What Price Glory?

There are a few things a university of colorado campus policeman won't leave the office without: handcuffs, his copy of the Miranda warning and a University of Colorado football program.

"At the first home football game of every season, a couple of detectives drop by the stadium and pick up a few programs," says Tim DeLaria, a detective on the university force, which is a full-fledged police department. "Saves you time. Instead of having a victim go through the mug book, you just take out your program and say, 'Is he in here?' "

The way things have been going lately at Colorado, he usually is. Since February 1986 at least two dozen Buffalo players have been arrested, for everything from trespassing to serial rape. According to campus detective Paul Epp, of the players on the 1987 roster, 18 have been arrested and 65 have been "contacted" by police in connection with traffic tickets, drunken driving or noise violations, or for questioning about other incidents that the police believed they may have been involved in.

This February alone, five current players and one former player were either arrested or issued summonses, including freshman running back Marcus Reliford, who is out on $7,500 bail after being charged with sexual assault and burglary.

Meanwhile, Colorado's team, under coach Bill McCartney, has gone from woeful (seven wins in the three seasons before he arrived, in 1982) to bowlful (three bowl appearances in the last four seasons). Perhaps former Colorado split end Loy Alexander, the team's leading receiver in 1983, was a prophet when, after the Buffaloes finished 1-10 in '84, he declared that he was fed up with being surrounded by teammates with impeccable character and no talent. "We've got enough altar boys," he said. "We need some athletes."

Five years later, Colorado has plenty of athletes. Altar boys, however, are in short supply:

•This month, after a three-year investigation, Miles Kusayanagi, a second-string linebacker in 1984 and '85, was arrested and charged with raping one woman and the attempted rape of another. He is suspected of being the Duct-Tape Rapist, who terrorized Boulder by sexually assaulting eight women in 1986. Most of the victims reportedly had their eyes or mouth covered with silver duct tape before being raped. Kusayanagi is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

•Dan Ralph, a nosetackle in 1979 and '80, and Chris Symington, an offensive guard in '85 and '87, were charged in August of '86 with shaking down a Boulder restaurant owner for debts that the restaurateur owed to a third party. Ralph pleaded guilty to menacing and received a deferred sentence. Symington also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to community service. He was thrown off the team for '86 for drunken driving, but was reinstated in '87. He is now a graduate assistant with the Buffaloes.

•Fullback Anthony Weatherspoon pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal trespass after he and two other men broke into a dorm room in May 1986. Weather-spoon was sentenced to six months probation and community service, and suspended from the team for the '86 Bluebonnet Bowl. In April 1988, he was booted off the team for good after testing positive for drugs, according to the Boulder Daily Camera.

•After leaving Stanford upon being convicted of using a stolen credit card, Sam Sutherland transferred to Colorado in 1986 and became the Buffs' nickelback. Last May he received a six-month deferred sentence and agreed to undergo anger-control therapy after pleading no contest to a charge that he assaulted a former girlfriend; late last summer he was arrested for allegedly assaulting the roommate of a woman who is now his fiancée. That charge was dropped when the victim withdrew her complaint. Sutherland was suspended for the 1988 season, but is expected to play next fall.