Note: Posted Sunday p.m. prior to Giants-Packers.
College Football Quiz: The other day the Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond had this:
“Philadelphia quarterback Nick Foles made his first career start Sunday, replacing the injured Michael Vick against Washington. In the process, Foles ended one of football’s most unfathomable streaks: Before Sunday, no quarterback from Arizona, Foles’ alma mater, had started an NFL game since Bill Demory did so in 1973.”
So, since the 1970 merger, name the seven schools that have 500 or more NFL starts. Bonus points if you can give the top two QBs at each. For example: Ohio State has just 156, led by Mike Tomczak (73) and Kent Graham (38). Answer below.
College Football Review
No. 1 Notre Dame 22 USC 13…Theo Riddick with 146 yards rushing, USC held to 281 yards total offense as freshman Max Wittek, subbing for the injured Matt Barkley, played like a, err, freshman…14/23, 186, 1-2.
No. 2 Alabama 49 Auburn 0…two years after leading Auburn to a national title, coach Gene Chizik was fired after going 3-9, 0-8 in SEC play. Chizik gets a $7.5 million buyout.
No. 3 Georgia 42 Georgia Tech 10…Aaron Murray, the top-rated passer in the country, 14/17, 215, 2-0.
No. 4 Florida 37 No. 10 Florida State 26…the Gators with 24 in the fourth. Highly entertaining game for the most part but Seminoles done in by five turnovers.
No. 5 Oregon 48 No. 15 Oregon State 24…Kenjon Barner back in top form with 198 yards rushing, while De’Anthony Thomas contributed 122 on the ground. OSU’s Sean Mannion with 4 interceptions. Beavers with 6 TOs to OU’s zero.
No. 7 LSU 20 Arkansas 13 (Fri.)…Razorback interim coach John L. Smith will not be returning after Arkansas was ranked No. 10 in preseason and finished 4-8.
No. 8 Stanford 35 No. 17 UCLA 17…these two now play each other again next week for Pac-12 title.
No. 9 Texas A&M 59 Missouri 29…Johnny Manziel, 32/44, 372, 3-1, plus 67 yards and two touchdowns on the ground… “Johnny Football” wraps up Heisman as a freshman…remarkable. [At least you’d think he has.]
No. 12 South Carolina 27 No. 11 Clemson 17…dreadful performance by Tigers.
No. 13 Oklahoma 51 No. 21 Oklahoma State 48 (OT)
No. 14 Nebraska 13 Iowa 7 (Fri.)…Cornhuskers now head to pathetic match-up for Big Ten title with Wisconsin (7-5, 4-4) because in the “Leaders” division, Ohio State and Penn State, ahead of the Badgers, are both ineligible for postseason play….Wisconsin’s Montee Ball did set an NCAA record with 79 career touchdowns.
Pitt (5-6) 27 No. 18 Rutgers 6…another pathetic situation. To wit…
UConn 23 No. 20 Louisville 20 (OT)…so Rutgers and Louisville, both 9-2, square off on Thursday night to see who gets the Big East’s automatic BCS bid…more in a bit.
In other games, potential great one this coming Friday night for the MAC title…11-1 Kent State vs. 11-1 Northern Illinois, the former having dispatched of a solid Ohio squad, 28-6, while Northern Illinois demolished Eastern Michigan 49-7.
Ohio State finished the season 12-0, a truly remarkable first season for coach Urban Meyer, as the Buckeyes defeated No. 19 Michigan 26-21, but of course Ohio State is staying home and with Notre Dame winning, virtually zero chance OSU can capture the No. 1 ranking in the AP poll even if the Alabama-Georgia winner then beats ND in the BCS title game. One word on Michigan QB Denard Robinson, who completed his career on Saturday. He had a super sophomore season and was very ordinary the next two years…strange.
Back to Pitt, strange season for them after opening loss to Youngstown State. They beat then No. 13 Virginia Tech and had very tough losses to Syracuse (14-13), Louisville (45-35), Notre Dame (3 overtimes), and UConn (24-17). I mean it just wasn’t that bad of a season except in the win-loss column.
