Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 32

A Fiesta foi Buckeyes; Mike Tomczak's 39-yard TD pass in the last minute gave Ohio State a 28-23 Fiesta Bowl victory. See Page 5D. Sports Phone, 1 -9761 313 Tuesday, fan. 3, 1984 sport speak PREP RATINGS "In high school, I played defense because I was so uncoordinated. My feet were bigger than anyone else's." Philadelphia 76er forward Bobby Jones MOVIE GUIDE COMICS CO Call with tports news: 222-6660 LJ Detroit free press icaimfe leal Miami shocks Nebraska Bo and Bo just don't go, even when money is there Hurricanes hang on, 31-30 72,549, some 60,000 of them Miami support-' ers, Miami scored on its three first-period possessions and then overcame one Nebraska rally that tied the score early in the third quarter and another in the final 82 minutes that threatened to blow the Hurricanes away.

Miami's third-period touchdowns a one-yard run by Highsmith and seven yards by Bentley came less than five minutes apart and capped drives of 75 and 73 yards directed by Kosar, who fired scoring passes of two and 22 yards to tight end Glenn Dennison in the first period. See ORANGE BOWL, Page 5D MIAMI (AP) Fifth-ranked Miami, riding third-period touchdown runs by freshman Alonzo Highsmith and Albert Bentley, upset No. 1 Nebraska, 31-30, in Monday night's Orange Bowl when the Cornhuskers lost a gamble on a two-point conversion. After Jeff Smith's second touchdown of the game with 48 seconds remaining, Nebraska needed only to kick an extra point for a tie that would have left it as the nation's only unbeaten team and probably assured it the national championship. Instead, coach Tom Osborne decided to go for two points and a victory.

Quarterback Turner Gill's pass caromed off the hands of Smith, who was closely covered by roverback Kenny Calhoun. "He's a champion, and he went after it like a champion," said Miami coach Howard Schnellenberger. "I don't think our players or anybody would have been satisified if we had backed in by kicking the point. That's not the way the game is played," said Osborne. The victory climaxed a Cinderella season that may have brought the Hurricanes their first national championship.

"There is no doubt in my mind, and there's no doubt in the mind of anybody in this room. The Miami Hurricanes are No. 1," said Schnellenberger. "It's up to the polls, but in my heart we're No. 1," said the Hurricanes' freshman quarterback, Bernie Kosar.

CHEERED ON by a hometown crowd of NEW ORLEANS Went to see Schembechler and Jackson at the Bo-Bo game and got to thinking about their scruples. The Sugar Bowl meant a lot to the middle-aged Mr. Schembechler of Michigan and the young and muscular Mr. Jackson of Auburn. But it didn't mean a million dollars.

It didn't mean more money to the winner. OK, so a successful coach such as Schembechler occasionally gets offered big bucks to take another job like the time Texas offered him enough money to build his own Alamo. One reason Schembechler stayed in Ann Arbor was that Tom Monaghan, the new owner of the Tigers, tossed in a pizza parlor-to-go. He gave the Michigan coach a Domino's pizza franchise in Columbus, Ohio. Mostly, though, Schembechler appeared to stay at U-M out of loyalty.

You can say a lot of things about Bo, but he's been no deserter. Then there's Bo Jackson, the Herschel Walker clone who runs the football for Auburn. Like Walker, Jackson is good enough to go pro right now. He could play for any USFL team in the land and probably for any NFL team. If Detroit lost Billy Sims and replaced him with Bo Jackson, chances are it would take about five weeks for the public to start saying Billy Who.

But Jackson isn't going to go pro. He says he intends to stay at Auburn for four years. Keeping the ball out of court This is good news for Auburn, of course, but it is better news for the executives of professional football, who might find themselves in a precedent-setting antitrust fight should Jackson demand his constitutional rights to make a living. Why should a kid be allowed to play professional baseball or basketball at any age, but be forced to attend four years of college (or at least wait four years from his high school graduation) before he can play pro football? 'Who are these pro football people to deny anybody the right to be employed? Who's Ho. THE SCENARIO: Nebraska, Texas, Auburn and Illinois first through fourth in the last regular-season Associated Press poll can spend Tuesday with their fingers crossed, but they really should be kicking themselves.

