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Show Jim Murray's Column: The H ype Is Super Sunday. January 20, 1980. THE HERALD. Provo, Utah—Page 7 By JIM MURRAY (c) 1980, Los Times PASADENA — Bow! week is an American tribalrite as styli South Seas fertility dance. eee en masse on the principal, and the hype is on in it. pretty much what the coaches, players, owners and officials say What guarantee it.”’ So, here is what they say, and, in parenthesis, what they think “We respect the Rams asa solid team with outstanding personne! and sound coaching.” — (“Is Rozelle kidding?! How can a team that lost seven james be in the Super Bowl?! Bynightfall Sunday, you'll be able to tell your hildren you saw a team in the uper Bowl that ended up with an 11-8 rene I just hope we don't hurt them. “Chuck Nollis a great coach, an outstanding individual, the new Lombar- di.” — (‘Just once I'd like to wipe that don't smirk off his face as he stands on the knowis they mean, Toset the record straight, we bring you an instant replay, a mind scan of whatthe individualis thinking while his mouth is uttering the obligatory ‘Don't make anybody mad” banalities. Just remember,the last honestquote out of a Super Bow! was Joe Namath's, sideline. He looks like he’s trying not to laugh at you.Of course,if I had Franco Harris and Terry Bradshaw, I'd smirk, too. His ‘single strategy’ consists of tel- ling Franco Harris to make a touchdown. The new Lombardi? The old one could beat him with 10 men. If he had to coach the clowns I had to coach, he'd be the new Bud Wilkinson Out of work.”) Do I think Jack Youngblood’s frac“We're going to study the films tured leg will hurt the Rams” Definitecarefully to pick out Ram tendencies ly. It slows their pass rush “— (“If — (“The only film I'm gonna let my Jack Youngblood showed up with two Buys look at are old Woody Allen flicks broken legs, I'd still put two men on or ‘Roller Boogie.’ Only films with him. Until Jack Youngblood shows up girls in them. I'm not going to let them on a board with roller skates underit see Rams’ films. They'd get over. I'd roll the quarterback the other Confident. I tried to find one where the way.”’) Ramsplayed a good game. I'm back to “Do I think the Rams ‘seven-pennies eo already and haven't got to one defense will shut off our deep passing? yet.) Well, it's something to think about.’ — Who do the Rams remind me of? (‘So, they callit the ‘seven-pennies’ do Wel, I would say they're pretty similar they? Well, that’s inflation for you to the Dallas Cowboys.” — The Min- Those seven-pennies are going to be up nesota Vikings.”’) against a pocketful of Krugerrands in “Yes, Ferragamo presents us with Swann, Stallworth, Cunningham, and special problems." — (‘‘He's so good Franco. You can't stand pat on seven- looking, he’s going to get ali the commercials in this league. He'll look better throwing a footballinto a crowd of Steelers. He'll find out Jack Lambert isn’t one of Charlie's Angels. If Lambert gets to him, he'll be eligible for character parts. In movies. Like Guard at the gang hideout.'’) pennies against that stack."’) “Do I think the AFCis superiorto the NFC? Oh,the football just takes funny bounces.” — (‘And you must have taken one too, right on your head Can't you count? The AFC has won seven Super Bowlsin a row and nine of the last 11. Only two NFC teams, Green Bay and Dallas, have ever won one you think Pasadena will be too When a thing happens once. it can be an ‘Swinging? I'd worry more about turnaccident, twice, a coincidence Whenit ing lose in Latrobe."’) keeps happening. son, it's a trend.”’) Am | afraid of Mean Joe Greene” Does Pittsburgh pose any special What's he going to do to me that ‘Too defense problems’ No, they just run Tall’ Jones didn't?” — (“What's this and dare you to stop them ‘So guyasing me, if I'm a coward” Let's does the Russian army. There is no see. problem. You just bury the dead’) ‘Where would the Rams have What did Pastorini get for Punchingout that sportswriter? A wrist slap’ Wonder how he'd like to wear this Salad bowl on that super suede”) ference’ Wel, they don't; so I don't speculate on things that don't happen “No, I don’t think it will be a high— (“Wheredid Tampa Bayfinish when scoring game.’ — (‘My God, I hope they .were in our conference — 0-and- not, you chump! Thelast high-scoring 14” Whentheygotover in the other con- game wewere in was San Diego 40, us fere ice, they're in the championship 16. We wonthe title on three field goals game. Next question."’) If it's a high-scoring game, we're “Distractions of Super Bow! week? eitheroutofit, or Frank Corral wears Wepretty much take them in stride.” Out two pairs of shoes."’) — (Youthink the bars aren't open the rest of the year? You don’t think they ‘It’s a pleasureto be here.” — (“‘I'll have girls in Pittsburgh? You thi say! What Roman numeral is this. dumb newspapermen’s questions are a anyway? I was beginnin to think we novelty to us? My guys have survived wouldn't makeittil Super bow! XL — bon Street, Collins Avenue, and or the year MM A.D.") finished if they played in our con- Quiet Confidence Steelers’ Keynote PASADENA,Calif. (UPI) — The Pittsburgh Steelers enter today’s Super Bowl XIV against the Los Angeles Ramswith whattheyliketo call “quiet confidence.” The Steelers have been listed as 11point favorites over the Rams, one of the largest spreads in Super Bowl history. Pittsburgh players spent the week before the Super Bow! downplaying the big odds and claiming that they expected a close game, but it was obvious that they were extremely confi- dent of becomingthefirst team ever to win four Super Bowls No other team has won more than _ two. “Our people have always responded to big gamesandI feel they will again Sunday,” said Steeler Coach Chuck Noll. “They enjoy playing in big games,” The secret of the Steelers’ success has been the club’s tremendous balance. While many clubs, including Ladd SUPE Fo ¥ OWL ll, i, 05 the Rams. are one-dimensional — either a high scoring offense or a tough defense — the Steelers manage to produce both. Pittsburgh’s offense gained 6,258 yards,just 13 short oftheall-time NFL record, and averaged a league-leading 391 yards a game. Pittsburgh ranked secondin the leaguein both rushing and passing. Franco Harris churned out 1,186 yards, including five 100-yard games, and Is within 35 yardsof third place on the NFL'sall-time rushing list Wide receivers John Stallworth, who had a club record 70 receptions this season, and Lynn Swann will both play for the AFC in the Pro Bowl The defense is just as imposing. The Steelers led the AFC in defense, holding nine regular season opponents to under 100 yards rushing. Their average of 3.4 yards per rush was the lowest in the NFL. The defense reached its peak in the playoffs, holding Miamito just 25 yards rushing on 22 carries and then limiting Houston to 24 yards on 22 carries. The Steelers held Earl Campbell, who led the NFL with almost 1,700 yards rushing,to just 15 yards on 17 carries. The key players on the Steelers’ defense are 11-year veteran Joe Greene attackle, L.C. Greenwood at end, Jack Lambert at middle linebacker and Mel Blountat cornerback. The Steelers are also an extraordinarily deep team. They lost star tackle Jon Kolb for the playoffs and Ted Petersen stepped in and played superbly. Guard Gerry Mullins wasinjured early in the season and Steve Coursonfilled in without a hitch. The Steelers won't comeout and say it but they expect to leave the Rose Bowl tonight with their fourth Super Bow! championshipin the last six years and a solid claim to the title as the greatest team in NFLhistory. Steelers’ Owner Art Rooney Called ‘Class Guy’ by Fans,Foes By MILTON RICHMAN If there is any truth to the beliefthat the good which men do lives on after UPI Editor PASADENA,Calif. (UPI) — Super them, then the tousled-haired, cigarBowl XIV will get started Sunday with smoking 78-year-old patriarch and benefactor of the Steelers is assured of whetherit comes up heads or tails, the being remembered with gratitude and Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles affection long after he’s gone. Ramswill both agree the man who flip- The eee players call Rooney ped it is a winner. “The Chief,” but there is positively His name is Art Rooney, Sr., and nothing in his fuv di his dress or his although he owns the Steelers and his personal relationship with them which team will be trying to beat them, he’s would even barely suggest they work such a rare humanbeing, that even the for him. He looks more like he works Rams’ have nothing but good to say for them, and in many ways, he often