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Show Page 6—THE HERALD,Provo, Utah, Monday, January 7, 1980 Sports: What's happening on the national scene, State and local sports, columns and opinions Steelers Continue March Toward Super BowlTitle PITTSBURGH (UPI) — Call them greedy, selfish — it could be they deservethose labels. But they prefer to think of themselves as hungry. An ut ited three mee Bowl titles, accomplished in just five years, have not been enough for the Pittsburgh Steelers — they want to make it four in six. And Sunday, on the frozen field of Three Rivers Stadium, they moved into position to make their dream come true with a 27-13 victory over the Centrai Division rival Houston Oilers that gave them i AFC title and a chance to play th Los ee Ramsin ie § Bowl XIV Jan. Super Bowl XIII with a come-from- behind win over Baltimorein the World Series. In the opinions of many Oilers, ~ Steelers already had achieved the which Swann spoke by beating “This WAS the piety Bow! as faras I'm "said Oil quarterwho had been weeping when he had gone a few minutes earlier to tulate and luck to Bi iw. ‘‘Pittsburgh is going and they're going to league-leading rusher, , held to just 17 yards a a7, “T thi in pro football he Rams won the NFC championship with a 9-0 victory over Tampa Bay Sunday. nh wed that wanted it Chuck Noll after the ight year, the jilers and the Steelers split “heir two een games only to meet layoffs with rae champion and the Los yell saying ying so. Still athe Oilers = the play. were prepared the Steelers’ victory over Dallas in and they sived'sfh cenwahecs bal ballgame. They played their hearts out,” said Pittdefeusive aot Joe Greene, who four times smashed through the offensive line to stop Campbell coming off a groin injury that kept him out of Houston’ AFC semifinal upset at San Diegolast week “I'm sure Earl wasn’t himself and we had a tremendous effort. We kept him from running the ball and that was a major factor that forced them to throwtthe ball. We played them pretty muchthe same as usual. But we played a lot harder. Give them credit — they hung in there — they really did.”" The Oilers in tere better than the final score showed. Late in the third period, Pastorini hit Mike Renfro in the end zone with a pass that would have put Houston an extra point away from tying Pittsburgh at 17, but the officials ruled fro was not in control before he stepped out of bounds. Television replays seemed te show that Renfro made a good catch but the Oilers had to settle for a field goalthree plays later. Greene and some of the other Steelers seemed to mourn the call as much as the Oilers. “It’s too bad things happened the way they did with the controversy,” Greene said. ‘‘As a player on the winning team, I don’t feel as good as I would have if they didn’t call it that way.” Pastorini felt the call ruined his team’s chances ofrallying for victory. “If we get that touchdown the balance shifts," Pastorini said. “We can come out and run in our next re instead of throwinglike wha But both he and Phillips said they ould a Diam) tats Joes on tat one “We had 59 other minutes in the game to beat Pittsburgh and we didn’t,”’ Phillips said. The Oilers made a good stab at doing justthatin the first half. They took a 70 lead when rookie Vernon Perry, who had a playoff record four interceptions against San Diego last week, picked off a Bradshaw on the first series of the game returned it for a playoffrecord 75 yards ané a TD. iisaaapneennenoe OFFICIALS RULEDthat Houston's Mike Renfro did not have full possession of the football when he came down in the end zone on this play during the third quarter of Sunday's AFC champions! game. The arTow purportedly shows the football slipping through his hands on the play. Pit 's Ron Johnson was defending on the play. The Steelers went on to win 27i3. Had the catch been ruled good, the game would have been tied ae at that point. Instead, the Oilers settled for a fiel Ram Defense Shuts Down Buccaneers 10x Lawyerto Monitor TAMPA,Fla. (UPI) — Dennis HarTah, like a lot of other Los Rams, has been in many a Nat 1 Football Conference title game — but never a Bowl. Not until'now, thatis. ‘The burly offensive lineman and his games “T’ve known what this game (for the NFC crown) was like,” said Harrah. “T’ve been here three times before. But I don’t know about the Su ee: aboutall the media and all Of suppose T'll be like a little kid. But don’t get the idea that means we're going to be overawed about laying. We're going to strap our ir on faabores ly to give the Steelers a bat- The Rams dominated Sunday's game “There were some badcalls there. It far more than the 9-0 score indicated. esuld have been 2 different game with were down to the Buccaneers’ 5- a couple of touchdowns line or closer before all of Corral’s While the Rams’offense never really figoals — - ms inae second quarter caughtfire, their defense did. got to Tampa Bay didn’t get past midfield the Boss Bucs’ iSvelore Co Corral missed me run iton uarter. It took a another field goal try in the third. y, a 42 halfback pass “We thought oanwe could con- from Jerry Eckwood toaeMucker, trol the game,”said quarterback to accomplish that and the ues gained Vince Ferragamo, who completed 12 of an ti viiueielthe warttock oe 23 passes for 163 yards. “Wefelt we had before turning the ball over. “The key to our defense was shutting down the run,” said Rams defensive coordinator Bud Carson.