November 13, 2000 | Volume 93, Issue 20

In his 51st season, in his 74th year, on the doorstep of becoming the winningest major college football coach who ever lived, everything went straight to hell for Joe Paterno.

NOVEMBER 29, 1971

Marcus Houston is not only what's good about sports but also what's good about life.—RYAN LONG, Ellwood City, Pa.

Letters to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer. They may be mailed to The Editor, Sports Illustrated, 135 West 50th Street, New York, N.Y....

In an era of ever-changing rosters, uniforms and arena names, ignorance is bliss

Highlights

If you walk out of church on Sunday morning feeling a little too righteous, a good way to burn off some of that excess holiness is to flip on NFL This Morning on Fox Sports Net. The two-hour...

A grandmaster has just the thing if you like to watch people pushing pawns

The big winners at last April's Final Four were Michigan State, Which won the NCAA championship, and the Harlem Globetrotters, who showed in the Roundball Challenge that they can play serious ball...

Meet the new bosses, not the same as the old bosses

Chris ChamblissDespite getting canned by the Yankees last week, has excellent rep as coach and minor league skipper.

Lloyd McClendonWill Make the Big Bucs

The happy sports news out of Philadelphia last week was the city's announcement that it will finally replace Veterans Stadium's infamous artificial turf with grass or one of the new grasslike...

THIS WEEK: HUNTING

$716,464Amount the Clippers owe their former forward Rodney Rogers, according to an arbitrator who ruled that the team exceeded its authority when it fined him that amount after he reported...

Get inside the NFL: Peter King gives you his exclusive online take on Sunday's action every Monday morning and Dr. Z rates all 31 teams each Wednesday at cnnsi.com/football.

Forget Bush versus Gore (if you haven't already). The most heated rivalry around the nation's capital is the one between Baltimore and Washington sports fans. The two cities, separated by a mere...

Locker rooms are sounding more and more like Wall Street boardrooms

Screened•Michael Jordan to the Max, by Al Gore's campaign staff. The Vice President rented out the Nashville IMAX theater for about 150 staffers in hopes that the MJ film would inspire them in the...

Awards shows are the kudzu of Hollywood. Now the overgrowth has spread to the sports world. If you're having trouble keeping track of all the dinner-jacketed jocks—couldn't they put numbers on...

Good thing Don Rickles wasn't there. The Sports Boosters of Maryland Headliners Banquet on Nov. 2 was supposed to be a good-natured roast for former Orioles manager Earl Weaver. But after Jim...

Sergio Garcia withdrew from a pro-am event in Spain after his playing partner, a 13 handicapper, threatened him with violence because he felt Garcia had given him the wrong yardage on a hole.

CHARLES WANGIslanders owner, on one benefit of having purchased the Arena Football League's Iowa Barnstormers: "We own the rights to Kurt Warner if he ever comes back to the AFL."

After an Olympic letdown, Abdelkhader El Mouaziz made it big in New York City

Paring the list of candidates for the Hall of Fame from 76 to 12 is a grim task

Sporting inventors come through with products for cyclists on the high roads and golfers on the high seas

Once Chris Peters decided pro bowling had a future, he snapped up the PBA Tour

The putt-putts are for the dough at Pebble Beach's Concours d'Elégance

The Pirates' Lloyd McClendon is the youngest in a new generation of managers

Patriot games: A basketball conference competes valiantly in anonymity

Ethel Autorino, EDISON, N. J.TriathlonAutorino, 70, a retired nurse practitioner, broke a seven-year-old women's 70-74 age group world record by finishing the Ironman World Championship in...

The Titans are the hottest thing going in the NFL, and while they may not dazzle you, they find a way to win

After a summer of surprises, Allen Iverson has embraced punctuality and practice, and his attitude is paying off for the 76ers

David Tua is a playful Samoan, but he plans to give Lennox Lewis a serious run for the heavyweight title

A skull session with Ken Simonton of Oregon State, the top runner in the Pac-10, can swing from Tupac to the Bard

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Orange SqueezerBy knocking the pulp out of Virginia Tech, Miami moved into the national title chase

•Oklahoma (8-0) at Texas A&M (7-2)The Sooners' offense is averaging 471.4 yards per game, but Oklahoma hired second-year coach Bob Stoops for his defensive expertise. It should come in handy...

