The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 45

San Francisco Examiner Dec. 18, 1979 Page 45 rfnWr 49ers begin crucial search for talent SpirtsiysMss AW' By Frank Blackmail Now the real work begins. Although the regular season is over and the players are home, the 49ers have begun to make important preparations for next year. Already, Norb Hecker is in Milwaukee waiting to sign a free agent prospect today, and the other assistant coaches are finalizing plans to fan out across the country and scout college stars. Their boss, Bill Walsh, will be taking a close look at the nation's top quarterback prospect BYU's Marc Wilson this week.

graphically illustrates, the National Football League's worst team has plenty of work to da The season-ending 31-21 loss to Atlanta was an equally good illustration of San Francisco's worst and best and what must be done if the team is to become creditable next season. "We suffer from the same things," said Walsh when asked if he'd seen anything in the Falcons game that either strengthened or weakend his convictions of what the team must get from the collegiate draft. "Hofer (half back Paul) plays tremendous football, but we do know that it's tough for him to go 16 games. That's a partial answer to your question. So we know that's an area.

Even though we have a wonderful football player, we need to strengthen or hope to make a dramatic improvement "Then the other area is defensively, where it's very obvious we need help. And to be honest with you, I think after another training camp we'll reduce or minimize the number of mistakes that turn a game around I think training camp will do part of it, His assistants have their marching orders, too. Director of player personnel John McVay is off to the Liberty Bowl tomorrow. Vice president John Ralston is already in San Diego scouting Holiday Bowl participants, then will continue on to study the Blue-Gray Game players. The investment in time and money is enormous, but necessary, if the 49ers are to turn the program around after two consecutive 2-14 seasons, the most recent having been completed Sunday in Atlanta.

And, as the record so and the draft will do part of it." Training camp will have to wait until next July, but the draft is right now as far as the 49ers are That's why all those people are going all those places. Walsh knows only too well that he must use his picks wisely come next April. Unfortunately for the team, the selections begin with number two, and not the top choice in Jhe draft. Despite tying with Detroit for worst record, the Lions will go first because the teams -See Page 48, Col. 1 Examiner, Art Spander Bill Walsh: thinking about upcoming draft New SJS AD's first problem: 7 forfeits I Wpf, i 1 J'-i h.

i Examiner News Services SAN JOSE David H. Adams, -assistant athletic director at the University of Pittsburgh, today was named -director of men's athletics at San Jose -State University effective Feb. Adams, 44, replaces interim athletic director Jon Crosby, who will resume post as associate AD for the Spartans. 1- Adams, an assistant AD. at Pitt and on the faculty there since 1967, is a former wrestling coach, which is a happy coincidence.

He will immediate- ly be called upon to grapple with an -image problem that has enveloped the campus in the wake of the Spartans' forfeiture of seven football games and the co-championship of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association. That penalty was announced yesterday In Santa Ana by PCAA commis-: sioner Lewis A. Cryer following a hearing on the use by San Jose State of an ineligible player during the 1979 season. The Spartans under coach Jack-Elway won three of the forfeited seven games and tied another, sharing the league title with Utah State. Cryer said that as a result of the ruling, San Jose State's record would be adjusted from i 64-1 to 360.

The wins that must be forfeited were against Fullerton State, Fresno State and Oregon State. I Crosby, who has been acting AJXat San Jose State since Bob Murphy Avas relieved earlier this year, said that.the ineligibility had been discovered, near the season's end. By then, he added, the player in question was out of action because of an injury suffered "in the seventh game, a 24-14 victors Over Oregon State. I -Z Crosby said that the player worked the "sting" with the help of teammate and that teammate's fender junior college coach in the southland. The other player was booted off the team after the second game for-jn unrelated breach of discipline.

Crosby added that the school fcoiild not release the name of the" guilty player. The timing of the penalty; as unfortunate, Crosby said, in thai it 'J gave the impression that this, was another case in the spreading scandal of coaches conniving in the doctoring of transcripts. "The big distinction, though, is that none of our people was involved," he said. The fact that the conference did not send an investiga- tor to the campus confirmed- school's innocence, Crosby pointed out. -w lull i OrffniiTMri.ii A m.

