The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 79

SAN DIEGO COUNTY EDITION "PA 1 Coo Anflrtee Gimeo I i iilav. March 25. IW.X CCttPartlll Fouts Elects Not to Push His Luck, Retires Relatively Healthy, He Leaves Football After 15-Year Career Jim Murray This Change of Pace Hough Doesn't Need Dave Distel: Dan Fouts made his exit with a touch of class. Page 9A. about the latter were unmistakable.

The people who vote for the Pro Football Hall of Fame almost certainly will cast their ballots for Fouts as soon as he is eligible. He holds 42 team and seven NFL records. He threw 254 touchdown passes during his career and completed passes for 300 yards or more in 51 games. No other quarterback has ever passed for 300 yards more than 26 times. But the people who measure players for Super Bowl rings never needed to know Fouts' size.

He played in zero Super Bowls. At least two teams have expressed interest in Fouts as a backup quarterback for 1988. But Fouts used the phrase "a few yet-unscrambled brain cells" to explain why he has no interest in any such role. Besides, this is the first off-season in several years in which Fouts has not needed surgery. "It wouldn't be very wise to push my luck," he said.

"I'm very at ease with this decision and very comfortable with it." Please tee FOUTS, Page 9A By BRIAN HEWITT. Times Staff Writer RANCHO SANTE FE Dan Fouts, wearing cuffed jeans, Nike tennis shoes and a dark blue lamb's -wool sweater with rolled-up sleeves that revealed the telltale scar tissue of 15 NFL seasons, announced his retirement from football Thursday. He sat in a chair next to his wife, Julianne, beside a swimming pool in the back yard of his impeccably decorated house on a hill and thanked everybody for coming. Then he thanked the Chargers and their fans. He even said he respected Charger owner Alex Spanos as a "fighter," even though the two haven't spoken since December.

But, Fouts said, "after 15 years, this body has taken about as many hits as it can. It's just time for me to move on to another phase of my life." Nobody from the organization was present. Fouts wanted it that way. But he insisted there was no animosity toward the team. "If I harbored ill feelings for all the things that have happened over the last 15 years, I'd be a wreck," he said.

"Dan wanted this to be his thing," said his father, Bay Area sportscaster Bob Fouts. So for half an hour, Dan Fouts carefully fielded a wide range of questions. His voice did not quaver. Nobody cried. Afterward there was a catered lunch for anybody who wanted to hang around.

"I'll be here all day," Fouts said. He said he has no plans to play in or move to another city. "This," he said, looking around, "is as good as it gets." And that was about as emotional as Dan Fouts' retirement party got. There were stories about old teammates and coaches, big games and missed chances. His affection for the former and regrets PETER McCURDY For Th Timw There were no tears as Dan Fouts announced retirement at his home Thursday.

NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT It was one of the great innings of baseball history. It had never been seen anywhere else. Never in the big leagues, the minors, the sandlots. They don't call balks in the sandlots. They called lots of them in that game at Duncdin, two weeks ago, 12 in all.

To give you an idea how big a story that is, there were only 13 balks called in the whole season of 1956 in the National League. There were only 18 called in the American League in 1941. One pitcher committed nine balks in four innings at Dunedin. To put that in perspective, that tics the record for the most balks by one pitcher in a season in the history of the American League. And the pitcher who holds that record is the same one who threw the nine at Duncdin.

He also and here comes the good part balked seven times, that's s-e-ve-n, in one inning! He not only balked in two runs, he balked each of them from first base to second to third to home. It was a MardiGras of balks. They don't have exploding scoreboards for balks but if they did, Charlie Hough would light up the sky. Nobody can balk like Charlie Hough. He is the Babe Ruth of balkers.

Baserunners should erect a statue to Charlie Hough. Babe Ruth revived the art of the home run, Maury Wills revived the art of the stolen base but Charlie Hough gave the world the multiple balk. Two balks in one inning is bearing down. Seven is awesome. It's not that Charlie can't help himself.

Charlie needs the balk. It's part of his arsenal. It's his third pitch. Charlie, you see. is a knuckloball pitcher.

There are only two of them left in the major leagues. They're as endangered as the white Siberian tiger. 1 ui.ifiiin.iimy 4 (-ix v3 Villanova Upsets Kentucky and Gets Shot at Oklahoma SOUTHEAST REGIONAL AT BIRMINGHAM, ALA. THURSDAY'S RESULTS VILLANOVA 80 KENTUCKY 74 OKLAHOMA 108 LOUISVILLE 98 SATURDAY'S GAME Oklahoma (33-3) vs Villanova (24-12). 12 30pm 2.8 By MAL FLORENCE, Times Staff Writer BIRMINGHAM, a strong tendency to compare the present Villanova basketball team to the one that won the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.

championship in 1985. Those Wildcats were regarded as an overachieving group that came out of the tournament pack to upset favored Georgetown. Villanova is following the same upset path again as was demonstrated Thursday night at Birmingham-Jefferson Coliseum when it beat Kentucky, 80-74, in a semifinal game of the NCAA Southeast Regional. In a later semifinal game, Oklahoma outlasted Louisville in a baseline-to-baseline, up-tempo contest, 108-98. So Villanova (24-12) and Oklahoma (33-3).

the No. 1 -seeded team in the regional, will play here Saturday afternoon for a berth in the Final Four. Villanova's victory wasn't any Please see SOUTHEAST, Page 7 Favored Temple, Duke Give the 1-2 Punch to Would-Be Cinderellas EAST REGIONAL AT EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. THURSDAY'S RESULTS DUKE 73 RHODE ISLAND 72 TEMPLE 69 RICHMOND 47 By ROBYN NORWOOD, Times Staff Writer EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Rhode Island and Richmond, those two upstarts of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.