My Wake Forest Demon Deacons finished the season 5-7 after getting destroyed at home by Vanderbilt, 55-21, as Vandy goes to 8-4. I’m a Mets, Jets and Deacs fan…life blows. [Go Knicks!]
“Eight snaps. In a bulging Coliseum that shook with roars and swayed with groans, one football season for two teams was defined in eight snaps.
“That’s all it took. On a Saturday night when one team rose to the national championship game while the other blew into an outpost bowl like a sad tumbleweed, the difference between them could be found in eight snaps.
“The inspirational brilliance of Notre Dame, the utter chaos of USC, everything illuminated in a 22-13 Irish victory that could be described in those eight snaps.
“But they missed that shot. In particular, Kiffin missed that shot. Again. The coach who has enraged fans with his play-calling and game management unfurled more mind-bending strategy that turned this game on its ear hole during the fourth-quarter goal-line sequence found in those eight snaps.
“The Trojans could have beaten unbeaten Notre Dame. They could have kept the top-ranked Irish from playing for their first national championship in 24 years. They could have saved their season and set the course for their future.
“Instead, in eight snaps, they ended their regular schedule mired deep in the muck of five losses and heaps of disappointment and a torrent of boos. Lots and lots of boos, and if I had been in the stands, I would’ve been booing too.
“The eight snaps began late in the fourth quarter with the Trojans on the Notre Dame two-yard line after a 53-yard pass from freshman quarterback Max Wittek to Marqise Lee. USC trailed by nine, and needed a touchdown, and needed it quick – but it was clearly within reach, no need to settle for a field goal. [Ed. about 5:50 remained in the game at this point.]
“First problem – the offense was casually huddling and running to the line without any urgency. Second problem – once the Trojans lined up, guard Marcus Martin jumped offside for a five-yard penalty, the second game-changing USC penalty of the game.
“But first, you’ve got to call those plays, and Kiffin didn’t.
“Curtis McNeal ran for three yards, and consecutive pass-interference penalties gave the Trojans first and goal at the one with hopes of saving the drive. But then, Kiffin seemingly became the only person in the building who didn’t remember that Notre Dame’s most memorable win this season came after it stopped Stanford on four consecutive running plays at the goal line in overtime.
“First play? Wittek tried to snake over the goal line. He was stopped. Second play? Wittek tried to sneak again. He was stopped. With all those running plays draining valuable time off the clock, Kiffin was finally forced to call a timeout.
“And what play did he devise during that timeout? Another run into the middle, this time by McNeal, who was also stopped, bringing up fourth down.
“Finally, finally, Kiffin decided to pass the ball. He had one receiver, Lee, who had bewitched the Irish defensive backs into those pass-interference penalties. He had another receiver, Robert Woods, who had consistently beaten the Irish defensive backs and had earlier caught an 11-yard touchdown pass.
“So where does he order Wittek to throw it? To redshirt freshman fullback Soma Vainuku, who had caught eight balls all season, or 177 fewer than Lee and Woods combined.
“Vainuku dropped Wittek’s low pass in the end zone, and the Trojans were finished.
“ ‘They have a good scheme, they had great players down there, they did that to everybody,’ Kiffin said. ‘They stopped the guys from Stanford, they stopped everybody they played down there, that’s really the story.’
“So Kiffin knew about Stanford and still called those running plays at the goal line? That’s really the story….
“ ‘You’d like to think that that many snaps, you could score a touchdown,’ Kiffin said.
“You’d like to think that with this much talent, USC would not be 7-5.
“You’d like to think that after starting the season ranked No. 1 in the country, USC would not have completely disappeared.”
“To use an expression he knows so well, I don’t give a rat’s [tail] what Jim Mora says.
“I’m the guy trying to get the Rose Bowl named after him, and so after getting thrashed by Stanford I’m asking him if he had the Bruins just going through the motions Saturday.
“I’m giving him an out instead of everyone jumping to the conclusion the Bruins have reverted to Rick Neuheisel form overnight.
