Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2004 | 10:11 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
Kurt Busch fans have spoken -- and they've turned my e-mail box into the Charlestown underpass after a heavy thunderstorm.
I've had to put electronic road cones around my in box. It has been flooded by Busch fans affirming support for the Las Vegas-born NASCAR driver following my column last week about his hometown's indifference to his pursuit of the Nextel Cup championship.
Some of the voluminous reader mail even originated from right here in Las Vegas, so it's good to know that the local kid has some support at home.
While several respondents claimed to be the World's No. 1 Kurt Busch fan, that distinction clearly belongs to Rickey Parker of Las Vegas. If loyalty to Busch was decided in the manner of a race, this NASCAR version of The Rick would have lapped the field by now based on an e-mail that itemized his amazing array of Kurt Busch earthly possessions with scanned photographs.
There were photos of Parker's "97 FAN" Nevada license plate, of him and Busch chatting over the bed of a pickup truck in the Las Vegas Motor Speedway garage area and one showing them scarfing down chicken wings surrounded by the Hooters girls.
"Kurt got all the women, but at least the Miller Lite was good," Parker wrote before confessing that the Kurt Busch in the pictures was only a life-size cardboard cutout.
Another photo showed an autographed Goodyear Eagle that came off Busch's car following his first career Cup victory, at Bristol. "This is special to me," Parker wrote.
Given the amount of Kurt Busch merchandise and memorabilia Parker has acquired, much of it autographed by the man himself, Parker could quit his job as an electrician at the Nevada Test Site and set up a Kurt Busch souvenir trailer in the back of his pickup.
He also sent me a photo of every die cast car in his Kurt Busch collection -- 36 in all.
With the exception of the sedan that Busch drove in drivers education class at Durango High, Parker has a miniature model of virtually every vehicle in which his hero has sat behind the wheel.
Parker would be the first to admit that his fanatical support of Busch borders on obsession. He said he used to to be Dale Jarrett fan until moving to Las Vegas from Shreveport, La., in 1996.
"I was a Saints fan, because I'm one of those who feels you gotta stick with the hometown team," said Parker, who at 43 is 17 years older than his hero. "So when I heard about this hometown driver from Las Vegas, I had to drop my car and get on with Kurt."
Although Busch is hardly the most popular driver on the circuit, Parker is proving that sometimes it can pay to be a Kurt Busch fan. With just two races to go, Parker's entry in Speed Channel's NASCAR fantasy game that pays $25,000 to the winner leads the standings, just like his favorite driver.
Although the first prize would enable Parker to buy a lot of stuff with Busch's car number on it, he said if he wins he'll probably pay off the balance on his fishing boat instead.
And then he'll probably put another Kurt Busch decal on his tackle box.
When Colorado State pulled to within 56-31 after Utah cleared its bench Saturday night, Utes coach Urban Meyer decided to put Heisman Trophy candidate Alex Smith back in the game at quarterback midway through the fourth quarter. About four plays later, Utah, which needs all the points it can muster to impress the BCS computers, led 63-31.
Afterward, Rams coach Sonny Lubick mostly took the high road when he was asked about Utah running up the score in its bid to sneak into a lucrative Bowl Championship Series game.
"I have no animosity. There's nothing toward the opposing coach," Lubick said. "I have never gone hard at a coach for piling up the score.
"If you have to score 50 or 60 or 70 points to impress people, that's not me," Lubick added. "And that's not John Robinson."
Lubick's Rams and Robinson's Rebels will meet at the crack of dawn Saturday (actually, 9 a.m. PST) in Fort Collins. Given those comments, I'm sure their traditional handshake after the game will be a sincere one.
For a team striving to break into national prominence, there were far too many crutches on the field when the Lady Rebels were introduced to the crowd at Saturday's UNLV-Wyoming football game at Sam Boyd Stadium.
With star forward Sherry McCracklin (Achilles) and fellow starter Nikki Hitchens (knee) out of the lineup, the Lady Rebels are already circling the wagons although the women's basketball season hasn't officially begun.
McCracklin, who was injured in a pickup game, tried to put a positive spin on her situation by stating she would be back at full strength for the start of the conference season. And normally, that's what you would want.
But with UNLV opening the season Friday against No. 14 Minnesota, a Final Four team last year, and several other nonconference games against potential NCAA tournament teams on the schedule before the holidays, you could argue that if McCracklin played early and sat out the conference games (most of which the Lady Rebels could probably win without her), it would be more beneficial to UNLV's tournament aspirations.
At least the Lady Rebels can take solace in the fact that Janel McCarville, who was unstoppable during Minnesota's drive to the Final Four last year, will also miss Friday's game on a neutral court in Seattle, having broken a bone in her left hand during practice.
In a recent column on high school football, I wrote that Basic High had never won the state championship. While that's true of the big-school title, the Wolves did win the small school championship, then known as Class AA, in 1960.
In another clarification, the "crazy" TV deal that forced UNLV and Wyoming to kick off as the sun was setting on a chilly Saturday was a trickle down effect of the Mountain West's agreement with ESPN Inc., not SportsWest.
After ESPN picks the Mountain West games it wants, the schools are free to farm out remaining games to other networks, provided they aren't scheduled opposite the ESPN games.
On Saturday, there were two such games that kicked off at noon and 7 p.m., meaning the Rebels and Cowboys were pretty much locked into the 4 p.m. slot or playing early in the morning -- which also explains this week's 9 a.m. eye-opener against Colorado State in Fort Collins.
Were those games not televised, they could be played at whatever time the teams saw fit.
You would think that with a three-time Olympic gold medal softball pitcher in its own back yard, Bass Pro Shops would have invited Lori Harrigan to help celebrate the opening of its new store in the Silverton Hotel Monday, rather than Harrigan's Team USA pitching partner Jennie Finch.
Other celebrities expected to attend are NASCAR's Kerry Earnhardt, Oakland A's pitcher Mark Mulder, former major league slugger Pete Incaviglia and fishing whiz Wally "Mr. Crappie" Marshall.
I think Wally needs to have a chat with his publicist about adopting a new nickname.
Around the horn
It's getting to the point where losing to UNLV will get a football coach fired. But sometimes even beating the Rebels as a big underdog isn't enough to delay a trip to the unemployment line as Utah State's Mick Dennehy discovered. He was fired this week, despite guiding the Aggies to a 31-21 victory against UNLV in September. ... This just in: At 34, Keenan McCardell can still catch a football. The Chargers have climbed into first place in the AFC West and are undefeated (3-0) since the former UNLV star began catching everything thrown his way upon being acquired from Tampa Bay and ending his contract holdout. ... Overheard at Saturday's UNLV football game (by an announced and fictional crowd 19,752) after the play clock continued to malfunction: "Will the clock operator please attempt to operate the play clock?" But what sounded like an insult from the re feree was only a request to perform a test (I think). ... In what can only be classified as a stunning development, the Rebels called a flea flicker and then a pass on third-and-inches against Wyoming. Both would have worked, too, had backup quarterback Shane Steichen not underthrown a wide open receiver by about 10 yards following the double reverse.
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