ All-Star catcher Carlos Ruiz was suspended for the first 25 games of next season for testing positive for amphetamines. “I am sincerely regretful for my mistake in taking a prohibited stimulant,” Ruiz said in a statement. He can participate in spring training, including exhibition games.

MLB has suspended eight players this year under its testing program, the most since 2007. For Ruiz, it had to be his second positive test for a stimulant. There have been 102 suspensions this year under the minor league testing program. Wow, not bad…not bad at all.

–Speaking of drug testing, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa will be on the 2013 Hall of Fame ballot, which will be the most eagerly awaited results in history come Jan. 9 in terms of where baseball writers’ attitudes are these days. Others on the ballot for the first time are Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza and Curt Schilling. Jack Morris, Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines are the top holdovers. Of course Mark McGwire remains on the ballot but he’s never received more than 24% (75% being required for enshrinement). Rafael Palmeiro, he of the 500 homers and 3,000 hits, has not surpassed 12.6% in his two years.

Biggio, who was never suspected of using (though what do any of us really know) should get in on the first ballot. Piazza, who admitted using a substance once before it was banned, will be very interesting. He should get in on the first ballot as well, or come extremely close. Schilling is one of those borderline performers, like Jack Morris, who could gradually work his way up over the coming years.

Tyler Kepner of the New York Times interviewed some of the writers who have a vote (The Times doesn’t allow their own to), noting the instructions to voters are summarized in one sentence: “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”

Kepner: “Those three words – integrity, sportsmanship, character – are critical to some voters.”

Scott Miller / CBSSports.com: “In each of those areas, players who used steroids fail the test – period. I know it isn’t the Hall of Choirboys. I know the stories about Ty Cobb and others who at times were miscreants. But I also know that the Steroid Era was one of the most shameful chapters in the game’s history. It made a mockery out of the record book. It pushed retired legends into the shadows when they should have remained in the spotlight, and it put the spotlight on others who never should have been there.

“To me, just because the commissioner, the owners and the players’ union abdicated their responsibility to the game for so long by looking the other way only increases the obligation for somebody, somewhere, to stand up for what’s right. And if I can do that even from my small corner of the voting world, then I’m grateful to have that chance.”

Danny Knobler / CBS Sports.com: “I decided that for now, I will not vote for anyone where there is a reasonable belief that he could have used. I know some people dissect a career and try to determine if a player would have been a Hall of Famer without help. While I respect that view, my feeling is that if I’m voting against you, it’s because I believe there’s a reasonable likelihood that you cheated the game. If that’s the case, I don’t want to vote you into the Hall of Fame.”

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports told the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Shaikin:

“I’m troubled by the idea that we will wipe out close to an entire generation. So, I’m constantly looking at this, trying to stay open-minded.”

Shaikin and the L.A. Times surveyed a small group of Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America members who have a vote and 10 said they planned to vote for Bonds and Clemens and eight said they did not. [There will probably be about 650 ballots cast in the official tally.]

Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle: “I’ve decided to vote based purely on statistics. Despite what some consider a mountain of evidence against some guys, I refuse to pretend I can determine which guys accomplished their feats without the help of performance-enhancing drugs.

“My experience tells me that some of the guys people assume are clean actually weren’t, so why would I punish others?”

–Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria signed a six-year, $100 million extension on Monday that covers him through 2022, when he turns 37. So the Mets have apparently made David Wright a seven-year offer with similar terms, after he is paid $16 million for 2013. So this would put him at 38 in 2020. The Wright Watch is officially on. According to reports he’s not happy with the deferred portion of the contract offer.

–Finally, Marvin Miller died…he was 95. In his 16 years as executive director of the Major League Players Association, starting in 1966, he led baseball players in a series of strikes and legal battles that led to free agency, revolutionized sports and turned many athletes into multimillionaires.

Current union head Michael Weiner said: “All players – past, present and future – owe a debt of gratitude to Marvin, and his influence transcends baseball. Marvin, without question, is largely responsible for ushering in the modern era of sports, which has resulted in tremendous benefits to players, owners and fans of all sports.”

