The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 35

Bronco Maniacs fanning Orange flame Super Bowl puts faithful in super froth This time it will include a huge message we've lost the big one Now show how to turn things around" And to turn it around the message will be painted upside down Gaudy? Tawdry? in the said Juergens 53 "Everybody liked it I only got one hate letter out of 40" Of course after six months it did get a little old The homeowners' association eventually complained and Juer gens agreed to end the eyesore Well mostly He painted a black band around the house "in mourning" when the players went on strike would have had a hard time telling me to take down the Broncos emblem They could have had the governor Mania? Hysteria? Naaah Bronco Ma- Please see FANS Page D5 seven of his men spent three days painting his 3000-square-foot home orange Complete with a blue Broncos logo a Super Bowl logo and names of all the players Crazy? Sure But then Juergens had Sainted a former home a lovely natural rick an ugly orange when the Broncos won their first AFC title in 1977 And he plans to do it again now that they won the AFC title again By Steve Hubbard Scrlppt Howard Naws Service DENVER Bob Juergens is a Denver Bronco Maniac When the Broncos won the AFC championship last year Juergens turned his house into the largest pumpkin Juergens a painting contractor and UPI 7 v- 1 1-1 '2v- 4 1 -if iv mil He 'V4 Trh in i T-hv' Sports Editor Mr-Xl SP" JT di A f-' Soft set can play hardball Pot-bellied league grows 7 --J -V X- -Ss Vf -m What began as one man's nostalgia trip is turning Into a nationwide caravan back to the baseball diamond Now it may be rolling toward Memphis The concept: Organized amateur baseball for players on the far side of 30 guys who have lost a step going to first base but still carry a torch for the game they loved as kids Meet Steve Sigler 39 who invented the Men's Senior Baseball League as a neighborhood project on Long Island NY less than three years ago and already has watched it spread to 16 cities coast to coast hadn't ployed baseball in 18 years high school baseball was as far as I ever got in the game" Sigler said I managed my two sons in Little Leugue for pine years and that perpetuated my interest I got to thinking to myself how great it would be to actually play competitive baseball again but with my own contemporaries and not some 18-year-old kid with a 90 mph Sigler the chief financial officer for a stationery company mentioned his idea to some buddies whose waistlines weren't what they used to be Sounds great some said Less boring than softball others whooped Batter up word of mouth we played a few pickup games on Long Island in 1985" Sigler said I said to the guys 'You know what? This is so much fun I'm gonna try to do it on an organized level' So I put a little Martina Navratilova goea cross court for a winner against Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia Navratilova won yesterday's match in the Australian Open 6-4 7-6 Evert Navratilova to clash in semis want in my spare time play guitar or whatever" The winner of the Navratilova-Evert match will face the winner of the semifinal today between West Germans Steffi Graf and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch Graf enhanced her already fearsome reputation as the player to beat when she crushed defending champion Hana Mandlikova 6-2 6-2 yesterday Graf ranked No 1 in the world poured on the power to brush past Czech-born Mandlikova with a performance that left the fifth-seed reeling Kohde-Kilsch overcame a painful recurring injury to her right foot to move into the semifinals for the third successive year when she defeated Anne Minter of Australia 6-2 64 Minter had ousted American Pam Shriver in the fourth round The men's semifinals are scheduled to be held tomorrow Cash who demolished Dutchman Mi-chlel Schapers 6-1 64 6-2 in the quarterfinals yesterday refused to make comparisons between tomorrow's semifinal and the Wimbledon final is different the crowd the court he said Todd Witsken who lost 6-2 6-1 7-6 (74) to Lendl in the quarterfinals picked the Czech to win the title "He just seems so confident here he is blowing guys away and just playing better than I have seen him Witsken said Cash was also impressive yesterday and said he was more relaxed playing in front of his hometown crowd have a court in my backyard at home so I can go and practice I just do what I good intensity concentrating well and moving well" In play last night two-time champion Mats Wilander scored a clinical straight-sets victory over fellow Swede Anders Jarryd to reach the semifinals Wilander the No 3 seed defeated the sixth-seeded Jarryd 7-6 6-2 in a 2-hour 41-minute battle of wills capturing the first-set tiebreaker 7-2 He earned a meeting with either defending champion Stefan Edberg of Sweden or Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union the last remaining nonseeded player in the tournament The other men's semifinal will be between top-seeded Ivan Lendl and Pat Cash who beat Lendl in the Wimbledon final Neither has