Associated PresB Broncos running back Dave Preston (46) is pushed to the deck by San Diego's Ray Preston Chargers: the new champions in the Astrodome in a first-round playoff Sunday. Fouts, who completed 17 of 29 passes for 230 yards, became the NFL's all-time single-season passer as he eclipsed Joe Namath's mark of 4007 yards set in 14 games in 1967. Fouts finished the regular season with 4,082 yards. Unscathed was another NFL season record Fouts had a shot at the 347 completions turned in by San Francisco's Steve DeBerg, who achieved the record in his final game Sunday. Fouts fell 16 completions short "The Chargers' front four did a good job," said Morton, who threw four interceptions': and was sacked twice as he connected on 27 of 41 attempts for 236 yards.

"They put a great rush on me and hit me a lot. We made a lot of key mistakes." The loss marked the first time Denver had lost games back-to-back in the three years Red Miller had been coaching the team. Seattle beat the Broncos, 28-23, the previous week. SAN DIEGO (UPD More than 1,000 San Diego Chargers fans can't be wrong. Despite overnight temperatures dipping to near freezing, they were camped out this morning in sleeping bags, in recreational vehicleior just huddled together for a chance to be first in line lur the 7 a.m.

opening of the Chargers ticket office. And once the office opened, the nearly 8,000 tickets to the club's first playoff game Dec. 29 against either Miami or Houston were sold in just 99 minutes. It's been a long time coming. In most of their first 10 years in the NFL, the Chargers were the whipping boys of the American Football Conference's Western Division.

Eyebrows were finally raised in their direction in 1978 when San Diego posted its first winning season, 9-7, under new coach Don Coryell. Last night, in the NFL's final regular-season game, the Chargers realized a dream of a decade as they whipped the two-time defending AFC West champion Denver Broncos, 17-7, to win the division title. "I got a head-splittin' headache but it feels great I love it," said Chargers wide receiver Charlier Joiner, who scored the winning touchdown on a 32-yard pass from Dan Fouts. Joiner, pressed into service as Fouts' primary target when John Jefferson was unable to play because of sore ribs, was helped off the field three times during the game, suffering a bruised hip and gash over his right eye that required 12 stitches. "I've never been so proud of a group of men playing shorthanded and playing as strongly as they did," coach Don Coryell said.

"Charlie Joiner took such a terrific beating but kept coming back." The Chargers, whose 12-4 record is equaled only by Pittsburgh, won the right to host the first playoff game Jan. 6 as well as the AFC championship game, should they advance that far, the following week. The 106 Broncos, wo-time defending AFC West champs, had to settle for a wild-card playoff berth and will play the Houston Oilers American Dream revisited SAN DIEGO Those were not the days, my friend. Not for the San Diego Chargers, at least. Those were the days of frustration and bitterness, of embarrassment on the football field and rejection off of it Sportswriters ripped the team and its owner, Gene Klein, in the papers.

A psychiatrist indicted the team in a book about drug abuse. The losses mounted and so did the questions. Was there any future for the San Diego Chargers? The answer came last night in the cauldron of sound and fury that was San Diego Stadium shortly after the conclusion of the National Football League's final regularly scheduled game. The future was now was Dec. 17, 1979.

The Chargers, the team that in 1973 became the subject of Dr. Arnold Mandel's book, "The Nightmare Season," the team that in 1975 opened with 11 straight losses, last night won the American Football Conference Western Division As the players swarmed off the field, and a capacity crowd of nearly 52,000 shouted in ecstacy and waved "Charger Power" banners, Klein and wide receiver Charlie Joiner, bleeding and bandaged, ran toward each other and embraced. Adversity had been conquered. Success had been achieved. THAT THE SUCCESS wouid have no bearing on the Oakland Raiders was nobody's fault but the Raiders.

San Diego did what it had to do for itself, for Oakland beating the Denver Broncos, 17-10. It meant a lot lor the Chargers, who took the title and kept the Broncos from taking It But it didn't mean a thing for the Raiders, who had eliminated themselves some 24 hours earlier, losing to Seattle. If yes, that magic word, if the Raiders had won over Seattle, and if San Diego went on to defeat Denver, why then the Raiders would replace the Broncos as an AFC Wild Card playoff selection and the Chargers would have their first division title since 1965. But by klckof last night in Mission Valley, with a daytime temperature of 80 degrees already slipping toward an evening low in the 40s, the Broncos were in the playoffs, the Raiders were out and the only thing left to learn was whether the Chargers could defeat Denver and take the championship. And they did.