Monday's rash of bowl upsets, and Auburn's slim victory over Michigan, gives the University of Miami the inside track for the national title. HURRICANE WARNING: The AP and United Press International will announce their national champions at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. In a Miami Herald survey conducted before the major bowls, a majority of the AP voters intended to vote for Miami If Nebraska and Texas lost. The Hurricanes were fifth in the last AP and fourth in the last UPI poll.

AP Pholo Mike Rozier is dropped Monday night by Miami's Ken Calhoun. Sugar Bowl Auburn boots U-M Cotton Bowl No. 2 Texas tumbles, thanks to late fumble No. 4 Miami in the Orange bowl and No. 2 Texas lost to No.

7 Georgia in the Cotton Bowl. Although Miami may win the title, Auburn also can argue for the honor. The Tigers played a difficult schedule, finishing the regular season 10-1. To win the Sugar Bowl, Auburn had to play a motivated Michigan team that nearly nullified the War Eagles' wishbone option attack and held them without a touchdown. "If they win the national championship, See SUGAR BOWL, Page 5D By JOE LAPOINTE Free Press Sports Writer NEW ORLEANS Auburn coach Pat Dye beat Bo Schembechler at his own game Monday night.

His squad played fierce defense and controlled the game by running the football on offense. As a result, a last-minute field goal gave the Tigers a 9-7 Sugar Bowl victory, a verdict that left Auburn with a chance to win the national championship in wire service polls. Auburn started the game ranked third in both polls, but that could change in Tuesday's final balloting. No. 1 Nebraska lost to Rose Bowl Alas, the problem will not surface yet because before Monday night's Sugar Bowl game, Jackson insisted: "I'm staying at Auburn four years, no matter what." To see how much trouble Michigan had tackling Jackson is to feel sorry for Auburn's opponents of the future.

They have their hands full. The reason Jackson's decision is important is twofold. If he demanded to play pro 71 I M' mm I A i ri 1 1 i Aoj Bo Jackson Illini embarrassed AP and UPI DALLAS Georgia quarterback John Lastinger ran 17 yards for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter and Kevin Butler kicked the winning extra point Monday, lifting the seventh-ranked Bulldogs to a 10-9 Cotton Bowl upset of previously unbeaten and No. 2-ranked Texas. Georgia's touchdown, with 3:22 left, came after safety Craig Curry bobbled a Bulldog punt and Gary Moss recovered the ball at the Texas 23.

Lastinger, facing a third down from the 17, kept the ball on the option and ran uncontested until he was hit at the Longhorn one, where he dived across the goal line at the right corner of the end zone. "It was satisfying to see John Lastinger, who they say can't run and can't throw very well, find a way to win the football game," Georgia coach Vince Dooley said. "We had to have a break and we were fortunate to get one. I thought that if we had a chance to win, that was the way it was going to happen. We just had to somehow find a way to hang in there and keep it close." See COTTON BOWL, Page 5D And it came just when the Illinois folks after victories over Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa had decided White's style of flying footballs would restore some of the Big Ten's battered pride.

IT DIDN'T WORK that way for the Illini, though. Not even against a UCLA team that went through the season unranked after three losses and a tie in its first four games. "It was a thorough defeat and embarrassing to us," White said. "We worked hard to get here and this takes the luster of It's a very, very painful defeat, but all the credit goes to UCLA." See ROSE BOWL, Page 5D By CURT SYLVESTER Free Press Sports Writer PASADENA If it's West Coast football that Mike White is teaching at Illinois, he'll have to update the course. UCLA has found a better way to play it.

The Bruins gave the Big Ten champion Fighting Illini a pretty good demonstration and a pretty good whipping in a 45-9 Rose Bowl victory Monday. It's not that Rose Bowl losses are that uncommon to the Big Ten. This makes it 13 out of the last 15 games. It's just that it was so one-sided; the worst since Washington beat up on Wisconsin, 44-8, in 1960. UPI Photo Quarterback Steve Smith gets an extra boost from teammate Sim Nelson after Smith scored Michigan's first touchdown in the Sugar Bowl.

