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Show Page - THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, 6 Monday. November 5. 1984 A full Sports report and commentary on winners, losers and coming events 3k Edwards: There is Mo Beffer running ..well, off and passing. Today BYU stands with Washington, South Carolina, and as the only unbeaten and untied major college teams. Gone from that list are such giants as Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio State. Standing tall is unsung Brigham By MARION DUNN Herald Sports Editor "...it is my pleasure to introduce that u izard of the passing game, LaVell Edwards." Keith Jackson introducing BYU coach LaVell Edwards at the Football Writers annual banquet in Kings Island, Ohio. f .i i , . Young. It is the day before election day, 1984, and I don't intend to tell anyone how to vote Tuesday. But I am going to stump for my candidate for the top honor that can go to a college football coach. It is my pleasure to nominate for National Coach of the Year, that wizard of the passing game. LaVell Edwards of Brigham Young University. I have waited until today because last Saturday was a key day in the 1984 football campaign waged by Edwards' BYU team. Last Saturday the Cougars nailed down their ninth consecutive WAC championship and their seventh straight invitation to be host team in San Diego's - ; The Cougars have their three toughest opponents of the year toughest because coming up there is a traditional rivalry San Diego State, involved Utah and Utah State. If the Cougars can take each one in stride and finish 12-- 0 for the regular season, they could take ihe battle for the national championship to the Holiday Bowl with them on Dec. 21, a F'riday night. - ;jff-- t '-- ySf4 s, '1W ;'TN Not bad for a rebuilding year. But LaVell Edwards deserves Coach of the Year honors whether he has an unbeaten season or not. His feat of winning nine straight conference championships is so remarkable in itself that to ignore it and not make him coach of the year would be a mistake. Holiday Bowl. m g ". Press International which its proper perspective, turn J back the calendar to gust. The college football teams ; were just begininng their fall drills. The national magazines were coming out with their predictions for the fall and with n their own rankings. BYU was ignored by the majority of polls. The school ; couldn't be found in the list of mid-Au-- . BYU coach LaVell Edwards is seen surrounded by his Edwards and his Cougars earned a seventh consecutive is voted by the college coaches themselves. To put this accomplishment in pre-seaso- am convinced it is relatively simple for a coach to take over a losing team and turn it into a winner for a short term. I know it is something else to turn a loser into a long-terwinner. Many try and few succeed. No other coach in collegiate history has been as successful in this latter regard as has coach LaVell Edwards. His string of nine straight conference championships is second only to the 14 straight won by Bud Wilkinson's Oklahoma teams in the late 1940s and 50s. And Wilkinson started with a winner. Oklahoma was a national power before Bud arrived on the scene. Want a BIG winner for National Coach of the Year? Vote for LaVell Edwards of Brigham Y'oung. It's that simple. I It was the earliest clinching of the WAC crown in history. It was the first clinching of a bowl bid in the nation. It came after BYU defeated Texas-E- l Paso, 42-which increased the Cou-- t winning gars' nation-leadinstreak to 20 games and assured them of being at least No. 3 in this week's rankings by United top 20 teams but were usually carried underneath where it said, "other schools receiving votes were..." But it was up to the leading national sports magazine. Sports Illustrated, to formally bury the Cougars. SI, speaking as if it had a direct pipeline to activites at BYU and the WAC, wrote knowingly that BYU was at the end of its long domination of the teamates after recording a victory in last year's Holiday Bowl. Saturday. trip by defeating Texas and was in a year. The New York City rag pointed out that Edwards had no WAC known quarterback returning, no known running backs back, and predicted that New Mexico would win the championship with Hawaii second and BY'U third. Thus SI capped all its rivals by not only failing to list BYU in its top 20, but predicting a third place finish in the WAC. El-Pas- o The issue of SI hit the newsstands while the WAC Skywriters tour was underway. It was the subject of conversation at each stop. The WAC coaches still said BYU was the team to beat, but candidly said the rest of the league was closing the gap and this could be the year BYU sat out the Holiday Bowl. Y'ou all know what happened. BYU has become the hottest item in major college football. Robbie Bosco. a talented junior quarterback who had been unnoticed by most observers because Jim McMahon and Steve Young had been taking the headlines and setting the NCAA records, started shakily against Pittsburgh, then settled down to throw the winning touchdown pass which another unknown star, wide receiver Adam Hays-bertook behind the secondary, and the Cougars were off and t. Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of L.A.- Raiders " The WASHINGTON (UPI) Supreme Court, acting in the fight over the Los Angeles Raiders' move from Oakland, today threw the National Football League for a loss by restricting its ability to control the relocation of its franchises. The justices, without comment, rejected NFL's arguments that federal antitrust law should not apply to such relocation decisions ' " " ' sports leagues. The action ciears the way for a San Francisco appeals court to decide by t Miami is still flying high after recording its 10th straight win. Here, the Dolphins Nat Moore sails above the Jets' Kirk Springs after making a reception. The Dolphins beat the Jets 31 - 17 Sunday. NFL ears Bruise World Champs ilTI) - The Bears, their first title of any seeking kind in 21 years, "sacked" the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Raiders Sunday. The Bears recorded nine sacks ' two fewer than last week and forced Minnesota against two fumbles and three mtercep-;ions- . "I'm excited tor our football team and the entire organization," said Chicago Coach Mike Ditka. "This should elevate the confidence level to play and beat a top level football team like Los Angeles." But the Bears may have paid