Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 45

"ft If IJPI (Minneapolis Sports I Business Sunday Sept. 19 1971 i i nn nJLJ UUv. IJlv.x No. 1 Nebrask Gopher ops nopes By Jon Roe Staff Writer recovered a Gopher fumble at the Minnesota 20, Jeff Kinney finished a five-play personal crusade to put Nebraska ahead 14-0. The Gophers had reason to wonder.

On the first play following the Nebraska recovery, the Cornhuskers had fumbled, too. But Tom Chandler couldn't find the handle on the ball and Tagge scooped it up instead. The big play, the opportunity, and Nebraska quickly had a two-touchdown lead. But the Gophers came back at the start of the second quarter marching 78 yards in 14 plays to cut it to 14-7. And less than five minutes later, Chandler forced a fumble at the Nebraska 45 and captain Bill Light recovered at the 39.

Cornhuskers made the big play. And the biggest plays were made by the littlest Cornhuskers Johnny Rodgers. The 171-pound speedster filtered through the Gopher secondary to latch onto three touchdown passes and lead Nebraska to its 21st straight victory. Nebraska turned the tide just before halftime, just when the Gophers may have had a few of the 68,178 red-clad and rabid Big Red boosters uneasy. The Cornhuskers struck for a 14-0 lead so quickly most of that Memorial Stadium record crowd might have been thinking "rout." Rodgers had gotten behind the Gopher secondary just half way through the first quarter, snagging a 28-yard scoring pass from Jerry Tagge.

had those Big Red backers thinking about a 14-14 deadlock at halftime. "They were picking us apart pretty good with that veer, or option," said Bob Devaney, Nebraska coach. "Curry runs that damn well and we had to change our defenses some." They did change, and maybe even changed the outcome. Curry tried to run an option and lost two yards. He tried the option in the other direction and lost another yard.

He tried to pass, but is was well-covered and incomplete. Then Mel Anderson missed a 30-yard field goal attempt, and Nebraska could breathe "easier. But that wasn't enough for the Cornhuskers. They had just more than two minutes until halftime and they hurried 80 yards in less than that, Tagge hitting three key completions and Kinney running off the last 11 yards for a 21-7 intermission lead. "That was a big series of plays for us," observed Devaney.

"Not only keeping them from scoring, but then getting a score ourselves." The Cornhuskers struck for two more touchdowns in the second half, both on long passes to Rodgers. The Gophers only opportunity died when Ernie Cook fumbled into the end zone, although he appeared to be over Gophers continued on page 4C And only five minutes later, after the Cornhuskers had The Gophers drove to the Nebraska 10 and may have Lincoln, Neb. Nebraska was there when the tide had to be turned, when the big play had to be made, when opportunity was at hand. The Cornhuskers, defending national champions with eyes on repeating, did it all in gaining a 35-7 victory over Minnesota Saturday. Yet the Gophers can try to find solace in a cliche as old as the flatlands surrounding jammed Memorial Stadium the game was closer, by just a little, than the final score would indicate.

When the Gophers had a chance to make things interesting, the Cornhuskers stemmed the tide. When opportunity presented a chance to score, the Cornhuskers struck swiftly. When it took a big play to do it, the N.L West tightens Associated Press Atlanta entered the National League West pennant race by beating Los Angeles 9-6 Saturday while San Diego defeated San Francisco 2-1 on Clay Kirby's one-hitter. The results left San Francisco two games ahead of the Dodgers and 5'2 ahead of Atlanta. The Giants and Dodgers each have ten games left and the Braves have nine.

San Diego's Kirby pitched perfect baseball through seven innings before he gave up a home run to Willie Mc-Covey. He struck out 10 and walked one. Gaylord Perry took the loss for the Giants, who have lost 12 of their last 14 games. Perry allowed just five hits and one earned run. Larry Batson mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmSmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmJL tH- im- mi M.

il 11 iin0wl '4 ft ttmmimmmmm mil 4m0MVKkmwWmt I USt 11 fcli I i4 in. iiln inm m'i iimii ii MiiMiwiMWllliiiwiwir'f i i i WMafea'ifcw' wmrJ Sea N. -reasasis i Stars get tie on fluke The Padres scored in the third inning on a triple by former Giant Bob Barton and a squeeze bunt by Enzo Hernandez. The other San Diego run came in the eighth, when Hernandez singled with one out, stole second and scored on third baseman Alan Gallagher's throwing error to first base. That made it 2-0 and by, whose fast ball was complemented by control, faced McCovey as the 1 a batter in the eighth.

He homered. Kirby recovered to strike out Dave Kingman, but walked Dick Dietz the only other Giant to reach base. Then he struck out pinch hitter Willie Mays and got Chris Speier on a ground ball. Atlanta wiped out a 5-2 deficit and went ahead of Los Angeles for good with a two-run sixth inning. A two-run homer by Willie Davis in the first inning and a three-run second had given the Dodgers their 5-2 lead.

