St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 32

It- MAY, 2 6 1991 SPORTS ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH SUNDAY, MAY 26,1991 FOOTBALL ooftlbaiUU But Owners W-LAFF To The Banli loess upright, he said. "At 52 feet, they hit water, so States, and they usually trigger a mass exodus to the mountains or sea from a city squeezed on space and bustling with nearly 3 million people. And the lunch hour, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., is a near sacred rite, with few stores or the aging defensive lineman who was once the No.

1 draft choice in the NFL; Lydell Carr, who once had a big Orange Bowl game for Oklahoma, and Tony Rice, the great run-no-pass quarterback who led Notre Dame to a long winning streak a few years ago. Other than that, you have a lengthy collection of Olaf Hempels from Germany and hey asked me how to put in the goal posts, so I told them to dig a hole down six feet for the upright. At 5V2 feet, they hit water, so we had to pour the concrete as fast as we could before the hole filled up. If JACK TEELE, former Rams offiicial we had to pour the concrete as fast as we could before the hole filled up. "Then they told me, that because of Olympic track, our end zone could only yards deep.

What could I do? You just liyiSWJJfi it. I told our wide receivers to run a lot of short hook patterns when they get down But Teele's fondest memory of his first year as top Dragon was his attempt to find a practice field for one of the visiting teams, "I went to a little town outside Barcelona because I was told that they had a soccer field we could use," Teele said. "When I found the soccer field, it was locked up, so I asked somebody how I could find out about getting it unlocked. "They said I had to find the man who ran the field, the soccer impresario. They said he was always at a tavern, two blocks down and three blocks to the right.

"So I went and found him, and he looked like Sidney Greenstreet. He took me into the baf room, all smoky and dirty, and we sat around a giant pool table, with the cloth ripped right down the middle. First thing he said was, "You want my soccer field, it will be $1,000 a day. "So, since this thing was right out of a Cag-ney movie anyway, I pull the big bluff. I shrug my shoulders, say OK, and get up to leave.

He grabs me, we talk some more, the room gets smokier. "After I buy three rounds of drinks and tell him how clever he is, we settle for Ah, Spain." Teele also said that, after returning from a long trip and 24 consecutive hours of travel, his team was greeted in its suburban Barcelona home community of Sitges with a band and 1,000 well-wishers. "It was such a great thing, so warm" and friendly, that our players were taking pictures 1991, Los Angeles Times BARCELONA, Spain Could it be that the W-LAFF will get the last laugh? Could it be that this silly idea of playing American football games in front of crowds of Europeans, to whom football is soccer, just might work? From the beginning, when the National Football League proposed the World League of American Football as a global extension of itself, the jokesters had a field day. This was something ready-made for a Johnny Carson monologue. Would the Europeans "kick a touchdown?" Would they call defensive backs "goalies?" The W-LAFF label was born quickly.

America's sports columnists, if nothing else exceedingly quick with both the quip and the rip, were gleefully fast to their word processors on that. So were others, among them those prominent commentators on the world sports scene, the authors of the comic strip "Tank McNa-mara," syndicated in most of America's leading sports sections. W-LAFF was worth at least a couple of weeks' worth of strips for the minds that create Tank. But, as it turns out, what you hear is not exactly what you get when seeing a game in person. The reality is that the game is not the show, the sideshow is the show.

The quality of football is mediocre. Americans watching this will be about as impressed as Europeans watching American soccer. On a scale of one to 10, the W-LAFF is about a three. It is an accumulation of dropped passes, missed tackles and slow, unimaginative offenses. Scanning a roster of players will leave all but the freakiest of football freaks with blank expressions.

Barcelona played Frankfurt here Sunday, and the roster of recognizable Barcelona players stopped somewhere around Bruce Clark, businesses of any kind open. So, with so little real foot- mmmmi ball quality to sell, and so many unfamiliar customs to work around, the Americans who run the W-LAFF have leaned toward extravaganzas in their marketing approach. Selling to a crowd much more attuned to Madonna than Mozart, they have leaned not so much toward the hard sell as the loud one. For the first game, in Frankfurt, Germany, league President Mike Lynn, the former Minnesota Viking official, flew into the stadium in the middle of a pregame light and music show in a helicopter. League press information later referred to that as Lynn's "dramatic" entrance.