East Regional, played with varying effectiveness Thursday night, but in the end, the Rams and the Spiders both were sent home, leaving this regional to Temple and Duke. Duke (27-6) struggled against Rhode Island but came away with a 73-72 victory in a regional semifinal game before a crowd of 19,591 at the Meadowlands Arena. Carlton Owens made a three SATURDAY'S GAME Temple (32-1) vs. Duke (27-6). 10:30 a m.

PST, Ch.2,8. You have to understand, a knuckleball goes to the plate like a hound dog through a grove of hydrants. It dips, rises, turns, reverses, veers and even appears to stop periodically on the way to the plate. Junk mail gets there faster. It crosses the plate in its own good time and its own good way.

It doesn't really cross the plate, it just kind of crash lands. As ump Ron Luciano once said. "You can't hit it, catch it. or call it." But, you can steal on it. You don't need a radar gun to clock a knuckleball.

An egg-timer will do. No one knows this better than Charlie. Charlie points out that he's not talking about baserunners like Tim Raines. Willie Wilson, Rickey Henderson, Vince Coleman or Willie McGee. They are going to steal on any pitch and any pitcher.

They'll steal on Nolan Ryan's fastball. What Charlie's talking about is that mediocre runners can steal on his knuckleball. A guy carrying a loaded safe could go in standing up with the detours Charlie's dancer takes to the plate. So, Charlie has to do everything he can, short of bringing a rope to tie up the runner at first, to make him run the full 90 feet. With this in mind, Charlie has had to perfect this little balk move, one that lets him get rid of the ball quickly on the mound and start it on its slow waltz to the plate before the bascrunncr is aware it's been released.

No one did this any better than Charlie. Charlie's weapons system worked very nicely for him. He's won 149 major league ball games with a fastball you could catch in your teeth and a knuckleball that has cobwebs by the time it gets to the plate. Charlie is the Texas Rangers' winningest pitcher in the franchise's history. Only Jack Morris of Detroit and Fernando Valenzuela Please see MURRAY, Page 4 point shot with seven seconds left, which cut Duke's lead to one, but Duke quickly pushed the ball upcourt before Rhode Island could foul, and time ran out for Rhody, as the school is affection-Please see EAST, Page 7 Associated Press The art of Steve Kratzer's defense isn't subtle as he stops a shot by Tim Perry of Temple.

Top-seeded Temple breezed past Richmond, 69-47, in an East Regional semifinal game. Big Eight Making Big Splash in Basketball pens to be the favored team in the Southeast Regional. And Kansas and Kansas State could meet in the championship game of the Midwest Regional. No, really. Kansas or Kansas State could end up in Kansas City.

OK, so this is unlikely. Here at the Midwest Regional, where a doubleheader will be played tonight at the Pontiac Silverdome, the championship probably boils down to this: Will Perdue or Won't Purdue? Nobody would be surprised to see a Sunday final between Vanderbilt, led by the 7-foot senior center Perdue, and Purdue University, the regional's top-seeded team. Yet, who knows? As Purdue forward Todd Mitchell said here Thursday: "Among the teams here are two teams trying to get back home. When you think that Kansas or Kansas State has a chance to Please see MIDWEST, Page 8 By MIKE DOWNEY, Times Staff Writer PONTIAC, Mich. The subject is Eight ball.

Big Eight ball. You know that football conference. The one with Nebraska and Oklahoma in it. The one that gave us the Boz and I.M. Hipp and the Selmon brothers and Jarvis Red-wine and more wishbones than Foghorn Leghorn has in his whole body.

The Big Eight. The college conference with two major sports football and spring football. Hold on, though. Stop the clock. Technical foul.

The Big Eight is big on basketball, too. Odd Man Out: An Iowa team (JSC's George Raveling recruited plays Arizona today. Page 8. No, really. There might even be two Big Eight teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.

tournament's Final Four. Oklahoma hap ALSO Keeping Pace with Kids When Steve Scott of Fallbrook isn't training for another try at the Olympics, he's often offering counsel to high school runners. Please see Page 9C. Gwynn Will Play Today Tony Gwynn said he can't wait anymore and as a result will start in right field for the Padres today, just two weeks after finger surgery. Please see Page 9B.

San Diego Starts on Page 9A Morning Briefing Page 2 NBA Page 11 NHL Roundup Page 1 1 Newswire Page 14 The Day in Sports Pages 12-13.