Sports Illustrated, 1964-66

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Mon Aug 23 00:34:18 UTC 1999


SPEED BUMP cartoon (www.creators.com), 20 August 1999, said by a man selling
Jumbo Arts & Crafts Supplies:

     "Well, it does contain the full nine yards and the whole ball of wax,
but this kit does not come with a kaboodle."

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     I've been going through SPORTS ILLUSTRATED 1964-1966 looking for the
"whole nine yards."  I didn't find it in the few issues I saw, but there's
lots of other good stuff.

A TIE IS LIKE KISSING YOUR SISTER--5 December 1966, pg. 115, col. 1.  This
continues the previous posting on this term.  The phrase therefore did not
originate in Texas in 1976.  This was a famous tie game between Michigan
State and Notre Dame.  MSU coach Duffy Daugherty allegedly used the line
after this game, although I didn't find it in the original story on Nov. 28.
Perhaps someone at MSU can check.  This headlines the letters column.
     _SISTERLY KISS_

DUNK--5 December 1966, pg. 40, col. 1.  The BDE has the basketball "dunk"
from 1955.
     The line of giants began with Bob (Foothills) Kurland of Oklahoma State
(then Oklahoma A&M).  Kurland, who was just a shade under 7 feet, led his
team to national championships in 1945 and 1946, brought into the game and
the vernacular the revolutionary "dunk shot," and was personally responsible
for the writing of a goaltending law...

MANO A MANO--5 December 1966, pg. 71, col. 1.  The RHHDAS has "mano" only,
from 1967.
     ...phooey on collapsing zones and sagging _mano a mano_...

TOUCHDOWN JESUS--21 November 1966, pg. 98, col. 1.  A letter to the magazine.

         Congratulations to Dan Jenkins on recapturing some of that elusive
and long dormant Notre Dame spirit.  But why did Dan fail to give the figure
of Christ in the huge mosaic on the library the name by which He is best
known to all students and alumni--"Touchdown Jesus"?  Was he afraid of
offending ND alumni?
(7 November 1966, pg. 72, col. 2:  Someone in South Bend, Ind., will show you
the statue of Father Corby outside a priests' residence near Sorin Hall, the
aging bronze mold of a man holding up his right arm ("There's old fair-catch
Corby").  Someone will point to a more modern chunk of metal, Moses, near the
library, an arm uplifted, forefinger gesturing to the heavens ("We're No.
1").  Someone will show you another figure, this one in the huge mosaic on
the library--Christ raising both arms ("Six points").)

NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T--28 November 1966, pg. 61, col. 2.  The phrase
is from magic, but is not in the RHHDAS.
     ...the fine now-you-see-me-now-you-don't running backs...

HOW'S THE WEATHER UP THERE?--5 December 1966, pg. 41, col. 1.  Cliches said
to a very tall person, in this case UCLA's Lew Alcindor.
     "You've heard them all: 'Watch your head.'  'How's the weather up
there?'  'You must have trouble sleeping.'  All that.  The one I hear most
now"--here Alcindor looks up--"is 'Boy, and I thought I was tall.'"

DOG MEAT--14 November 1966, pg. 102, col. 1.  The title of this
bridge-playing story is "The Dogmeat Was Hard to Swallow."
     We were both what the experts describe as "dogmeat," "bait" or "fish."
A once-a-month game with the neighbors was our milieu, and the neighbors
aren't named Goren.

PSYCHS--14 November 1966, pg. 106, col. 2.  From the same story as the above.
     "Do you bid psychs?"  (A psychic bid, or psych, is any utterly
meaningless bid, completely unjustified by the cards you hold, and if you
make such crazy bids, which we didn't, you must announce your habit to the
opponents in advance, which we hadn't.)

JELL--14 November 1966, pg. 84 (copy is unclear), col. 2.  Sports teams often
"jell"--unfortunately, not into strawberry.
    "The team has jelled," said Fran Tarkenton...

HEALTHY BODY, HEALTHY MIND--19 December 1966, pg. 106, col. 1.  This seems
like a classic quotation going back to the Greek athletes, but my quote books
don't have it.
     The well-known formula, "in a healthy body a healthy mind," is a highly
dubious one if applied universally.  In the normal view, a healthy mind is,
above all, a kind one.  But Hitler, for example, spared no expense on the
physical education of young people, with aims quite other than the
development of kindness in them.