At other games, the fare has ranged from circus acts to sword-swallowing to Jerry Lee Lewis singing "Great Balls of Fire." Sunday, they let the game begin after a giant dragon spewed fire for about two minutes. Flames belched and sparks flew, but if there were concerned fire marshals anywhere, they kept well hidden. Apparently, all is fair in love and W-LAFF promotions. Teele, the man in charge here, is a former Los Angeles Rams' administrative official, who moved from the Rams to the San Diego Chargers in 1981 and stayed in San Diego until deciding to embark on this strangest of all adventures for a former NFL official. And strange it has been.

"They asked me how to put in the goal posts, so I told them to dig a hole down six feet for the study on what has become a love-hate relationship in Europe with just about everything that is American. Many of them stand throughout and dance the music during interruptions of play is American rock and roll and they carry team flags and national flags and dress only in the colors of their team. Sunday's crowd was a sea of green and gold, Dragon colors. Jack Teele, the Dragons' chief executive officer, said that this team has been doing about $140,000 a week in merchandising revenue. At the concession stands, a Dragon hat is 2,000 pesetas, about $20, and a Dragon T-shirt is 2,500 pesetas, about $25.

One of the most creative banners hanging from the rafters Sunday seemed to sum up the scene. It read: "Sex, Dragons and Rock and Roll." The W-LAFF has averaged 34,000 for games in Europe, and the 29,753 for the Dragon-Galaxy game was actually below the 31,000 average for the four previous home games in Barcelona. "We had to start the game at 3 p.m. because of a contract with German television," Teele said. "Plus, it was a holiday weekend here and it was the lunch hour, so all of that hurt us a little today." Holidays are numerous in Spain.

There are probably twice as many as in the United Yepi Pau'u's from San Jose State. But there is an attraction to this, and even though it has little to do with the quality of the game being played, that attraction was evident Sunday. The Barcelona team, nicknamed the Dragons, plays its games at Estadl Olimpic Mont-juic, the Olympic Stadium that seats 55,000 and will be the center of worldwide attention 14 months from now, when Barcelona plays host to the Summer Olympics. The stadium is a refurbished relic, built in 1929 with the hopes of attracting the 1936 Games that went instead to Adolf Hitler's Berlin. It will be expanded to 65,000 seats for the Olympics and will be the site of the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field competition.

The stadium sits atop a hill, Montjuic, that looks over the Mediterranean, and although it has been polished and shined for the Olympics, it still has a historic feel not unlike the Los Angeles Coliseum. The game drew a crowd of 29,753, and even though Frankfurt won, 10-3, the Barcelona faithful were just that, right up until the end. Traffic is terrible here, probably worse than in Los Angeles, but there were few early departures. The spectators are very young, mostly in their 20s. They are the European MTV generation, and they seem to represent an interesting till of the fans," Teele said.

Ah, Spain, Ah, the W-LAFF. 0 Dupree's Comeback: Right Up The Middle 9r lw a if -r iii Y) 1 0 III r- un if "ilmA id tow nd no iiavpi ffto hit I m. i wrm m. V. yw tag.

mt m. -mm AD Evangel College football players practice using chopsticks, which they will put to use during an 18-day tour of China when Evangel and Pacific Lutheran University will bring American football to China for the first time. 1 991 Los Angeles Times ANAHEIM, Calif. The last time he got to the top, it was so fast and easy that Marcus Dupree didn't have time to understand it, much less enjoy it, before his knee blew apart and the ride was over. His body was strong and quick and made to run the football.

Everyone could see that. And the ground shook when he took it into his hands and blasted up field. He didn't exactly know what he was doing, but whatever it was, it worked. Whatever it was, the easy life was over in 1985, when his body couldn't run anymore, when his left knee was torn apart in a USFL game and Dupree was told he would never play again. This time, six years after the injury and one full, sweat-stained year after deciding to mount a storybook comeback, Marcus Dupree understands every moment of it.

And, through the daily regimen of weightlifting, running and drills, yes, enjoying it. This isn't fast and easy. The second trip to the top is the tortuous one. After his triumphant entrance into the NFL last year with the Los Angeles Rams from his injury-induced oblivion, this off-season has been Dupree's time to get himself back. Last season was to prove he could get into the NFL.

This is the season to make an assault on greatness again. That's why, when he might have been basking in his accomplishment back home in Mississippi, Dupree, who had never been known as a workout warrior, has been at Rams Park, working out every day, all day, gearing up for that moment he knows is right around the corner. "I just want to be great," Dupree said Thursday, after the Rams' mini-camp workout. "I want to be the ultimate. Everybody has a profession; I want to be a great running back.

