They Want to Be in Mr. Sanders’ Neighborhood

After Detroit Lion running back Barry Sanders destroyed the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day by scoring three touchdowns while running for 167 yards, Bear safety Marlon Forbes said:

“You might want to check his helmet for radar or something.�

And this from Green Bay running back Dorsey Levens: “I think he’s in a league of his own. He lives out in the suburbs and everyone else is a few miles down the road, trying to get close to him.�

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Trivia time: Who was the first NFL rookie to rush for 200 or more yards in a game?

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Jumping John: New Jersey Net Coach John Calipari on the fact he often gets carried away: “You have to be unrealistic at times. Realistic people live in a box. We try to jump out of the box.�

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Concerned wife: Cecilia Thorner, whose husband, Jeff, had just played 50 golf courses in 50 states in 50 days: “This, I’m afraid, is the beginning of many more harebrained schemes.�

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Fixer-upper coach: Free-lance columnist Norman Chad writes that New York Jet Coach Bill Parcells is a one-man coaching renaissance.

“He’s in the process of resuscitating his third franchise--first the Giants, then the Patriots, now the Jets. This guy could turn Poughkeepsie into Paris.�

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FYI: Charlie Powell, regarded as the best football player to take up boxing, will be honored Friday by the Golden State Boxer’s Assn. at its annual luncheon at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Hollywood.

Powell, a defensive end, was signed out of San Diego High School in 1952 by the 49ers. As a professional boxer, he fought for eight years, and his career included bouts with Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali.

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Looking back: On this day in 1945, Doc Blanchard, the “Mr. Inside� of Army football, became the first junior to win the Heisman Trophy. Blanchard also became the only athlete to win the Heisman and Sullivan awards until Florida State’s Charlie Ward duplicated the feat in 1993.

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Looking back again: On this day in 1951, Princeton tailback Dick Kazmaier won the Heisman Trophy, the last Ivy League player to be so honored.

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Trivia answer: Tom Wilson of the Rams, 223 yards against Green Bay on Dec. 16, 1956.

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And finally: Buck Leonard, who died last Thursday at the age of 90, was known as the “Black Lou Gehrig� when he and Josh Gibson were a hard-hitting tandem for the Negro league Homestead Grays in the 1930s and ‘40s.

“Buck hit a home run so far off Bob Feller, “ said fellow Negro league great Ted “Double Duty� Radcliffe, “that it cleared the fence, the bleachers, a row of houses, and hit a big old water tower out there. It rained in that town for five weeks.