They did because, mainly, one quarterback who grew up in the Bay Area, Dan Fouts of the Chargers, outperformed another quarterback who grew up in the Bay Area, Craig Morton of the Broncos. Admittedly they were not the only characters in the unfolding drama. Those in supporting roles could not be ignored. But Fouts and Morton were the leads. FOUTS, A GRADUATE of San Francisco's St.

Ignatius High and the University of Oregon, played capably if not spectacularly, completing 17-of-29 for 230 yards and one touchdown. He threw three interceptions. Morton, a graduate of Campbell High in the Santa Clara Valley and the University of California, completed 27-of41 for 236 yards and no touchdowns. He threw four interceptions, three in the second half and lost a key fumble. Which is why Morton could only muse about mistakes and the quality of the Chargers' defense, while Fouts could tell a group of journalists: "I cant put the way I feel into words." Only Fouts, guard Doug Wilkerson and tackle Russ Washington are left from the seasons of nightmares and disasters.

Only they know what it is like to grovel around in the depths and then climb to the heights. "It's fantastic," said Dan Fouts. "And it happened in so short a time." It happened because a man named Tommy Prothro took over as Chargers coach and through a few college drafts and trades picked up men like Gary Johnson and Louis Kelcher and John Jefferson and Wilbur Young and Ed White and Bob Klein. And it happened because after Prothro got depressed and quit early in the 1978 season, Don Coryell replaced him as coach. "All those years," said Russ Washington, a massive (288 pounds) tackle who was San Diego's No.

1 pick in 1968, 12 seasons ago, "I never gave up. I'm an optimist. I always thought it would get better. I thought there would be a dav like this." AS WASHINGTON SPOKE he sat in his dressing cubicle, arms and chest bulging from a knit shirt the smoking butt of a cigarette In his hand. In front, on either side, teammates responded to a championship the way American sports fans expect them to respond, slapping backs, shouting congratulations, spraying champagne.

But Washington stayed back from the celebrating. "All I can say now is that is was a long time coming," explained Washington. "In a day or two, I might understand a little more what it means." Bob Klein, the tight end, knows what it means. "It means we've realized our potential," said Klein, no relation to the team's owner. Three years ago, Klein, the end not the owner, had quit football after eight seasons with the Los Angeles Rams and gone into the real estate business.

"The organization up there was coming apart and I was tired of the game," said Bob, "but the Chargers made me a good offer and I decided to come back. I'm glad I did. Last year I realized this could be a great football team. "This was like a playoff game tonight. I dont think we had one this tough the whole season.

We tost our two starting receivers, John Jefferson and Charlie Joiner, and we made do and we won. Tnat shows what we're capable of. I was with championship teams at USC and the Rams, but there was nothing to match the excitement of this." Nothing to match the excitement of a team that seemed about ready to disintegrate and within a few years became champions. Isn't that the fulfillment of the American Dream? What's this? Chicago a miracle playoff team head coach who stayed in his locker room with a group of reporters, huddled around a table for seconds that became minutes and minutes that became hours, listening to the play-by-play description of the Cowboys-Redskins game that came crackling over the small transistor radio. For nearly an hour now, Armstrong had been listening to this game without betraying emotion.

When the Redskins took a 34-21 lead, Armstrong acted no differently from when the Cowboys had taken a 21-17 lead. He exchanged niceties and small talk with whomever happened by and went about his business, showering, dressing, neatly folding the -See Page 49, Col. 3 Chicago Bears made the National Football League playoffs. They had made the playoffs in a most improbable way on a most unlikely and contradictory Sunday, a Sunday of overwhelming joy and unexpected sadness, but means did not matter much now, not after the Bears had beaten the St. Louis Cardinals, 423, and the Dallas Cowboys had scored a touchdown in the final minute to beat the Washington Redskins, 3534.