That's what I want. That's what this is all about." Just Thursday, in this two-week mini-camp, Dupree said he began to feel the work coming to fruition. He lined up as he always lines up, straight and still, bounced left to take the han-doff, snapped a cut inside the linebacker, then charged up field the way he used to. "I hit the hole and cut and went up the field quick and it was back," Dupree said. "After a play like that, (the coaches will) come up and tell me that's a great run.

That's you." Ram Coach John Robinson, who doesn't hide his affinity for Dupree on the practice field, now says Dupree and Cleveland Gary, last year's starter, will compete fairly evenly for the starting tailback spot. Before, Robinson had always cautioned patience with Dupree, warning that no one should expect him to march into the lineup after a five-year layoff. He always said Gary was the team's tailback for now and into the merican Football To Debut In China Marcus Dupree Just wants to be great future. Robinson isn't saying that anymore. Not after watching Dupree chug along by himself almost every day of the offseason, not after seeing him zip through the defense like a 235-pound gazelle.

"He's extremely dedicated to making it all the way back and he's doing everything a man can do, and he's having great results," Robinson said-How close is Dupree to being the Dupree everybody remembers from his brief but unforgettable Oklahoma career? "Damn close," Robinson said. "I see (Dupree and Gary) both play ing a lot. How that works out I don't know, but they're both going to play. I mean, when we play Atlanta in Jacksonville (to open the preseason), those are the two starting Damn right there's a competition." Dupree says he won't be disappointed if he remains a backup behind Gary this season he gained 72 yards in 19 carries in spot play last season but it's clear he has bigger plans. "I know I'm going to get the ball a lot," Dupree said.

"Coach is expecting me to get the ball, and he's expecting me to go out every day and work hard. "I want to play, I want to be the starter and everybody's looking for me to be the starter, people across the country, I guess." rtl This time, if Dupree makes it all the way back, you had better believe lie will be able to appreciate it. Before the knee injury, running past people was easy, something that came naturally. Now, it is something he dreams about and desperately works toward. He is working on his cutting, he is working on catching the ball, he is working on reading defenses, standing what hole to take when the ball is in his hands.

He never used to do those things, not when 50-yard touchdowns seemed a birthright. "These games give us a chance to show how friendship really can be between countries through sports, without politics," he said. Evangel will take 47 players to China, including several just-graduated seniors who delayed the start of new jobs. The Lutes will bring 50 players. Both schools have tutored their players on Chinese culture and customs.

Evangel players and coaches studied art, language, politics, history and, of course, how to use chopsticks. "We learned how to say 'Where's the and how to bargain with merchants," said Evangel's Alex Bryant, a freshman defensive tackle from Macomb, 111. "And not to flirt with women, which is forbidden in Chinese culture." All of the games will be held at night. After the Beijing contest, the teams will play in Guangzhou on June 5 and in Shanghai on June 12. The Crusaders and Lutes will meet in San Francisco on May 26 and travel together until their return to the United States on June 14.

Featured stops include the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Beijing Zoo, several museums and possibly Hong Kong. Barefield and Westering both said they were stressing to their players the importance of good sportsmanship and being a good ambassador. "I think this is one time when you can truly say winning and losing will be overshadowed by how you play the game," Barefield said. "That will be as much a part of the impression we leave with the Chinese as how we conduct ourselves in the hotel or out in the street." lion Chinese people those are Super Bowl statistics right there," Barefield said. "For two small schools, this will be the experience of a lifetime." The two colleges are members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

Schools from the National Collegiate Athletic Association weren't considered because the NCAA prohibits offseason exhibitions. "The Chinese wanted teams from schools that they felt would exemplify not only good American football, but also sportsmanship," Barefield said. "They wanted teams that would conduct themselves well in the general public and leave a favorable impression on the Chinese people all the way around." The trip, which has the blessing of the U.S. State Department, will coincide with the two-year anniversary of China's bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy movement. Glenn Bernet, Evangel's vice president for academic affairs, said school officials thought long and hard before accepting the invitation because of China's human rights record.

"I would have to say it's still a concern, but I think we view the trip positively even in light of those concerns," he said. "We're convinced one of the ways to help the Chinese government understand the need to make some changes in policy is to have more exchanges like this." Pacific Lutheran coach Frosty Westering compares the exhibitions to the "ping pong diplomacy" employed by former President Richard Nixon, who brought American table tennis players to China in 1972. SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) When the Evangel College football team steps on the field at Beijing Workers' Stadium next month, the stands will contain more than the few hundred folks who attend most Crusaders games. Actually about 99,500 more, plus a potential television audience of more than 200 million Chinese.

