October 15, 1984 | Volume 61, Issue 18

H.G. Wells is deservedly famous for his ability to persuade us to suspend disbelief in the unbelievable just long enough to set the hook of a story. In his short novel , he postulates the...

Ten thousand migrating caribou, meeting a river swollen as never before, followed their instincts to death in Canada

My early childhood in Sacramento during the 1950s was close to idyllic. I was smart enough to understand that even at the time. School and friends were close by. Family was secure and loving....

PRO FOOTBALL—NFL: After Cincinnati lost its fifth straight game of the season Monday night, 38-17 to AFC Central-leading Pittsburgh, Bengal wide receiver Cris Collinsworth suggested, "Maybe we...

L.P. HOLMESNAPA, CALIF.Holmes, an 89-year-old author of 42 Western novels, hit 99 of a possible 100 clay pigeons at the Napa Rifle and Pistol Club. In the process he became the first person in the...

THE CUBSSir:What a work of art by William Nack and Franklin McMahon (At Last, the Cubs Are First, Oct. 1). No finer portrait of the Cubs could have been wrought by pen and brush as far as this...

When Carlie Geer won the silver medal in women's single sculling at the '84 Olympics, I cheered out loud. After all, she had been my rowing teammate at Dartmouth. It was a case of glory by...

A SIDESHOW WE DIDN'T NEED

•Ron Meyer, New England Patriots coach, arguing that emotion is overrated in football: "There was a lot of emotion at the Alamo, and nobody survived."

Led by MVP Steve Garvey, San Diego charged from way behind to defeat Chicago and take its first National League crown ever

In the end, the little things counted. The lordly Detroit Tigers swept the Kansas City Royals in the best-of-five American League playoffs last week not so much because the Tigers' bats boomed,...

When news broke last week of the mass drowning of thousands of caribou in northern Quebec—a bizarre, horrific event that appalled even veteran wildlife experts—SI's editors moved quickly to cover...

Needing 66 yards to catch Jim Brown, Walter Payton got 'em against the Saints with 88 to spare

That's the novel direction in which the NHL may be headed now that Wayne Gretzky's slick Oilers are the Stanley Cup champions

The pitiful Penguins figure that they'll be a lot higher in the NHL pecking order now that their prize draft pick, Mario Lemieux, is in their nest

ADAMS DIVISION

College football ratings appear to be suffering from overexposure

A glassy-eyed Taaffe rates the networks currently doing national college games

Following a sea change, Alabama is off to its worst start since 1957

SOUTHWEST

OFFENSE: Ken Karcher completed 24 of 39 passes for 316 yards and one touchdown and threw only one interception as he led Tulane, which hadn't won a game, to a 27-23 victory over Vanderbilt.

Jet Wesley Walker's vision may be impaired, but not his pass-catching ability

New Orleans linebacker Jim Kovach, who made the tackle on Walter Payton's record-breaking six-yard carry in Chicago, enjoyed his moment in the spotlight.

Dan Reeves, the Broncos' head coach, has come up with a neat, if unsymmetrical, way to confuse defenses. By putting Dave Studdard, the left tackle, to the right of right tackle Ken Lanier, and...

"You really ought to take a picture of me wearing diapers," says Jan Stenerud, the Minnesota Viking kicker who owns up to being 41. "I feel like such a young babe."

OFFENSE: Bear running back Walter Payton gained 154 yards and scored one touchdown in Chicago's 20-7 win over New Orleans to become the NFL's all-time leading rusher, with 12,400 yards.

Apparently, Fred Lebow grew tired of waiting for someone else to tell the story of how he made the New York City Marathon into the greatest road race in the world and in the process became one of...

My parents had Leo put to sleep a few days ago. They did it while I was out of town, to save me the pain of taking him to the vet myself. We all knew it was time. Leo was 14½ years old and his...