THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070543
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
Rick Kiefner, former president of the Norfolk Sports Club and a broadcaster with Old Dominion University basketball for 26 years, received the Joe Brown Award Tuesday night as the club's Member of the Year.
Kiefner, who was club president in 1980 and has remained involved with every committee the club offers since then, currently is vice chairman of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, Sports Division. He also is a past president of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce and serves as chairman of the DePaul Hospital Advisory Board.
``I have never known Rick to say he was too busy to serve the club in any capacity,'' presenter Butch Pierce told the Sports Club Jamboree audience at the Omni Waterside.
``He has always been there for whoever needed him, always guided new chairmen through the first days of their assignment. He did not stop being an active member of the Sports Club once his presidency ended.''
THE RIGHT STUFF: Redskins second-year quarterback Heath Shuler has it, according to ex-NFL coach Sam Wyche, himself a former pro quarterback.
``Heath is a guy made of too many tough fibers,'' Wyche said. ``When I interviewed him (prior to the 1994 NFL draft), you could tell he was a guy who loved the game, who understands defenses as well as offenses.
``He is a guy who is not afraid to work, take the chances you have to take and come back and keep trying when you don't look good. And, athletically, this guy has all the skills.''
DALLAS NOT DONE: Wyche says the Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys may lose some players to free agency but have more than enough of the necessary ingredients to remain a force in the league.
``In today's football, you have key players,'' Wyche said. ``Obviously, you have to have a quarterback. You also need either a key receiver or running back. You've got to have at least a solid line and then a key, dominant defensive player. After that, you pretty much intermix, you manipulate the cap with whatever you can afford.
``They have more than their share of key players. They have a receiver (Michael Irvin) and a running back (Emmitt Smith). They have a superior offensive line.
``Paul Brown used to say you build a football team from the players closest to the ball outward - the center, the nose tackle are basically the same, then the defensive line and offensive line. If you've got good, strong offensive and defensive linemen, you can play.''
Wyche asserts that the Cowboys don't have to outbid the competition for quality free agents, just come reasonably close.
``If the money isn't tremendously different, players will want to go where they can go to the Super Bowl,'' he said. ``The Cowboys will have that card to play.
``If the money's different, that's different. Players go where the money is. There are some who would go for a dollar more, some who would only leave a winning situation for a significant difference. If you've got Dallas there and their young players - and they're still young - other players are going to want to be around them.''
ROSEY THE WRITER: Rosey Grier - actor, minister, singer and former All-Pro defensive tackle - has added yet another title to his resume: novelist.
Grier was selling and signing copies of his novel, ``Shooting Star,'' at Tuesday's Norfolk Sports Club Celebrity Luncheon.
Grier has written four other books, including one on perhaps the most fabled of his many non-football talents, needlepoint, but had not dabbled in fiction before.
``There are some things I wanted to say that I couldn't say otherwise,'' he explained.
``Shooting Star'' is about a ``Joe Montana-type'' quarterback who is trying to come to grips with the end of his career. Out for a jog one day, the character, Brett Holiday, comes across Fox, a troubled adolescent who has run away from an orphanage.
``It's about their relationship,'' Grier said. ``This athlete suddenly discovers there is much more to outside of football than there is inside football.''
Something Grier discovered long ago.
HARDWARE: At the luncheon, field hockey player Kim Miller of Cox High School received the Ellis Loveless scholastic athlete award from Grier; Old Dominion's Samantha Salvia was recognized for being the school's first Rhodes Scholar by university president Dr. James Koch; and master of ceremonies Lee Corso presented the Bob Bates scholastic coach's award to football coach Bob Parker of Indian River High School. At the banquet, Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer received the J. Roy Rodman Award from Grier; Tech defensive end Cornell Brown received the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Award from Shuler; and Virginia quarterback Mike Groh received the Leigh Williams Award from his father, Al Groh, defensive coordinator for the New England Patriots, who flew into town Tuesday to present the honor.
BROWN'S RETURN: Virginia Tech's Brown, a first-team All-American defensive end, took a look at where might go in the NFL draft last month, and decided to return to Blacksburg for his senior season of eligibility.
Brown said the NFL's College Advisory Committee - a group of NFL player personnel directors that advises underclassmen where they might be drafted - projected him as a third-round selection. Brown said the estimate was a little conservative and believes that he would have been, at worst, a second-round pick.
``If that's where it was, I could have dealt with that,'' Brown said. ``I'm sure there will be moments when I wish I'd have done it, but I'll go back and play another year of college football and enjoy it.''
Brown, the defensive player of the year in the Big East, will undoubtedly enjoy a lot of preseason notoriety.
``He's the leading candidate for the Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award right now,'' said Corso. ``All the big-name juniors left. He's the best football player coming back.''
Brown's response to Corso's comments was essentially thank you very much, please keep on stumping. ``That's basically the name of the game if you have guys people see week in and week out talking about you,'' Brown said.
GROH ON THE GO: Virginia's Groh recently played in the East-West all-star game and will travel to Indianapolis later this week for the NFL scouting Combine.
Groh views these appearances before NFL types as opportunities to enhance his chances in the draft.
``You can only measure a quarterback by what he does on the field,'' Groh said. ``The drills are nice, but quarterback is a different position that can only be evaluated on the field. I don't think these are going to make or break my status.''
HOOSIERS: Corso and Wyche have a common bond. Corso was the longtime coach at Indiana, and when he was fired in the early 1980s; Wyche was his replacement.
Wyche coached the Hoosiers one season before going to the Cincinnati Bengals. MEMO: Staff writers Steve Carlson, Jim Ducibella and Ed Miller contributed to
this report.
by CNB