Sandusky

It was a voice he couldn't identify. Maybe it was his conscience talking or a message, as he prefers to believe, from some higher power. Distinctly it told him: "Start the foundation." Twice more it repeated itself on that July afternoon two years ago during a trip along the interstate highway . . . Baltimore to Pittsburgh.That's what sent Gerry Sandusky into action. He listened to the zTC words as a believer and took them literally. With strong resolve, ,, he organized the Joe Sandusky Foundation, to honor the memory of a brother who died while a football player at Tulsa University.

Carol Yingling, director of the National Youth Duckpin Association, confirmed Steve Sandusky's suspicions.His Riviera Bowl center in Pasadena has the largest number of sanctioned youth duckpin bowlers in the nation."

Bristol, Connecticut -- "Each truck pulling away from the 106-year-old General Motors plant carries more than cold steel. It takes part of the soul of Bristol and the generations of families who worked there.''That was the lead last Sunday of a story by Susan Houriet and Michael Kodas in the Hartford Courant on the closing of the GM plant called ''New Departures'' around here, a factory that employed as many as 11,000 people once upon a time and turned farms into an industrial town of 60,000 in the middle of one of the richest of the United States.

As soon as this week's college football rankings came out Sunday, Gerry Sandusky knew he was in for seven whole days of trouble.Sandusky, the weeknight sports anchor at Channel 11, is one of 62 Associated Press poll voters, and he was the only one to cast a first-place vote this week for No. 3 Auburn."

Here's a quiz: Name five great radio baseball broadcasters. Piece of cake, right?Now, name one great football radio broadcaster. OK, Chuck Thompson shows up on both lists, but can you name another?The reason you can't is simple. Football, with its bursts of action, larger-than-life figures and easier-to-follow ball, is a much more conducive game for television's purposes than baseball, whose natural gaps between plays allow for the more personable contact of radio.Still, football can be a pleasing game to listen to on the radio, provided, of course, you find the right announcers.

In this first of an occasional series, columnist Les Picker will follow the development of a newly formed Maryland foundation through its formative stages.It is a rare achievement, indeed, when we can create meaning and lasting benefit for others from a wrenching tragedy.Joe Sandusky was a promising athlete, on a football scholarship at the University of Tulsa. After a routine practice, the sophomore called home and spoke to his father and kid brother, making only passing mention of a minor infected shoulder, one of the constant scrapes and bruises that are part and parcel of the gridiron.

The Triple Crown award goes to the league bowler who posts the highest figures in three categories: high game, set and average.Of the thousands of female bowlers in this area, only a few will achieve this accomplishment. Two of them competed at Brunswick Normandy in Ellicott City: Debbie Bell and Chris Hollinde.Bell of Dayton carries a 165 average. Tuesday she bowls in the Mixed Fivesome league and on Wednesday in the Queen Bee. It was in the Mixed Fivesome last season that she posted her career high figures.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N. J. -- Supplanting George Halas in the NFL record book, by reason of simple arithmetic, is going to have to wait. It's on hold. There's still one more to go.Don Shula and the team he coaches, the Miami Dolphins, had a long afternoon in losing to the New York Jets, 27-10, yesterday and thereby delayed the chance of any immediate revision in the all-time coaching standings.Yet it's inevitable that Shula is going to get there. He's still tied with Halas in all-time coaching wins, 324, so the next opportunity comes when the Dolphins are in Philadelphia to meet the Eagles on Sunday.

Local TV newscasters this week are adding a sixth "W" to the who, what, when, where and why of good journalism.This "W" stands for wigging out and trying to whip viewers into an emotional frenzy with their coverage from suburban Chicago of the NFL owners' vote on expansion.Never have I seen so much air time and breathless reporting result in so little information or perspective as we've been getting this week from the let's-go-live-to-Chicago gang.And they're proud of being out of control on top of it.Here's how Channel 11 sportscaster Gerry Sandusky opened his live report from Rosemont, Ill., Monday night:"Rod, I'll tell you, I finally understand that saying, 'I spent a month in that city one day,' because that's what it feels like we spent here in Chicago," Sandusky said to anchor Rod Daniels.

Let's go to a secret hideaway somewhere near Frostbite Falls, Minn. A small man who sports a mustache and a black coat and black hat is talking to a tall, curvy woman with bright, red lips."