“It’s football suicide if they win this game, sending UCLA to Eugene to play Oregon for the Pac-12 Conference championship game, so I know Mora’s team had to lose to Stanford.
“He spent 25 years in the NFL, so he knows how to assemble a game plan to make it appear as if his team is going all out when the goal is really to show the other team nothing….
“It was routine in the NFL to play a team twice in the same season, and knowing this one meant nothing but disaster if UCLA won, I wanted to give him credit for tanking without making it obvious.
“If the Bruins weren’t tanking it, then one can only conclude they don’t belong on the same field with Stanford.
“I figure after the first quarter, the score tied, 7-7, Mora realizes UCLA can beat Stanford so he holds the Bruins back.
“I’m giving him credit for UCLA running 13 plays and gaining 13 yards in the second quarter and falling behind, 21-10, and then 35-17 after three quarters….
“ ‘To insinuate our players didn’t give their best effort would not be correct,’ Mora says….
“ ‘I never in my life stepped on the field to compete and not given my best nor will I ever,’ Mora says, and I can see him running for office one day.
“I reminded him that’s not true. Mora coached in close to 100 NFL exhibition games and probably never once giving a hoot who won or lost.
“ ‘Those games didn’t count,’ Mora says, and this one didn’t either.
“The Bruins were going to the Pac-12 championship game whether they won or lost this one. It was the closest thing to an NFL exhibition game.”
CFB Bits
—Brutal day for the ACC as Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Florida State go down to SEC foes, and in the case of the first two they weren’t in the least bit competitive.
I also read the comments of the Wake players following their 55-21 debacle at the hands of Vandy and they were as brutal as you can get, with the Deacs now having four consecutive losing seasons.
Quarterback Tanner Price: “I think one of the big problems has been we just haven’t played with a lot of heart and a lot of emotion. That’s sad to see because we have talented players, and I think we can play a lot better than we’ve been playing.”
Star receiver Michael Campanaro: “I think it’s just the whole attitude around the program. I was looking around tonight and you know the game’s on one end and I see a bunch of guys huddled up around the heater on the other end. That’s just a losing attitude. It wasn’t a pretty sight to see. The game was still in reach then.”
Nose tackle Nikita Whitlock: “You can’t lose three or four games the way we lost them – and I don’t have to mention them – and it’s just a players thing or a coaches thing. It’s a whole team thing, all the way from the top with Coach (Jim) Grobe and maybe (A.D.) Ron Wellman all the way to the bottom. Football is about effort. We need to make some changes to get better.”
Grobe: “I just think right now we’re not a very good football team. Unless we can get some people healthy – and some of the guys like Antonio Ford and Steven Chase [offensive linemen], those guys are not going to be back for a long time. So we’re struggling right now. I’ve never had the injury bug that we’ve had this year.”
No doubt, Wake was decimated on the O-Line, but it’s far more than that, as the above-quoted players put it. Not exactly great for recruiting either.
Deacon Football
2006…11-3…Orange Bowl
2007…9-4
2008…8-5
2009…5-7
2010…3-9
2011…6-7
2012…5-7
—North Carolina State fired Tom O’Brien after six seasons and 7-5 this year. Overall O’Brien was 40-35.
—Las Vegas oddsmakers told Bloomberg’s Erik Matuszewski that a Notre Dame – Alabama matchup would be the most-wagered college football game in history, with a worldwide betting handle of more than $2 billion. Alabama would probably be a 10-point favorite, assuming it dispatches Georgia with ease.
–So remember all that talk early in the year regarding Div. I-AA Savannah State, losers to Oklahoma State 84-0 and Florida State 55-0 in their first two contests? Remember how we were supposed to feel sorry for them? I didn’t. I still don’t. But for the record, they did finish 1-10, with the only win against “Edward Waters.” Yes, I had to look up just what the heck is Edward Waters. Well it’s a traditional black college in Jacksonville, Fla., that has had accreditation problems over the years, so I read. I mean the school is so dysfunctional, they can’t even keep up their football schedule online in terms of scores. But I see they played “Ava Maria University.”
