Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 46

it I TY1 sports worid DETROIT FREE PRESSTUESDAY, FEB. 11. 1986 2D Elliott repeats as Daytona polesitter morning line MM roundup JT AP Photo Cards name new coach ST. LOUIS (UPI) Gene Stallings, who earned a reputation as a disciplinarian during his 14-year tenure as an assistant to Dallas coach Tom Landry, Monday was named head coach of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Stallings, 50, replaces Jim Hanifan, who was fired along with his entire staff Dec. 21 less than an hour after the Cardinals closed out the 1985 season with a 5-11 record. "I'm not quite as patient a person perhaps as coach Landry," Stallings said. "I'm a compassionate person. "As long as everybody does their job and does it to the best of their ability, I think we'll get along fine." Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill was known to have been concerned that Hanifan lost control of his players during the season, when the Cardinals were picked to vie for the NFC East title but finished last in the conference.

J.B. Williamson shows off his World Boxing Council light heavyweight belt. Williamson has challenged World Boxing Association champ Marvin Johnson, his former sparring partner, to a unification bout. The life and times of Bobby Knight? Dave McGinnis, a defensive end and linebacker coach at Kansas State the last three years, will be a defensive assistant with the Bears, working mostly with the linebackers Track: Sergey Bubka of the Soviet Union, world outdoor record holder in the pole vault, is a surprise entry for Friday night's Wanamaker Millrose Games and will face Billy Olson and Joe Dial, with whom he has taken turns breaking the indoor mark this winter. The three vaulters together have set new world indoor bests seven times this season.

Olson, the current leader, has broken the mark four times, raising it to 19 feet, 5ft inches Saturday night at the U.S. Olympic Invitational at East Rutherford, N.J., just hours after Bubka had jumped 19-5. Dial vaulted 19-4 Feb. 1.... Michigan State runner Marcus Sanders was named athlete of the meet Sunday in Sherbrooke, Quebec, after setting an American best for the 600 meters indoors with a time of 1:16.18.

Donata Sabia of Italy holds the mark for the best-ever time, 1:15.77 in 1984. "I had a feeling today was going to be good for me," Sanders said Sunday. "My coach and I were talking about setting a record because this track has always been good for me." College football: The University of Tennessee will investigate whether college rules were violated; after a booster's credit card was found in former quarterback Tony Robinson's car. The school also is investigating reports that Robinson and at least one other athlete were allowed to use vehicles belonging to Dr. Robert Overholt and that Robinson lived in Overholt's house for a while.

Police said they found the credit card and two gasoline receipts in Robinson's car on Jan. 9, the day after he and former Volunteers fullback Kenneth Cooper were arrested on drug charges Wyandotte linebacker Keith Loya, 6-2, 220, has committed to the University of Toledo. Compiled by Matt Fiorito Bill Elliott picked up Monday where he left off last year, running off to the pole position for the Daytona 500 with a fast lap of 205.039 m.p.h. at the Daytona International Speedway. Elliott's Ford Thunderbird will share the front row with the Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS of Geoff Bodine, who was just behind at 204.545 a separation of just .11 of a second.

Elliott, who won both the pole and the race a year ago to begin an incredible season in which he dominated the super-speedways with 1 1 poles and 1 1 victories, just missed his own track qualifying record of 205.114. "I'm very surprised," Elliott said. "All the testing that everybody did over the winter, I thought we'd be behind." A NASCAR-record 24 drivers qualified Monday at more than 200 m.p.h., breaking the single-session mark of 16 and the race record of 18, both set in time trials last May for the Winston 500. Sterlin Marlin, son of former racer Coo Coo Marlin, was the third fastest qualifier at 204.355. Cale Yarborough, last year's outside starter on the front row, was fourth at 204.151.