‘After you’ve played against Dallas (whom Los Angeles beat21-19 in its opening playoff game the previous Sunday), you are procedure call that prepared for anything. ere mncy Callen Bryantlate in “We threw in a few new wrinkles,” first period and a far more con- said Carson, “But we didn’t expectto toveraal callonaie scoring pass shut them down so completely.” jton Dennard Bucstight end Jimmie Giles said he = only miss. didn’t notice the Rams. doing anything , an official ruled different on defense. ‘They just ex( t the ball beyond ecuted,” said Giles. ‘I think we had the back of the end zone although a just as much drive and enthusiasm goy indicated he got both feet in ing into the game, but those guys just cameto play football.” And Bucslinebacker ichard Wood, into the end zone,” said Ferragamo. who recovered a fumbieto stop a first- “It was frustrating not to get the ball quarter Rams’ drive at the Tampa 16 and made the fourth-down tackle that stopped anotherat the Tampa 24 early in the final period, got no satisfaction from holding Los Angeles to those three field goals. “The fact we didn’t give up any touchdowns doesn’t matter,” said Wood.“They still won pepe If you can’t score, you can’t win and they scored. Now, I just hope ner win the Super Bowlfor the NFC.” If there had been an award for Most Valiant Player in Sunday’s NFC game, it would have had to go to end Jack Y lod, who wasin for all but two of the Rams defensive plays despite a broken bonein his lowerrightleg. Youngblood, grimacing while a trainer cut a heavilytaped pa from his leg, said the pain would not keep him outof the Super Bowl.“I'll te able to fly by then,” . Youngblood said that if he had thought he was hurting the Rams’ ceieme, “I would have taken myself out,” Youngblood said Sunday’s victory was “‘one heck of a tribute tothis entire football team.” __Marion Dunn WACPresidents Should Get Busy Is the University of New Mexico the only WAC schoolthat used transcript-rigging to keep athletes eligible? Thatis a question that must be answered and the only ones who can do it at this time are the schools themselves. New Mexico president Dr. William E. Davis is a friend of mine dating back to his years as alumni director at the University of Coloradoand it saddens me to know thathe is under great pressure a8 a result of the scandal at his school. Without knowing anymore about what has happened there than I read in the papers, I hope that Dr. Davis can survive this crisis and remain in his positicn. I know him as a fine and honorable person andI can’t imagine he knew and condoned what was going on in his athletic department. But Dr. John Salazar, 2 member of UNM’s Executive Board, said last weekend that someof the board members felt Davis knew what was going on and that was ‘‘some sentiment” in favor of firing Davis. ‘That should serve es a warning to every other president in the WAC. The presidents have the power to assign someone to review the transcript of every athlete in his university and to report the findings to him. If I were oneof the presidents, I wouldn't waste another minute. I would do this and do it NOW. There are many rumors floating around WAC Country saying that other schools in the league have players who used the Ottawa University extension course to receive credit they didn’t earn tobecomeeligible. ~Thaveno way if thatis true. It isn’t possible for just anyone to walk into a university and review transcripts ofindividual students. But the president of a university can have this done. I think that every head manin the WAC should see that it is done immediately. The scandalis certainly more widespread than the New Mexico campus. One of the individuals involved in the affair at New Mexico reportedly told some members of the BYU basketball party last week that, “there are a lot of coaches who aren't sleeping well at night,”’ because of what they fear will comeoutof the hearings in Albu- querque. That's smoke. There could be fire. eae BYU football coach LaVell Edwardsis being criticized today for not using Stanford quarterback Turk Schoenert more during the East-West Shrine game last Saturday. Edwards, head coachof the winning West squad, gave mostof the playing time to his quarterback Mare Wilson. “TI wish I could have played more,’ Schoenert is quoted in a UPI story this morning. ‘I needed the opportunity with all those pro scouts looking on. I honestly had thought Wilson and I would split the playing time. But it didn’t turn out that way.” Because we hear so much here in the mountains aboutthe lack of exposure our athletes receive compared to those in the Pac-10, for example,it is strange to hear a player from the West Coast complain about exposure time. I remember back to the EastWest game of 1964, when Utah State quarterback Bill Munson was on the West squad along with Don Trull of Baylor. The Baylor coach was the head coach of the West team and Trull wentall the way for the West despite the fact that during practice the week before the game Munson had impressed everyone as the best player. After the game,the reporters rushed to the West dressing room to ask Munsonif he were upsetat not getting to play. The talented Aggie passer gave a class answer,typicalof the way he