The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 24

8-8 SPORTS THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER Friday, November 30, 1 984 McCallum: Navy's Dilemma College Football Byars Gets MVP Vote In Big 10 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tailback Keith Byars of Ohio State has been named the Big Ten's Most Valuable Player for the 1984 football season by The Associated Press. Byars, a 6-foot 2-inch, 225-pound Junior from Dayton, Ohio, received all but two votes for the award from a panel of sportswrit-ers and broadcasters covering the Big Ten. The other two votes went to Iowa quarterback Chuck Long. Byars helped lead Ohio State to the Big Ten championship and into the Rose Bowl against South-ern California. A unanimous selection on the All-Big Ten team, Byars led the nation in rushing with 1,655 yards, in scoring with 144 points and in all-purpose running with 2,284 yards.

the Academy as a person. The problem with this guy is that I've never heard anybody say anything-' bad about him." McCallum has spent every day 1 -since his injury trying to defy doctors' advice and get back in uniform for the Army-Navy game. "People have asked me about it constantly," said McCallum. "I'm -running and making cuts now. I'm not in as good shape as I was to start the season, but I could try to 1 return kickoffs and punts.

I'm pretty sure the coach would like me to try it." But McCallum's not going to. "There's too much to lose," said the 6-foot-2, 210-pound tailback. injury isn't going to stop me from playing pro ball some day. -It's not like it was a knee. I could probably play hurt (against Army), but I'd play badly and it's too big a risk.

IT'S ALREADY a poorly kept Annapolis secret that Navy has a perfectly reasonable way to get McCallum back for '85. According to sources, here's the scenario. McCallum, a good student, neglects to sign up for enough spring semester courses to graduate in June. He can cite the trauma of his injury as a reason, or give no reason at all. i That would make him eligible to go before an academic board that could "stretch him out" for an extra semester at Navy.

That's what happened with Steffens and with many non-athletes over the years. If he did this, McCallum would take a great risk. The board, which includes the commandant and superintendent, theoretically might kick him out of the -Academy. Or, the extra semester at Navy might be counted as part of his five-year Navy duty before he can play in the NFL. "Anything is possible," said Cmdr.

Ken Pease, the spokesman designated by Larson to address the topic of McCallum being redshirted. 1 Thomas Boswell Here is a young man who has repeatedly put his desire for an Academy degree ahead of his self-interest. McCallum has come through for Navy every time it counted: on the football field, as a nationwide recruiter, as a visible symbol of a successful black man in military life. At one point, McCallum decided to stay at Navy when, by quitting the Academy, he could have gotten to the NFL and its cash three years sooner. Now it's time for Navy to come through for McCallum.

Navy shouldn't ask McCallum to'givejip five years of his life and perhaps a pro football career and a million bucks as well, then give back nothing in return after he breaks his leg for them. "There's nothing in the NCAA rules against me being a redshirt," McCallum said the other day, nine weeks after he needed eight pins and a plate in his fibula. "The Navy has just never done it for a football player. "IF I came back next year, I would already have graduated with my class. I'd be an ensign.

The Academy is very proud of its academics and Annapolis is thought of as a place for Midshipmen. The name of the team is The Mids. What would you call the team next year The Midshipmen and One Ensign?" Leave it to McCallum to make the strongest case against himself. Of course, the Navy athletic department hopes McCallum will play next year. "I think about it all the time," said Capt.

J.O. Coppedge, Navy's athletic director. "I'VE BEEN in mourning since he was hurt-wear black socks every day. What makes this so painful is that I don't know of anybody since Roger Staubach who has been so well-respected at The Cincinnati EnquirerJerry Dowling THE WASHINGTON POST Pentagon Alert. Attention all Navy brass.

Distress signal. SOS. Save Our Star. The U.S.S. Napoleon McCallum is foundering and needs your help.

The career of the greatest running back in Navy history does not have to end Saturday with McCallum watching the Army-Navy game because of a broken leg. McCallum, native of Milford, Ohio, can play for Navy next season. Perhaps gain 2,385 all-purpose yards as he did in 1983, or win the Heisman Trophy as some thought he could this year. There's no legal, ethical or common-sense reason against it. EVEN THE NCAA says its okay for Navy to "redshirt" McCallum for a fifth year.