Perhaps the most disappointing performance was by defending Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip, whose Monte Carlo was 25th at 199.194. However, only Elliott and Bodine have their qualifying positions locked in for Sunday's race. Time trials will continue Tuesday and Wednesday to help determine starting positions in Thursday's twin 125-mile qualifying races. Those races will determine starting positions three through 30 for Sunday's race. The rest of the 40-car race field will be filled by the remaining fast qualifiers from Monday through Wednesday.

Elliott and Bodine also will be the pole starters in the twin qualifiers. Golf: Patty Sheehan fired a one-under-par 71 and won the Sarasota Classic for the second straight year. Sheehan pulled away from the field with three straight birdies to open the final nine holes and rooms, the dressing room before, during and after games. I don't see how an outsider could get closer to a basketball team." Why has the so-called bad boy of college coaching agreed to grant such freedom to a reporter? "Bobby believes, naturally, that he's a good guy," Feinstein said. "I think he feels that if people are permitted to see him, warts and all, they'll have a better understanding of him and how he acts.

"But the book will contain things he won't like. When he protests, I hope his friends will say, 'Yes, Bobby, you really are that way John Feinstein has embarked on a program in which he hopes to be invisible for seven months. "Well, maybe not invisible because people can see me, but at least so quiet that people won't hear anything from me," said Feinstein, a 29-year-old sports writer. Feinstein is spending the basketball season with Indiana coach Bobby Knight, gathering material for a book. "Although Bobby portrays himself as a coach who doesn't get along with the press, if he trusts a reporter he'll give him more access than any other coach," Feinstein said.

"He hasn't barred me from anything practices, meetings, planes, hotel finished with a 72-hole score of nine-under-par 279, three shots ahead of Pat Bradley and Juli Inkster, who tied for second at 282. The tournament was delayed one day by rain. Pro football: Wade Phillips, recently fired as interim head coach of the New Orleans Saints, has been named defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles under new head coach Buddy Ryan. Ryan, whose "46" defense anchored the Chicago Bears to the NFL title last season, said he will oversee the Eagles' defense but Phillips will concentrate on the linebackers. With Phillips heading the Saints' defense for the last five seasons, the team finished among the top five in total defense three times.

Just don't call 'em late for dinner Old-timers to play at Tiger Stadium hon is different. He shot a 78 in Hawaii before the Pro Bowl, playing shoeless. His feet got sunburned. "I got the solution," McMahon said. "Acupuncture." Nike is packaging a "Bol Ball" line of products named after 7-foot-6 Washington Bullets center Manute Bol.

The line includes a Bol-size growth chart for young children Stephen Starring Day to honor the Patriots receiver in his Lake Charles, hometown has been postponed indefinitely. Starring was named in the Patriots' drug story. When Chicago got its NHL charter in 1926, its nickname was spelled "Blackhawks" but over the years, the practice has been to call the team the "Black Hawks." Last summer, club owner William Wirtz got permission from the NHL to go back to the original "Blackhawks" to coincide with the charter. So this season, the hockey team's yearbook and newspaper advertisements promote the "Chicago Blackhawks." Even when golfing, Jim McMa- ment included pitchers Spahn, Gibson, Whitey Ford and Jim Kaat; the Torre brothers Joe and Frank; former Minnesota outfielder Bob Allison, and Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson. Many major-league teams have sponsored their own old-timers', games.

They will continue under the new arrangement under which Equitable will contribute money to a fund to support old-time baseball players not' covered by the pension. Equitable provides baseball's insur-. ance coverage and manages $44 million' in baseball's pension assets. Free Press Staff and Wire Reports Imagine Bob Gibson pitching at Tiger Stadium again. It could happen this summer when a group of old-timers, which includes Gibson, takes on former Tigers in an exhibition game.

Plans for an old-timers' barnstorming tour were announced Monday. There will be at least one game at each of the 26 major league parks. The touring group will play former members from the host city's team. The three- to five-inning games will be played before regularly scheduled games. The old-timers games, to be to be productive today.