Now I just knew, not having heard of this other one either, that the kid who was in charge of posting the Edward Waters schedule didn’t spell “Ave Maria” right so I looked up Ave Maria University and it’s a Catholic school, also in Florida, and it is indeed “Ave Maria.” Anyway, they lost to Edward Waters 48-14.
–Finally, we congratulate Penn State and coach Bill O’Brien. To go 8-4, 6-2 Big Ten, was a great accomplishment this season, to state the obvious. I am hardly a Penn State fan, but here’s hoping they continue to hang in there from a football program standpoint until the severe sanctions are lifted.
1. Notre Dame 12-0 (all 60 first-place votes)
2. Alabama 11-1
3. Georgia 11-1
4. Ohio State 12-0
5. Florida 11-1
6. Oregon 11-1
7. Kansas State 10-1
8. Stanford 10-2
9. LSU 10-2
10. Texas A&M 10-2
11. South Carolina 10-2
12. Oklahoma 9-2
13. Florida State 10-2
14. Nebraska 10-2
15. Clemson 10-2
16. Oregon State 8-3
17. UCLA 9-3
18. Kent State 11-1
19. Northern Illinois 11-1
*No Rutgers or Louisville [RU No. 23, Louisville No. 25 in USA TODAY Coaches poll]
And the new BCS poll
1. Notre Dame .998
2. Alabama .924
3. Georgia .891
4. Florida .888
5. Oregon .863
6. Kansas State .774
7. LSU .736
8. Stanford .730
9. Texas A&M .686
10. South Carolina .669
17. Kent State…intriguing situation here…details to follow but it has to do with Rutgers and Louisville not being in BCS Top 25 either.
I’ll go through all the bowl possibilities next time.
J-E-T-S…Jets Jets Jets!
Heck, they say that even Fireman Ed left at half of Thursday night’s catastrophic Jets-Pats contest. I had returned home from celebrating Thanksgiving at my brother’s, in time for the kickoff, and then like all Jets fans caught one of the worst stretches of play in the history of sports.
“After the Patriots’ fourth touchdown in six minutes Thursday night, the NBC cameras panned to Rex Ryan. Nostrils flaring, eyes burning, he looked like a man who had chased a bushel of habaneros with a bucket of nails. He said but one word: unbelievable.
“This being Ryan, of course, he added an expletive. It was surprising that he uttered only one. On national television, the Jets were humbled, 49-19, by New England, a defeat that recalibrated embarrassment, reduced them to a punch line, stretched the definition of a rivalry: four straight losses to the Patriots.
“And to think, they almost won. If only Mark Sanchez had recognized the safety sinking in the middle of the field instead of throwing the ball directly to him. Or had they not forgotten to cover Shane Vereen on his 83-yard touchdown. Or had Sanchez not turned the wrong way on a handoff, a mistake compounded by slamming into Brandon Moore’s posterior, his fumble returned for a score. Or had Joe McKnight not fumbled the ensuing kickoff, leading to another touchdown return. Or had they not committed five turnovers. Or had they not…
“By halftime, it was obvious that the Jets’ victory – their decisive victory – Sunday in St. Louis was merely a break from regularly scheduled programming: a three-hour loop of tragicomedy – of blown coverages, of miscommunication, of ineptitude on all phases. The game was scoreless after the first quarter. Really, it was. But in one dizzying 52-second sequence, the Patriots scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams….
“ ‘We’re about as wounded as you could possibly be, but we’re not dead,’ Ryan said, adding, ‘I know our fans deserve a heck of a lot better than this.’
“Many of those fans vacated the premises after halftime, off to pursue a more enjoyable endeavor, like running out of gasoline or drinking curdled milk. Already they had witnessed New England possess the ball for all of 2 minutes 14 seconds in the second quarter – and score 35 points….
“It might have been the most horrific 12 minutes in Jets history. It was cover-your-children’s-eyes bad.”
And not for nothing, but New England won its 19th consecutive game in the second half of a season (8-0, 8-0, 3-0).
