As the college football openers quickly approach Sept. 5, locker-room walls are starting to fill up with comments from opposing teams. At BYU, for instance, an article from the El Paso Times has found its way onto the bulletin board.
In the article, written by Times columnist Ray Hagar, UTEP offensive linemen Jesse Villareal, Anthony Cruz and Rick Canales, all of them starters and all of them Hispanic, accuse BYU of racism and suggest that will be a motivating factor for them when the Cougars visit El Paso for the BYU-UTEP Sept. 5 opener in the Sun Bowl.Writes Hagar: "The three players . . . don't seem to like BYU. All three used the word "racist" in describing taunts from the BYU fans last year when the Miners lost to BYU, 31-29, in Provo.
"We got downgraded when we went to BYU," Canales said. "They (fans) threw tortillas at us and said people from El Paso - meaning Hispanics - can't play football. They told us to go back to Mexico.' "
Lost on the linemen was the fact that the throwing of tortilla shells is a weekly tradition at BYU, and for the past few years they have been thrown on a regular basis at teams consisting of every race, creed and color.
"The students throw them because they fly like frisbees and it gets the crowd going," says BYU sports information director Ralph Zobell. "Actually, we've been trying to get them to stop. Some people think they are frisbees."
Although that obviously doesn't include UTEP's linemen.
WHAT RACISM?: Nati Valdez is a Hispanic who plays on the other side of the tortillas. A BYU wide receiver from Mission, Texas, Valdez is coming into his senior season this year and he has a completely different view of Hispanic racism, or the lack thereof, in Provo.
"I've been here three years and I've never had a problem," says Valdez. "I've never seen any sign of racism. The tortilla thing, it's all done in good humor. I've never taken it as anything racial. I don't know, maybe they're (the UTEP players) trying to get our attention on something else. Maybe they want to get that little extra edge. They haven't had much success against us, and a lot of it could be frustration."
Valdez - who expects to have a sizable contingent of supporters from his home town in El Paso for the opener - doesn't plan on straightening the opposition out about the tortillas, however. "If they were to approach me, I'd tell them the straight story," he says, "but I'll probably just let it go and play the game."
BEMAN THE DIPLOMAT: The pre-Showdown Classic activities got under way Monday at the Jeremy Ranch Golf Course, with the first day of play in the Congressional Challenge, a charity tournament involving a number of U.S. senators and representatives.
Also on hand was Deane Beman, commissioner of the PGA Tour, who accepted an invitation from Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, the host of the Challenge, to visit Utah and play 18 holes on the course that annually hosts the Senior Tour.
"The commissioner wanted to let Orrin know how much the PGA appreciates him, as well as all the other congressmen who we receive support from in a variety of legislation," said Ric Clarson, the Senior Tour's director of administration.
How sincere was Beman? Sincere enough that on the par three fourth hole, designated for the closest-to-the-hole contest, he displayed perfect diplomacy and allowed his shot that landed 9 feet, 101/2 inches from the pin to be topped by Senator Hatch, whose shot ended just 6 feet, 91/8 inches away and edged Beman's for the win.
HAZARD PAY: The Sept. 5 football openers don't figure to be particularly kind to the state's major colleges - not with Div. II Southern Utah opening on the road at Div. I-AA Northern Arizona, Div. I-AA Weber State jumping up a notch to play at Div. IA New Mexico State, Utah State traveling to Arizona as a decided underdog, and Utah traveling to Nebraska as an even more decided underdog. Only BYU will be favored, and the Cougars still have to open on the road at UTEP.
But if all's well that ends with a nice payday, even a combined 1-4 or 0-5 record won't be disastrous. Southern Utah will get approximately $20,000 for playing at NAU, Weber will get around $35,000 from New Mexico State, Utah State will get in the neighborhood of $250,000 from Arizona, and Utah, at 40 percent of gross sales in 70,000-seat Cornhusker Stadium, will probably get in excess of $400,000 or more from Nebraska. That adds up to more than $700,000 for hitting the road.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Larry Bird on the lack of ego clashes between members of the U.S. basketball "Dream Team" and head coach Chuck Daly: "Chuck didn't have any problem with ego because Chuck's got a bigger ego than any of us."