This Attendance Record Figures to Endure

Washington State football Coach Jim Walden used to gripe that the fickle fans of Pullman, Wash., didn’t show up to watch the Cougars, they came to see USC and UCLA.

“We’ve solved that,” Walden said. “Now they not only won’t come to see us, they won’t come to see USC, either. They’ve quit coming at all.”

Said Athletic Director Dick Young: “The game-day sale for the USC game was almost zero.”

Funny thing is, if it had been zero, it barely would have broken the record.

In 1955, only 400 people showed up in 5-degree weather to watch Washington State and San Jose State battle to a 13-13 tie in a howling snowstorm at Pullman.

Total gate sale: 1. That’s right, one. Uno . One more than zilch.

Yes, it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records.

If you’ve forgotten the vulgar gesture that led to Joe Kapp’s dismissal at Cal, this was the headline in the Seattle Times: “Joe Kapp running a fly pattern to self-destruction.”

And for Cal’s next game against Oregon State, Cal students unfurled this banner: “Win One for the Zipper.”

Trivia Time: Kevin Moen is the answer to what bit of trivia? (Answer below.)

Would-you-believe-it Dept.: From New York Mets announcer Tim McCarver, who worked the National League championship series on ABC: “In one of the Houston papers, if you can believe this, they said that generally speaking I was unbiased, with the exception of saying that a pitch was ‘right down Broadway.’ ”

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: Alabama football Coach Ray Perkins told John Pruett of the Huntsville (Ala.) Times that when he was coaching the New York Giants he tried to sign soccer star Pele as his kicker.

“It would’ve been a great PR thing,” Perkins said. “I think he would have competed for the job and won it. He considered it. . . .”

For What It’s Worth: In the latest NCAA statistics, there is no USC or UCLA player among the top 20 in any offensive or defensive category. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan, long a bastion of grind ‘em-out football under Bo Schembechler, now boasts the nation’s leading passer in Jim Harbaugh.

Dallas Cowboys President Tex Schramm is quoted by Ray Didinger of the Philadelphia Daily News as saying: “Al Davis told me, ‘We took Napoleon McCallum on the fourth round because we knew you would take him on the fifth round. That’s how you guys operate.’ I took that as a compliment.”

Add Cowboys: From Coach Tom Landry: “We don’t play the Raiders very often in the regular season, but we usually scrimmage them when we are at training camp and we see them in the preseason.

“We don’t really like going over to their place to scrimmage. It seems we spend more time fighting than we do playing. But we aren’t going to be intimidated by the Raiders.”

Trivia Answer: He was the Cal back who ran through the Stanford band for the touchdown on the five-lateral kickoff return that gave the Bears a 25-20 win over the Cardinal in 1982.

Quotebook

Former Steeler defensive end Dwight White, now a Pittsburgh investment banker, on what’s wrong with the current Steelers: “They don’t have any gizzards. We had gizzards, man.”