This Must Be How They Throw In the Towel in Texas

The Great Linen Robbery was foiled when University of North Texas football players unloaded nearly $1,400 worth of motel property from team buses after they had lost to Utah State in Logan last Saturday.

Police supervised as North Texas buses were unpacked and stolen towels, bathmats, blankets, pillows and one videocassette recorder were piled onto the parking lot of a motel.

The motel manager called North Texas Athletic Director Craig Helwig at Utah State’s Romney Stadium during the game to report the missing property.

School officials agreed to return to the motel. No charges were filed.

Add linen: When Al McGuire was coaching Marquette’s basketball team, he told his players before the first trip of each season, “If you have to steal something from the hotel, take something worth stealing. Don’t take the towels, take the TV set.�

Trivia time: Who holds the NFL record for average on kickoff returns for a career?

Nomo pictures: An agent for Dodger pitcher Hideo Nomo ripped the film from the camera of a magazine photographer trying to take pictures of Nomo outside a Tokyo stadium Monday, a writer for the magazine said.

The pitcher was apparently angered when the photographer poked his camera through an open window of Nomo’s car as he left Seibu Stadium after an exhibition between U.S. major leaguers and Japanese all-stars.

When photographers from two other newspapers tried to take photos of the scene, the agent also pulled the film from their cameras.

It’s a problem: From David Letterman: “You know, throughout the World Series, it was really a team victory, and the team played so well, George Steinbrenner is really not sure who he’s going to fire.�

Mystery voter: David Casstevens of the Arizona Republic is trying to find out who is casting the lone first-place vote for Arizona State in the Associated Press football poll. He has determined it isn’t anyone in the Arizona media.

The AP doesn’t divulge how the members of the poll vote. Casstevens suspects it’s someone from Nebraska. Arizona State upset the previously top-ranked Cornhuskers in September, 19-0.

Good riddance: Armando Salguero in the Miami Herald on former Dolphins Keith Byars, Eric Green and Irving Fryar:

“Not having their complaining, whimpering, moody, depressing selves to cloud the sunniest day is a blessing for the Dolphins, no matter how many passes they catch or touchdowns they score.�

Don’t hold back, Armando. What are your true feelings?

Trivia answer: Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears, 30.6 yards from 1965 to 1971.

And finally: Cross-dressing, makeup-wearing, tattooed, hair-dyeing Dennis Rodman on being left off the NBA’s list of the 50 all-time best players:

“All the NBA wants is choirboys. The NBA is looking for guys who have a good image or are willing to be choirboys. Then the other guys don’t get recognized. The NBA is screwed up anyway. That’s the way I look at it.