loes. about him. Remember Father Flanagan, who After the ‘Steelers won the first of ran Boys xa? He said he never met a their three Super Bowltitles in 1975,at bad boy. Check with all the peoplein New Orleans, for example, to bring sp rts, whether they happen to be con- Rooney his first world championship nected with football, baseball, horse after waiting patiently 42 years, he racing, boxing or anything else, and waited some moreoutside the team’s you won't find anyone with a bad word dressing room, like some ordinary to say about Art Rooney. stadium employee, to congratulate his players while other far less important glad-handerspi eir way inside. Hesimply didn’tfeelit was proper to “interfere” in the immediate celebration that followed the Steelers 166 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX. Rooney, who'll get this Sunday’s contesi underwaybyflipping the coin to determine which team willkick off and whichwill receive, would never think of interfering with coach Chuck Noll’s running of his team. Yet, he never misses one of the Steelers’ practice sessions. Regardless of the weather, no matter how hot or coldit is, Rooney is alwaysthere on the sidelines watching his players work out. He considers that his ‘“responsibility.” Rooney’s warm regard for all his playersis well known. Anytime one of them hasto be in the hospital, he can count on a personal visit from ‘‘The Chief,” whether he happens to be a pea green rookieor an established star. His players feel the same way about him. Last Christmas Eve, Terry Bradshaw and his wife. Lynn Swann and his wife, and Gerry Muliins and his fiance, were wondering where the best place would be to spend the occasion when one of them suddenly came up with an idea. Why notgo over to Rooney’s house and serenadehim by singing Christmas carols? Upon hearing them outside in the cold, he invited them inside the house where it was warm and then helped them get warmer yet by pouring them champagne. I've been in this business a long time,” he said, “but I never saw anything like that.’’ To Rooney,the son of a saloon keeper who now is a multi-millionaire and whose five sons control four major racetracks-Liberty Bell Park in Pittsburgh, Yonkers Raceway in New York, Green Mountain in Vermont and the Palm Beach KennelClubin Florida -his players are like his own kids. He has helped many of them out financially, but will never talk about that. He has given huge sums to various charities, but he won't talk aboutthat, either. Whathewill talk aboutis all the enjoyment his players have provided him eversince he was awarded the Pittsburgh franchise in 1933 for $2,500. Rumor hasit he won the moneyat the race track the day before and Rooney doesn’t deny or confirm it. All he says is that it’s too far back to remember. But he remembersevery player he ever had andthey all remember him. SupremeCourt Justice Byron White is oneofhis former players, only he was known as ‘Whizzer’ White during the one seasonhe waswith the Steelers. “Art is the finest man I've ever known,” says White. Rooney alwaystells people he has been “lucky.” He used that word to describehisfeelings 16 years ago when he wasinducted into the Professional FootballHall of Fameat Canton, Ohio. In six more days, Rooney will celebratehis 79th birthday andthe best possible present the Steelers can think of giving him is his fourth Super Bowl championship in the pastsix years. Whether he gets it or not won't change Art Rooney's feelings about “my kids.” If they bring him that big handsome silver trophy, naturally, he'll be pleased. But even should they not, he'll be rightthereto tell them how proudheis over how hard theytried. American Olympic Leader Remains Against Boycott COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (UPI) — It hasn’t come equipped with the glamorof a Super Bowl,this tug-of-war over the Olympics. Hordes of mediadid not surround the cozy headquartersof the United States Olympic Committee on Boulder Street this week with the samezealthat they gathered around Joe Greene or Lynn Swann in Los Angeles. But the continuing fight over the Olympics could well provide more drama, moreaction and moreintrigue than the Steelers and Rams can ever hope to produce Sunday. In the days to comePresident Carter may order American athletes to stay