It's Just Repaying an Overpayment by the University

It’s Just Repaying an Overpayment by the University

By SHAV GLICK

Jan. 19, 1998 12 AM PT

After Joe Paterno and his wife Sue gave $3.5 million to Penn State for new teaching positions, scholarships, a new interfaith spiritual center and a sports hall of fame, the veteran coach said:

“I have made more money than I should make for doing what I like to do. It just seemed like I ought to give it back.”

Penn State President Graham Spanier’s reaction:

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m the luckiest university president in the United States.”

Trivia time: How many persons have won a Super Bowl as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach?

Beach bum: Doug Flutie--six times MVP in the Canadian Football League--will be in San Diego during Super Bowl festivities, leading a team of former NFL stars in the Cuervo Margarita Bowl. The game will be played on the beach between a group of former professionals and some of the country’s top amateur flag football players.

“I am really looking forward to playing in a game where I don’t have to stand on the sidelines in front of a heater,” Flutie said. “My only concern in San Diego will be whether or not I have enough sun block on.”

Price of winning: Green Bay Packer frenzy is not limited to this year’s championship team, at least not at Packer City Antiques, a Green Bay store specializing in Packer memorabilia. For instance:

A 1960 Green Bay team yearbook is priced at $347.50. A game-day program in perfect shape from Sunday, Oct. 24, 1926, when the Packers played the Racine Tornadoes, can be had for $350.

For modern-minded collectors, an unused ticket from last year’s Super Bowl costs $275.

It’s about time: Move over Super Bowl and make way for baseball. Spring training begins in less than four weeks.

Tired cliche: Packer Coach Mike Holmgren would like it if he never again heard the phrase, “West Coast offense.”

“I think that’s kind of a lazy term, really,” he said. “I mean, it was kind of a cute little deal at one time, and now it’s been six years [since it was introduced]. It’s not the same.”

Attn. Mike Tyson: Australian Simon Fenn, who needed 25 stitches for an ear wound he said was the result of a bite by an opponent, may not have been bitten after all.

Philip Bliss, a doctor who deals with rugby injuries, said no teeth marks were found in the wound and suggested the injury may have been caused by a boot stud or other hard object.

The way it is: Estelle Staley, the Philadelphia Rage’s all-star point guard, on why attendance is so low in the ABL: “We haven’t given people a reason to come to us.”

Trivia answer: Two: Tom Flores and Mike Ditka.

And finally: The Countess of Arran, an island off the coast of Scotland, is coming out of retirement at 79 to resume racing powerboats.

“Waiting for God is boring,” she said, “so I thought I would be better off back behind the wheel.”