Monday, September 13, 1982The Daily Tar Heel7
The
sports
ChecMmM facts at
By KAREN ROSEN
How much does the Ayatollah Kho
meini weigh and why does Sports Il
lustrated want to know? In his story
about the World Wrestling Champion
ships, Craig Neff referred to the
Ayatollah, "that old tk-pounder." In
fact-checking terms, "tk" means "to
come," or as Neff included in parenthe
sis, "checking test for intern reporter."
The managing editor thought Neff s little
joke was a wonderful touch, but I was
not amused. It was my hardest task of the
summer harder than asking Buck
Belue how much money he makes, or
hailing a New York City cab at 6 p jn. on
a Friday.
The Time Incorporated library files
spellout what food the Ayatollah eats and
how often he prays, but there is no book
called "Weights and Measures of World
Leaders," or stories explaining just how
gaunt Khomeini has become. The CIA
wouldn't comment and the State Depart
ment Iran Desk wasn't open. But the in
tern reporter has her sources. Shaul
Bakhash, a Princeton professor, received
my frantic call at 10:30 that Sunday
night. He had a good laugh, then esti-
mated 140 pounds. To add to its scoop on
Don Reese, NFL drug addict, Sporty Il
lustrated had the scoop on Khomeini,
aspiring welterweight.
Not all Sports Illustrated reporters
have to unearth such obscure facts about
non-sporting figures. A golf story about
Jan Stephenson said her mother fixed her
favorite meal every day. The reporter had
to call Jan to find out if it was for lunch
or dinner. And was Tampa Bay Buc
caneer Cecil Johnson's pet duck named
Donald or Skippy? A reporter's job is to
guarantee that every fact in a story is
red-checkefl, which means putting a
scarlet slash through every word and
noting the source. Every time a change is
made, the copy of the story has to" go
through a copy editor and then up to the
Time Inc. computer. Two hours later, it
comes back. One Sunday night Baseball
Week came up short at 2 a.m. The writer
scribbled a couple of extra lines in the
margin. At 4 a.m., bleary-eyed, I looked
it over one last time. The story said that
Texas beat Oklahoma. It should have said
Oakland. That's called a catch, more
satisfying than an unassisted triple play.
At Sports Illustrated you don't make a
mistake unless some know-it-all reader
writes a letter to the editor challenging
you. Reporters ' don't ': like '" readers.
Readers make us lose our jobs. All they
want is to get their name in the magazine.
During one of my first weeks, a copy
editor asked, "Did you hear about the
Discover reporter who hanged himself?
He made a mistake." She added, "Ob
Pitt loss doesn't spell the end of UNC season
By LINDA ROBERTSON
Sports Editor
"Is there a game or something tonight?"
the flight attendant asked three stadium-bound
passengers on Thursday's plane to Pittsburgh.
They must have wondered how long her
head had been in the clouds. Surely everyone
had heard about the thrilling showdown be
tween No. 1 Pitt and No. 5 North Carolina.
Heisman Trophy contenders Danny Marino
and Kelvin Bryant had been the subjects of
more photo spreads than Brooke Shields. And
they'd be out there racking up all kinds of yar
dage on national television. The game was
Foge Fazio's debut and UNC's chance to
burst into a new era in football. It would be a
spectacular game.
Well, it wasn't. That, flight attendant had
the proper angle on a game that didn't live up
to its great expectations. The referees seemed
tobecnciirmcrtthiEnyccbeasthr
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viously he had other problems."
Reporters have a pretty good life ex
cept on Friday morning when copies of
the letters are passed around. Some let
ters are more ludicrous than publishable.
At least a dozen readers pointed out that
Quintin Dailey was "giving readers the
finger." Three people were offended be
cause Denver Bronco Tom Glassic, while
modeling a Napoleon costume, seemed to
have forgotten to wear underwear.
By Friday afternoon, reporters settle
into their normal routine of waiting for
their story to arrive. Once reporters are
assigned a sports beat, they travel to
select events. Golf reporter Bambi
Bachman went to Troon, Scotland, for
the British Open. Boxing reporter Paula
Phelps saw the Cooney-Holmes fight at
ringside in Las Vegas.
Jill Lieber promised to take me into the
Yankee locker room, but we never made
it because George Steinbrenner still was
upset at SI for printing that he was a
felon. Jill said Dave Kingman called
women reporters "sluts." So we avoided
the Mets locker room. I did get to go to a
luncheon honoring Ralph Sampson,
where a member of the elite New York
press corps, promptly ripped off my
wallet.
. I worked with most of the SI reporters
and editors this summer, and only Joy
Duckett insisted upon calling me
"rookie." I met the writers who actually
set foot in their offices, or at least peeked
inside. Dan Jenkins has captions under
the pictures on his wall. I saw Frank
Deford once, but he wasn't around long
enough to autograph a book as a birth
day present for the intern at Young Miss
magazine. She was a rich girl from Okla
homa and received an oil well instead.