“How many other teams in the entire National Football League would be willing to trade their roster for the one that Ryan is coaching right now?
“Another question: Other than maybe the pathetic Kansas City Chiefs, how many teams would trade the quarterback they have for the two Ryan suited up against the Patriots?
“The Jets have five games left, against the Cardinals, Jaguars, Titans, Chargers and Bills, and the way they looked on Thanksgiving Night, you wonder why they should be favored in any of those games. A scrub team playing other scrub teams. But say they do find a way to get to 8-8. Are we really supposed to get rid of a coach who doesn’t have a losing season in four years coaching the New York Jets?…
“Ryan certainly isn’t without blame here. He hired the wrong offensive coordinator, he signed off on Tebow, he loved Sanchez when they worked him out and decided to draft him, ground-and-pound was always going to be a bone-headed philosophy in a quarterback league, one where only star quarterbacks win the Super Bowl now….
“Maybe you think Ryan was always a clown, even when he was bringing the Jets back, taking them to those two AFC Championship Games. Maybe there are people close to Woody telling him to bag the clown before things get worse, that being the Hard Knocks Jets ran its course way too soon.
“Ryan…doesn’t get to walk away from the wreck without blame if the season does turn into a car wreck. But do you really think coaches around the league are looking at Sanchez, Greene, these receivers, the mess the Jets created for themselves with Tebow, a cornerback being the best player on the team and thinking, Man, I wish I had it as good as Rex does?”
I said before the season started the Jets would be 6-10. Looks pretty good today.
But wait, there’s more! As in the Jets’ dysfunctional medical staff, in their best imitation of the New York Mets’ team doctors, missed the seriousness of an injury Tim Tebow had suffered on Nov. 11 against Seattle, thinking his ribs were just bruised and sore, only to have Tebow play the following week against St. Louis, after which an MRI and CAT scan revealed the ribs were broken. Even so, the docs cleared him to play against the Pats. But Rex compounded the situation by dressing Tebow rather than third-string QB Greg McElroy, yet then made sure Tebow didn’t play. Oh, he was available if Sanchez had gotten hurt, but that would have made zero sense; Ryan himself said he noticed during practice on Tuesday, Tebow wasn’t right. So, OK, Coach, why did you…oh, never mind….
At least the ’62 Mets were laughable. The 2012 Jets are despicable.
One other, only twice since the 1970 merger has a team scored three touchdowns in less than a minute, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Atlanta Falcons, on Oct. 4, 1998, took 48 seconds to accomplish this against the Carolina Panthers and on Sept. 29, 2002, the Seattle Seahawks humiliated the Vikings in 51 seconds.
–Meanwhile, I was driving to my brother’s on Turkey Day, having watched the beginning of Detroit-Houston, and caught ‘the play’ on the car radio…Lions Coach Jim Schwartz’ blunder on a challenge flag. So for the archives…an explanation from the AP:
“Schwartz threw a challenge flag when Justin Forsett of Houston scored on an 81-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Replays showed Forsett was down near midfield. But all touchdowns are automatically reviewed, so Schwartz’s unnecessary action led to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and also negated that automatic review. ‘It’s on me,’ Schwartz said to his assistant coaches and players on the sideline as he tapped his chest. ‘It’s on me.’”
“The rule was instituted in 2011 and stemmed from an incident in a game between the Redskins and the Giants the previous year. The officials on the field ruled a fumble had been recovered by the Giants, but there was some question whether the Redskins’ player had been down. While the Redskins decided whether to challenge, the ball was spotted and Redskins linebacker London Fletcher kicked it and was called for delay of game.
“While that penalty was being enforced, Washington Coach Mike Shanahan challenged the fumble ruling. He was allowed to do that, but the competition committee later thought a team could benefit from committing a penalty in this situation because it gave them more time to challenge a play, so the rule was changed to apply when a team throws the flag and is not permitted to challenge, which includes scoring plays, turnovers, when a team is out of challenges or timeouts and inside two minutes, when plays are automatically reviewed.
