Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 23

ipuisburcil) Jlost-6aicttc TUESDAFEDRUARY12.1985 23 'A 'J" i Ex-assistant seeks pay from Pens Tom McMillan year, and they later reneged on it I got the one year, but not the option." Corrigan said that last June 4 both Berry and Johnston mentioned the one year remaining on his contract, as had Martha in fall 1983. Johnston, the Penguins' general manager, said yesterday that Martha later explained that Corrigan's contract expired the same time as Johnston's. Johnston renegotiated with the Penguins last summer. Berry, who later brought in Jim Roberts as his assistant, would not comment on the matter yesterday. "I don't want to nail the Penguins; I wish them the best and hope they do well," said Corrigan, 39, who has not taken another job.

"I'm just concerned about my contract." By Shelly Anderson Post-Gazette Sports Writer Former Penguins assistant coach Mike Corrigan, who was fired last summer, said (yesterday that he is seeking payment from the Penguins because they have not fully honored his oral contract. "I should have had one more year on my contract," said Corrigan. Corrigan said he sent a certified letter to the Penguins yesterday saying he would take legal action if the club does not respond to his salary concerns within 10 days. He also said he would not reveal the amount of money involved until after any negotiations with the National Hockey League team. Corrigan became an assistant coach to Johnny Wilson late in the 1979-80 season.

In fall 1981, while he was an assistant coach to Eddie Johnston, he and the Penguins orally agreed on a three-year contract, Corrigan said. He said he later went to Paul Martha, the club's vice president and general counsel, seeking more job security and received a contract extension that would last as long as the contract of any incoming coach he would assist. The only such incoming coach was Lou Angotti, who received a two-year contract when named coach before the 1983-84 season. Bob Berry replaced Angotti last June 4 and decided not to retain Corrigan, his former teammate in Los Angeles. Corrigan said that because Angotti, now the club's director of pro scouting, is still under contract, he should be, too.

After Berry's hiring, the Penguins sent Corrigan a letter informing him that the contract would be terminated after August, 1984. "This is not sour grapes toward the Penguins," said Corrigan. ''I'm honest, I'm Just telling the truth. I don't have a signed contract, and I never did. "But we did have an agreement." Martha said yesterday that he was "surprised at all this.

We felt that we had met our obligation with Corrigan." Martha said he knew nothing about the contract extension Corrigan claims he is entitled. "I haven't heard from Mike Corrigan in six or seven months," said Martha. In 1981, Wilson sued the Penguins for back pay and settled out of court. Corrigan and Wilson said their dealings with the Penguins were similar. "I'm sure Mike's going through the same kind of strain," said Wilson, who also had an oral agreement with the.

club. "I shook hands on a one-year extension plus option Whf a r' M4y4 4 4x8I 1 fmv iW tWi' y. "ii f-- i I Panthers seeking fortune over .500 The basketball team at the University of Pittsburgh tries to chin itself above .500 tomorrow against Connecticut at Fitzgerald Field House, and it promises to be a momentous occasion. In its three seasons in the Big East Conference, Pitt has played 42 has been above .500 one time. Connecticut, then, comes to town with a bull's-eye on its chest.

It represents the psychological fence Pitt has never hopped this deep into a Big East season and a lull before the thunderstorm that is St. John's and Georgetown. The Panthers are 5-5 now, having rummaged through the bottom of the conference dresser and come away with victories over Seton Hall twice and Providence. But it is significant that they have never finished on an upbeat; never won more than six games in a Big East season, never rid themselves of the second division, always been an afterthought. "It is a big game," Coach Roy Chipman was saying from his office yesterday, after a morning-long film session that included Everything You Wanted To Know About Connecticut But Were Afraid To Watch On ESPN.

