A Horse Is a Horse, of Course, Even in South Bend

USC and Notre Dame have been football rivals, sometimes bitter, since 1926, and in Steve Delsohn’s book, “Talking Irish,” he interviewed Mike McCoy, an All-American defensive tackle in 1969.

Said McCoy, ‘Hate is too strong a word. But I never liked USC. I didn’t like L.A. I didn’t like their campus. I didn’t like the arrogance of their players.

“I couldn’t stand the galloping Trojan horse, especially when they brought him to South Bend. I mean, this thing defecated all over our field. Then, they didn’t clean it up.”

Just step lightly, Mike.

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Trivia time: Which football player has scored the most points against the Irish?

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Itching to work again: Steve Guiremand writing in the Las Vegas Sun: “A source close to [John] Robinson says he has the itch to return to coaching and would welcome the challenge of taking a program like UNLV to the next level.

“This is, as they say, a no-brainer.”

Nevada Las Vegas Coach Jeff Horton was fired after an 0-11 season.

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Dennis’ nemesis: From David Letterman: “Dennis Rodman’s honeymoon didn’t turn out the way he hoped. Apparently, Spike Lee broke into the hotel room and taunted him all night.”

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Get it? From Times columnist Mike Downey: “If Carmen Electra had married Alonzo Mourning instead of Dennis Rodman, the headline would have been ‘Electra becomes Mourning.’ ”

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Natural reaction: About 300 people attended Friday’s funeral in Miami for fight promoter Chris Dundee, who died recently at 91.

“If my father were here today,” Suzanne Dundee Bonner said, “he’d count the house.”

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Right on: Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: “[We] would like to welcome the bowl championship series to the real world. It is going to be so much fun watching a computer squirm. What we have here are three unbeaten teams (Tennessee, UCLA and Kansas State) and the makings of a world-class debate that no incomprehensible mathematical formula is going to alleviate.”

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Healing touch: Bill Lyon in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “The Eagles are to football what penicillin is to medicine. They make every team, no matter how sick and suffering, better.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1980, Roberto Duran quit with 16 seconds to go in the eighth round, allowing Sugar Ray Leonard to regain the World Boxing Council welterweight title.

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Trivia answer: USC’s Anthony Davis, 68, on 11 touchdowns and a two-point conversion, from 1972 to 1974.

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And finally: Woody Paige in the Denver Post:

“Sir Pass surpassed 50,000.

“John Elway is the only person in the entire history of the world to pass for more than 50,000 yards and run for more than 3,000 yards and catch passes for more than 60 yards and punt for more than 100 yards and sell more than 25,000 cars and hit .318 for the Oneonta, N.Y., Yankees.”