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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Shorts Cut A No-No In Cross Country

A girls cross country team in Miami was disqualified from a third-place finish at the state meet for running in shorts considered too risque.

The Florida High School Activities Association requires girls briefs not be “abbreviated,” meaning high cut, or French cut. The Gulliver team wears briefs similar to those worn by American Olympic star Jackie Joyner-Kersee, but the FHSAA’s deputy commissioner, Ron Allen, ruled them inappropriate.

On the day of the meet, Allen asked a spectator if he would allow his daughter to wear such shorts.

“As a matter of fact, she’s wearing them right now,” replied Luis Perez, whose daughter Lissette, runs for Gulliver.

Perez said Allen then asked him, “What if they were white? Their private parts might show.” Perez said: “I asked him if he was there to watch the race or to watch private parts.”

When asked later about the ruling, Allen told The Miami Herald: “We’re talking about high school kids. Those briefs don’t look appropriate. And they may lend an advantage to a runner.” He did not explain what kind of advantage.

Briefly, while we’re on short subjects …

We all know basketball players today prefer baggy shorts - baggy to the point of hanging below the kneecap - and laugh when they see 1970ish videos of their ancestors wearing older, shorter styles.

Such was the case when University of Memphis sophomore center Lorenzen Wright viewed some old highlights and saw his coach, Larry Finch, suited up in tight-fittin’ trunks.

“Daisy Dukes,” Wright called them.

Get it? In the ‘70s TV show “The Dukes of Hazzard,” actress Catherine Bach played Daisy Duke, who wore short cut-off jeans.

Good to see quality TV still appeals to today’s youth.

To my buddy, Jerry …

If you had the sound down for the Chargers-Cardinals game when Fox turned Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson loose without a play-by-play man, attaboy. But you missed a good moment when official Jerry Bergman had to spot the ball on fourth-and-1.

Bergman is the ref who had $2,000 taken from his check by the NFL for asking Green Bay quarterback Brent Favre for his autograph before a recent game he also happened to be working. Johnson said Bergman’s placement of the ball “just depends on whether he got an autograph from Bobby Ross or Buddy Ryan.”

Hey, what do you think CNN’s for?

The ABC affiliate in Green Bay preempted President Clinton’s speech on Bosnia to televise “The Mike Holmgren Show.”

Must have been the chili

The official statistical report of the most recent Chicago Bears-Detroit Lions game showed the wind at game time at 1 mph. The game was played indoors.

The last word …

“Christmas isn’t too big there. They’ve had three generations of Commies.”

Vancouver’s Pavel Bure, out for the NHL season following surgery, on going home to Moscow for the holidays

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo