The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 19

ffhete ffl (0)LT Ufe' Comics Classifieds Tuesday, September 24, 1985 Section The flight Barroom brawl clouds Martin's future I lj lU VJ FOSTER I By Claire Smith The Hartford Courant BALTIMORE Simmering Yankee disharmony erupted into a vicious barroom brawl between pitcher Ed Whitson and Manager Billy Martin early Sunday morning. What remains to be seen is who will survive, Martin, the proclaimed peacemaker dragged unknowingly into another sensational scandal, or Whitson, who reportedly accused the manager of starting the brawl with a sucker punch. Whatever version proves to be true, one thing is certain. Billy Martin's fourth reign as Yankees manager may have suffered a fatal blow. Martin seemed headed for trouble because of the team's recent eight-game losing streak and some questionable personnel moves he made during that streak.

Now comes the fight with a player, Martin's second barroom incident in two days. The ramifications of the incident are not fully known, yet. The Yankees officially withheld comment until the team could look into how the altercation started. General Manager Clyde King and Woody Woodward, vice president in charge of baseball operations, arrived in Baltimore on Sunday afternoon and began an investigation. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner issued a statement saying, "As much as I'm concerned about the fights, I'm even more upset about the curfews and the fact that so many players were in the bar that late at night before day games.

That was one thing Billy promised when I made him manager again that he'd enforce the curfews. Otherwise, I just don't have anything else to say about all this until I get my reports on every-, thing." Martin suffered a broken arm in the altercation, which took place at the Cross Keys Inn, the hotel used by the Yankees when they visit Baltimore. Whitson reportedly suffered a split lip, the result of a punch Martin said was thrown by infielder Dale Berra. Both men were drinking in the hotel bar at about 12:15 a.m., right before the See Martin, Page 4C Curry describes Dodd, Lombardi and others The late Vince Lombardi's name stands almost alone in pro football coaching. In his active years, he was regarded as the ultimate taskmaster.

When his Green Bay Packer teams won the first two Super Bowls, his stature grew, and it has kept growing since his death. His name is to pro football what Ruth's was to baseball, what Hogan's, Palmer's and File photo Billy Martin another off-field problem Nicklaussareto golf, what those of Dempsey, Louis, Marcianoand Ali are to boxing the ultimate name. Don Shula is widely regarded with Lombardi as the two best ever. Meanwhile, millions regard Bobby Dodd of Georgia Tech as one of the greatest of all rnllppp Gamecocks may switch qyairfteirbacEts Foster coaches. That makes Bill Curry, the current Georgia Tech head coach, a rarity.

He played under all three, and discussed them all before the Greenville Touchdown Club Monday afternoon. "The thing they had in common," said Curry, "was that they all demanded a great deal." "To be specific, Lombardi would tell you the first day, 'Men, there are three things important in your life, and three things only, in this order: Your religion, your family and the preen Bay Packers. You will think of nothing else while you're here and you will think of them in that 1 "And then," added Curry, "as soon as we got on the practice field, he got confused about die order. "He said, 'Winning is not the most important thing; it is the only thing, and I have no illusions about what they're going to do to me if we don't win, so don't you get any illusions about what I'm going to do to you if you don't "What he meant was and if people are being fair to him, they'll say this 'Winning is not the most important thing, but the will to win Curry said Lombardi went to church every day of his life, and that Bart Starr said he had always wanted to know someone who went to I U. i Jit i 1 rT" I a USC-Michigan wins TV battle Staff report Michigan's 34-3 rout of South Carolina on ABC drew more viewers Saturday than the Georgia-Clemson game on CBS, according to overnight ratings by A.C.

Nielsen. The ratings show ABC decisively ahead of CBS in five of the six major cities where results were taken. Georgia's 20-13 win over Clemson gave CBS a 3.0 Nielsen rating in New York, compared with a 2.0 for ABC. A ratings point represents the percentage of a potential TV audience tuned to a specific station or program. The networks use Nielsen results to determine advertising rates.

ABC's lead was especially strong in Big Ten country. Chicago overnights gave the Michigan-USC game a 5.2 rating, while Georgia-Clemson had a 3.7. Not unexpectedly, ABC's lead in Detroit was overwhelming a 17.3, compared with CBS's 1.4. Philadelphia also favored ABC, 5.4 to 4.7, while the results in Los Angeles and San Francisco were almost identical. The game on ABC drew a 4.4 rating in each city; CBS had a 3.4 rating in L.A., and a 3.1 in San Francisco.