"Talk about being pumped up. The adrenaline is going to be pumping through our veins," offensive guard Shad McGuire said. "It's going to be like playing in the Los Angeles Coliseum." American football makes its debut in China when Evangel and Pacific Lutheran University of Taco-ma, play three exhibition games over 12 days in three cities beginning June 1 in Beijing. Chinese television has shown highlights of Evangel and Pacific Lutheran games since September, when it was announced the private liberal arts schools would perform in China. The Chinese government in 1989 solicited offers from American college football teams to play an exhibition game.

Football is foreign to most of China's 1.14 billion residents, although Super Bowl highlights have aired on television. Evangel coach Keith Barefield smiles and shakes his head at the prospect of two tiny Christian colleges making international sports history. Evangel, affiliated with the Assemblies of God Church, has about 1,500 students, while Pacific Lutheran has about 3,300. Pacific Lutheran was 9-2 last season, Evangel 4-6. I "We play in a stadium, with a nationally televised audience of potentially over 240 mil Does Entrepeneur Bruce McNall Know What He's Doing? MAM Rocket.

Yonge Street. So what is McNall doing on this scene, tendering more money to Raghib Ismail than is paid Joe Montana? Or four times the wage of Marcus Allen? You can accept one of two explanations. First, McNall is a visionary who makes a big score in the purchase of the hockey Kings and in the capturing of Wayne Gretzky, who instigates the big score of the Kings. Dangling the Rocket as bait in Canada, McNall may see possibilities at the gate and in cable television. The second explanation may suggest the poor man has contracted a malady known as publicity-itis, which can be terminal.

McNall also has elevated himself socially consorting with Gretzky, even selling him a piecf pf the Toronto football team, which may or may not be a favor. And now McNall adds to his stable tl But it is to football what triple-A is to baseball. It is what hockey would be in the United States if the teams employed mostly American players. Canadians who know their sports acknowledge this. But for reasons of national pride, they don't want NFL teams moving into their cities, displacing the Canadian Football League, which has shown a pulse since 1907.

Yet, football in Canada is less than a roaring success, proof of which is, McNall buys the whole Toronto franchise for just fractionally more than he pays the Rocket for a year. The man who sells him the team, Harry Ornest, vice chairman of Hollywood Park, unloads it mainly because he runs out of strength. He was making personal telephone calls to prospective buyers all over Toronto, trying to move Argonaut season tickets. He launched merchandising campaigns. He did everything short of approach strangers strolling down his junior year.

Nor is his position clearly defined. Sometimes he is a flanker, sometimes a tailback. At all times, he runs faster than most people, but he weighs only 175 pounds, not rated choice size in a pro. It also may be noted that Canadian football is not the kind of operation set up to pay wages such as that proffered the Rocket. The league there consists of eight teams.

Only three Toronto, Vancouver, Hamilton are privately owned. The rest are bankrolled by their respective communities Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Reglna and Winnipeg. One of the two largest cities in Canada, Montreal, isn't even entered. Investors there have busted out. Now we don't want folks in Canada to work up a foam, accusing us of knocking their football.

What they play is a good game. By Melvin Durslag Los Angeles Times We pause a moment for thought and reflection on the international transaction whereby Raghib Ismail, doing business as the Rocket, signs to entertain for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. The Rocket says he chooses Toronto because he likes the way its owner, Bruce McNall, treats people. If McNall likes you, he gives you upward of $4.5 million a year. Now that's a nice way to treat people.

If he wants to treat them nicer, he will give them upward of $9 million a year. The village killjoy, though, arches an eyebrow, asking himself quizzically why McNall would give upward of $4.5 million a year to Ismail, who is not worth that sum. If the truth were knjvn, Ismail isn't worth that even to Notre whence he fled after i From an entrepreneurial beginning equally modest, Donald J. Trump got his start, calling a news conference in front of the waterfall of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue to announce the signing of Doug Flutie. Flutie today plays for Vancouver.

It would be nice if he would call a news conference in front of the waterfall of Trump Tower to art-nounce a loan to Trump, who can use it. In this scenario, meantime, the Raiders" lurk, watching McNall frighten off drafters In the NFL. Calmly, on the fourth round, they take the rights to the Rocket; they wouldn't pay him half what the Argonauts are paying, but they foster the notion he could be theirs by Jhe time he is 22. Since he is 21, that will give the Toronto owner just enough time to discover that what works with Gretzky workS only with Gretzk, not with every guy walking down Broadway. mAStmmtmmmtni.