The Naples Daily News from Naples, Florida • 23

Naples Daily Nruis Thursday December 27 1990 INSIDE Pro basketball 3C Greyhound entries 4C Classified ads 6-13C Editor: Tom Rife Patemo: Penn State pal Naples loses at buzzer Winningest active coach not your average Joe Stephen Greene By RICK FOLS1AD Staff Writer College roundup 2C (9-2) hope to improve on their No 7 ranking over the sixth-ranked Seminoles (9-2) And as Patemo says the game has national implications want to play Florida Patemo said Wednesday at the Sheraton Design Center Hotel in Fort Lauderdale thought that was the best football team we could play in the situation we were in And then when we had the opportunity to play here we thought it was the ideal place" Patemo is college straight man no glitz or glitter to Penn State No high-five flash all black and white and basic something out of the Vince Lombardi book on coaching etiquette worked for Patemo both cm the field where it shows and off the field where it counts had two teams end the season as national champions (1982 1986) and six teams go undefeated during the regular season His record at Penn State is 229-59-3 His emphasis on education has produced 19 Anthony Davis can add a 3rd defunct league By MICHELLE ROGUSKA Staff Writer FORT MYERS A 15-foot jumper as time expired was the only difference as the Manhattan LaSalle Cardinals edged previously unbeaten Naples 59-57 in an opening-round game of the Barnett BankCity of Palms Tournament Wednesday evening at Edison Community College Naples had several opportunities to win the game the best coming when Naples' Troy Baker wrestled the ball away from a LaSalle player with 25 seconds left But the Golden Eagles failed to capitalize Issac Reea took the inbounds pass from Bobby Anderson See NAPLES Page 7C FORT LAUDERDALE Joe Patemo is a Brooklyn kid who made good in a profession not usually tied to the streets of Flatbush The New York City borough is known more for its back-alley muggings than its college football coaches But Patemo with his bespectacled bookish looks and New York accent ranks No 1 among active major-college coaches with 229 wins in 25 years as head coach at Penn State Chasing heels with 204 wins is the No 2 coach Bobby Bowden of Florida State The two winningest college coaches still working the sidelines will open the Inaugural buster Bowl at 8 pm Friday at Joe Robbie Stadium North meets South as Nittany Lions Joe Patemo See PATERNO Page 2C By no means is Anthony Davis a bitter man but he does become a bit frustrated when he thinks about what might have been If he were born just 10 to 15 years later than he was Davis could have been what Bo Jackson is today a two-sport megastar making megabucks Like Bo Davis was one of the top college football running backs of his time which was in the early 1970s Unlike Bo Davis wasn't a Heisman Trophy winner But he came close In 1974 senior year at the University of Southern California he was the runner-up to two-time winner Archie Griffin of Ohio State Sun Sox decision to fold sinks league By STEPHEN GREENE Staff Writer A four-touchdown game by Davis against Notre Dame that year came after the Heisman voting was already completed college career was not entirely lacking in luck though He was part of two national cnam- Sionship teams at USC and is the lird all-time rusher there behind Charles White and Marcus Allen As an outfielder on the USC baseball team Davis was also part of two national championship teams He was drafted twice by the Baltimore Orioles and then by the Minnesota Twins after his se-nioryear Davis had to make a decision coming out of college: baseball or football He chose football "I had to make a choice I Happy holidays and happy job hunting That was the dreary season's greeting received Wednesday by players in the six-team Senior Professional Baseball Association which announced that it will immediately cease play nearly halfway through its second No matter how old you are you still feel like a kid when you play this game When they take away your team Eric Rasmussen Sun Sox pitcher The folding of the Fort Myers Sun Sox on Wednesday prompted the league's decision hit us like a SPBA founder and President Jim Morley said from Phoenix Ariz Without the do both and baseball compete with football Davis said really have any Davis couldn't be blamed if he did have some regrets His decision came just before the advent of the Blake Carrington Era in baseball The onslaught of free agency in 1976 saw player salaries go from moderate to monstrous to downright obscene levels Although he chose football Davis didn't choose the NFL right away The New York Jets made Davis their second-round pick in 1975 but Davis wasn't impressed with the Jets Jets were coming off a 3-11 year and were more concerned with signing Joe Namath than signing their top Davis said then (Jets Coach) Charley Winner said I could play special teams for them I still for Sun Sox Morley said there would be too many open dates in the schedule for the league to continue play and halting play now would help minimize financial losses incurred by the league Morley said he hopes the senior league or a similar league can re-emerge next year Ironically Morley said the Sun Sox were the wealthiest team in the league when they closed shop He referred to problems" Sun Sox owner Michael Graham was having with two Delaware Investors Simpson Dean and William Curry as the reason the team decided not to proceed with the season know the nature of the problems" Morley said why we were helpless to go in Staff photo by Eric Strachan Jerry White of the Sun Sox left may have been tipping his cap and not his hand while talking to UL Washington of the San Bernardino Pride but Senior Professional Baseball Association ceased operations Wednesday See SPBA Page 6C NCAA officials fear government intervention By THOMAS Scripps