The complete weekend Nielsens will be released on church every day. By Mike Hunt News staff writer COLUMBIA In the wake of South Carolina's 31-point loss to Michigan, head coach Joe Morrison on Monday said he is considering a quarterback change for this Saturday's game at Georgia. "I'm thinking about that right now," said Morrison. "We're still going to play two quarterbacks, but I don't know which one's going to start off." Mike Hold, who won the starting job from Allen Mitchell late last season, was intercepted three times and passed for minus-four yards against the Wolverines. Last year's big-play artist has failed to lead the Gamecocks on a scoring drive in USC's last two games.

Mitchell, meanwhile, was responsible for the march that led to South Carolina's field goal Saturday, as well as both touchdown drives against Appalachian State. Morrison, who remains committed to the two-quarterback system, said he didn't know when he would make a decision on Saturday's starter. "We'll just have to see how practice goes," he said. When considering South Carolina's sputtering offense, the offensive line is an obvious target. Young and inexperienced, the line has not played well in USC's last two games, particularly in the loss to Michigan when Hold was forced into many panic situations.

But Morrison refused to place all the blame on the line. "It was a combination of things," said Morrison. "At times the offensive line has did its job and we didn't get the right read on the veer. It was one of those days when the wrong thing happened at the wrong time. "We're extremely disappointed in the way we played.

It's a shame when half the team (defense) plays well and the other half doesn't. You can't leave the defense out there for 38 minutes as hard as they were playing. They finally just got worn down in the fourth quarter." Concerning the line, Morrison "But after three weeks Starr said, He needs to go to church every day." Curry said Shula had much in common with Lombardi "but he did it differently. He didn't use nearly as much intimidation. He would get United Preu Internatkuwl Los Angeles running back Eric Dickerson acknowledges the crowd Dickerson returned to action Monday night after a lengthy contract dispute I to know each player.

"It would just absolutely shock you when he would come sit down next to you and ask you about your family. 'What do you really want to "He would ask me about Lombardi. He built a relationship with each of us. The main thing about Shula is, if he thinks you can play, Dickerson strikes gold ing Duckworth in the left corner of the end he will never give up on a guy. SEATTLE (AP) Eric Dickerson returned to National Football League play with a splash Monday night, rushing for three touchdowns as the Los Angeles Rams stopped the Seattle Sea-hawks 35-24.

Dickerson, the two-time NFL rushing champion back for his third pro season after a 47-day contract holdout, scored on runs of 1, 2 and 15 yards while gaining 150 yards on 31 carries to help the Rams improve their record to 3-0. The Seahawks dropped to 2-1. The Rams exploded for two touchdowns on a 19-yard pass from quarterback Dieter Brock to Bobby Duckworth and Dickerson's 2-yard run in the first 2:03 of the second half after a 7-7 halftime deadlock. The Rams took the second-half kickoff and moved 80 yards in five plays, with Brock find zone with just 1 46 gone in the second half. Seattle's Randall Morris fumbled the kickoff and Mark Jerue recovered the ball on the Seattle 2-yard line.

Dickerson scored on the next play for a 21-7 Los Angeles lead. The Seahawks came back within 21-17 on a 26-yard field goal by Norm Johnson and a 3-yard scoring pass from Dave Krieg to rookie Danny Greene. But the Rams then went 80 yards in six plays to put the game out of reach. Dickerson opened the drive with a 43-yard run and finished it with a 15-yard run with 3:33 left. The Rams' final touchdown came on the fifth Seattle turnover of the game on Johnnie Johnson's 27-yard return of an intercepted Krieg pass with 1:45 to go.

The Rams pres- See Rams, Page 4C said, "We'll work with everything this week. That's all you can do. Right now our offense is as uncomplicated as you can get. Hopefully we'll come up with something that works." Morrison dealt with the crushing defeat much the same as he did with last year's stunning success: See USC, Page 4C UPi poll The UPI Board ot Coaches' Top 20 college football ratings, with first-place votes, records (in parentheses), total points and pre-season ranking: "I would do anything for the guy, and that the way you want your players to feel about you." Dodd, Welsh, Howard Curry said when he played at Georgia Tech, Dodd would tell the players that the opponent they were about to play was bigger, stronger and 'tougher than you are, probably a little better than you "He didn't say, 'They're better than we he said, 'They're better than you He continued that Dodd said Tech "had one advantage, 'We're smarter than they The incredible thing about that was we were stupid enough to believe it." He said Dodd promised if Tech would keep it close to the end, "they'll make a mistake, and I'll think of something and we'll beat 'em, and it happened over and over again. They called it 'Dodd Since George Welsh's Virginia Cavaliers upset Tech Saturday, Curry had a ready answer for naming the oustanding coach in college football today.