Detroit (4-7) lost the game 34-31 as Houston moved to 10-1. The Lions have now lost nine consecutive Thanksgiving contests.
Jeff B. alerted me to the fact the Steelers were bumbling idiots against the Browns, with Cleveland (3-8) prevailing 20-14 vs. Pittsburgh (6-5) as the Steelers had to go with Charlie Batch, their 37-year-old, third-string QB due to injuries to Roethlisberger and Leftwich. Batch tossed three interceptions while Pittsburgh lost five fumbles (one each by their four running backs). 8 turnovers! Holy Toledo! Pittsburgh’s playoff hopes are sinking quickly with Baltimore next up.
But the now 7-4 Indianapolis Colts remain in the hunt after a 20-13 win over the Bills (4-7).
Atlanta moved to 10-1 with a 24-23 win over Tampa Bay (6-5) down there as Matt Ryan had another huge game, 26/32, 353, 1-1 (110.0).
In the aforementioned Minnesota-Chicago contest, the Vikings (6-5) fell to the Bears (8-3) in Chicago with a solid return by Bears QB Jay Cutler, but it still needs to be noted Adrian Peterson continued his remarkable (“unfathomable”) recovery from a devastating knee injury last Christmas Eve, as the Viking star RB had his fifth-straight 100-yard game (18-108) and now has 1,236 yards for the season (5.8 avg.). [But he did lose a fumble.]
On Thanksgiving, Washington’s RG III put on another terrific show, 20/28, 311, 4-1 (132.6 rating) as Washington moved to 5-6 to match Dallas’ 5-6 in the NFC East, a 38-31 win in Big D (err, Big A…Arlington). Heck, even the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd is on the Robert Griffin III bandwagon, writing Barack Obama could learn a lesson or two from the lad when it comes to dealing with people.
And the 49ers behind Colin Kaepernick moved to 8-2-1 in defeating the now 5-6 Saints in New Orleans, 31-21. Kaepernick got the nod over Alex Smith and had a solid performance, 16/25, 231, 1-1 (90.6).
College Basketball
—Nice start for Duke, currently No. 5 in the polls but destined to move up another few notches after Saturday’s 76-71 win over No. 2 Louisville, this after earlier defeating then No. 3 Kentucky. On Wednesday, they play No. 3 Ohio State in the ACC-Big Ten challenge.
–And we note Elon’s win over South Carolina, 65-53, last Wednesday. Good job, Shu.
—San Diego State, my pick to click for this season, faces USC Sunday night (after I go to post), and then a biggie against UCLA on Dec. 1st.
–No one is more ticked off with all the realignment in college sports than Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim. On Wednesday night, following his No. 6 Orange’s win over Princeton, 73-53, Boeheim said among other things:
“Maybe they should just have a draft, each conference should just draft teams…except then they’d have to make a decision and they wouldn’t be able to figure it out. Eventually, they’ll get this thing figured out. They’ll get all the teams moved and then in a year or two someone will say, ‘We need to take somebody,’ …But I’ll be long gone by then….
“Rivalries don’t matter to anyone anymore. If you ask someone at West Virginia if they like going to Texas Tech or Texas A&M and all those places, ask their fans whether they really like that. Maybe they do. I don’t know. I don’t get it….There’s nothing you can do about it.
“Like I said, if these guys (the conference commissioners) were running the United States in colonial times, Brazil and Argentina would be states because they have something we need. It’s a great country.”
–With Jack Taylor’s scoring record of 138 points for Grinnell College, it forced us to look back at Bevo Francis and his 113 points in a game in 1954 for Rio Grande College in Ohio. Francis was 38 of 70 from the floor and added 37 free throws against Hillsdale College of Michigan to set the mark. In the 1952-53 season, he averaged 50.1 points per game, including a 116-point performance against Ashland (Ky.) Junior College that was voided by the NCAA because it did not come against a four-year college. Several of his games were against such competition that year and it lowered his average.