Howard News Service strides in areas such as cost reduction and time demands Nearly everyone admits the climate ripe for change Yet the threat of government intervention has never been greater Congressman Tom McMifien D-Md an All-American basketball player at the University of Maryland says an incorrect word is more accurate already happening" said See NCAA Page 4C it up for Col John Clune athletic director at the Air Force Academy says simply been involved with the government 37 years and the bureaucracies that occur and the agendas that could be involved scare me To have the government vention think one of the biggest threats to intercollegiate athletics is the political threat at both the national and state said Dick Schultz executive director of the NCAA think it's real I think a lot of people perceive colleges and universities as not controlling their program and not wanting to control their program heard the threat from congressional leaders on several occasions that going to clean Third of a four-part series involved is dangerous The further you get away from a campus the less knowledge there NCAA officials hope to stave off the threat by passing a massive reform package at the annual convention Jan 7 to 11 in Nashville Tenn Under the leadership of Schultz the NCAA is considered to be on the verge of significant Take heed National Collegiate Athletics Association: Big Brother is watching And if reforms made Big Brother might start taking over Finances cheating and drugs threaten college athletics but some NCAA officials feel the real danger could be government inter given him for that I said go playfor a team that wants The team that wanted him was the California Suns of the defunct World Football League A year later Davis joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for their first two forgettable seasons in which they went 2-26 His former coach ai USC John McKay was the coach at Tampa Bay then Davis would later play for the Houston Oilers and the Los Angeles Rams His football career would wind down with the Los Angeles Express of the defunct United States Football League Still there was something missing from life always wanted to know how I would have done if played baseball" Davis said Seventeen years after he last picked up a bat Davis finally did play professional baseball not in the majors but in the now defunct Senior Professional Baseball Association with the San Bernardino Pride Wednesday the league announced that it has ceased operations for this season after the folding of the Fort Myers Sun Sox In addition to playing outfield the SB-year-old Davis was involved in promoting the Pride and the SPBA Although the league has folded Davis does have other endeavors to fall back on in Southern California They include real estate broadcasting and acting Davis dwell on his roads not taken or on how his life might have turned out had he played oaseball instead of or along with football In fact he has a unique way of looking at his athletic career probably the only one to play in four professional sports leagues: the WFL the NFL the USFL and the senior he said Now something that not even Bo has done yet Tennis 1990: Changing of the guard By STEVE WILSTEIN AP Tennis Writer Heckler wins weekly contest The winner of last week's Naples Daily News football contest was Dave Heckler of Foinciana Street in Naples He picked nine of 11 games in the non-tiebreaker games and all three tiebreakers to win a $50 gift certificate redeemable at any of the businesses advertising on the contest entry form that appeared in Wednesday's paper Don Sitta of Hilltop Drive In Naples was second with nine correct He won one tiebreaker game His prize is a $35 gift certificate There was a tie for mini place between Shelley Skinner of 45th Terrace Southwest in Naples and Kris Paradis of Ardisia in Naples Each won eight non-tiebreaker games and all three tiebreakers with a point difference of seven They will split a $25 gift certificate the way in Melbourne in January His cursing and racket-throwing tantrum in a fourth-round match against Mikael Pernfors got him kicked out of the tournament the first ejection for misbehavior in Australian history and set off an angry protest by fans McEnroe accepted blame for the' affair and brooded about it and when he lost five months later in the first round at Wimbledon critics suggested he should save himself further numiliation by retiring Never one to take advice McEnroe fought on grimly through the summer ana surprised even himself by playing the most electrifying tennis of the year in reaching the semifinals against Sampras at the US Open toss to the eventual champion a stronger quicker and See TENNIS Page 14C shot then joyfully ran across the court and climbed into the stands to hug her friends and coaches shell have peace of mind for the rest of her life" said six-time champion Billie Jean King who coached Navratilova for 14 months lid she'd love to go for No 10 next summer long as the body is willing I am" but she withdrew from the Virginia Slims Championship last month to undergo surgery on both her knees McEnroe the aging master of the men's tour showed signs of reviving his skills and desire before his temper got in John McEnroe's ouster in Australia Jennifer Capriati's glitzy debut a Grand Slam free-for-all with eight champions and a US victory in the Davis Cup highlighted a wild year of tennis in 1990 Pete Sampras a lanky 19-year-old who serves 120-mph aces and Gabriela Sabatini showing off a new acrobatic net attack produced the biggest shocks by winning the US Open But the sweetest triumph in a year dominated by young power-hitters came at Wimbledon when 33-year-old Martina Navratilova captured her record ninth singles title on Centre Court Navratilova the oldest Wimbledon champion in 76 years dropped to her surgery-scarred knees after the final.