So I'm delighted to be part of it." The previous old-timers game was held in Washington each July and sponsored by Cracker Jack. Chuck Adams, a spokesman for the commissioner's office, said there will be a core group of old-timers. "Of course, they have other commitments throughout the summer so not all of them will be able to play in every game," Adams said. "But there will be a base core. And quite a respectable core." Members of the core group who were on hand for Monday's announce sponsored by the Equitable Life Assurance will begin May 17 in Boston and continue through Sept.

20, when the final game will be played at Cincinnati. The only dates that have not been determined are for the games at Tiger Stadium and Wrigley Field. Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn, one of a group of old-timers at the announcement Monday in New York, said he hopes the series keeps him and the others from being forgotten. "It makes me current," Spahn said of the games. "Those things I did in my baseball career were yesterday.

I want Sportspeak Los Angeles Lakers coach Pat Riley on NBA All-Star MVP Isiah Thomas (6-foot-l) and dunk champion Spud Webb (5-7): "Isiah and Spud Webb are bookends. I think it's terrific, that in the biggest state (Texas) in the Union, two little guys stole the weekend. And neither one of them wears a cowboy hat. It's also testimony to everybody out there who thinks they're too short to piay-" Compiled by Anne Tobik here have all the sports heroes gone? sports today Television GB Sports View Today: Free Press hockey writer Keith Gave. QUES College basketball report.

EES College basketball report. IPftssi Harness racing at Northville Downs. EES WM College basketball: DePaul at Old Dominion. gp Pistons: Detroit at New Jersey (tape delay) EH College Hockey USA. I pass Tiger Eye Boxing.

EES America's Cup '87 Challenge Series. EH NBA: Los Angeles Lakers at Golden State. 8:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 7:30 p.m.

7:30 p.m. 8:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m. 9:30 p.m. 10:00 p.m.

10:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m. Radio 4:00 p.m. 6:15 p.m. 6:00 p.m.

7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 8:00 p.m. 12:15 a.m. Sports Center, WCAR 1090-AM.

Sportswatch, WAAM 1600-AM. Sportsline, WBRB 1430-AM. Red Wings: Edmonton at Detroit, WJR 760-AM. NHL: Minnesota at Toronto, CHYR 730-AM. Pistons: Detroit at New Jersey (tape delay) WWJ 950-AM.

Northville results. WWJ 950-AM. clogging theaters or flocking to concerts. Or jamming a stadium. Indeed, there are more than a few who go to an event for the specific purpose of hoping to see an athlete throw a temper tantrum.

There are some who will go to a tennis match hoping for nothing more intellectually uplifting than John McEnroe flipping the bird. No, off-the-field conduct doesn't seem to have an adverse effect at the box office. Further, no advertisers express a hesitancy to back sports programming because they protest that something morally distasteful is going on. Indeed, many of the biggest sponsors of sports events are those whose liquid products will, when ingested in sufficient quantities, leave a person without control of his limbs, his sanity and his conscience. THE CONTENTION is that athletes are more visible than the rest of us and more handsomely recompensed.

Plumbers do not get their pictures on bubble-gum cards. Master electricians are not paid to endorse a brand of tape. When you put on the uniform, you give up many of your rights, and a greater responsibility is conferred upon you. We have said that so often we believe it. So when the athlete signs his first contract, he is told: You have now been elevated to that most exalted of society's positions.

Ready or not, you have become a role model. But, in fact, don't we tend to ascribe more importance here than is really merited? Aren't we, deep down, copping out just a little? Aren't we using the personal failures of athletes as an excuse to rationalize our own failings? Aren't we somehow desperately hoping that they will do what we have not been able to do ourselves, or haven't bothered to try? Aren't we abdicating our own responsibilities? Aren't we asking athletes to do our jobs? Before we judge them as role models, shouldn't we make the same demands of our teachers? And ministers? And parents? And ourselves? By BILL LYON Kniottt-Ridder Newspapers When Micheal Ray Richardson succumbed once again to the addictive demons against which he has struggled so fitfully, one of his New Jersey Nets teammates, Buck Williams, offered this eloquent summation of professional sports: "Sugar has got to realize that this life isn't real. It's an illusion." That is precisely what it is. A mocking mirage. A teasing, taunting illusion.