But his 1953-54 scoring average of 46.5 points per game remains an NCAA single-season record. He is in the NAIA Hall of Fame and was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors but turned down their contract offer. Instead he worked with Colt Industries and later Goodyear Tire.
–In the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship, No. 1 seed Notre Dame lost to 16-seed Indiana in the third round…I’ll have the rest next time when the quarterfinal matchups are all settled. [But UNC defeated Fairleigh Dickinson.]
–Monday night in Brooklyn, the 9-3 Knicks vs. the 8-4 Nets…just as us area fans had hoped. Don’t tell anyone, but since neither the Jets or Giants were playing Sunday afternoon, I watched most of the Knicks-Pistons. I can’t remember the last time I watched b-ball over an NFL game. [The Bears-Vikings contest wasn’t close enough.]
–Congratulations to the Charlotte Bobcats, who at 7-5 have matched their win total for all of last season when they went an NBA-record worst 7-59. On the other hand, in defeating the Washington Wizards on Saturday, the Wizards moved to 0-11 and will threaten the NBA’s worst season-opening losing streak, 18, by the 2009-2010 New Jersey Nets. [That squad ended up 12-70.]
–We note the passing of Larry Hagman, 81, “J.R. Ewing” of “Dallas” fame who first became a television star in the 1960s with “I Dream of Jeannie.” Among those at his bedside at a Dallas hospital on Friday was Linda Gray, his longtime co-star on “Dallas.”
“He was the pied piper of life and brought joy to everyone he knew,” Gray said in a statement. “He was creative, generous, funny, loving and talented…an original and lived life to the full.”
Hagman was the son of legendary Broadway star Mary Martin (best known for originating the role of Peter Pan in the 1950s).
J.R. Ewing was “the man viewers loved to hate,” according to critics. Former Los Angeles Times critic Howard Rosenberg wrote soon after the show’s debut, “Here is a man born to villainy…a salute to slime.”
Hagman had been doing Broadway shows and was a regular on the soap “The Edge of Night” when he chose to read for the part of astronaut Tony Nelson on “I Dream of Jeannie,” which debuted in the fall of 1965. Hagman, though, was very difficult to deal with on the set and director Roger Nelson became a victim after 10 episodes. Nelson wanted Hagman fired. Instead, Nelson was.
Back to “Dallas,” it was a helluva run, 1978-91, capped by 1980’s “Who Shot J.R.?” episode that drew an estimated 83 million viewers (300 million in 57 countries had seen J.R. get show by an unknown assailant, a season-ending plot that popularized cliffhangers).
But did you know he bought his Malibu home in the 1960s for $115,000 and sold it to Sting for nearly $7 million in the 1990s?! Not bad, not bad at all.
—Gail Harris died. He was also 81. Harris was the last New York Giants baseball player to hit a home run before the franchise moved to San Francisco following the 1957 season. He hit two homers and drove in seven against the Pirates in Pittsburgh, leading New York to a 9-5 victory. [Then in the Giants’ final four games of the season they were outscored 20-2.]
For his career, spanning six seasons (1955-57, NYG; 1958-60, DET), Harris hit .240 with 51 HR 190 RBI. His best season was ’58 with the Tigers when he slammed 20 homers, drove in 83, and hit .273.
–Boxer Hector “Macho” Camacho was pulled off life support following an ambush the other day in Puerto Rico. Cocaine was found in the car in which he was shot.
Camacho was one of the more flamboyant boxing characters of his or any era, who at the same time was a legitimate ‘bad boy.’
Camacho’s family moved to New York from Puerto Rico when he was young and he grew up in Spanish Harlem. He landed in jail as a teenager before turning to boxing.
Camacho’s career mark was 79-6-3 and he was a super-featherweight and lightweight champ who fought all the best of his generation, from Edwin Rosario, to Sugar Ray Leonard, to Oscar de la Hoya, to Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, to Julio Cesar Chavez, to Roberto Duran and Felix Trinidad.
–And now our irregular feature… “Sex Chat,” ripped from the pages of Men’s Health.