away from the Moscow Olympics. The athletes andtheirofficial sponsor, the USOC, maytell Carter they are going anyway, Whatever happens, the people who tun the American Olympic movement. feel that nothing other than the entire future of the Olympicsis at stake during the next few weeks. If the Olympics are, indeed, on the vergeof going down the drain, the man trying to save them is a resolute, granite-jawed gentleman wholooksas if he spent a careerin the Army. Which he did. “T spent 27 years serving and rotecting my country,” said F. Don Miler, executive director of the USOC, “and now people are calling me antiAmerican.” On one side there is Miller, USOC president Robert Kane,a multi-million dollar enterprise devoted to amateur sport and thousands of young people who spend hundreds of hours a month working toward the goal of representing their nation, and themselves, in the quadrennial extravaganza, Onthe other side is President Carter, wanting to punish the Soviet Union for its invasion of Afghanistan and viewing America’s involvement in the Olym- pics as a potential weapon. It’s a vyweight struggle. And even though it might be somewhat dramatic to say that if the Olympics are to be preserved, Miller and Kane are the ones whowill have to preserve them, Miller himself accepts that thesis. “Yes,” Miller said, “I've felt that way.I can’t tell you how saddened I am that we have to take it on our own shoulders, with the help of ourathletes whohave beenso very responsive. “There is no so-called prestige at stake here. The Olympic committee is not my concern.I've never given those a thought. “But we must resist these actions (a up as an example of being free from possible boycott) which in my judge- such pressures. ment would be tantamount to the “Therefore, when pressures have demise of the modern Olympic move- been brought to bear on the Olympic movement, such as the 1976 Olympics ment.” Miller feels the rest of the inter- in Montreal, we have beenable to stand national Olympic community has and demand that the IOC go bythe looked to the United States to do its rules andresist the intrusions brought best to uphold the charter governing in that instance by Premier (Pierre) the IOC. Trudeau. “Similarly, we have been ableto in“Because our government has never intruded into this area, it has enabled sist that the Soviet Union must give us to be an effective tool throughout the Israel an invitation, as a member in world in resisting political. racial and good standing. to the 1980 Games. “But becauseof the intrusion of our religious intrusions into the Games,” government, we have beenneutralized he said. “We have beenable to hold ourselves in this respect.” Many Americans however. sincerely believe that if the Soviet Union has designs on theoilfields of the Persian Gulf and if the Russians are going to use the Moscow Olympics as a propaganda tool. what business does the United States have in goingto this year’s Games? “The situation is not too much different thanhasexisted for the last 20 or 30 years.’ Miller said in response to that argument. “T canlook backat the 1956 Gamesin Australia at the same timethe Soviet Union invaded Hungary. Look at 1968, when wehad (the Russianinvasion of) Prague. Flyers Ambush Powerful Bulldogs ST. GEORGE — According to the script, the great and powerful dragon was supposed to sweep down upon the poor, unsuspecting and defenseless peasants devour them. The Provo Bulldogs were the dragon because of their 6-0 Region Six record, and the Dixie Flyers were dubbed the defenseless peasant with their 0-6 mark. But no one got word to the Flyers that they wereto be defenseless. As a matteroffact,it was the Dixie defense thatled to a stunning 49-44 victory over the Bulldogs Brlaay night. Dixie coach Ray Odette gave primary creditfor the win to his club's ‘outstanding zone defense and the way his team members made adjustments off of it. : “Any time you can hold a team like Provo to 22 points each half you are playing a good defense,” Odettesaid. Odette and Provo coach Jim Spencer share the samedefensive philosophy. Keepit simple: Use one basic pattern and make the necessary adjustments from it. But Friday night the Flyers madethe better changes. Atfirst it wasdifficult to tell if Dixie's defense was the key factor. it looked moreasif the