lost a set in the tournament MELBOURNE Australia (AP) Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert will meet for the 76th time in a singles match when they play in the semifinals of the Australian Open The two close friends and longtime rivals will play tonight Navratilova holds a 40-35 record in head-to-head dashes Evert reached the semis yesterday with another easy victory this time a 6-3 6-1 rotaipover 19-year-old West German Claudia Porwik while Navratilova had a somewhat tougher time overcoming a brief second-set setback to defeat sixth-seeded Czech Helena Sukova 64 7-6 (7-3) Navratilova who previously won Australian titles in 1981-83-85 was pleased with her showing was a solid performance all the way" Navratilova said playing with Please see SIGLER Page D5 By Dove Darnell strength blitzed exposed Young guards get hard lesson Tigers give WMKW-TV high profile Basketball broadcasts hot draw ANALYSIS By Bobby Hall Staff Reporter By Phil Stukenhorg Staff Reporter Memphis State basketball coach Larry Finch said "I've been fearful of this" His worst fears came true Monday night when South Carolina drilled the Tigers 84-58 in the Carolina Coliseum lead But Carolina which shot 625 percent from the field for the night was pretty good in the other three 10-minute segments too "(Carolina couch George) Felton said the best they evt Finch said Probably so Whatever the Tigers left Columbia SC on a gloomy morning yesterday with a 9-5 record and an 0-3 mark in the Metro The Gamecocks improved and well-stocked with experienced players never gave the younger Tigers a chance They expected MSU playing its fourth consecutive road game and second in three days to be weary They attacked with a tough defense got MSU in an early choke-hold and never relaxed the grip 'T've said from day one that we're young at the wrong spots" said Finch Coach of the Year last season in the Metro Conference Before the season began the Tigers were young at the guard position Only one senior captain Dwight Boyd is a guard The next three guards are in their first year or college eligibility freshman Elliot Perry sophomore Cheyenne Gibson and freshman John Memphis State athletic director Charles Cavagnaro calls it a luxury a service to the thousands of fans who cant obtain tickets to Tiger basketball games at the Mid-South Coliseum Morrie Beitch general manager for WMKW-TV (Channel 30) calls it his station's calling card the Memphis State basketball television package an arrangement that will have every Tiger game home and away televised live WMKW is carrying the brunt of the season showing all but two games ESPN and CBS have exclusive rights to the others For Memphis State fans a full television slate is satisfying a thirst for the city's No sports attraction Tiger basketball lias held that spot since current MSU coach Larry Finch led the school into national prominence as a player in the early 1970s including a trip to the NCAA finals in 1973 are responding to a real Cavagnaro said "We are fortunate enough to be able to show all the games because we always sell out season More than 4200 names are on a waiting list for season tickets to Memphis State basketball according to ticket manager Joey Brent He said the 8500-plus season tickets available have been sold out every year since 1979 association with the program be- VI posed to happen to MSU a traditional power in the Metro Conference It's been eight seasons since such a one-sided blasting had occurred say they looked a little Gamecock guard Tony Shaw said Stunned might not be a strong enough word Finch huddled with his team for about 20 minutes twice as long as usual in the Tiger locker room after the game While MSU's postgame soul-searching was in progress Carolina athletic director Bob Marcum stopped by with some well-intended condolences the coach that I remember when we ever played 10 minutes of basketball like that" Marcum said Presumably he was talking about the first 10 minutes when the Gamecocks rolled to a 29-12 Jon Albright (facing TV camera) and Jim Thacker are the broadcast team for WMKW-TV (Channel 30) which ia carrying all but two of the Tigers' games this season gan nearly two years ago when it won the rights to the broadcasts Since then MSU basketball has boosted the standing in the community "It helps our image in the Beitch said of being a station that does nothing but run old sitcoms become a major force in the Memphis community because we are the ones who probably bring the biggest local event to The station is in the second year of a three- Sear deal with Memphis State to carry Tiger asketball WMKW chose Creative Sports Marketing out of Charlotte NC to produce the telecasts but the station also carries the Tigers on TV TODAY: Fans no longer need a ticket to see Memphis State's basketball team now that most games are carried live by WMKW-TV (Channel 30) through an arrangement with a syndicator TOMORROW: Even though Memphis State's home basketball games are televised live WKNO-TV (Channel 10) wavered in its commitment to replay the games Please see WMKW Page D3 Please see TIGERS Page D3.