Actress Maggie Grace says: “I wish I could teach every guy how to wrap his arms around a woman in a way that she knows she could absolutely faint and he’d catch her. That clasp around the lower back is the sexiest thing in the world.” [She’s not the first woman to mention this, guys. Hmmm…]
“Cleaning up in the kitchen after a holiday party” …solid idea, but wait for the guests to leave.
“At a rest stop on your way to a family function”…not at a New Jersey rest stop…yuck!
“During an automated car wash” …can’t comment…pretty quick drive-through where I go.
“Inside a shelter on an empty golf course” …Phil W. knows I have a 60-degree rule…for golf, that is, when I’m not in Ireland, where I have no choice…but 60-degrees is a pretty good rule for a lot of stuff…
–Ever since he ended his legendary comic strip in 1995 (yikes, 17 years ago, Jeff B.!), “Calvin & Hobbes” creator Bill Watterson has been a recluse. But he’s back in the headlines, sort of, because in 1986, Watterson exchanged originals, in this case a Sunday original of C&H, with fellow cartoonist Brian Basset (“Red and Rover” and “AdamHome”).
So Bassett has hit hard times (never heard of his two strips myself) and he put the Watterson 13-by-9-inch marker-pen-and-watercolor on Bristol board up for auction and it sold for a record-shattering $203,150. Said Dallas-based Heritage Auctions’ Todd Hignite, “A world record-price like this is a testament to just how beloved ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ was and is. The final price realized tops any offering from any cartoonist ever, including the giants like Charles Schulz and Elzie Segar (“Pop-eye”).
The previous record for a comic-strip original was a Peanuts’ work going for $113,500 in 2007.
–So I’m reading this story in the New York Times by Stephanie Strom on how Chia seeds are the nutritional “it” item these days. “Grown primarily in Mexico and Bolivia, chia, like fish, is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, though of a different sort. It also has antioxidants, protein and fiber. Recognition of its nutritional value can be traced as far back as the Aztecs.”
Still, you want to be careful how you mix your seeds with water or else you’ll be growing some embarrassing stuff on your head and elsewhere.
–I like Kid Rock and there was a great segment on him today on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” show so check it out online. Not that I’m a huge fan of his music…I just admire his success and attitude. Watch the piece and you’ll come away liking him far more, or if you’re not a fan, you’ll become one.
Top 3 songs for the week 11/29/75: #1 “Fly, Robin, Fly” (Silver Convention…there were worse of this kind, I guess…) #2 “That’s The Way (I Like It)” (KC & The Sunshine Band) #3 “Island Girl” (Elton John…easily one of his worst…)…and…#4 “The Way I Want To Touch You” (Captain & Tennille…liked this one…doesn’t make me a bad person…) #5 “Let’s Do It Again” (The Staple Singers…not a fan) #6 “Sky High” (Jigsaw…whatever …) #7 “Low Rider” (War…yes! Great tune…great band…) #8 “This Will Be” (Natalie Cole…another super song…) #9 “Nights On Broadway” (Bee Gees…I’ll cut them a break…it being the holiday season and all…) #10 “Who Loves You” (Four Seasons…all he was doin’ was changin’ with the times…can’t blame him for that…plus it was fall of senior year in high school for me…I was peaking…all downhill from that point on the next 37 years…then again, in the past I’ve said I peaked in sixth grade…which is probably more like it…)
College Football Quiz Answer: Seven schools with 500 or more NFL starts by their quarterbacks since 1970. [Through games of Nov. 18]
Purdue…724…Drew Brees (163), Jim Everett (153)
Washington…623…Warren Moon (203), Chris Chandler (152)
Miami…573…Vinny Testaverde (214), Jim Kelly (160)
USC…547…Carson Palmer (116), Rodney Peete (87)
Notre Dame…543…Joe Montana (164), Joe Theismann (124)
Stanford…540…John Elway (231), Jim Plunkett (144)
Michigan…519…Tom Brady (169), Jim Harbaugh (140)
UCLA…453…Troy Aikman (165), Jay Schroeder (99)
Oregon…432…Dan Fouts (171), Chris Miller (92)
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