Stanford, 3-6 after its 37-35 loss to UCLA, is the fourth defending Pac-10 champion in the last five years to fall below .500 the following season....

West Virginia senior Wes Ours puts the full into fullback. He's 6'1" and weighs 290 pounds. To tackle him, says defensive end Duke Pettijohn of Syracuse, which edged the Mountaineers 31-27 last...

Utah State junior Emmett White (right) obliterated the NCAA single-game record for all-purpose yards last Saturday by gaining 578 in a 44-37 victory over New Mexico State. The previous mark, set...

Big-time BustsHigh-priced favorites finished up the track at the Breeders' Cup

Alex Solis and Kona Gold finally made it to the winner's circle

Alex the GrateThe return of unrepentant Alexei Yashin has given Ottawa a big lift

SANDIS OZOLINSHHURRICANES DTraded from Colorado in June, the 6'3" 205-pounder recently signed a five-year, $25.5 million deal. A fabulous playmaker and four-time All Star, his 10 points at week's...

Most scouts say that 6'2", 185-pound center Jason Spezza of the Mississauga IceDogs in the Ontario Hockey League is the top draft-eligible player in junior hockey, but don't be surprised if center...

In the ZoneA fresh look and a soft opponent helped the Ravens end their touchdown drought

The 49ers' defense can't give its good offense a shot at winning games. In the second quarter of New Orleans's 31-15 win over San Francisco at the Superdome, the Saints faced fourth-and-one at...

My Two Cents

Tiz BetterTiznow, with Chris McCarron (13) up, held off Giant's Causeway, ridden by Michael Kinane, en route to winning the Breeders' Cup Classic (page 68).

The chickens came home to roost for the NFL elite last weekend. Fears became realities. The "but" in the "yes, but" carried the day.

The most exciting moment in sports may be the game of chicken that suddenly breaks out when a skater finds himself one-on-one against a goalie

SI senior writer Michael Farber rates the NHL's top 10 breakaway artists since the league expanded in 1967-68.

FIFTY YEARS AGO RED BLAIK'S FOOTBALL POWERHOUSE AT ARMY WAS DECIMATED BY THE LOSS OF PLAYERS WHO VIOLATED THE MILITARY ACADEMY HONOR CODE. BUT WHO REALLY ACTED DISHONORABLY?

The author, an avowed range rat, learned plenty about a mostly mom-and-pop business while searching in vain for his swing

A Second Opinion

Phil Mickelson and Hal Sutton should have gone to Spain for this week's American Express Championship. Mickelson's victory last week at East Lake makes him Tiger Woods's chief challenger, and...

What do these players have in common?

Do you think Callaway is right or wrong to sell a club in the U.S. that does not conform to USGA rules?

SYNONYMS for RULES INFRACTIONSBe-Treyed, death drop, electronic lynching, excess baggage, false-started, flunked arithmetic, held up traffic, José María Ilostmyball, put my hand on it, Roberto'd,...

Bill Argabrite, Kingsport, Tenn.Argabrite, 46, won the club championship at Ridgefields Country Club for the 10th time, beating David Wright 5 and 4 in the final. Argabrite, who teamed with Jay...

Thanks to my sense of style, I'm viewed as some kind of E.T. on the Senior tour

•PhilabusterRival this: First, Mickelson snaps Tiger's win streak, then he catches Woods from behind.

The term golf fight seems like an oxymoron. Sergio Garcia's contretemps last week was a case in point. A pro-am partner at the Volvo Masters in Jerez, Spain, threatened to deck Garcia after El...

When Arnold Palmer said it was O.K. to cheat, his reign as the King ended

Everybody's trying to be Tiger Woods's rival, but by capping his best season ever with a victory at the Tour Championship, Phil Mickelson showed he's the only contender who has what it takes

Padraig Harrington, a.k.a. the Other Irish Golfer, is short on flash, but his game will pay big dividends over the long haul