The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 55

r. Akron Beacon Journal Sports SECTION Sunday. December 15. 1974 v. Coach Fights Back After Stroke 'I Couldn Lie Them A Cripple It Nn 1 around.

In the hospital, I met a lovely and bright girl, just 33 years old. It turns out she has incurable cancer and will be dead within a few days. "I think of my good friend, Don Mc-Cafferty, at Detroit," he says, referring to the Lions' head coach who collapsed and died in July. "You tend to realize the things that are important and the things that are insignificant. When the rat race comes down to life and death, our ordinary worries don't mean a damned thing." McPeak left the hospital in June, still partially paralyzed as he is today.

"They considered my recuperation extra speedy. One of the first things I realized, after I realized I was alive, was that I had a life to live yet I couldn't lie there a cripple." HE reported to training camp July 7, the first day. Don Shula retained McPeak while hiring Bob Schnelker to replace him on the field as coach of the receivers. "The way he's battled back has been amazing," the Dolphin head coach says. "I'm sure a lot of that comes from the competitive type of person be is and was as a player." By July, McPeak could inch along, aided by a cane supporting his spastic left side.

The distance from the dressing-room door to the gate of the Dolphin practice field at Biscayne College measures about 200 feet. At first McPeak needed five minutes to cover it daily. "I forced myself to watch practice. I had to break into things psychologically," he says. "The fewer people you have to depend on, the better.

I wanted to become a functional individual, to rejoin society." For the same reasons be recently discarded the cane. '1 try to leave it behind except if I'm in crowded places like restaurants. I don't have full balance yet. By BILL BKAICHEK Kntfht Ntwtrt Wrttar "I consider myself lucky. Nobody has to feel sorry for me," Bill McPeak says.

Six months have passed since the 48-year-old Miami Dolphin assistant coach suffered a stroke that paralyzed and nearly killed him. "It was a game of inches," says McPeak, grinning at his observation. After 23 years in the National Football League, a man tends to describe life and death in the vernacular. One day in March, McPeak found himself unable to function. A witty and active type who covered the gamut of NFL operations from defensive end to head coach and general manager, he suddenly lost control.

THE stroke marked the beginning of a hospital ordeal lasting nearly three months and changing his outlook. "I have a whole new sense of values," McPeak says. "All you have to do is look "The doctor tells me this is temporary, that I'll regain full use of the left leg and left arm. There's partial restoration now, and I'm optimistic about that "I don't know how long HI have to wait. Nobody will predict But the doctor says I can expect continued improvement over a period of two years.

"So many people are more unfortunate than I am. Some strokes have left people with incurable paralysis. "The most fortunate thing is that I can grasp everything mentally. I'm cognizant of what's going on. Actually, my general health is better than it was before the stroke." McPeak finds encouragement whenever he watches Patricia Neal on television.

"I knew she'd had a stroke. I look hard for signs of it, but I'm unable to detect anything at all." "There are certain sacrifices Til have to keep making, like no salt and a bland diet. But that's nothing." BILL McPEAK still competing 1 Bengals Not Trying To Win, Steeler Says Jaek Patterson Healey Offers 'Short Course' For Golfers SOMEWHERE, Sam and Surena must be smiling. Their voices were stilled when Jerry Healey abandoned WAKR for the advertising-public relations field. For years, Healey was as familiar as the second cup of coffee to area radio listeners with his 6 a.m show.

Sam and Surena were his ploys, of Healey's melodious tonsils. He created the characters and made them come to life by 'throwing' his voice. It showed, however, that Healey was inventive. He came here from Chicago to handle, of all things, the Akron Vul-cans' football misadventures. He stayed to become a household word as a DJ and sports commentator.

For all of it, he has an unending love affair with the game of golf, which he plays with the finesse of an octopus trapped in a telephone booth. I He conceived the idea for and. became the chief pupil on fGolf with Sam Snead," an instructional series which had a successful two-year run on national TV. He had other ideas PITTSBURGH The' Pittsburgh Steelers, bound for the National Football League playoffs, found the Cincinnati Bengals a surprisingly easy touch in a meaningless regular season finale Saturday. The Steelers took a 17-0 TD Pass By Blanda Aids Win OAKLAND IB The Oakland Raiders' 47-year-old wonder, George Blanda, upstaging starting quarterback Ken Stabler, hit for a touchdown on his first National Football League pass since 1972 and kicked two field goals Saturday night in a 27-23 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

Blanda went in to play quar 1 T- I'ittHbnrgh Steeler wide receiver Lynn Swann assinnew an ungainly pose after catching a pass from Terry Brad- shaw and getting decked by a Cincinnati defender. The Steelers defeated the Bengals 27-3 Saturday in Pittsburgh. i Ijtv 4t J. A Zips Beaten By Brockport for packaged TV golf shows but they got sidetracked when he came to Akron and started talking like Sam and Surena. Now, however, he is back to the thinking part tf the business.

