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

Cheap Seats

Sky’s the limit, or is it?

Arizona Daily Star reporter Jon Wilner was impressed with USC following the Trojans’ 94-73 loss at Arizona. “USC has no one to match Arizona’s size or skill,” Wilner wrote. “In fact, word has it the Trojans have filed an application with the Big Sky to become its south-central affiliate.”

And if the Trojans can’t get into the Big Sky, there’s always the Big West.

They look mah-velous

Say this about the basketball team at the Fashion Institute of Technology: it plays as good as it looks. Good thing. The Tigers’ 15-4 record helps mitigate some of the “fash talking” from opponents and fans.

“I’ve heard it all,” said coach Marvin Rippy. “‘Here comes the tailor-made offense. They’re fashioning their defensive patterns.”’ Right. And you should see them run the weave.

FIT’s cramped campus is six blocks from Madison Square Garden, and the Tigers play in a sub-basement gym, around the corner from a dance studio. Famous alums run to the likes of Calvin Klein and Norma Kamili, not Calvin Murphy and Norm Van Lier.

“When I told my friends, they said, ‘Why are you going there?”’ said co-captain Ronnie Flood. “I had no real answers.”

Maybe because the Tigers have won 80 percent of their games the past 12 seasons and went to last year’s junior college nationals. But not even success can still the wisecracks. After a recent loss at Allegheny CC, the headline in the local paper read: “Allegheny Undresses FIT.”

Bet you can’t watch just one

Move over Bud Bowl. It appears former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo will launch a comeback during the Super Bowl - in a TV spot for Frito-Lay. “I can’t confirm or deny,” Cuomo said. “That will be clarified soon because you’ll have the Super Bowl soon.”

He’ll introduce Frito-Lay’s new snack, “Patakies.”

A little lower … lower … lower

It pains us to tattle on our brethren, but as usual the media are really bellying up to the trough at Super Bowl XXIX. Or is that bellying down? Among the perks: two therapists are offering free massages at the Omni International Mall, site of the official press center - “to relieve all that tension,” said Caridad Fleites of the Miami Heart Institute.

Yeah, it’s a stressful assignment, what with the hosts having sunk $500,000 into a pair of media parties and doling out the usual freebies - Super Bowl tote bags and drink mugs and cigars. Even for that rare occasion when a journalist has to actually buy something, the Omni offers a personal shopper who’ll take orders and deliver goods back upstairs.

Naturally, some sneer at the excess. Mike Freeman of the New York Times insists he won’t attend the parties, other than the big Friday-night NFL bash.

“That’s different,” Freeman said. “I go to see people I know and talk to sources. I don’t accept the free stuff. I don’t go to the Bud Bowl Party.”

Now that’s ethics.

The last word …

“The game was so long we ran out of plays to run.”

- Central Valley coach Terry Irwin, whose Bears held the ball for final shots three times in a triple-OT loss to Lewis and Clark