The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 11

set Mr Payton longest yam Sit SHI of 12,312 career rushing yards. With 100 yards, he would break another Brown record, most games with 100 yards or more rushing. At the moment, Payton and Brown are tied with 58. Great. Greater.

Greatest. Payton looked perplexed. "It all depends on your interpretation of greatness," he said. "Numbers don't indicate the greatness of a man or his accomplishments. They don't tell if he has reached all his expectations or if he has See Payton, Page IOC Times, LAKE FOREST, III.

Walter Payton was sitting in a meeting room at the Bears' training complex, here in this affluent community north of Chicago. It was rather unusual that he would remain stationary for so long; it's not his nature. The day before, while his wife, Connie, and their 3-year-old son, Jarrett, went to see the Cubs beat the Padres in the first game of the National League playoffs, Payton went hunting for deer with bow and arrow. "He likes baseball," says Tracy Nguyen, his personal secretary. "But he's hyperactive.

He can't sit still long enough to watch it." On this day last week, he was in place long enough to wrestle with a concept that, clearly, makes him uncomfortable. This business of "the greatest running back who ever lived," Walter Payton or Jim Brown. For the last several months it has been a hot topic in the Chicago area, or, as hot a topic as there could be, given the wondrous summer played out by the Cubs. With 67 yards of rushing Sunday, when the Bears engage the New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field in Chicago, Payton will break Brown's National Football League record (The CwnuUleNnvs Greenville piedmont Walter Payton is chasing Jim Brown High Schools Outdoors Sunday, October 7, 1984 Section Tigers wake up in time if Ml itr if beat Heels CLEMSON Clemson's opening drive Saturday lasted 60 yards before North Carolina recovered a fumble at the eight-yard line. Sound familiar? A collective sigh of, "Oh, no, not again," quieted the Clemson sideline and most of the 80,000 at (A By -V Chris Smith iV Nru5 sports itaff I IV v.

i vyi a i i i 7 'v ft i rt ,1 i C. Death Valley. That made it 13 turnovers in Clemson's last 29 pos- marched 83 yards on the opening sessions and commanded attention possession of the second half. UNC toward the past two weeks, when Was making the plays offensively, similar mistakes dealt the Tigers largely on the bull strength of tail-consecutive losses at Georgia and back Ethan Horton who finished Georgia Tech. wjtn yards It eyen succeeded To borrow a line from Coach 0n a fake field goal attempt from Danny Ford, though, the Tigers clemson's 13 yard line, on a shuf- overcame themselves finally fle pass from Anthony to Horton.

anlS HeelS fr 8 badly But on a third-and-goal at the two, needed 20-12 victory. clemson bandit end Ken Brown They did it by cleaning up their p0pped Anthony, jarring the ball act, then pulling out the big plays ioose and nose guard Wiijam which haven't been. Perry recovered. First came a retaliatory fumble recovery, after North Carolina Staff photographer David Crosby Heels' Tim Morrison (28) grabs pass after it bounces off Clemson's Richard Butler (19) See Clemson, Page 3C Sluggishly, Clemson starts back up the mountain dan tion began to rise. Masses of North Carolina fans joined the Clemson people in it, the utter cry for an attack.

As the fourth period started, North Carolina had a 6-3 lead and was quietly trying to herd the Tigers into defeat. About 12 and a half minutes were all that was left when Mike Eppley and William Perry looked around and said, "Hey, that's North Carolina over there, and they're leading us 6-3." That had the effect of smelling salts. For 10 intense minutes Clemson snapped out of whatever it has been in for a month, and bailed it out. Eppley threw one of those passes that made him famous, a 76-yard touchdown play, Clemson took a 10-6 lead, and then Perry took over as the Tigers built See Foster, Page 3C bled that they couldn't get excited, even about their grudge match against each other. For more than a half Saturday, that's exactly how they played, as though they'd forgotten why they came.

A highlight film of the first half would take about 30 seconds. Two field goals and a Clemson fumble at the North Carolina eight would do it. The first half had 35 plays with three yards or less in offensive advances. The first half produced three points per team. It had the excitement of watching twins arm wrestle.

But that's what can happen to two teams whose season's dreams have gone. Not even 80,000 people could turn them on, not even with that tidal wave movement created by sections of people in the stands rising, waving hands and sitting as the adjacent sec CLEMSON When the hopes a team had for its season are shattered as early as September, it can make for some sluggish Saturday afternoons. It can be like a baseball team out of the pennant race playing out the season on the road. Both Clemson and North Carolina, have been through that. In Clemson's own mind, and in the hopes of its followers, the target was a perfect season and a final national ranking of No.

1. What happened, instead, was two consecutive upset losses which knocked Clemson all the way out of the polls. So now there was no bowl there hadn't been from the start there was no unbeaten conference string, and there was no remote prospect for No.l. North Carolina, meanwhile, had not figured on losing to Navy and getting routed by Boston College, both of which happened. The latter was by 32 points in a game more embarrassing because it was played under the awful glare of TV coverage.

Between them, UNC and Clemson had lost four of the five games they'd played since Sept. 15. There was reason to suspect that both teams were so hum 1 Gamecocks are i ghostbusters 1 in 49-17 victory 4 k. vmk 1 1 A. COLUMBIA Traditionally, it was the type of game South Carolina would have struggled with, and maybe even lost.

The ghosts of Pacific, Furman and many other latter-day underdogs help remind of a USC history that includes infamous letdowns following promising starts. But on Saturday afternoon, there was an indication that the 1984 version of the Gamecocks do not fit, 1 Gossage happy to shed pinstripes for San Diego (c) Newsday SAN DIEGO Uneven pinstripes and a rather primitive Yankees "NY" logo had been drawn on the belly of the T-shirt Rich Gossage was wearing. Repeated laundering had faded the markings to a point where they were visible only in the sunshine that illuminated Jack Murphy Stadium Friday morning. It was Gossage's considered opinion that the shirt needed more washing. More than a year and most of a baseball season have passed since Gossage last wore the official logo and the parallel pinstripes of the Yankees.

And still, his discontent lingers like a stubborn stain. It is not so evident as it was in December 1983, when he divorced himself from the uncomfortable life he had with the Yankees, but it, too, becomes more visible in the bright lights that illuminate the National League playoffs. Gossage's previous experience in postseason competition came in three Octobers during his six seasons (1978-83) with the Yankees. So the only postseason climate he knew before this week was the turbulent and pressurized October climate created by the demands of George Steinbrenner and expectations of Yankees fans. What he has experienced since the Padres and Cubs began their best-of-five playoffs series is substantially different.

And different is better. "I 4 See Goose, Ppge 1 OC believe in ghosts; only in themselves. On cue, one week after the upset of Georgia, USC played ex- By Mike Hunt $ht NniK sports staff 4. 7 t-" 4 4. I I rtf f-- 9 tremely well and beat a team it was supposed to beat, as it destroyed Kansas State 49-17.

And before 67,200 fans and two Florida Citrus Bowl scouts at Williams-Brice Stadium, the Gamecocks became 4-0 for the first time since 1928. "Traditionally, Carolina is known as a roller-coaster type team," said senior free safety Bryant Gilliard. "They're up one week and next week they're flat. We overcame that. We did come out flat, but we overcame it and came out on top.

Now we're going to have to build off that." If the Gamecocks came out flat in running the See Gamecocks, Paige 4C ft SuK ptMofraiitm Dvnl Ellh USC's Willie Mclntee (88) closes in for the sack on Kansas QB Stan Weber.