Ohio State Ducking Irish, Says Krause

NEW ORLEANS -- Notre Dame, a 24-23 winner over No. 1 Alabama, has hurled a challenge to all comers. The gauntlet was tossed Wednesday at the feet of Woody Hayes and his powerhouse at Ohio State, a 42-21 winner over USC in the Rose Bowl. "We would like to play Woody," said Edward (Moose) Krause, Notre Dame athletic director. "We have begged to get Ohio State back on the schedule. They keep ducking us." Notre Date upset Ohio State, 18-13, in 1935, and won, 7-2, in 1936 and hasn't faced the Buckeyes since.

"I get disturbed when people criticize our schedule," Krause said. "We would prefer it if every team on our schedule was unbeaten and untied when we played them." Krause repeated a point every athletic director knows -- that football schedules are made in advance and that there is no way of knowing how they will turn out. "For example," he said, "when we made our 1973 schedule eight years ago Michigan State had beaten us four times, we were 3-8 against Navy and 2-8 in our last series of games against Purdue. USC, whom we had beaten in six of our last eight games, looked like the weakest of the lot."

[source: ap]

Kuhn Meets Today With Energy Chiefs

NEW YORK -- Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn will meet today with Federal Energy Office personnel in Washington and discuss what major league baseball will do about the energy crisis. There was speculation that a number of night games would be shifted to daylight hours to avoid use of lights.

[source: ap]

Hadl Named NFL Player Of Year By UPI Voters

NEW YORK -- Quarterback John Hadl of the Rams Wednesday was named the 1973 NFC Player of the Year by United Press International. In the balloting of a panel of 39 writers -- three from each NFC city -- Hadl received 13 votes to beat out Minnesota's Fran Tarkenton, who got eight votes. Hadl, who finished third in NFC passing statistics, led the Rams to a 12-2 season and the championship of the Western Division. He completed 135 of 258 passes for 2,008 yards and 22 touchdowns.

[source: upi]

Nicklaus Tops Crosby Field; Arnie Absent

PEBBLE BEACH -- Jack Nicklaus, whose list of credits is the longest and most impressive in the history of golf, helps kick off the 1974 PGA tour today in the $185,000 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am. While Nicklaus, the defending champion, is in the field of 168 pros, missing among the top 30 money winners of 1973, mostly because of the Crosby's early start this year, are Lee Trevino, Miller Barber, J.C. Snead, Homero Blancas, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Dan Sikes and Arnold Palmer. Palmer's absence was the most surprising since he has never missed a Crosby event since becoming a pro. Also missing will be the host, Bing Crosby, who is recuperating from pleurisy at Peninsula Hospital. "Mr. Crosby definitely won't be there tomorrow or Friday, you can be sure of that," said Alan Fisher, the family butler. "But he may be there for the weekend."

However, Bruce Crampton, the Australian who topped everyone in money earnings last year except Nicklaus, No. 3 Tom Weiskopf, No. 5 Lanny Wadkins. No. 7 Hale Irwin, No. 8 Billy Casper, No. 9 Johnny Miller and No. 10 John Schlee are here. Also appearing are young Ben Crenshaw, who won $69,175 in less than three months as a pro at the end of 1973, and Gary Player, the South African veteran making his first Crosby start since 1962. Player had physical problems last year and failed to place among the first 100 money winners. In the Crosby format, each pro plays with an amateur partner one round on each of three courses -- Pebble Beach, Cypress Point and Spyglass Hill. The cut then is made to the low 70 and ties among the pros for the final round, which will be played at Pebble Beach. The low 40 pro-am teams also advance to the final round. There is a $30,000 purse in the pro-am.

[source: upi]

Irish Likely Winners In AP Football Poll

NEW ORLEANS -- "Even the Pope could vote us No. 1 this year," Notre Dame's Ara Parse-ghian said Wednesday. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, the Pope won't have a vote when Associated Press tallies the ballots of sportswriters and broadcasters and announces college football's national champion today. But if the Pope could vote for the Irish, Michigan coach Bo Schembechler couldn't. "It's funny how ABC (television) and the National Football Foundation decided the national championship," said Schembechler, who is in Hawaii for the Hula Bowl, "The coaches around here all say Oklahoma is just super." But the Fighting Irish are favored to outpoll Oklahoma (10-0-1) and three other undefeated teams -- Ohio State and Michigan, both 10-0-1, and Penn State, 12-0 -- and win their first national crown since 1966.

Parseghian's quip about the Pope referred to the 1970 season, when Notre Dame ended Texas' 30-game winning streak in the Cotton Bowl but finished second in the ratings behind Nebraska. Before the balloting was completed, Parseghian claimed Notre Dame should be No. 1. Nebraska coach Bob Devaney retorted that "even the Pope couldn't vote for Notre Dame." "I think we could beat anyone," said Oklahoma's Barry Switzer, whose team finished the regular season in second place but was ineligible for a bowl game because of recruiting violations. "The close Sugar Bowl score didn't surprise me, but I couldn't believe how Notre Dame just ran at Alabama. I don't think anyone could do that against us. No one would move the ball on us."

Parseghian had an answer for that. "Oklahoma is a fine team and I'm not taking anything away from them," he said, "but they tied Southern California while we beat them and we beat Miami of Florida, 44-0, while Oklahoma only beat them, 24-20. All I know is we're 11-0, we won the Sugar Bowl over the top-ranked team, we've come through the season unscathed. We met every challenge." ABC billed its Sugar Bowl telecast as a national 'championship game, while the National Football Foundation awarded its MacArthur Bowl to Notre Dame.

[source: ap]