MISTER CLEAN--19 December 1966, pg. M3, col. 2.  The RHHDAS has "Mister
Clean" from 1971.
     Fans keep a close check on the state of his (Pittsburgh Steeler Charlie
Bradshaw--ed.) uniform and from time to time admonish, "Ya oughta be ashamed
to pick up ya pay, Mr. Clean."

YOU'D SWEAR THEY CAME OUT OF THE STANDS TO TACKLE YOU--12 December 1966, pg.
18, col. 2.  This football cliche is not recorded.
     Buoniconti and the Pats used to put on a blitz that resembled a
stampede.  "They hit you with so many guys," (Jack--ed.) Kemp once said,
"that you'd swear half a dozen of them came out of the stands."

MY COACHING HAS IMPROVED--21 September 1964, pg. 67, col. 1.  A cliche said
by a coach after a superstar joins the team.
     "My coaching," he (Illinois coach Pete Elliott--ed.) says, "improved
100% last season."  What really improved Pete's coaching was the presence of
such edifying specimens as Dick Butkus...

...CONSIDERING--4 September 1964, pg. 35, col. 2.  I haven't seen this
recorded.
     Harley said,   "You didn't do too bad...considering."  He was very
serious, really trying, consciously, to keep me from remembering and being
humiliated.

PLAY THE PERCENTAGES--7 September 1964, pg. 83, col. 1.  Probably taken from
baseball and horse-racing.
     "I play percentages," he says, "and let Jerry (Kramer, the Green Bay
center--ed.) do the reading.  For instance, on pass rushes, players have a
tendency to go either inside or out most of the time.  I know from experience
which to expect and concentrate on."

NINTH INNING...FIVE YARD LINE--21 November 1966, pg. 64, cols. 2-3.  Yogi
Berra doesn't say all of these.
     Shortly before the election _Charles Percy_, the Republican candidate
for the Senate from Illinois, told a sports rally: "We're down to the ninth
inning with the ball on the five-yard line."  He won anyway.

SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW--3 August 1964, pg. 59.  The ads for Dial Soap used hip
phrases.  Another ad on 6 July 1964, pg. 1, was "Play it cool."
     So what else is new

FIFTEEN MINUTES--20 July 1964, pg. 62, col. 1.  Andy Warhol's "famous" quote
four years later was that, in the future, everyone would be famous for 15
minutes.  However, this earlier ad by the President's Council on Physical
Fitness showed a clock with a kid's hands for hands.
     Just 15 minutes of vigorous activity--during a daily physical education
period--can improve the physical fitness of our nation's youth.

JUDY!  JUDY!  JUDY!--14 September 1964, pg. 28, cols. 1-2.  I thought that
this excerpt from George Plimpton's PAPER LION might have pre-dated the Cary
Grant line (that he never actually said in a film), but see the web site at
www.ifb.co.uk/~pingu/cg/judy.htm.
     ..."blue!  blue!  blue!" which indicated a variety of zone coverage or
"red!  red!  red!" which designated man-on-man coverage.  The defensive code
words varied.  When Jim Ninowski, a former Lions quarterback, was traded from
Detroit to Cleveland, the defensive signals, which Ninowski knew, of course,
had to be changed when the two teams met--from colors to girls' names, it was
decided.  One of them was Ninowski's young wife's name--Judy, I think it was.
 He would call a play in the huddle and come up behind his center to hear the
linebackers across the line all hollering "Judy!  Judy!  Judy!"  The Lions
hoped that this would jar him somewhat.

LOST, BUT MAKING GREAT TIME--New York Times Magazine, 8 January 1956, pg. 26,
col. 2.  "Have You Heard This One?" is a roundup of jokes of the day.  This
continues a previous posting on this term--which was not coined by Yogi Berra
in the 1970s.
     A man who was wildly enthusiastic about his driving ability was taking a
trip with his wife.  After traveling a great distance, she consulted a map
and told him they were lost.  "What's the difference?" he said.  "We're
making great time."



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