Here’s a thought for exuberant Badger alumni humming “On, Wisconsin” around the workplace Monday: Michael Jackson owns rights to the school’s fight song. No kidding. It works like this: The song was part of a catalog of tunes purchased from a New York record company in 1979 by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, who, in turn, sold the property to Jackson a few years ago. A descendant of the fight song’s original publisher notes no one controls the music anymore in the U.S. because the copyright expired, putting it in public domain. However, he grudgingly conceded Jackson owns the international copyright-and this will come in handy, of course, if “On, Wisconsin” gets on the charts in Albania, Thailand, Paraguay or some other foreign port.
Get the picture? No one was exactly sure what his connection with Bigsby and Kruthers was, but the guy who had his family with him at Sunday’s late-morning Bulls practice drew lots of laughs with cracks about the company’s sign on the Kennedy Expressway-the one featuring those huge mug shots of “celebrities.” One of the biggest yuks came when he said the Jim Harbaugh likeness was going to be painted over and replaced with a question mark.
More Bears: How offensive are the Bears? Here are a few facts that may get your motors started this week:
– Their 234 final points were fewest for a full season since ’76, when they played 14 games. In fact, the league didn’t go to a 16-game schedule till ’78.
– Tom Waddle’s 552 reception yards were the second-lowest total for a Bears team leader in 11 seasons. The franchise hasn’t had a conference leader in catches or yards since Dick Gordon in ’70.
– Harbaugh’s 1,895 passing yards was lowest for the team leader in six years. The Bears’ seven TD passes came dangerously close to fewest in a season for the franchise-five in ’50, when they played 12 games.
– Neal Anderson’s 646 rushing yards were more than his team-leading total (582) last year, but his total was fourth lowest for a team leader in 19 years.
That was then: Sounds like a regular lovefest in Dayton on Monday, when the Flyers celebrate both the 25th anniversary of their UD Arena as well as the school’s first-ever Great Midwest Conference basketball game. De Paul’s the opponent and Ray Meyer, Bill Bradshaw, Joey Meyer and league Commissioner Mike Slive will be special guests at a luncheon and a pregame dinner. Bradshaw said he’s pretty sure he won’t need someone to taste his food to see if it’s poisoned. De Paul’s always been a dirty word on the Dayton campus, but relations never got meaner than a few years ago when the Blue Demons AD engineered the Great Midwest formation that siphoned schools away from the Flyers’ former league. This is the first time the schools have met in men’s basketball since ’91.
Domino theory: As soon as Notre Dame defeated Texas A&M, Lou Holtz began using the “head-to-head” argument in staking a claim to the national championship over Florida State. This plays right into Northwestern’s hands. Gary Barnett’s Wildcats beat Boston College, who beat the Fighting Irish, who beat Florida State, who beat Nebraska.
More bowling: There’s plenty of room for bowl leftovers.
– Key to Wisconsin’s triumph? You can make a strong case for the offensive line coached by Bill Callahan, focal point in this season’s press box “spy” controversy with Illinois. This was Callahan’s first trip to the Rose Bowl since he was a Fighting Illini assistant in ’84 and Illinois lost 45-9 to UCLA.
– What was more overblown with hot air? ABC-TV’s Keith Jackson or the blimp flying over the Rose Bowl? Let’s say Jackson for making this remark following UCLA-Wisconsin’s sideline brawl: “I have no interest in participating in a sport that’s going to allow disgraceful behavior like this.” Comment: Let us not forget it was Jackson who was one of ABC-TV’s leading mouthpieces for the USFL, the springtime pro league that caused more damage to the college game than any melee.
– The Bruins’ Marvin Goodwin, one of the ejected, visited Madison as a recruit in ’89 and attended the Badgers’ opener with Miami. The Hurricanes won 51-3 and Goodwin, from New Jersey, immediately scratched the Big 10 school from his list. His brother, Duer Sharp, was a Badger starter at the time.
– In the Orange wrapup, Bobby Bowden got drenched by a bucket of water, poked by cameras and jostled by fans. So somebody please explain why a platoon of deputy sheriffs was with him?
– Siskel and Ebert, who gave their top 10 movies for ’93, were opposite the Rose and Cotton bowls. It isn’t likely they had any more viewers than several films they listed.
And finally: Curses! The Dolphins’ Don Shula, rolling along with a 6-1 record at one point, has stumbled to a 2-5 mark and failed to make the playoffs since passing George Halas as the NFL’s winningest coach.
