Red carpet, bowling and a bitter ‘Too Tall’ Jones

They rolled out the red carpet for Warren Moon's annual Sports Dream Bowl benefiting the Urban Scholarship Fund on Saturday at Texas Station, and the first man to set his feet on it -- size 17 feet -- was former Dallas Cowboys defensive end Ed "Too Tall" Jones.

Jones was carrying a pair of size 17 bowling shoes, because the Texas Star Lanes Bowling Center apparently was out of them, and a size 18 chip on his shoulder. He gave one terse interview and rebuffed an older women's attempt to obtain his autograph on her regular-size Dallas Cowboys football helmet. Apparently, Too Tall still hasn't gotten over being knocked on his keister by Not So Tall Jesus "Yaqui" Meneses during his pro boxing debut in Las Cruces, N.M., in 1979.

The second man on the red carpet was Locomotives quarterback Chase Clement, who was mostly mistaken for one of the Hardy Boys or Matt Clement, the former baseball pitcher. Clement did not refuse any autograph requests; then again, there was none.

Marlin Briscoe was among the next group, and of all the NFL and NBA players and pseudo celebrities and Chase Clement who walked the red carpet on their way to the bowling center -- now there's a prepositional phrase one seldom sees -- his story is among the most compelling. Even if hardly anybody remembers it. Perhaps that is why Moon's production company is trying hard to get a movie made about Briscoe's life.

On Sept. 29, 1968, after Denver Broncos starting quarterback Steve Tensi broke his collarbone and backup Joe Divito couldn't move the team, Briscoe came on and completed his first pass as a pro for 22 yards.

The next week, the 5-foot-10-inch, 177-pound Marlin Briscoe became pro football's first African-American starting quarterback. If one recalls, 1968 was a pretty tough year to be an African-American anything, and as 6-5, 248-pound Cam Newton sauntered by with his baseball cap cocked at a jaunty angle, I asked Briscoe if he thought the strapping kid from Auburn was appreciative at all, or even knew who Briscoe was.

Oh, yes, Briscoe said, surprising his questioner. As a 15-year-old, Newton had attended one of those quarterback camps at which Briscoe was an instructor, and even then Newton stuck out like a thumb that had gotten caught in a facemask. They talked about that at one of the cocktail parties the night before.

About 100 people lining the red carpet asked Newton for his autograph. Only one person asked Briscoe, 65, for his.

"I got him right here," this older gentleman told me, nodding to four or five barely legible signatures on a white placard.

"Briscoe ... little guy ... right here.

"Say, help me out. Who was he again?"

THREE UP

■ Just when it appeared UNLV coaches would be forced to the Maryland Parkway medians to collect spare change in a boot, Rebels athletic director Jim Livengood and his minions managed to balance the athletic budget by making coaches pay their own cellphone bills and whatnot. Livengood is to UNLV what Milburn Drysdale was to the Beverly Hillbillies, with chief fundraiser Julio Freire reprising the role of Miss Jane Hathaway. UNR, facing a $1.5 million athletic shortfall, is Jethro.

■ Bryce Harper finished the first half of his first professional baseball season by hitting .330 with 14 home runs, 45 RBIs and 13 stolen bases at Class-A Hagerstown, Md., and might be in line for a promotion to the Washington Nationals' high Class A-club in Potomac, Md. -- where there is a huge drainage problem in Harper's adopted position of right field. One needn't be too concerned. The way things are going for Harper, he'll probably find the silver dollar that George Washington purportedly tossed across the Potomac River.

■ Former world lightweight champion Juan Diaz has retired from boxing to pursue a law degree from Dartmouth. That's something you don't see every day. Or any day, really.

THREE DOWN

■ One hopes Kyle Drabek, recently demoted from the Blue Jays to the 51s, can soon regain his control, if for no other reason that pitchers who wear No. 4 are cool. Some others who have briefly worn single digits on the bump: David Wells (No. 3 with the Red Sox), Atlee Hammaker (No. 7 with the Giants), Rob Bell (No. 6 with the Rangers), Wayne Gomes (No. 2 with the Giants).

■ It's a good thing Bob Meusel, a member of the Yankees' acclaimed "Murderers Row," isn't still around. If he was, he might develop Buddhist leanings and change his first name to "Metta," like the Lakers' Ron Artest wants to do, and then the ESPN anchors would probably never leave it alone.

■ Way too many sad notes these days on which to close: It was on June 4 that Art Chevalier, the brother of popular Las Vegas sports talk show host Papa Joe Chevalier, struggled in finding words to eulogize his brother, who had died the night before of complications from a stroke. Three days earlier, Art Chevalier had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer, and on June 12, he died. Art Chevalier did not mention his own illness in speaking about his brother, and one has to admire someone like that.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.