has conducted his entire career as a quarterback of great talent who has never received the credit he deserves. “The coach was the one who had to make the decisions. He (Trull) had all the publicity during the season.I didn’t expect to get to play,”” Munsonsaid. And Munson — whocertainly had a greatdealless national exposure during that fall of 1963 than Schoenert did this fall — was taken as the Los Angeles Rams’ No.1 draft choice despite notgetting into the Shrine game. The purpose of the East-West Shrine game is to raise money for the Crippled Children’s Hospital in San Francisco and close to $600,000 was probably cleared from this year’s game. The 71,000 fans plus television viewers saw tremendous athletes put on a fine show. Isn’t that what this gameis all about? New Mexico Probe ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (UPI) — Monitoring the various investigations of the University of New Mexico athletic scandal is a challenge that needed to be met, says tax lawyer Franklin Jones whoagreed to take on the task. The former commissioner of the state Bureau of Revenue, who will be 61 the end ofthis month, was named to the post of special coordinator by the school’s board of regents during the weekend. Bucks DumpLakers Milwaukee Bucks Coach Don Nelson rookie Calvin Natt added 27 to send the knew he had to makea strategy change Nets to their third ceevictory. at halftime — and he madeit. Trailing 95-93, Eddie Jordan hit a The Bucks, whotrailed by 19 points jumperto tie ‘the score. Jordan, who late in thefirst half, cameflyin;geetot of finished with 18 points, then forced a the locker room to outscore steal and hit an easy layup to put the Angeles Lakers 43-22 in the third Nets ahead for good. Cleveland held the quarter, and went on to a 113-103 vic- lead at the end of each of thefirst three tor quarters but was unable to hold off What a difference in halves,” Newlin and Natt in the final period. Nelson understated. ‘When we were Randy Smith led the Cavaliers with 21 down 19 we madea decision that the points, 14 coming in the first quarter. only way we could win wasto push the Traii Blazers 119, Pistons 102 ball up the court every time. We were Ron Brewerscored 28 points and trigflirting with getting beat by 50 and just gered an early third-period spurt for took the gamble. ‘ortiand. The Pistons, with the worst In other nNKanes City routed record in the leagueat 10-32, have now Denver 120-101, New Jersey to; lost nine straight games on the road ortland. domed and 20 oftheir last 22 away from home. Detroit 119-102; and San Diego edged ith a score oatat the half, Brewer Seattle 105-103. red eight of his 10 third-quarter Kings 120, Nuggets 101 points to spark a 16-6 burstin thefirst Scott Wedman, Otis Birdsong and Me minutes of the period. Bob McAdoo Phil Ford combined for 67 pointsto ex- of the Pistons had a game-high 31 tend the Nuggets’ club-record string of points, 22 comingin thefirst half. road losses to 11. Wedman scored 24, Clippers 105, SuperSonics 103 Birdsong 23 and Ford 20 as KansasCity Lloyd Free tossed in 34 points and won its fourth straight fine and its scored the game-winning basket with fifth straight against est Divison 2:34 remaining. Free’s 15-footer ie rival Denver. Bill Robinzine cameoff San Diego ahead 105-101 and the the bench for 16 second-half points for pers then held the Sonics to two i the Kings. David Thompson finished throws by Dennis Johnson the rest of with 22 points and DanIssel 20 to pace the way. The gamewas tied four times Denver. in the finalsix minutes, with the Sonics Nets 108, Cavaliers 100 grabbing a 101-99 lead on Jack Sikma's Mike Newlin scored 34 points and six-foot shot with 3:51 to go. It’s Rivalry Week In Utah County It’s rivalry week in Utah County. On the collegiate scene BYUis beginning rears for its Saturday meeting with Utah in Marriott Center. The two teams swept their pues during a road swing through Yew Mexico and Texas to share the early Western Athletic Conference league with San Diego State. The Aztecs won a pair of games at home. Right now,though,the focusis on the high school rivalry matchups in Region Six Wednesday. Perhapsthetopbattle will be the one between Provo and Tieiprlew both 4-0 in league play, at the Thunderbird aerie. Overall the two squads have 13 victcries a.td just three losses to their credit. The winner of that gamewill have the league leadfor a little while while the loser will share second with the winner of American Fork at Pleasant Grove. Both those squads are 3-1 in a league play. Whileitdoesn't have quite the immediate importanceto the leaguerace, Payson at Spanish Fork, too, is exted to be a donnybrook. The other leape games Wednesdayinclude Dixie at Cedar City and Carbonatpermet le. All five games begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, after just a day of rest, the Region Six cagers will be back at it Pleasant Grove at Provo, Payson at Timpview, Dixie at springville and Spanish Fork at Carbon. Orem will travel to Bingham for a Region Two ge Lehi will be at Intermountain Wasatchwill be at Grantsville in Region Nine games; Juab will entertain Millard in a Region Eightcontest; and Tintic will entertain North Summit in a Region Eleven encounter, Then, to cap the week off, the Cougars and Utes will tangle in the Marriott Centerat 7:35 p.m. Saturday. , |