And Sam and Surena, wherever they are, must be saying, "Hey, old dad still has a pretty fertile mind." "You've always got time for a Quickie," says Healey these days, it's his way of introducing you to his latest brainchild, "Quickie Golf." Backed by F. E. Hernon, president of management consultants, and Wally Ul-rich, a former pro golfer plus local investors, Healey Iplans to build his first; "Quickie" golf course somewhere in the Akron area by next Summer. Healey's concept for halftinie, lead on two touchdown passes by Terry Brad-shaw and a field goal by Roy Gerela, then romped to a 27-3 victory in the nationally televised game. But it was how the Bengals lost more than how the Steelers won that surprised Pittsburgh players.

CINCINNATI quarterback Wayne Clark passed only three times in the second half and none in the final quarter and the Bengals appeared content to let the clock run out. "They still have to look in the mirror in the off-season and say, 'I'm not as good as those guys'," said an astounded Joe Greene of the Steelers. "I hated this game," said Steelers linebacker Jack Ham. "Obviously he (Bengal coach Paul Brown), didn't care. I'm just glad it's over.

"Wlien you're running out the clock on our 20-yard line, well, that's the kind of game it was." STEELER coach Chuck Noll declined to comment on the Cincinnati strategy of throwing the ball just eight times, despite the fact that Clark was the quarterback instead of the injured Ken derson. "I can't worry about he said. "They do what they want, We had no control pver But Noll was extremely pleased with his team's performance. "I thought they went after them enthusiastically. It would have been an easy game to let up on," he said.

Running back Franco Harris topped the mark in rushihg for the second time in three years. "It was one of the things we wanted to do, to give him the chance to get tt," said Noll. "It's been a long, hard season and he deserved it." Harris, who picked up 79 yards in 17 carries, finished the season with 1,006 yards. THE STEELERS take a 10-3-1 mark into the playoffs against visiting Buffalo next Sunday. It marks the third See BENGALS, Page sively and also shutting off Akron's normally high-scoring guards, Nate Barnett and Casimier Moss.

Barnett, who went into the game with a 20.3 scoring average, was able to get off only five shots from the field the first half and only tliree the last half. He wound up with eight points, half of them at the free throw line. Dave Joyner, not a high scorer in the Zips' three pre- vious games, came through with 15 to lead the team or it might have been in worse trouble, and 6-9 center Greg Parham added 14 and 7 led See AKRON, Page (MS Viking Trick Befuddles KC JERRY HEALEY terback late in the third quarter and on his first play con- nected with Cliff Branch on a 28-yard scoring pay. STABLER honed his sharp left arm for the NFL playoffs with two touchdown passes, his 25th and 26th of the season, in the second period. The Raiders, who stopped a late Dallas comeback bid, finished the regular season with a 12-2 record, best of the NFL.

The American Conference West champions will face the defending Super Bowl champs, the Miami Dolphins, here next Saturday in a playoff opener. The Cowboys, who failed for the first time since 1965 to earn a playoff berth, finished 8-6 and third in the National. Conference East. Three punt returns by Ron Smith, including one of 55 yards, allowed Oakland to maintain good field position throughout the second quarter, when the Raiders rallied from a 9-3 deficit. The go-ahead touchdown came --on Stabler's nine-yard pass to Fred Biletnikoff, then the southpaw threw 15 yards to running back Charlie Smith with 16 seconds remaining in the half to successfully complete a 52-yard drive.

Special To Tit Imcm Journal BROCKPORT, N. Y. Except for roughly 20 seconds early in the. second half, Brockport State led the University of' Akron basketball team from start to finish here Saturday night in winning 69-66. It was the Golden Eagles' first over Akron in four meetings.

The Eagles were helped by 72 pet. shooting from the field during the first half, got a number of easy baskets from underneath by 6-6 center Monroe "Pops" McTaw and 6-8 forward Kevin Williams and simply refused to wilt although the Zips stayed doggedly on their heels. As a matter of fact, except for one stretch through the middle of the first half when Brockport opened up an 11-point lead at 31-20, the lead fluctuated from tliree to six points. THE Panaggio brothers, sons of Brockport coach Maura Panaggio, did a fine job both of moving the ball offen the field until the play was. called.