The staffers were always willing to pull
a phone number off their Rolodex if I
needed to find out how many games
Kareem Abdul Jabbar lost in high school
or if George Allen would really coach in
the USFL. I sent queries to London or
Bonn when I needed to know the mileage
around a foreign racetrack and jogged to
the U.S. Tennis Association office for a
list of Billie Jean King's victories. Yet I
learned more about office gossip than
about archery. Franz Lidz, who once ap
peared on the David Letterman Show
with his singing parrots, got into trouble
because he listed $850 on his expense ac
count for one night's entertainment. He
says he took the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
out for a drink. Between softball games
in Central Park and watching the lunar
eclipse ; at - the -Hamptons, : 1; was bold
enough;o-ask how-everypne got?started
at Sports Illustrated.
The easiest way to get a job at SI is to
go to Princeton. Ten staff members have
what amounts to an incestuous relation
ship with the Ivy League school. If you
want to finish your four years at UNC
penalized both teams 18 times for 230 yards.
The Milwaukee Brewers have regularly scored
more runs than the 13 points Pitt arid UNC
managed to eke out in their opener.
While Marino and Bryant, not to mention
Herschel Walker, struggled on television,
Stanford's John Elway quietly completed 29
of 37 passes for 333 yards and four touch
downs in a 35-14 win over Purdue.
But Elway didn't have to wade through the
pre-game pressure and publicity that engulfed
the UNC-Pitt contest. That accounted for
much of the nervousness on both sides of the
line of scrimmage.
Any potential for finesse on offense was
cancelled by errors and rugged defensive play.
It was only fitting for CBS to name Pitt de
fensive tackle Bill Maas and UNC linebacker
Mike Wilcher (five tackles, three sacks, one in
terception) the players of the game. Aaron
Jackson, Willie Harris, Bill Sheppard and
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Karen Rosen leafs through
.... She worked as
and figure that working on a sports stall
somewhere will do the trick, guess again.
One of Srs newest acquisitions, Vick
Boughton, was an anthropology major at
Wellesley before she became an editor at
Working Woman. I had to explain to her
that there is such a thing as a free safety in
football, but since she was hired for her
creative writing ability, knowing who
won the World Series in 1963 is irrelevant.
According to office lore author Kurt
Vonnegut once applied to SI. One version
says he was shut into a little room with a
typewriter and told he had 10 minutes to
tell why he wanted to work at SI and
what his goals were in life. He tapped
out, "Who needs this shit anyway?" and
left. Maybe he decided that working
Saturday and Sunday wasn't worth the
hassle.
Sports Illustrated 's weekend is Tuesday
and Wednesday. Sunday night, when
most of the stories are finished, often
stretches into Monday breakfast. While
waiting for copy, reporters stay awake by
watching "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini
Machine" or "Interludes After Mid
night," a nude talk show. Although HBO
is headquartered in the same building, we
didn't get it. - '
To compensate for the all-nighters, re
porters are allowed to take three-hour
lunch breaks, when many run through
the park. Changing back into work
clothes isn't an immediate requirement
for reporters unless they smell. But
vv.-- - . . . 111 nOMMMIMttW
Walter Black also had outstanding per
formances. UNC's secondary was not the
sieve it has been in the past, and the line held
Pitt to 72 yards rushing. In fact, UNC had 247
total yards to Pitt's 197.
"That was the best defense we've every fac
ed," Pitt's All-American offensive tackle Jim
bo Covert said.. "When we didn't stop our
selves they certainly did."
There were other bright spots for the Tar
Heels. Rob Rogers, David Lowe and Brooks
Barwick erased any doubts about the kicking
game. Rod Elkins, although shaky, moved the
ball effectively when Bryant didn't. A few
UNC players were even smiling in the locker
room after the game. They had reason to he
proud.
Finally, it's time to listen to what Dick
Crum has said over and over again.
"It's only one game out of 11," he said.
V We still have a whole schedule to play."
i
OTHAI Steele
an issue of Sports Illustrated
an intern. Tor bi this summer
you had better be around when the
phone rings and a voice says three words
to quicken the heartbeat and cause even
the most seasoned reporter to spring ;
down the hall: "Gil wants you." Gil
Rogin, the managing editor, reads every
word that goes into the magazine and
works closely with his reporters since he
rose through the ranks. All Sports II-:.
lust rated reporters are encouraged to
write small pieces so the editors can get a
taste of their writing style.
I wrote a piece that was printed in
Scorecard about a 10,000-milimeter
(33-foot) road race in which the slowest
person won. It became the week's sketch
piece, so I received the original drawing.
But that's not my only, reminder of the
summer. I have 200 sheets of SI sta
tionery, two packs of Time Inc. pencils,
and enough anecdotes and memories to
pull me through some all-nighters,
Carolina-style. Besides, I can't read an
article without noticing what facts had to
be checked by a beleaguered reporter.
