It Might Be Corny, but Life in Iowa City Has Its Moments

When columnist Mike Hlas of the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette came west recently to cover the Rose Bowl, he had dinner with George Raveling, USC basketball coach, who spent three years at Iowa before taking over the Trojan program five years ago.

They talked about the differences between life in Los Angeles and Iowa City.

Raveling told Hlas he enjoyed the anonymity of being a college basketball coach in a town full of celebrities, and added:

“I’ll bet I haven’t signed 100 autographs in the five years I’ve been here. If we were out to eat when I was at Iowa City, I would’ve signed 100 before we got done with our meal.�

Add Hlas: On his return to Cedar Rapids, the columnist picked up the Los Angeles-Iowa thread:

“L.A. has Disneyland. We have Adventureland. L.A. has Beverly Hills. We have Hiawatha. L.A. has unbelievable traffic tie-ups, smog alerts, poor mass transit, poor public education, plenty of Hollywood screwballs and unbelievably high housing costs. We have bingo addicts.�

Trivia time: Since 1960, when the American Football League began play, which team has won the most AFL and AFC championship games?

Say what you mean: From Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Evening Sun, previewing Sunday’s AFC championship game between the Raiders and Buffalo: “Unfortunately, NBC will have a couple of ex-football players working the sidelines for Dick Enberg and Bill Walsh, meaning the only information we’ll get out of them is that it’s cold in Buffalo in January. Eureka!

May be hazardous: Pittsburgh Pirate catcher Don Slaught recently assured Bob Hertzel of the Pittsburgh Press that Chicago Cub reliever Mitch (Wild Thing) Williams did not come by his nickname casually.

Slaught recalled a game between Baltimore and Texas when both he and Williams were with the Rangers. At one point, Williams hit three consecutive batters:

“(Manager) Earl Weaver came bouncing out of the dugout, screaming at the umpires: ‘You’ve got to get him out of there before he kills someone. He’s more dangerous than cigarettes.’ �

Shrink to fit: In support of Buffalo’s bid to obtain a National League expansion franchise, thousands of local residents, among them Mayor James D. Griffin, have autographed what is being billed as the world’s largest T-shirt, measuring 22 feet by 13 feet by 17 feet, which soon will be sent to Douglas Danforth, a Pirate executive and chairman of the National League’s expansion committee.

XXIV and counting: Some folks collect Elvis memorabilia, Tom Henschel keeps going to Super Bowls.

He has been to all of them.

Henschel, a 49-year-old airline baggage-service agent, lives 10 minutes from Tampa Stadium, site of this year’s game. He told the Associated Press: “It’s an addiction. I’d pay $1,500. I’d pay $2,000, and I’d bring it in cash to the stadium if I had to.�

Trivia answer: The Miami Dolphins, with five.

Quotebook: Chicago White Sox Manager Jeff Torborg, after a tour of the new Comiskey Park, comparing the dugouts to the ones at old Comiskey: “You can even see the outfielders from in there.