Curley vows to return to Lions football this very minute, the USFL could not afford to say OK. The signing of Walker alienated so many people in collegiate circles primarily Schembechler that it would be disastrous to the USFL to repeat its crime. Nevertheless, how would the law look upon it if Jackson sued? What gives Walker more rights than him? Moving on to a more philosophical standpoint, it's important that Jackson stay put because he is exercising restraint something found so seldom in sports these days as to be practically extinct. This is the Greed Generation. It is still the Me Generation, but One Step Beyond.

Sims signs contracts with two pro teams. His word is worth nothing to the team he signed with first. One of the two teams will lose a great player and a big sale of season tickets. Both teams will lose court costs. What will Billy Sims lose? Absolutely nothing.

The new 'The price is right9 A refreshing Martina Navratilova makes more money than most athletes in America. She says prize money at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, the two prestige events of the tennis tour, is not enough. She tries to backpedal by saying she meant the money wasn't enough for the poor first-round players. What does this mean? It means she wants players to receive more money just for winning a match.

Joe Theismann signed a contract with the Washington Redskins for $175,000 a year. He's been playing great, so the team owner bumped it voluntarily to $350,000 a year. Asked about it, Theismann said: "It still isn't enough." Magic Johnson denies saying that his 25-year, $25 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers should be updated. Many people, though, seem to agree that Magic is underpaid. After all, Moses Malone and Larry Bird make so much more.

Well, nobody stuck a gun to Magic's head and said: "Sign." It is a popular, almost hackneyed, task to take athletes to task for their greed. For breaking promises. For leaving, as Iowa basketball coach "Loot" Olson did, with eight years left on a contract. For emotionally blackmailing the public, hoping fan sentiment will put the pressure on management. But it can't be helped.

There are greedy pigs out there, dying to be greased. Class is hard to come by nowadays. That's why it was refreshing to be around the Sugar Bo's, Schembechler and Jackson. A couple of sweet guys. Anne USffil Boyle It was just another Monday night football game.

All across this "great land" (as Howard Cosell was saying) football fans were settled into the second quarter of the Lions' Nov. 7 game with the New York Giants. Fourth down, Giants were punting. As Giant kicker Dave Jennings put his foot into the ball and the Lions special teams unit charged full-speed downfield, 23-year-old rookie linebacker August Curley knew his responsibility: "We were in a middle return formation and I was supposed to be blocking the upback. I tried to time it so he would catch up to me and I could turn out and block him.

When he got to me, I planted my left foot and turned at a 90-degree angle. I felt my knee twist and then a pop deep inside my knee. I just fell." The ABC cameras moved in on the injured player, who by now was writhing on the turf in pain. The Lion trainers rushed to his aid as Cosell and Don Meredith tried to make out the number on his back. But, watching in her living room in Atlanta, Ernestine Curley knew immediately.

"I saw him on the field. I didn't have to see his number. I knew it was my son," Curley's mother remembers. "Some of my worst fears became reality." The incident took up about 30 seconds of ABC's football broadcast. But for August Curley it was just the beginning of a nightmare he'd had before.

He had suffered one of football's most dreaded injuries: ligament damage to his knee. "You feel one sudden, sharp pain," Curley recalled later, "and then a dull throbbing after that. I grabbed my left knee, sat there a second, and then fell back, in pain. The first thing I thought was, 'God, it happened AUGUST CURLEY was a gifted three-sport athlete growing up in Atlanta. He was recruited by close to 100 colleges and universities to play big-time college football and played, as a freshman, on the national championship Southern Cal team that beat Michigan in the J978 Rose Bowl.

Going into his senior year, Curley, 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, was headed for All-America honors Free Press Photo by JOHN COLLIER August Curley motivates himself during exercises by thinking "playoffs. Super Bowl, Pro Bowl." See AUGUST CURLEY, Page 2D.