Bulldogs expected an easy win and did not execute well. The Provo offense moved the ball poorly as the players stood around waiting for someone to take charge. Provofinally realized that Dixie was not going to lay down and play dead, and the Bulldogs found themselvesin a battle, trying to go inside to takeadvantage of their height. There the Dixie defenseletitself be known. Provo ie trying to get the ball inside to Dave Heaton, but the Flyers swiped the ball numerous times after collapsing on the center. In thefirst half Heaton had only one basket and four free throws. Provo had to rely on the outside shooting of forward John Spencer, who scoredall eight of his points in the first half Provo scored first with a 10 foot baseline shot by Spencer. Troy Jolley responded with a short jumper. Provo scored again, but then Dixie's RonHill took charge, scoring 12 of the with a 20-foot shot by Hill, and despite hot shooting by Heaton Dixie led 35-32 at the end of the quarter. With just one minute goneinthe final period Kelly Graves ignited the Dixie crowd with a three-point play to give the Flyers a 40-34 lead, and the Flyers then weit into a spread offense and Stalled valuable time off the clock. Jolley hit a second three-point play for Dixie with 1:57 left to play to put the Flyers up by seven. The Bulldogs scored the next two buckets to come within three points, but Mike Lohner then missed a pair of frees which could have cutthe lead to one, and the Flyers then grabbed control for their first region victory. DIXIE(49) Graves 35-5 11, Staheli 3 0-1 6, Bentley 0 0-1 0. Gentry 3 0-06, Jolley 41-19, Hill 73-417, Totals 20 9-1 PROVO (44) Hatch 3 0-06, Heaton 7 6-8 20, Edwards 20-04, Olpin 02:2 2. Ashby 20:04. Spencer 40-0 8, Totals 2. Me 2M quarter Heaton took temporary com- Provo Dixie 16 24 35 49 mand with two straight basketsto tie Teamfouls: Provo13. Dixie 11 Fouled out: Hill the score at 26. Dixie then took the !ead permanently Technicalfouls. Provo bench. Olpin, Flyers’ next 14 counters, most coming from the 12-18 foot range. Provo managed to contain Hill in the second period, but it was too late. The momentum had swung to Dixie and the host clubkeptit through the remainder of the game. i Dixie started the second quarter with a slim, 16-14 lead. The two clubs then exchanged baskets until the Flyers went to the locker rooms with a 24-22 advantage. Provo seemed in confusion about how to attack Dixie’s zone defense during the second period, however, and three straight times the Bulldogs traveled trying to penetrate. The Flyers opened a six-point margin before Provofinally narrowed the spread, and the Flyers maintained the all-important momenum. In the third the tempo increased, with both teams running fast breaks, and with 6:12 remaining in the third “Weseem to have in the world today major issues that go on constantly. I would be the last one to deny that the Gameshave been free from political racial and religious pressures, but I would submit that they have been oe onby outside forces. They have not been developed by the Olympic movement. “I recognize completely that the un- warranted aggressions of the Soviet Union at this time have a great possibility of spilling over into other areas — be it Iran, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia “‘But the question I haveto ask is by involving the Olympic movement is it goingto be a deterrent to these aggressions? “T think not “I think there has to be more positive types of things that we can use in our foreignpolicy to stop these blatant, unwarranted aggressions.”’ Asto the use of the Olympics by the Soviet Union as an attempt to demonstrate the benefits of a socialist society, Miller says he is not alarmed “I don’t think that’s unique hesaid “I think every country that has hosted the Gameshaslooked toward the value of propagandizing their respective systems. “Ts it wrong? I think the world is entitled to know the various systems that go on in the world, to make their own personal evaluations and as a result get a greater appreciation for their own societies.” Miller's firm belief is that if the United States fails to take part in the Games, it will be a wasted gesture something that would not hurt the Soviet Union all that much and would brand America asthe nationthat killed the Olympics. |