Insignificant sideline personnel

Do you remember when Barry Switzer was in Dallas, and DFW columnist Randy Galloway stayed on Switzer’s back? Galloway called Switzer “Gunsmoke” after a gun was found in Switzer’s bag at airport security. But do you remember the other nickname Galloway penned for Switzer?

“ISP.” Insignificant Sideline Personnel.

I thought of that the other night during the Holiday Bowl when Mack Brown’s stepson, Chris Jesse, came on the field during play and either touched or didn’t touch the wayward ball tossed backwards by Arizona State Rudy Carpenter. What in the heck was Jesse doing on the sidelines?

College football sidelines are way too crowded. Way too populated with people who have no business being on the field. Look at the typical college sideline, then look at the typical NFL sideline. Unbelievable difference. The NFL polices sideline credentials. Limits them in a major way.

The same should be done in college. I remember a USC-UCLA game probably 34 years ago. Seems like it was 1973. A UCLA flanker, I think, caught a pass going out of bounds and ran into some guy standing on the sidelines. Knocked him down, of course. As the Bruin trotted back onto the field, the knucklehead on the sideline got up, ran at the UCLA player and pushed him in the back. Keith Jackson, in his glory days, immediately said something to the effect, “Schools need to do a better job of checking out who’s on the sidelines.”

Same goes today. But I feel a little kinship with Chris Jesse, and here’s why. Another story from 1973 or so. I was in seventh grade, and the Harlem Globetrotters came to the Myriad. Our basketball team went, and on the team was Bo Overton, who would go on to point guard for the Sooners and coach at OU and in the WNBA. Anyway, Bo’s father, Claudell Overton, knew everybody in basketball and got us great seats. One of the Trotter executives asked Claudell for a couple of ball boys, and he picked me and Bo. Eventually, they decided for some more racial balance and sent Bo back to his seat, leaving me alone under one basket as a ballboy for the Trotters.