(Box Scores, page 5C) Staff Photo by John Croft Johnny Rodgers (20) of Nebraska leaped to catch a 37-yard touchdown pass from Jerry Tagge in the third quarter. It was Rodgers' third touchdown catch and Nebraska's final touchdown in a 35-7 win over Minnesota. Farrell Sheridan was the Gopher defender. By Dwayne Netland Staff Writer Having been stung by a fluke goal only 33 seconds previously, the North Stars employed a bad-hop skidder by Gary Gambucci into a 4-4 tie with Toronto in the opening National Hockey League exhibition game Saturday night at Metropolitan Sports Center. A crowd of 12,175, largest ever to see an exhibition at the Met, groaned as a shot by Toronto's Bobby Baun bounced off the stick Of teammate Ron Ellis past Minnesota goalie Gil-les Gilbert at 19:16 of the third period.

It gave the Maple Leafs a 4-3 lead in a game they deserved to win, but Gambucci turned on his former University, of Minnesota teammate, Murray McLachlan, to score one of the weirdest goals ever seen at the Met with only 11 seconds to go. Gambucci flipped a soft shot in from the red line which struck the ice, took a sharp bounce, hit the ice again and before the befuddled McLachlan could handle it, the puck had gotten past him for the tying goal the only goal he allowed. The goal sent the customers home happy, but the North Star3 were fortunate to get out with the tie. They were outshot 33-14, getting only three shots at McLachlan during the entire period. Stars Continued on page 6C Lincoln, Neb.

Omaha is a flourishing city on the Missouri River, Nebraska's eastern border, and Lincoln, 50 miles southwest, is a quiet, pleasant town of 150,000 built around the University of Nebraska. The rest of the state, aside from a few narrow swatches of irrigated farmland, is a vast sweep of harsh, forbidding plains stretching from the Missouri 450 miles westward toward the Rockies. Diaries of pioneers who opened the Oregon Trail stated flatly that those plains could not support human life. Ne-braskans have been trying to prove them wrong for 125 years. There are still lingering doubts.

I spent nearly 20 years in Nebraska and I love the state. I came back to try to figure out why. Mainly it's because these plainsmen are still doing what they have always had to do to survive: enduring, persevering and, whenever a chance comes along, throwing a whale of a party. My friends are running cattle along the Dismal River, raising wheat around Sunol and scratching a living and a a new car every couple of years from land a visitor would swear would starve out jackrabbits. And they are all participants in the most rollicking, explosive, good-natured celebration in the state's history.

Nebraska's football team is No. 1. The party started New Year's Day when the Cornhuskers beat Louisiana State in the Sugar Bowl, slowed a bit for spring plowing and the haying season, then picked up until it reached a sustained frenzy just short of hysteria. It would be embarrassing to witness if the unabashed glee of the fans weren't so if I weren't one of them. Nebraska's football fans have never been noted for sophistication.

The school song is so corny that no alumnus has ever been known willingly to sing it before an out-of-state audience. Much has been made of the fact that Mick Tingelhoff came to the Vikings as a free agent, took over the center position and became a perennial All-Pro. But once Mick stood at the rookies' training table and sang "Dear Old Nebraska to Norm Van Brocklin and his warriors, making the National Football League must have been a breeze. Now the state is awash in pennants, posters, buttons and assorted bric-a-brac, all red with a large white "No. The team's unofficial emblem is the "Big Red Fan," dressed in crimson from cowboy hat to boots.

The Omaha World-Herald has had to create a new classification of want ads for the sale or exchange of game tickets and a favorite anecdote is of the widow of a season ticketholder who turned down 10 offers of marriage the night of her husband's death. (She had already accepted the undertaker's proposal.) You can, if you wish, buy your wife a pair of red panties with "No. 1" embroidered in white. A visitor, even one emotionally in accord with the delirious fans, has to ask himself whether all of this hoopla over a football team is worth it, whether the money and emphasis shouldn't be put elsewhere. Fans say no, for two reasons.

First, that the traditional argument for high-powered football still holds true in Nebraska: the team still supports itself and minor sports and physical education programs. Second, cash spent on the team is entertainment money it would be spent for one type of entertainment if not another. What turns Nebraska fans on? Why do 67,000 red-hatted, roaring lunatics jam Memorial Stadium every time Coach Bob Devaney's team takes the field? A college classmate, now a Lincoln business executive, is one of those lunatics. He puts it this way: "I was born in Wood Lake, in the Sand Hills. I worked in Chicago, New York and on the West Coast before I cam back.