"It is a game that can give us a little leeway, and some confidence, because" after this we've got St. John's, the No. 1 team in the nation Friday, and Georgetown, the No. 2 team next Tuesday If you go in 5-6, and you play those two back-to-back I mean, you better hang onto your hat." Pitt's hat has been blowing off its head for the better part of three Big East seasons, including a Jan. 12 game at Storrs, when the Panthers dropped a 15-point first-.

half lead and Connecticut beat them, 76-74. This had much to do with a 2-5 Big East start, which disheartened your average Golden Panther, and which gave him some serious heartburn. Only now, after victories over ninth-place Seton Hall and eighth-place Providence and ninth-place Seton Hall again, have the Panthers jerked themselves back to respectability, and cured the heartburn, and leaped over Boston College into fifth place in the conference standings. "We'd like very much to finish fifth," said Chipman, who' has made a habit of finishing sixth, "but; realistically, we know that won't be easy. We've got some tough games on the road, and we play some of the best teams in the nation.

And Connecticut (4-7) is coming in here feeling they have a legitimate, realistic opportunity to get fifth place, as much as we do." This is the problem: Pitt's chances to finish a career-high fifth hinges on victories over Connecticut tomorrow and Boston College (5-6) at the Field House Feb. 23. Jammed in around them are games at St. John's, at Georgetown, at No. 8 Syracuse, and at home against No.

16 Villanova. The schedule presumably gives Pitt the option of finishing anywhere between 5-11 and 7-9, barring upset or the strange disappearance of the Georgetown team bus. I'm not as concerned about where we finish as how we finish," Chipman says. "My biggest goal right now, a realistic goal, is to end this season on a high note. I want our kids to come out thinking if they just do this and if they just do that, they can make an impact on the Big Eastnext year.

I don't want them to be confused about what they have to. do to win." V- This is a luxury afforded few NCAA Division I basketball coaches. In an era of' dribbling hard for the television money, it is a luxury afforded only those who have recruited feverishly, and who are waiting for their teen-age talent to sprout into championship-level adulthood. Chipman has two high school All-Americas on his roster, and another 6-foot-6 forward Jerome Lane of Akron, Ohio ready to matriculate in August. Two of his top three scorers are freshmen, and the other is a sophomore.

"That's basically the difference between Connecticut and us they have a veteran club, some key seniors, and our club is a young club," Chipman says. "After this year, with the people we have back and the new kids coming in; it's more realistic to think about breaking the top five, getting up next year into maybe the top three or four in the league. And the next year Pitt's optimism for the future streaks forward in unison with the play of Charles Smith, the 6-foot-10 freshman from Bridge- Krt, who was recruited passionately Connecticut Coach Dom Perno, and wno is" the only Big East player to rank in the top 10 in conference scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and free throw percentage. Smith has led Pitt in scoring in seven of its last 10 games and rebounding in seven of its last nine. Still, the impetus for the recent trend a modest four-game winning streak, including a non-league victory over Duquesne has come from Curtis Aiken, the gifted but inconsistent sophomore point guard.

"He is more relaxed than before," Chip-man says, "and he has a better understanding of his role. He understands he can score points and still be a legitimate college point guard." Aiken, a disappointment as a freshman, understood this very well in Saturday's victory over Seton Hall, when he scored a career-high 24. "The thing now," Chipman says, "is for all of them to keep making progress, to build on our momentum. We had a tough stretch of six games in the first half of the season, and now, the second time around, we'll be in position to" play a little better. "How we play against these same six teams beginning with Connecticut that'll be1 the measure of where we really -f Recruit Tom Addie has a photo of himself and Pitt Coach Fazio shaking hands, with a note from Fazio: "To Tom, Good luck, the next 4 years will be great.

Foge Fazio." Pitt reneges on grant, recruit spurns new offer think he did offer one. He did acknowledge that the Addies could have inferred that an offer was made. "The only thing I can say is, as a representative of the university, it could have been read into it that he was offered a scholarship and a commitment was made, yes," said Solomon, who recommended Addie to Bowling Green when the Pitt offer fell through. "The only way a commitment is valued is when he firmly commits to the head coach. That's the way we work it and most schools work it Just because a player or his parents say he wants to come to Pitt, doesn't mean we're going to give him a full scholarship." (Continued on Page 25) decision.

Addie had hot signed a national letter of intent at that point, which meant that his commitment was not yet official. Letters of intent do not become binding until tomorrow. On Feb. 1, Solomon called the high school and told both Clemens Caraboolad, the Hoban coach, and Addie that there would be no scholarship. Addie said Solomon told him the Pitt staff had decided to recruit some bigger defensive ends.