Miller led the first walkout in the game’s history on April 5, 1972. That strike lasted 13 days. There was a 1976 walkout in spring training and then a midseason job action in 1982 that shut down the sport for seven weeks.

Back in 1966, baseball’s minimum salary was $7,000 [Others say $6,000…40 percent were making less than $12,000, according to John Helyar’s book, “Lords of the Realm.”] Today the league minimum is $480,000 and the average salary is more than $3 million.

Yet baseball’s Hall of Fame refused to let him in.

Jayson Stark / ESPN.com

“In a perfect world, in a just world, in a less small-minded world, we would all have this memory of Marvin Miller:

“Standing on a podium in Cooperstown, N.Y., the warm August sun beaming down upon him.

“Surrounded by so many of the legendary baseball players whose lives he touched and whose checking accounts he enriched.

“Spinning the spellbinding words that always seemed to come flowing out of him, right to the end of his life, as he delivered a speech he’d waited a lifetime to deliver….

“So if we only lived in that world, not this one, we wouldn’t be sitting here, on the day Marvin Miller died, lamenting the unforgivable crime that he never got to deliver that speech….

“There are still people in baseball, to this day, who believe their sport would have flourished without Marvin Miller. You understand that, right?

“They don’t see him as a visionary. They see him as an enemy. Even now. Even nearly half a century after he was hired away from the steelworkers’ union to head a ‘union’ of baseball players that, at the time, barely had enough funds to pay the electric bill, let alone enough clout to abolish the reserve clause.

“But no matter how you look at Marvin Miller today, this is a time to recognize that his impact was undeniable – not just on his sport but on the entire sporting universe. And the omission of this game-altering figure from the Hall of Fame is nothing short of an embarrassment.”

Jerry Izenberg / Star-Ledger

“So there he was (1966), sitting across yet another table from Jim Bunning, Harvey Kuenn and Robin Roberts.

“ ‘I’d like to see your contract,’ Miller said.

“ ‘I haven’t signed for next year yet,’ Bunning said.

“ ‘Not your contract,’ Miller said. ‘I mean your association’s basic agreement with baseball.’


“ ‘We haven’t got one,’ Bunning said.


“ ‘Beautiful,’ Miller said. ‘Just beautiful.’

“On March 5, 1966, Miller received a phone call from Bob Allison, another player rep. There was so much hollering in the background he could hardly hear.

“ ‘What the hell is happening there?’ Miller asked.

“ ‘It’s a press conference. Well, actually, it’s your press conference,’ Allison said. ‘We just gave you the job.’…

“Miller changed the face of baseball and the arrogance of the commissioner’s office. His phone was always available to the media, as was he. He never dickered, he never dodged and I can say with authority that he never lied.

“The players should buy a mountain. They surely can afford it. And they should dig into the rocks with baseball bats and carve out a bust of the man who led them for so long – a baseball version of Mount Rushmore.

“It’s the least they can do, since nobody wants to vote him into the Hall of Fame. Not to mention without Miller, all they’d probably have is meal money.”

Fay Vincent / New York Times

“Marvin Miller called me about six weeks ago to say goodbye. He told me he had terminal liver cancer and wanted his close friends to know. He did not want us to view the news as tragic. He was 95, he said, and the last two years had been difficult….

“He was, in my opinion and that of most baseball savants, the most important figure in baseball in the last 40 years, yet many fans may not recognize his name. His death on Tuesday should give rise to some serious feelings of regret by those who failed to elect this good man, the former head of the players union, to membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame. More than anyone else, he transformed baseball….

“When he came on the scene at the players union in 1966, he found a group of ballplayers with no sense of how to achieve the kind of collective benefits that unions in this country had been seeking and realizing for their members for years. Miller had been a high official at the United Steelworkers union, and he brought to his baseball constituency the intense convictions of a dedicated trade unionist….

