By Steve Williams

Holly Warlick has lost more basketball games than she wanted to this season, but she hasn’t lost her sense of humor.

In the middle of an interview on the Lady Vol Illustrated radio show last week, the night after another turnover-riddled showing by her team at Kentucky, Coach Warlick sneezed right on the air.

“Excuse me, I’m allergic to turnovers,” she quickly said.

 

RICK BARNES, the UT men’s coach, also had a radio show problem last week. Barnes didn’t show up for the Rick Barnes Show on the Vol Network until it was about half over.

An assistant coach filled in until Barnes arrived after his Vols had blown a 15-point second-half lead in a very frustrating loss at Alabama.

I first thought Barnes was too embarrassed to come on the air and was making his assistant mop up the mess.

I guess you could say he was just letting off some steam in the dressing room.

 

THE LONGEST two weeks in the World of Sports has to be the time between the end of the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. I learned a long time ago how to deal with that. Avoid it and then show up in front of the TV about a minute before kickoff.

Nothing bores me more than all the pre-game hype. Blah, blah and more blah.

Personally, I prefer to watch highlights from old Super Bowl games and that’s what I’ve been doing lately to satisfy my football appetite. I’ve got this tape – “Super Sunday” – that has highlights from the first 20 Super Bowl games (maybe you have it, too).

It starts with Lamar Hunt, founder of the old American Football League, talking about how he came up with the “Super Bowl” name. In case you haven’t heard, back in the 1960s, there was a super ball, which would bounce extremely high. Hunt had a daughter who played with a super ball a lot, and from that emerged the name – Super Bowl.

Super Bowl III has remained one of my all-time favorites over the years. That was the game Joe Namath “guaranteed” the New York Jets would beat the Baltimore Colts and they did 16-7 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The great Johnny Unitas came off the bench in relief of Earl Morrall and led the Colts to their lone touchdown but couldn’t orchestrate a winning rally.

I was 16 years old and a junior in high school at that time. The Colts, who were 15-1 and had avenged their only loss by clobbering the Cleveland Browns 34-0 in the NFL title game the week before, were 19-point favorites over the Jets.

I was a fan of Unitas growing up, but he was in the twilight of his career in 1969. Namath was up and coming and could throw darts. Don Maynard was his favorite target.

Maynard played in Super Bowl III but didn’t have a single catch, as he was coming off a hamstring injury suffered in the Jets’ AFL title game win over the Raiders. Matt Snell rushed for the Jets’ lone TD and Jim Turner booted three field goals. Running back Emerson Boozer’s blocking helped Snell get into the end zone.

I loved underdogs back then and still do.

Go Broncos and Go Peyton!