"George Welsh," he returned. After the crowd reaction, he said there were many he admired, but that Welsh was certainly one, "based on his record and because he happens to be honest at a school with good academics, and he did the same thing at Navy. "I really admire Joe Paterno, based on results, graduation rate, winning, integrity, those sort of things. I admire Grant Teaff I admire La veil Edwards. In all fairness I'm probably biased because those guys have spent a lot of time with me.

They've given me a lot of advice." Curry said being here brought back associations with Frank Howard, and he did a good imitation of Howard's voice, and "what he would say if he were here. "He would say, 'See this boy heah. Wrote this boy's mama a letter in 1959. Boy's mama said the boy didn't study too good. Wrote this boy a letter 'cause his mama asked me to.

I told this boy, 'Study real 'This boy studied so hard he ended up at Georgia Tech. Curry added, "I love Coach Howard. We need some more Coach Howards in our business." l-AA poll The NCAA Division l-AA Top 20 football teams, released by the NCAA, with records and points 1. Richmond 3-0 76 2. Neveda-Reno 3-0 73 3.

Marshall 4-0 72 4. Grambling 2-0 66 5. Mid. Tennss. 3-0 65 6.

Arkansas St. 2-2 57 7. William Mary 2-1 54 8. Delaware St. 4-0 53 (tie) Murray St.

2-0-1 43 10. Idaho 2-1 38 11. Lamar 3-0 35 12. Illinois St. 2-0-1 32 13.

Missisp. Valley 3-0 28 14. Delaware 2-1 27 15. Rhode Island 2-1 25 16. Appalachian 2-1 19 17.

Massachusetts 2-1 18 18. Furman 2-1 14 19. We. Carolina 2-1 13 20. Louisa Tech 2-1 12 USC falls out ofUPI poll Staff, wire report South Carolina's 34-3 loss to Michigan Saturday resulted in the Gamecocks getting bumped from the United Press International college football poll.

The Gamecocks had been ranked 11th. Auburn, idle last weekend after opening the season with two victories, maintained its No. 1 position. The Tigers, who roared past Oklahoma into the top spot last week, received 609 points and 32 first-place votes. The Sooners remained second with 560 points and eight No.

1 selections. Southern Cal, upset by Baylor last weekend, fell from No. 3 to 16th in the latest rankings. Iowa (504 points), Ohio State (467) and Florida State (455) each climbed a notch to round out the top five. No.

6 Penn State, which defeated East Carolina, and seventh-ranked Oklahoma State, which was idle, exchanged positions. Louisiana State climbed one spot to No. 8 while Michigan jumped six places to No. 9. Furman 18th in l-AA poll Staff report When Furman scored a surprise victory at Western Carolina over the weekend, Paladin coach Dick Sheridan said it provided some needed confidence.

It also provided a national ranking. Furman, 2-1, earned the No. 18 ranking in the first NCAA Division I-AA football poll of 1985, released by the NCAA Monday. The Paladins, who visit Division I-A foe North Carolina State Saturday, are one of four Southern Conference teams among the top 20. They join Marshall (third), Appalachian State (16th) and Western Carolina (19th).

The No. 3 ranking is the highest in history for Marshall, which beat perennial I-AA power Eastern Kentucky over the weekend. The Herd (4-0) visits Furman on Oct. 12. Two other unbeatens, Richmond and Nevada-Reno, rank 1-2.

Grambling is fourth, followed by Middle Tennessee and Arkansas State. 1 32 2-0 609 1 2.0klahoma 8 0-0 560 2 3. Iowa 2-0 504 4 4.0hio State 2-0 467 5 5 Fla. State 3-0 455 6 6Penn State 3-0 327 8 7.Qkla. State 1 2-0 307 6 8La.

State 2-0 293 9 9.Michigan 1 2-0 250 15 1 0.Alabama 3-0 233 12 11 2-0-1 225 13 12. BYU 3-1 191 10 13. Arkansas 2-0-1 152 14 14. Nebraska 1-1 118 17 1 S.Maryland 2-1 107 16 16.S. Calif.

1-1 97 3 17.Virginia 2-0 19 18Air Force 3-0 18 19.Texas 1-0 17 19 20Kansas 3-0 15 Others receiving votes: Arizona, Baylor, Georgia, Miami, Minnesota, Notre Dame SOUTH CAROLINA, Tennessee, Texas and Texas Christian. i.