“As he took charge of the union, Miller was shocked to find how poorly the players were being treated by the owners. In an oral history interview he did that is – some irony here – at the Hall of Fame, he explained how he had to persuade players to stand with him in asking for substantially improved terms in their collective bargaining agreements….Today, the player pension and health benefits are so good and so well financed, the union is in many ways limited by law seeking greater funding….

“He portrayed the players as poor working-class good guys seeking only to be treated fairly while castigating the wealthy owners as evil and selfish moguls. It worked, and the public sided with the players….

“I regret deeply he did not live to accept the honor of election to the Hall of Fame. I can only hope that error is soon corrected. Until it is, the Hall is diminished.”

One other stat on Marvin Miller’s impact. MLB revenue has grown from $50 million in 1967 to $7.5 billion today.

Knicks vs. Nets…Manhattan vs. Brooklyn

On Monday night, the Knicks finally played the Nets, in Brooklyn, the original season-opener between the two a victim of Hurricane Sandy. I watched the game and it was as advertised. Great fun. 9-3 New York vs. 8-4 Brooklyn. A new rivalry was born.

Mike Vaccaro / New York Post

“At the end, as the final seconds melted away and the final buzzer groaned, the eerie chant came tumbling down from the upper reaches of Barclays Center. Nothing manufactured about it. Nothing artificial about it.

“Brooooooooklyyyyynnnnn…

“Gerald Wallace dribbled out the clock, and he handed the ball to the referee, and a splendid night on the Brooklyn side was complete, a 96-89 overtime victory for the Nets in their pockets, a share of first place in the Atlantic Division standings. And a brand-new rivalry for a city to savor.

“If they can all be like this?

“Well, then the baseball Subway Series will become a cute little novelty. The notion of a Giants-Jets Super Bowl will fade to oblivion. And all of those intramural hockey battles we’ve rhapsodized about through the years? They’ll seem like a Catskills warm-up act.

“ ‘This,’ Nets guard Joe Johnson said, ‘is what the fans live for.’

“ ‘This,’ Nets coach Avery Johnson said, ‘is what I’ve dreamed about ever since I got here.’

“ ‘This,’ Knicks coach Mike Woodson said, ‘was a great game.’”

The Nets’ Deron Williams had 16 points, 14 assists. The Knicks’ Tyson Chandler and Carmelo Anthony combined for 63 points and 23 rebounds.

Vaccaro:

“All night, Barclays was an acoustic ping-pong table, cheers for everybody, boos for everybody, every basket and rebound and turnover and flop equally praised and prosecuted by a crowd that, probably, was split 60-40 for the Nets but seemed perfectly willing to treat this first meeting of Manhattan and Brooklyn like a Little League game:

Cheers for everyone! Trophies for everyone! Now let’s get ice cream….

“A rivalry grows in Brooklyn. The city game belongs to the city once again. More, please.”

Stuff

NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Elite Eight

Indiana vs. North Carolina
Creighton vs. UConn

Georgetown vs. San Diego
Louisville vs. Maryland

NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Final Four

Stanford vs. North Carolina
Penn State vs. Florida State

Hey, Mark R. Didn’t realize Notre Dame defeated Wake Forest in the second round of this one. Guess I owe you a road beer at the dinner for this one, too. Drat! [ND then went on to lose to Florida St. in the Elite Eight.]

–The USGA ruled today on the belly putter, specifically the act of  “anchoring” the club against the stomach. Three of golf’s last five major tournaments were won by players using belly putters: Keegan Bradley at the 2011 PGA, Webb Simpson at the 2012 U.S. Open, and Ernie Els at this year’s British Open.

And the verdict? It will be banned, effective Jan. 1, 2016, though there will be comment on the topic until the decision is formally approved early next year.

Mike Davis, the executive director of the USGA, said, “One of the most fundamental things about the game of golf is we believe the player should hold the club away from his body and swing it freely. We think this is integral to the traditions of the game. Golf is a game of skill and challenge, and we think that is an important part of it.”