I spent the better part of my life defending Nebraska. "We know what we have here, but it's hard to brag about it to outsiders, "Now I enjoy going over there Saturday and watching Nebraska stomp hell out of somebody just anybody at all." Notre Dame crushes Northwestern 50-7 Pennant races at a glance American League EAST DIVISION Baltimore 90 57 .612 11 Detroit 88 65 .575 5 9 Baltimore At home 3, Boston Away 8, Detroit 1, New York 3, Cleveland 4. Detroit At home 4. Baltimore 1. New York Away 5, Boston 2, Cleveland 3.

National League EAST DIVISION Pittsburgh 93 60 .608 9 St. Louis 83 69 .546 94 10 Pittsburgh At home 1, New York 1 Away 8, St. Louis 3, New York 3, Philadelphia 2. St. Louis At home 6.

Pittsburgh 3, Montreal Away 4. Montreal 1, New York 3. WEST DIVISION San Fr'cisco 84 68 .553 10 Los Angeles 82 70 .539 2 10 Atlanta ....79 74 .516 5 9 San Francisco At home 1. San Diego Away 9, Houston 3, Cincinnati 3, San Diego 3. Los Angeles At home 5, Atlanta 2.

Houston Away 5, Cincinnati 2, Atlanta 3. Atlanta At home 7. San Di-eRO 2, Los Angeles 3, Cincinnati Away 2, Los Angeles 2. Sports news on the inside Pitcher Jim Kaat feels he's pitching well enough to be a 20-game winner, but his record fell to 12-13, when Kansas City beat the Twins 4-2 at Metropolitan Stadium. page 5C The ruffed grouse season opened but most Minnesota hunters came back empty-handed.

The early start and dense underbrush helped the grouse evade hunters witit comparative ease. page 7C half, and used three of their seven interceptions to score or set up three second-half touchdowns. It took little more than a quarter for Notre Dame to prove its superiority. The fact that Northwestern picked as second-best in the Big Ten had already played a game (losing to Michigan 21-6), was a potential advantage for the visitors, and Notre Dame did have a bit of trouble getting itself organized. For the first 10 minutes or so, that is.

New York Times Service South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame's football machine began another quest for the national title Saturday by rolling over Northwestern 50-7. Last year wasn't quite satisfactory, since it included one defeat in 1 1 starts and "no No. 1 ranking. Yesterday's capacity crowd of 59,000 here saw nothing to discourage its aspirations.

The Irish overwhelmed their visitors physically in a 30-7 first After that, things became progressively one-sided. The first quarter ended 7-7, but Notre Dame was well on its way to its second touchdown. Offensively, the Irish line opened huge holes and Notre Dame could run the ball almost at will. Defensively, the Northwestern line was smothered also, and Maurie Daigneau, the Northwestern passer, took quite a Irish Continued on page 2C J.C. Snead clinches U.S.

Ryder Cup victory Then Snead, who held a 1-up advantage over Tony Jacklln with two holes to play, suddenly found himself in trouble. Jacklin rolled in a birdie putt of about 65 feet on the 17th hole to put it even going to the 18th. Jacklin drove the fairway and Snead put his behind a tree on the left. Jacklin missed the green to the right. Snead choked up on a three-iron, faded it around the tree and over a bunker to the fringe.

Jacklin chipped poorly and Snead chipped to eight feet. The Englishman missed his putt and then Snead knocked his in for his fourth victory in three days. That clinched it. with five matches still undecided. The British still managed to split the eight afternoon matches 4-4 for their best showing ever in America.

Associated Press St. Louis, Mo. J. C. Snead scored the clinching victory Saturday as the United States won the Ryder Cup 18ia-13'2 over Great Britain.

It was the 15th American triumph against three losses and a tie in this biennial international golf series that began in 1927. The tie was at Southport, England, the last time the matches were held. At one point yesterday it looked as If it could happen again. The British led in six of eight with only Lee Trevino holding a comfortable American lead. Trcvino, the first man off the tee in the afternoon round, defeated Brian Nuggett 7 and 6 to push the U.S.

Peter Oosterhuis upset Arnold Palmer 3 and 2. It was the sixth 18-hofe match in three days for the 42-year-old Palmer, who contributed 4 V2 points to the U.S. total. Harry Bannerman of Scotland, aided by a forfeit ruling, defeated Gardner Dickinson 2 and 1. Dickinson, who had won nine consecutive matches in Ryder Cup play, lost the seventh hole when his caddie thinking a putt had been conceded picked up the ball.

Brian Barnes beat Miller Barber and Bernard Gallachcr beat Charles Coody, both by 2 and 1 margins. Dave Stockton defeated Peter Townsend 1-up with a 10-foot birdie putt on 18 and Jack Nicklaus defeated Neil Coles 5 and 3. "I think the turning point in the whole thing was the morning four-ball matches Friday," said American captain Jay Hebcrt. to within one point of clinching. 1 1 Jk Jk.AJkk A.