As soon as a youngster demonstrates talent for a sport, doors begin opening for him even before he can reach for the knob. As early as junior high, the pampering starts. His way is smoothed at every turn. Tutors if necessary. Passing grades whether he did the work or not.

Phony transcripts if necessary. Almost from the beginning we tell the athlete that he is above the law. He is made to feel exempt from the normal constraints of society. Someone is always there to collect his dirty laundry and to make sure clean uniforms are hanging in his stall the next day. He never stands in line to check into a hotel.

Or out. His luggage magically appears in his room. So do his airplane tickets. He knows none of life's daily frustrations, the million nagging annoyances that grind the rest of us down. There is sudden adulation and immense wealth, and it is difficult to maintain any sort of emotional balance.

Temptations abound. Many never learn how to face reality. They have been catered to much of their lives and they have seldom had to work things out for themselves. And now, in the midst of all this, we wonder where all our role models have gone. Is there no one left who is worthy of the front of a Wheaties box? NOW THERE IS a growing demand that athletes submit to urinalysis, that they sign anti-drug oaths.

Lie detector tests cannot be far behind. Nor can midnight visits by the secret police. (Tailing by private investigators is not unheard of.) In any other context, most of this would be interpreted as a blatant denial of civil rights, as an invasion of privacy and with enough violations of Constitutional guarantees to keep battalions of attorneys occupied for a decade. The rationalization is that our youngsters emulate professional athletes. But do they really? It is one of those statements that we repeat from one generation to the next and come to accept at face value.

But does mere repetition establish veracity? Is there any evidence at all that because some kid out there wanted to be like Micheal Ray Richardson, for example, he started doing drugs? The suspicion, in fact, is that though a kid might endlessly practice the Sugar crossover dribble on an asphalt playground with chain nets, he not only would not be tempted to experiment with drugs simply because his hero did, but his admiration for the Sugar Man would also drop several notches as soon as he found out his idol was no longer clean. Kids are brighter than we give them credit for, and they pick up quickly on what is worth copying and what is not. And the image-makers should be upfront with them. Example: A genuine hero is someone such as Bob Welch, the Dodgers pitcher who acknowledged a drinking problem and confronted it and is now helping others while maintaining an admirable earned-run average. His is the sort of story worth telling, because it does not present a false image of the athlete as superior but as a very mortal person, warts and all, cursed with human foibles and weaknesses, and also blessed with the human spirit, with all of its blazing, redeeming indomitability.

IT WOULD BE nice if athletics were to take the lead in helping clean up society. The fact is, people are going to do pretty much what they want no matter how their heroes behave. Or misbehave. The closest, most natural parallel to sports is entertainment. Movie fans, rock fans, they care not whether their idols are wife-beaters, whether they have been picked up for statutory rape, whether they have gone through eight spouses, whether they inhale clouds of cocaine or ingest vats of booze.

Personal conduct does not prevent people from Detroit area events Hockey Red Wings vs. Edmonton, 7:30 p.m., Joe Louis Arena, 500 seats and 1,500 standing-room-only tickets left. Call 567-7500. Harness racing Northville Downs 10-race program, 7:30 p.m., 301 S. Center Street in Northville.

Call 1-349-1000. Windsor Raceway 10-race program, 7:30 p.m., Highway 18andSprucewood in Windsor. Information: 961-9545. scorclines CCHAMarathon Hotline 764-0131. A free 24-hour service updated Friday night and Sunday morning with scores and highlights.

Weekend games previewed on Wednesday, with weekly poll results and items of interest. Pistons Fan Phone 968-HOOP. A free 24-hour service with interviews, daily team reports, preview and post-game reports, injury and trade updates. Racing Line 1-976-2121. A 24-hour service with race-by-race results at Northville.

