Senator or Not, Too Many Steps Merits a Call

Bill Keightley, Kentucky’s equipment manager of 31 years, told the Charlotte Observer of an encounter former coach Adolph Rupp had with George Conley, a Southeastern Conference referee.

Conley, a Kentucky state senator, angered Rupp when he refused to call traveling against the Wildcats’ opponent. During a timeout, Rupp approached the official.

“Senator, I have always respected you and, had you been in my district, I would have voted for you,” Rupp said. “I see by the newspaper that you have voted in Frankfort to appropriate $85 million for traveling improvements. But, my God, man, you don’t know traveling when you see it!”

*

Racing a gamble: Don Prudhomme likens top fuel drag racing to playing craps in Las Vegas.

“You roll the dice. Sometimes they come up right, and sometimes they don’t,” he said. “You just have to have enough money to stay at the table.”

*

Trivia time: How many times has the Final Four most valuable player been from a team that didn’t make it to the championship game?

*

Guns for Suns: Denver is completing details on a program to allow people to swap a gun for two tickets to a Nugget game. It is the brainchild of officials with the NBA team and Guns for Good, a mayor’s committee that works to reduce street violence. “The immediate goal is to get guns off the street and out of the hands of kids,” said Beth McCann, Denver’s manager of safety. Under the program, people would take guns to specified churches to exchange for two tickets to the Nuggets’ season finale against the Phoenix Suns on April 17.

*

No respect: Fresno State officials were still celebrating their Freedom Bowl football victory over USC when they unexpectedly got their comeuppance.

The National Championship Foundation in Germantown, N.Y., sent a letter of congratulations to the Bulldogs. The fax went to San Jose State by mistake.

*

What’s in a name? The first names on George Washington’s NCAA basketball tournament team are Kwame, Adama, Yinka, Nimbo and Omo, with Dirkk and Sonni off the bench.

*

Gourmet golfer: Rocky Thompson is the mayor of Toco, Tex., in addition to being a regular on the Senior PGA Tour, so he is used to chatting with reporters. But he has a special reason for wanting to visit with golf writers.

“I like the press room because you can always get something good to eat and drink,” he explained.

*

The name game: Prospective owners of NFL expansion franchises have filed applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on possible names for their teams.

Among them: Memphis Hound Dogs, Jacksonville Jaguars and St. Louis Stokers.

*

Easy way out: Bill Tammeus of the Kansas City Star, commenting on new father George Brett’s decision to play another season: “The decision . . . may simply prove he finds curveballs less intimidating than diapers.”

*

Trivia answer: Four--Hal Lear, Temple, 1956; Art Heyman, Duke, 1963; Bill Bradley, Princeton, 1965, and Jerry Chambers, Utah, 1966.

*

Quotebook: Billy Ripken, Texas Ranger second baseman: “Errors are part of the game, but Abner Doubleday was a jerk for inventing them.”