300 Million Chinese See Replay of Super Bowl, End Up Confused

L.A. Times Archives

March 10, 1986 12 AM PT

It was billed as the “20th American Super Cup rugby final, featuring the Giant Bear of Chicago,” and an estimated 300 million people, more than the population of the United States, watched Sunday as Central Television of China showed a 90-minute replay of the Super Bowl.

William (The Refrigerator) Perry was introduced as Wei-lian (Bingxiang) Pol-i , and the announcer said, “They call him ice box because he eats a whole ice box full of food every day.”

What did the Chinese think of the game?

“It’s fierce, it’s intense,” said Zhu Yongan of Peking. “I’ve never seen anything like it, and I don’t get it at all.”

Zhu is 102 years old.

Add Forgettable Quotes: Said Eduardo Rodriguez of Panama on the eve of Sunday’s fight against welterweight champion Donald Curry: “Everybody has been telling me Curry is such a great champion. To me, Curry’s not a great champion. He’s just another fighter.”

Curry chilled him in two.

Brad Holland, commentator for Prime Ticket on the telecast of the Crenshaw-Cleveland game for the City 4-A title, was telling how you can’t believe the scare stories you always hear about upcoming opponents.

“At Crescenta Valley we had a playoff game coming up against Verbum Dei, and people were telling us we were going to lose by 30 points,” he said.

“That was the Verbum Dei team with Roy Hamilton and David Greenwood, who I played with later at UCLA. All we heard all week was 30 points, 30 points. Well, we played the game, and of course they didn’t beat us by 30 points.

“They beat us by 33.”

Trivia Time: What do Bill Walton and Dennis Johnson of the Boston Celtics have in common? (Answer below.)

Defensive lineman Derland Moore of the New Orleans Saints was drafted by J.D. Roberts, successor to the franchise’s first head coach, Tom Fears.

Said Moore Saturday after meeting with his sixth head coach, Jim Mora: “I’ll tell you how long I’ve been around. When I was a rookie, I bought gas for 33 cents a gallon at Schwegmann’s--premium gas.”

Ron Harper of Miami (Ohio), in a Sports Illustrated story, told how Dan Palombizio of Ball State was giving him some lip in a Mid-American Conference playoff game last year. Harper responded by outscoring Palombizio, 45 to 18 points, as Miami won, 91-70.

“Some players are just good players, and some players just talk trash,” Harper said. “Talk is cheap. You have to do your talking on the floor.”

Maybe Palombizio read it. When the same two teams met in the Mid-American final last Friday, Palombizio outscored Harper, 29 to 28 points, and outrebounded him, 15 to 14. Ball State won, 87-79.

Bill Lyon of the Philadelphia Inquirer, on Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s ability to take a punch: “During a routine CAT scan, doctors were surprised to discover that the muscle that covers Hagler’s temple was an inch thick. On most of us, it’s only a quarter of an inch. Possibly this gives Hagler a thicker shock absorber.”

Trivia Answer: Both were playoff MVPs for NBA championship teams in other cities--Walton for Portland in 1976-77 and Johnson for Seattle in 1978-79.

Quotebook

Spud Webb, 5-7 guard of the Atlanta Hawks, to 5-6 Seattle reporter Ken Richardson who asked how he could learn to dunk: “Grow an inch.”