The means did not matter at all to those players and friends and assistant coaches who had gathered in the parking lot to drink and be merry and root Dallas in. The means did not matter one bit to Neill Armstrong, the By David Israel Chicago Tribune CHICAGO The stands were empty, and the sky was dark. A chill wind whipped through the stands of Chicago's Soldier Field. It was bleak and lonely and forbidding out there. But beneath the stands, in the Chicago Bears' dressing room and in a dank basement parking lot, the candles glowed brightly, and no one had to curse the darkness.

When no one was watching, at 6:22 p.m., nearly two hours after they had run the last play of their regularly scheduled 1979 season, the clock ran out in Irving, Texas, and the Game spoils the trip "Sayings" Cal fans frolic in Meadowlands "He 're convinced he certainly moved a hi of' iron for Chrysler." Eieculive B.F. Mullins. sorry that NBC has ordered sportscaster Joe Garagiola to stop flacking tor his company's autos on TV commercials. never had this much exposure in the except uTien left. Former Denver Nuggets coach Larry Brown, now in the UCLA tishbowt.

"When I'm on the road, my greatent ambition is to get a standing boa Pitcher Al "Mad Hungarian" Hrabosfcy, signed as a free agent by the Atlanta Braves. "If ever nnfea bock, it would be titled They Call Me a Lot of Things. Tempestuous Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight, after reading John Wooden "They Call Me Coach." "They say it's a land of equal opportunit'. But dont see that. There are plenty of black-individuals who are capable of handling head coaching jobs.

I've thought about being a coach, hut unless things change, 're got about as much chance as a lost ball in hieh weeds Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Gary Burfey. asked for reaction to charges of racism in the National Football League. By Norman Melnirk Examiner Staff Writer EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ. The Jerseyans, a tribe of fan perhaps unlike any other, rooted for Temple when it was 21 points ahead and comfortably switched to the other side when Cal rallied. "Chah-h-ge, you California Golden Bears," they yelled in their Joisey accents during last Saturday's Garden State Bowl.

But they looked positively puzzled when Cal fans occupying sections 133 and 210 of Giants Stadium used the shorter "Go, Bears." And the looks got stranger still when a dozen Cal men rose to render the old frat song with mention of Berkeley campus landmarks. "I was out der once," said an unshaven young man from Orange, NJ. "I liked Boikley.l mean, I'm gonna go back some day. But the rain kinda spoiled it They tof me it dont rain in August." There were hundreds of Cal fans in this beautiful stadium in the New Jersey marshlands, a scant four miles from the Lincoln Tunnel and New- on heads, some of the locals deliberately poked holes in the bottom of a tray full of plastic cups of beer and let the overflow drain on people's heads and clothes. The gag was much appreciated.

Most Cal fans came Thursday and Friday for Saturday's game, but a handf ul came the morning of the day of the game after a red-eye flight and returned home Saturday night sleepless and immensely disappointed in the result Temple 2a Cal 17. Two of them were Jerry and Beverly Rose of Marysville, whose son Joe was playing his final game for Cal. The parents said their son hoped to play in the pros. The father "Joe took social sciences in school, but you know he's not going to be a social worker." Nick Becker of Martinez and his sister, Janice Becker Montgomery, UC 73, of Concord, also made the overnight flight She said: "My husband went to Africa on his vacation. I get to go to Newark." Paul Andrew of Piedmont, a defen- -Sec Page 49, Col.

3 York City. They were dressed for the thirtyish temperatures, pinned with "Bear Backer" buttons and crowned with every style of blue and gold snow cap or peaked cap or, in one case, Western-style hat. UC sophomore Gail Hoffmann of Moorestown, came in her mother's stunning, full length beaver coat "Yeah, thank goodness," she said about its warmth. The UC ticket offk-e in Berkeley said 1,200 tickets were sold for the game at $12 apiece. The ballyhooed showdown between East and West didnt much interest Jerseyans.

A man wearing shades and sucking candy from a bag asked: "You from "I'm from San Francisco," he was told. He looked surprised. "You came a helluva long way, didnt you?" The same man made a bet with a seat-mate. "I got California, you got Temple" The seat-mate protested. The man wearing shades said: "You gotta take it's the hometown team." Besides unraveling toilet paper over the stadium and raining walnuts down.