Tiger Woods reiterated his opposition to the club.

“I just believe that the art of putting is swinging the club and controlling nerves.” Having one end of the putter at a fixed point, Woods said, “is something that’s not in the traditions of the game. We swing all other 13 clubs, I think the putter should be the same.”

I totally agree with Woods.

Both Simpson and Bradley had said they won’t be happy if the putter is banned, but don’t plan on contesting it as some earlier reports had it. At least that’s what they say now. Others think those anchoring the putter will definitely put up a big fight, it being their livelihood.

–I forgot to mention last time that Sebastian Vettel won his third consecutive Formula One title and the German is all of 25.

–I love this story. As reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban “believes that one of the NBA’s marketing deals is ‘a scam,’ and he said Monday that he banned the product from the team’s locker room.

“Cuban made his opinion clear in a video he posted to YouTube last week in which he criticized Power Balance bracelets before throwing the display case that was in the Mavericks’ locker room in the garbage.

“ See this stuff?’ Cuban said on the video, grabbing the display. ‘It was a scam when they were on ‘Shark Tank.’ It’s still a scam. I don’t care if the NBA was dumb enough to sign an agreement; this is going where it belongs.’”

Now you’ve all seen those commercials for Power Balance bracelets. Actually, I haven’t seen one in a while but as MacMahon writes: “In November 2011, Power Balance LLC reportedly agreed to a $57 million settlement to a class action false-advertising lawsuit by some customers who alleged that the company intentionally exaggerated its products’ ability to improve balance, flexibility and strength.”

I mean anyone watching the commercials knew this was a scam. Yet the NBA sanctioned the bracelets featuring team logos on the hologram and is selling them on the league’s official website.

So good for Cuban. “Seriously,” he said, “this is not new. It’s been disproven. What you saw is the placebo effect. There’s athletes that wear it. It’s a joke. It’s a scam. It’s not real.”

Larry Hagman asked The Sunday Times of London to wait until he was dead before publishing the following:

“At the peak of his worldwide fame in the 1980s as J.R. Ewing…he and his wife, Maj Axelsson, visited Bucharest, where they were feted by Romania’s Communist leaders.

Nicolae Ceausescu, the dictator who was later executed in the 1989 Christmas uprising, wanted to put a giant portrait of Hagman on the side of a building to bolster the regime and sought his permission. Hagman said he had no objection provided a bag filled with hard currency was left in the ladies’ lavatory of a government office for his wife to pick up the next day.

“A brown paper bag stuffed with dollars was duly left to be collected, he recalled recently. ‘We spent it quickly like we did all the money in those days,’ he added.”

Top 3 songs for the week 11/27/76: #1 “Tonight’s The Night” (Rod Stewart…any night with Britt Ekland is a good one, I always say…at least 35-40 years ago…) #2 “The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald” (Gordon Lightfoot…just went on, and on, and on, and on…sink already!) #3 “Love So Right” (Bee Gees…whatever)…and…#4 “Muskrat Love” (Captain & Tennille…Muskrat being No. 230 on the All-Species List) #5 “The Rubberband Man” (Spinners… easily their worst…) #6 “Disco Duck (Part 1)” (Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots) #7 “Just To Be Close To You” (Commodores…big slow dance my sophomore year at Wake Forest…ahem ahem…ahem…) #8 “Beth” (Kiss… stupid…) #9 “More Than A Feeling” (Boston…one of my suitemates overplayed this album…but then I was overplaying Earth, Wind & Fire and Ronnie Laws) #10 “Nadia Theme (The Young and the Restless)” (Barry DeVorzon & Perry Botkin, Jr.)

College Football Quiz Answer: NFL Starts since 1970

California…Steve Bartkowski (127), Craig Morton (126)
Arizona State…Jake Plummer (136), Danny White (92)
Kansas State…Steve Grogan (135), Lynn Dickey (111)

Next Bar Chat, Monday.