"Why did we use it today? Because they had a guy like Dawson at quarterback." Fran Tarkenton, with his team trailing 6-0 in the second period, hit Sam Mc-Culium with both of his touchdown passes, one a 34-yarder and the other a 10-yard loss that was deflected into Mc-Cullum's outstretched fingertips. BOB BERRY, who took over at the start of the second half, drilled a seven-yard scoring pass to Ed Marinaro midway in the third quarter KANSAS CITY (if) Coach Bud Grant of Minnesota used what he described as "a gimmick that works sometimes" to help the Vikings beat the Kansas City Chief 35-15 Saturday in a National Football League game. "We kept 14 men on the field until a play was called when the Chiefs had the ball," explained Grant. "When a good, veteran quarterback like Len Dawson is playing, he will look to see who you've got in the game. "If there are extra defensive linemen or extra defensive backs, he'll play accordingly.

So we kept our guys on and pitched three yards to Oscar Reed for another touchdown in the fourth. A crowd of only 35,480 watched the regular-season finale for both clubs. A total of 36,934 ticket buyers failed to show up, many passing up the game because of morning and early-afternoon rains. Minnesota, the National Conference's Central Division champion and host to the NFC East winner St. Louis or Washington in the opening round of the playoffs Saturday, wound up the season at 10-4.

The Chiefs, who had their first losing season since 1963, finished at 5-9. i "Quickie" golf attacks the game's two major problems time and space. Today, the game requires more than four hours to play and the space on which it is played requires more than 125 acres. Land values and time considerations being what they are, the game is having its problems. Since the golf explosion of the 1950s, many adjuncts to the game have been offered.

Putt-putt courses, driving ranges, par three courses, etc. None, however, has offered a participant the challenge of actually playing golf, using all the clubs in his bag and competing against a logical par. Healey's "Quickie" course can be built on between eight and 12 acres. A player can turn it in less than an hour and use every club in his bag. It is not a substitute for the fame, just an alternative for the busy man or woman who can't spend four'hours on the course as often as they might like.

What "Quickie" golf offers is a three-hole layout. The first hole is the driving hole, the second the long and medi- um iron hole, the third the chipping and putting hole. Players strike five shots on each hole. The tees have graduated marks for long or short hitters as a handicap tern. Players score points for the accuracy of their shots to lined off positions.

For instance, on the driving hole, a player gets one point if his shot hits the Astro-Turf green, two if it is close to the green, six if it goes out of bounds. SCORES will be called back to the players at the tee by an observer in radio contact The players, after five drives, move by electric cart to the second hole. There they hit medium and long irons, scoring on the same basis. On the final hole, there are two target greens to speed play. Players again hit five shots, ranging from chips to 100-yard efforts, from the rough to the sand.

Again, they pick points for accuracy. Then come five putts, from five different angles on the green. They are from three, five, iO, 15 and 20 feet Hence in less than an hour," a player has practiced every type of shot. Ulrich studied the game and estitrmted that on a good day his point total would be 35, or par, on the point system. Healey is holding his breath.

He thinks a "Quickie" course can be built for $55,000, He sees a possible market of 43 such courses in Ohio alone. He has had favorable reaction from pros as to TV film events on the "Quickie" format. He Heartburn Sports Fans Getting Their Teeth Into Game where one can't afford to miss a single play. At the half, there is a colorful half-time show. So the fan normally just has time to get to the toilet and back to his seat." Connell said his company keeps tab on the fans' tastes down to the "gnat's "Don't give the race fan anything that requires two he said.

"He needs "one hand always ree to hold his tip "Five years ago we introduced soft ice cream at the race tracks. The fans love it NEW YORK (J) Baseball buffs have the most ravenous appetites of all sports spectators and soft ice cream is the latest vice of the horse player, says a man who keeps a thumb on such trends. "The average baseball fan, for instance, will spend $2 on food and refreshments at a game," Bill Connell says. "At the race track, the per capita rate is $1.70 to $2. In hockey, it's $1.25 to $1.50, basketball $1 to $1.10 and at the bottom, football 90 cents to a dollar.

"It isn't that the football fan is the least affluent actually, he probably is the most affluent. It all goes back to the nature of the game." Connell is a boyish-looking Bostonian of 35 who is president of the Ogden Leisure Corp. and has become one of the nation's biggest peddlers of peanuts, popcorn and cold beer at sports events. "It's not just a hamburger and hot dog business any more," the young executive said. "The trend is more toward clam bars, pizzas, fancy sausages and white table cloth restaurants where the' service is from quick to elegant" There is the new style fan, he adds, who goes to a race track or ball game primarily to eat.

"Some of them never get up from the table. "Baseball fans spend more. because they have no compulsion to stay glued to their seats," Connell explains. "The game is slow and casual. Fans move around constantly.

They keep buying. "Hockey is helped because it has two intermissions, instead of just one as in basketball. But there is no halftime so the fans can get to the food windows 1 during the break. "But while the game is on, they don't budge. This is more true in football, also dreams of "Quickie" golf catching on with motel and and you can eat a cone in one hand." real estate developers..