Each call costs 50 cents. Sportsphone 1 -976-1313. Free Press quiz for a subscription to Michigan Lotto at 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Each call costs 50 cents.

Sportsphone Extra 1-976-2525. Details on top games, injury updates and additional scores. Each call costs 50 cents. Mich McCabe's top 10 boys basketball Late start doesn't stall South Christian's success Class A Class 1 Flint Northwestern 14-0 1 Detroit St. Martin dePorres14-0 2 Detroit Murray-Wright 14-0 2 Saginaw Valley Lutheran 15-1 3 Detroit Southwestern 16-0 3 Saginaw Nouvel 12-2 4 Highland Park 14-1 4 Center Line St.

Clement 13-2 5 Lansing Everett 12-2 5 Williamston 13-1 6 Detroit King 13-1 6 Flint Academy 9-2 7 Romulus 12-2 7 Flat Rock 12-2 8 Ferndale 11-1 8 Blissfield 14-0 9 Mt. Clemens 12-1 9 Napoleon 13-1 10 Clarkston 14-1 10 Haslett 13-2 Class Class 1 Saginaw Buena Vista 14-1 1 Bridgman 14-0 2 Okemos 12-1 2 DeTour 14-0 3 Southgate Aquinas 14-1 3 Concord 15-0 4 Detroit Northern 10-3 4 Bear Lake 14-0 5 Richmond 14-0 5 Fowler 14-0' 6 Grand Rapids CC 13-2 6 Adrian Madison 13-1 7 Grand Rapids So. Christian 15-0 7 Detroit East Catholic 9-6 8 Fremont 15-0 8 Camden Frontier 14-0 9 Hamtramck 16-0 9 Kingsley 14-1 10 Gladstone 14-0 10 Schoolcraft 132 and guards Dave Zylstra and Brian Bolt. BOLT, A point guard who also was the football team's quarterback, "is the one that holds everything together," Dykema said. Even though football delays basketball practice, Dykema likes to see his players go out for football.

Now South Christian has a shot at an unbeaten regular season. "We never thought we'd go this long without a loss, and now it is sort of a goal of ours," Dykema said. "We just want to win the rest of our games and start a new season in the state Without that we'd really have been behind. People talk about the pros and cons about summer ball, but as long as everyone else is doing it you have to do it if you're going to compete." STILL, DYKEMA was restricted during basketball practice as the football playoffs progressed. "For 2 ft weeks I was working with six or seven guys," Dykema said.

"I had to hold up tryouts until the football season ended. We only had nine practices before our first game." But the Sailors won that first game and 14 since, earning the No. 7 spot in the Class ratings. That's right, Class B. A slight increase in udents elevated South Christian by one class for winter and spring sports.

"We were a whopping 10 students over the limit and four of those have left school," Dykema said. "We're a three-year school and have only 445 students. It's going to be tough around here in Class B. We have Holland Christian, Hudsonville, Zeeland and Hudsonville Unity Christian in the district. It will take three tough games to win it, but we can beat any of them.

That's a really powerful district." South Christian has some power itself. The Sailors are led in scoring by 6-foot-6 junior Matt Steigenga, who is averaging 19.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and making 60 percent of his shots. Other starters are forwards Scott Tim-mer (14.2 points) and Jim Wyatt (12) By MICK McCABE Free Press Sports Writer After Grand Rapids South Christian lost to St. Ignace in the Class football semifinals Nov. 23, Tom Dykema could begin his job in earnest.

Dykema is the basketball coach at South Christian, and eight of his 12 players were on the football team. Last season the Sailors reached the football finals, and the basketball team lost its first five games. This season, Dykema was ready for a late start and compensated for it during the summer. "We did a lot more last summer than we did the summer before," Dykema said. "We played 22 games and we were in two evening team camps.

a-amaa. A iUr" il if i r-i A A.A. A A A. A a A. a AA.AA..AAA-.AA A A A A.