Almost every college in the country does it. Even precedent is on McCallum's side. Navy made an exception for a special young man (Brad Steffens) a decade ago and redshirted him for a fifth year of eligibility. The Air Force Academy would re-up McCallum In a minute. In fact, Air Force already has two redshirt footballers playing right now.

Get off your Naval duffs over there at that five-sided box, get on the horn and start rattling cages In Annapolis. Call the commandant, Commodore Leslie N. Palmer. Call the superintendent, Adm. Charles R.

Larson. Ask 'em, "How many tough decisions does this kid McCallum have to make-choosing five years as a Naval officer over a million-dollar contract in the National Football League-before we bend a little and make a tough decision for him?" IT'LL BE an injustice to McCallum if he can't come back in '85. Woodley has returned to practice and is listed as probable for Sunday's game against the Houston Oilres, but will be surprised if he, plays for the first time since the Steelers lost to the Indianapolis Colts 17-16 on Oct. 21. "I would imagine that if anything should happen (to starter Mark Malone), we'll go with (rookie) Scott Campbell," Woodley said.

"(My) problem is the rusti-ness. I haven't been able to throw and I have to get the timing back with the receivers." Woodley started the Steelers' first six games, but lost his starting job to Malone afjter he began suffering his succession of injuries. "I'm not ready to chuck the year," Woodley said. "It's depressing to me. Not the fact that I'm not playing, but being hurt and not being able to practice, let alone play." DENVER BRONCOS: Art McNally, the NFL's supervisor of officials, agreed that the controversial Clarence Kay play in Sunday's 27-24 loss to the Seahawks was an incomplete pass and not a fumble, Broncos coach Dan Reeves said Wednesday.

Reeves said McNally made his decision after reviewing films of the Kay play. "Oh, yeah-I mean everybody in the whole world knows it was an incomplete pass," Reeves said. McNally wouldn't say anything to confirm or deny the remark, which Is in keeping with NFL policy. "What's he going to do-fire the guy?" asked Reeves rhetorically. "He's a good official.

Bama Glass is a good official. He's a quality official. I think I'm a quality coach, but I'd like to have a lot of the calls I made back." Rip Vikings, 31-17 EPIfDf VOICE OF OOfXrlU THE BENGALS 18 SPONSORED BY: MARATHON BUDWEISER FSPM avaabie only through your cable sprvce Redskins THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Joe Theismann tossed two quick touchdown passes and the ball-hungry Washington Redskins scored on a pair of fumble recoveries to take sole grasp of first place in the NFC East with 31-17 victory over the Vikings in Minneapolis Thursday night. The Redskins, 9-5, are now one-half game ahead of the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants pending Sunday's games in their quest for a third straight title in National Football League's closest division. The Vikings, 3-11, have lost nine of their last 10 games for their worst record since 1962.

Theismann wasted no time. On the game's first play from scrimmage, he threw a 68-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Muhammad, making it 7-0 after just 18 seconds. Theismann flipped a four-yard scoring pass to Clint Didier late in the first quarter to make it 17-0 and the Redskins led 31-0 at half-time. Minnesota scored all its points in a second-half flurry, when 35-year-old veteran Archie Manning replaced starter Wade Wilson at quarterback and threw touchdown passes of 14 and eight yards to Leo Lewis. Theismann completed 19 of 24 passes for 223 yards, including 13 in a row in the second half, to eclipse Sonny Jurgensen's team career completion record of 1,831.

The Redskins' defense, which leads the NFC in sacks, drilled Wilson three times in the first half. Wilson, who was relieving a sore-shouldered Tommy Kramer, completed eight of 17 passes for 63 yards in the first half. CLEVELAND BROWNS: Sam Bengals Notebook Pro Football Rutigliano, fired in October after more than six seasons as coach of the Cleveland Browns, said Thursday he has not ruled out returning to the team's front office in January. "In January, I'm going to sit down and talk to (owner) Art Mo-dell. I have by no means made up my mind," Rutigliano said.