"He called my school," Addie said, "and told me he couldn't confirm the commitment I made to him and that he just got out of an argument with other coaches and it was over his head." Solomon yesterday admitted making that telephone call, but said he had no authority to offer a scholarship and didn't coach Gerry Solomon had promised Addie a scholarship on Jan. 21, then called the player at school Feb. 1 to tell him to go somewhere else. "The kid did make a commitment," Fazio said. I didn't know about this until today.

If I'd have known this, I would've rectified it." Addie's parents, as well as Hoban's football coach and athletic director, said the player was offered a scholarship several times by Solomon, and that on Jan. 21 Solomon visited the Addie home and accepted the oral commitment from the player. They say Addie came to school the next day wearing a Pitt tassel cap. They also say he called at Solomon's urging the other colleges that had been recruiting him to inform them of his By Ed Bouchette Post-Gazette Sports Writer Tom Addie, a high school football player from Akron, Ohio, who was offered a scholarship by the University of Pittsburgh and then told there would be no scholarship, yesterday rejected a new offer from the Panthers and said he plans to attend Bowling Green University. "I'm glad it's over," said Addie, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound defensive lineman from Archbishop Hoban High School.

"I wouldn't advise anybody to go to Pittsburgh. Pitt Coach Foge Fazio told me he'd try to make it up and it was a misunderstanding and that he didn't have anything to do with it. I don't know what it was, but he did me wrong." Fazio offered Addie a new scholarship yesterday after learning that assistant unter added to Steeler coaching staff said Hunter. "Something happened over the weekend. Evidently when Jimmy Irsay talked with his father, they had a difference of opinions.

"I wouldn't be telling the truth if I didn't say I was extremely disappointed. I felt I was the best man for the job for continuity's sake. I knew the guidelines of management. I was certainly the players' choice. But you can't worry about what did not happen.

I was calling people the next day." The Steelers had the right answer. "Of all the other teams, I would prefer the Pittsburgh Steelers," said Hunter. Hunter has been a Steeler once before. He signed as an offensive guard after graduating from Pitt in 1956. "I started two exhibition games," said Hunter.

"Then my father dropped dead of a heart attack, and I went home." Hunter was at home when the Steelers cut their roster. He was placed on the taxi squad, but continued working with the team with the (Continued on Page 25) By John Adams Post-Gazette Sports Writer On Jan. 26, Hal Hunter believed he was a wakeup call away from being named the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. Two days later, he was looking for a job. The search was brief.

The Steelers announced yesterday that Hunter, 50, a native of Canonsburg and star player at Pitt in the 1950s, had been hired to coach the Steelers' guards and centers. He replaces Bill Meyers, whb resigned after one year with the Steelers to become assistant head coach at the University of Missouri. "We interviewed other candidates," said Steeler Coach Chuck Noll. "But Hunter) was a stickout. We felt he was the guy we wanted." Last month, Hunter, a former head coach at California University of appeared to be a leading candidate to replace Frank Kush, who left the Colts to become head coach of the Arizona Outlaws.

Hunter, who was an offensive line coach under Kush, was named the Colts' interim head coach for one game, a 16-10 loss to the New England Patriots. Hunter at first did not consider himself a strong contender for the job. But as the days and interviews passed, he began to believe otherwise. Robert Irsay, the Colts' volatile owner, interviewed a dozen coaches for the vacancy. Five of them, including Hunter, qualified for a second round of interviews.

The Saturday after the Super Bowl, the Colts scheduled a press conference for the following Monday. Jimmy Irsay, the team's general manager, told Hunter, "It's between you and one other guy. Have your lawyer ready." Hunter received his next message from the Irsays Sunday night. "Be at the Hyatt Regency at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning," Jimmy said. An Indianapolis sportscaster telephoned Hunter the next morning.

He said none of the supposedly leading candidates was in town. "It's gotta be you," he told Hunter. Several hours later, Rod Dowhower, the offensive coordinator of the St. Louis Cardinals, was introduced as the Colts' new coach. "I thought he was about fifth on their list," a Hal Hunter just missed out on head coaching job with Colts.

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