dearly for the win. 17-- - Injury-plague- quarterback Jim d McMahon did not play the second half and was hospitalized with bruised kidneys All-pr- o Hmpton defensive end Dan was out with an el Sow injury and defensive back Leslie Frazier suffered a sprained arch. The Raiders also had llieir share of injury problems. Starting quarterback Marc Wilson and backup a Roundup CHICAGO David Humm went out with injuries, with Wilson forced the game late in the to first half despite a hand injury. Giants 19, Cowboys 7 kicked At Dallas, Ali four field goals and a New York defense completely bottled up the Cowboys as the Giants defeated Dallas for the second time this season Seattle 45, Kansas City 0 The Seahawks set an NFL -game record by returning four interceptions for touchdowns to humilate the Kansas City Chiefs 45-Dave Brown ran back two. for 95 yards and 58 yards, Keith Simpson returned an interception 76 yards for a TD, and Kenny return Easley scored on a as the Seahawks earned their third shutout this season. Browns 13, Bills 10 At Orchard Park, N.Y., running back Ernest Byner ran 55 yards with a fumble recovery midway through the fourth quarter to pace the Browns. Steelers 35, Oilers 7 At Pittsburgh, Mark Malone. Haji-Sheik- h his third start ol the season, threw three scoring and ran tor making another TD as passes the Steelers handed winless s 10th straight loss. Hous-tonit- bone-crushin- g single- d Packers Saints 13 At New Orleans. Lynn Dickey threw touchdown passes ol 33 and 5 yards to Paul ('oilman, and Al Del Greco kicked three field goals to pace Green Bay. 23, Vikings 27, Bucs 24 At Minneapolis. Jan Stenerud kicked a held goal with two seconds remaining to give the Vikings the win. Chargers 38, Colts 10 Indianapolis, Tun Fox and John Turner turned interceptions into scores and Dan Pouts threw for three TDs to lead San Diego to victory. Lions 23, Eagles 23 At Pontiac, Mich., rookie Paul McFadden's penalty-aideheld goal with three seconds left in regulation earned the Eagles a he. The Lions blew an opportunity to win when Eddie Murray At d kicked an easy oil the right crossbar with 10:16 lett in overtime. Dolphins 31, Jets 17 At East Rutherford, N.J., Dan Marino passed for 422 yards and two TDs to fuel a fourth quarter that helped Miami raise its record to 10-49ers 23, Bengals 17 At San Francisco, Joe Montana shook off the effects of throwing four interceptions a career-higtouchdown pass to to fire a Fred Solomon with 1:39 remaining to lift the 49ers h Broncos 26, Patriots 19 At Denver, safety Dennis Smith gathered up Mosi Tatupu's fumble in the dying moments and ran 64 yards for a touchdown to spark the Broncos. Rams 16, Cardinals 13 At. St. Louis, Eric Dickerson ran for 207 yards, Mike Lmstord kicked three held ,';oals and the Los Angeles delense set up two second-hal- f scores lo pace the Rams. whether to uphold a $55 million jury award. $40 million of which is for the Raiders, and $15 million for the Los Angeles Coliseum. The court's action means the Raiders will remain in Los Angeles and the Colts in Indianapolis and could affect the relocation of sports franchises in other sports. In related action, the court also refused to hear an appeal from the Oakland-AlamedCounty Coliseum, which opposed Davis' move of the franchise to Los Angeles. The Raiders' move has been embroiled in litigation since 1979 when Davis filed suit to contest the NFL's effort to keep him from moving the team from Oakland to Los Angeles. He eventually prevailed and the Raiders are playing their home games in the Los Angeles Coliseum for the third season. Last year, the Raiders won the Super Bowl, defeating the Washington Redskins in Tampa, Fla. Davis' effort to move the team ran into a major obstacle because in existence of the NFL's rule that requires since the 1930s unanimous approval of all league members when one team wants to relocate into the home territory of another team. After the Los Angeles Rams moved from the Los Angeles Coliseum to nearby Anaheim in 1978, Davis sought to move the Raiders. The L A. Coliseum filed suit in 1978, charging that the league should not try to block the Raiders' move. Although the suit was thrown out of court, the NFL modified its s rule to require only of the league members must approve a team's proposed move. Once Davis, whose lease with the Oakland Coliseum expired in 1978, began discussing a move with L.A. Coliseum officials, they three-fourth- reactivated the suit against the NFL to assure the move. Maneuvering in lower courts failed, and Davis was freed to sign a relocation agreement with L.A. Coliseum on March 1, 1980. The NFL responded by suing and then voting in March 1980 to block the move. After one mistrial, a second jury ruled in favor of the Raiders, finding that the league rules violated antitrust laws. The jury rejected the league's arguments that the NFL is one organization that cannot conspire to restrain trade. Instead, it found that each of its 28 teams is a separate entity capable of antitrust violations. In May 1983, a jury awarded $11.6 million to the Raiders and $4.9 million to the L.A. Coliseum. The amount, which is tripled under antitrust law, plus the lawyers' fees place the amount at issue in the move at about $55 million. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court, noting that the NFL is "an association of teams sufficiently independent and competitive with one another to warrant" scrutiny under the federal antitrust law. The San Francisco court noted that NFL clubs compete with each other to acquire players, coaches and management personnel, as well as for fan support, and for radio and television space. Taking its case to the Supreme Court, the NFL urged the justices to examine how courts should apply prohibitions in federal antitrust law to joint decision making by professional league members. This should prevent the "litigation chaos" that has resulted thus far from lower court rulings, the league said. Not only football, but basketball, hockey and soccer are also allected. they said. Their collective decisions affect states and municipalities, which have spent more than $6 billion in the past 20 years on stadiums for professional baseball and football, NFL lawyers argue. As a result of the lower court's decision, the Baltimore Colts "unilaterally elected to relocate to Indianapolis," the NFL said. Baltimore officials said the city had suffered from the loss of revenues from the Colts' move. |