Time magazine made a whopper of an
error in a recent issue. In a story on Jane
Fonda, Tune said she had two daughters.
. Any Fonda fan knows that she has a
daughter -and a son. Some-factrcheckejL
messed up. Of course, it's not a mistake
unless somebody writes a letter.
Karen Rosen, a senior economics and
journalism major from Auburn, Ala., is
glad she didn 't go to Princeton.
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Connolly scores two goals
in UNC's home soccer win
By MIKE DESIST!
Staff Writer
Aided by the sure foot and positioning
of Chris Connolly, the strength of David
Helwig, and the take-it-to-them style of
play exhibited by the entire side, the
men's soccer team opened their home
season with a 3-0 victory over UNC-Wilmington
Saturday on Fetzer Field. The
Tar Heels boosted their record to 4-0-1 in
handing the Seahawks their first loss itff
the season. o ,
Helwig, from West Chester, Penn.,
twice received second-man assists in the
first half. The sophomore stopper back
paired first with Connolly and then with
Tony Johnson to net goals off a set
throw-in play the Tar Heels often use. ,
Eight minutes into the game, Helwig
tossed a long throw from the right touch
line to the near post, where Johnson flip
ped the ball backwards with his head
across the goalmouth. Connolly prompt
ly ran in from the left side, and leaping to
meet it in the air with his instep, pushed
the ball through the outstretched arms of
Seahawk goalkeeper Billy Ireland for the
first and winning goal.
Helwig acknowledged the predesigned
nature of the play. "I'm supposed to hit
the skim man (Johnson, in this case), and
he flicks it into the center," Helwig said.
"From there, people are just supposed to
crash the goal."
It was this same play from the same
spot that again proved successful and
gave UNC a two-goal advantage just fif
teen minutes later. Only this time Johnson
got the goal and Tim Ensley received
credit for the assist.
Ensley's nod of Helwig's throw didn't
go unchallenged like the previous score,
and the ball bounced around for a mo
ment at the near post. But the result was
the same a goal as the ball settled
home in the right side of the net, Johnson
having knocked it in.
The second half saw the Tar Heels ap
ply a tremendous amount of pressure,
only to be continually frustrated by the
Seahawks' Ireland, a begrudging goal
post, and their own lack of execution in
the penalty area.
"We created a lot of great scoring op
portunities, we just didn't have the killer
instinct in the box," UNC Coach Anson
Dorrance said. "We didn't concentrate in
the box like we have and I know we can."
Striker Mark Devey agreed. "I thought
we brought the ball into the offensive
4hird43eautifjidlyr.-. we - juststruggled .
finishirig "he' said. "We were killing'
them, we just couldn't put the ball away."
Not until the last 10 minutes of the
game, at least. It was then that right back
Joe Malier found himself with the ball in
the right corner of the area. Maher
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launched a bending shot to the far post
. with the outside of his foot, having Ire
land well beaten. In typical second-half
fashion, the ball caromed off the metal
and bounced out towards the center of
the field. But it traveled little more than
six yards before it met up with Connolly,
again in the right place at the right time,
, jand he slipped it past the fallen keeper for
' his second goal of the night and third in
. the last two games.
' The freshman midfielder from Miami
had an explanation for his timeliness.
"Coach was a little mad in the first
game, I should have been there (far post)
a few times and I wasn't," Connolly said.
"But we've worked on it a lot in practice;
I tried to be there as much as I could and
it paid off."
Though the majority of the half was
played in the Seahawks' end of the field,
UNC-W had its share of opportunities as
well.
"I was pleased with our second half,"
UNC-W Coach Calvin Lane said.
Ireland saw the second half as being
more productive as well.
"True, (it) was played in our end," the
goalkeeper said. "(But) we were able to
counter them and put some pressure on
them."
Tar Heel goalkeeper Bruce Talbot con
tinually fended off counterattacks with
aggressive play in the nets. At one point
midway through the period, Talbot
charged out to the edge of the penalty
area to make a sliding save on a Seahawk
forward, who was running uncontested
toward the net. The shot deflected off
Talbot's chest and arms to the right side
of the area where another UNC-W player
made a run at the goal. Talbot quickly
regained his feet and again made the save.
"We're always on the attack, always
on the go," Talbot said. "When we do
get beat, I'm off the line no problem."
With UNC-W fresh off a win over 1 98 1
Division III champion Glasboro State
(N.J.), Dorrance stressed the significance
of the victory.
"It was an important win," he said.
"Outside of the ACC they're probably
our greatest rival. You could sense the in
tensity of the game."
For the record
Because of typographical errors, a
i paragraph in the UNC-Pittsburgh football
game stqrxFriday.C'Pitt defense contains
1 UNC-as Panthers grab 7-6 win") should
have read: "With Marino's 6-foot-4 frame
..peering over the rush like a periscope,
UNC's Knebackers and secondary had the
job of stopping his airborne torpedoes."
The DTH regrets the error.