He disputed reports that he had already decided against accepting Modell's offer of an administrative job. "I might come back in January and decide there have been guys like me who took administrative jobs in the National Football League," he said. "There aren't very many areas on this team that I haven't been involved with." Rutigliano, 52, was fired Oct. 22 after the Browns lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, 12-9, to fall to 1-7. Modell has said he will honor the years remaining on the contract he gave Rutigliano just before the NFL season started.

"I went a lifetime toward building an opportunity to become a head coach in the National Football League," Rutigliano said from his suburban Cleveland home. "To say it (being fired) wasn't difficult just wouldn't be true. "But President Truman said this, and it's true: The way you respond to a crisis is far more important than the crisis PITTSBURGH STEELERS: Oft-injured Steelers' quarterback David Woodley, sidelined for five weeks, said Thursday he "isn't ready to chuck" the 1984 season despite two concussions and a badly bruised leg that was once feared to be fractured. HANOVER: Coach Wayne Perry says he expects a messy field and more rain when his Hanover, team visits McMinneville, Saturday to play Linfield, 10-0, in the NAIA Division II playoffs. No.

5 Hanover is 8-1-1 and an underdog in the game. The winner will play the winner of the Southwestern, and Northwestern, Iowa, game for the NAIA II championship. Hanover, which has a rich football tradition, is in the NAIA II playoffs for the fourth time. The Panthers pieviously played in playoff games in 1974, 1975 and 1980. However, they'd never won a playoff game until two weeks ago when they came from behind to beat Findlay, 18-17.

ARMY-NAVY: Representatives from the two service academies exchanged a series of good na-tured, verbal blasts during a dinner at the Touchdown' Club of Washington, D.C., in anticipation of Saturday's renewal of their football rivalry in Philadelphia. Army's best verbal shot came from Harry Walters, administrator of the Veterans Adminstration and a fullback at Army in 1958. Walters said the differences in the academies is best illustrated by two of the most famous players to ever participate in the service game, Navy's Roger Staubach and Army's Pete Dawkins. While both went on to win the Heisman Trophy and success past their military careers, "Dawkins knows how to spell relief," Walters joked. MISSOURI: Bobby Ross said he has withdrawn his name from consideration for the head football coaching Job at the University of Missouri, and would remain at Maryland.

Ross, completing his third straight 8-3 season at Maryland and heading for his third bowl appearance, said he had informed Missouri Athletic Director Dave Hart of his decision. Woody Widenhofer, a former assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League and Oklahoma Outlaws of the United States Football League, remains a strong candidate. LOUISVILLE: Howard Schnel-lenberger indicated the chances are 50-50 that he'll take the job as head football coach at Louisville, said Bill Olsen, the university's athletic director, after returning from a visit with the former Miami Hurricane football coach in Florida. "He analyzed the situation, he created his own list of positives and negatives," said Olsen. "It's very difficult to assess whether he's leaning one way of the other.

After the first meeting I felt it was 50-50, and I feel it's 50-50 now." Since a multimillion-dollar coaching Job with a United States Football League franchise in Florida fell through, Schnellen-berger, 50, has been considering various offers. "He has a definite love for Louisville-that's one of the strong attractions," Olsen said. Schnellenberger, who played for a Louisville high school and the University of Kentucky, visited Louisville earlier this month for tours, parties, tdinners and meetings. Another candidate for the job is Roy Kidd, of Eastern Kentucky University, which made it to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs this season. Olsen has declined to reveal the names of other possible coaches.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY: Rick Taylor resigned as Boston University's head coach to devote more time to his family and job as athletic director and named Steve Stetson as his successor. Stetson, who played and coached under Taylor, spent the last three seasons as head coach at Hamilton College In Hamilton, N.Y., where his teams had a 9-14-1 record, including 6-1-1 last season. Taylor, the wlnningest coach in Boston University history with a 55-32-1 record in eight years, led the Terriers to the Division I-AA playoffs In each of the past three seasons. They ended their season last Saturday with a 35-33 first-round loss at Richmond that lowered their record to 9-3. RADIO PRESENTS CINCINNATI BENGALS VS.

CLEVELAND BROWNS SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2 Game Time: 1:00 pm Tune to 55KRC AM Radio for Phil Samp' Channel I2't Donn Burrows for the play by play. Prevjame show starts at 1 1:45 A.M. PfOgrammmg sublet to blackout or ft IRES .4 ATO Dill vrtTrn 6001J A78x13 26.34 B78xl3 27.00 30.21 E78x14 31.77 F78x14 32.52 G78x14 34.51 H78x14 37.58 G78x15 35.44 H78x15 37.63 L78x15 41.00 TBKEl Mi The ORIGINAL TIRE DISCOUNT CENTER "FOR ALL YEAR NO CHANGE OVER DRIVING" WHITEWALLS SUPERIOR TRACTION SMOOTH RIDE STAT OF THE DAY: Sports Illustrated, which has a seven-page spread on Bengals punter Pat Mclnally in the issue that hit the stands Thursday, snapped more than 4,000 pictures of Mclnally, family and friends in preparation for the story. Ten photos were used. That means the magazine used one-quarter of 1 of the pictures taken.

New 3-Year Pact For WKRC Radio The Bengals and WKRC radio (550-AM) have signed a new three-year contract keeping WKRC as the flagship station of the club's 54-statlon network and Phil Samp as the play-by-play voice of the team through at least 1987. In 1982, the club left WLW after a long-time relationship for a three-year contract with WKRC. With the contract expiring after this season, Assistant General Manager Mike Brown didn't entertain other stations' offers, choosing to stay with the Taft Broadcasting property. "We've been happy with our relationship and we feel we're a good team," Brown said Thursday. "We want to continue it." Samp, 56, has broadcast every game in the 17-year history of the franchise, and he has no plans to leave.

"Barring health problems," said Samp, "I want to do more than three more years." If he stays through 1987, Samp will have done the Bengals for 20 years. He's now paired with Donn Burrows, the Channel 12 sports anchor. AS La Jr 15580R13 16580R13 33.93 17580R13 34.53 18580R13 34.73 18575R14 36.73 19575R14 38.93 20575R14 39.93 21575R14 38.73 20575R15. 39.93 21575R15 42.93 22575R15 45.93 23575R15 47.93 WIDE RECEIVER Steve Krelder aggravated his pulled hamstring Wednesday, but is still expected to see some action Sunday The Bengals have signed three free agents, all of whom will be Invited to training camp with the club next July. The most prominent is Steve Bird, a 5-11, 171-pound kick returnerwide receiver from Eastern Kentucky who played on special teams with the St.

Louis Cardinals last year. He averaged 5.4 yards a punt return and 21.6 yards on kick returns. Other signed were defensive lineman John Singleton and wide receiver Darrell Smith, both of whom have flunked previous pro trials. Smith, from Central State (Ohio), is the brother of former Miami University star Sherman Smith. All three players will report to the Bengals next spring for mini-camps Fullback Larry Kinnebrew (sprained ankle) didn't practice again Thursday and may not play Sunday.

"We don't expect him to practice all week," said coach Sam Wyche. Kinnebrew would be replaced by Charles Alexander, the former starter, and Stanford Jennings Practice fight of the year: cornerback Ray Horton and wide receiver Clay Pickering got into a fight in the secondary during a scrimmage drill Wednesday. When defensive co-ordinator Dick LeBeau tried to break It up, he quickly fell to the bottom of the pile among the punching and wrestling. PETER KING SNOW WHITEWULL Oivm 15580 R1 3 16580 20575 20575 21575 R1 5. .49.21 22575 R1 5.

.50.89 17580 18580 18575 19575 LIST OF THE DAY: The list of Phil Samp's radio partners on the Bengals' broadcasts since the club's inception in 1968, followed by their number of years alongside Samp in the booth: 1. Jimmy Crum, 12. 2. Bob Johnson, 1. 3.

Andy MacWilliams, 1. 4. Dennis Janson, 2. 5. Donn Burrows, 1.

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