The Elevator: Uniform edition

By Ron Kantowski (contact)

Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009 | 2 a.m.

GOING UP

Uniform behavior

I, too, like UNLV’s new basketball uniforms. But as for resembling the gear the Rebels wore during the program’s glory years, sorry, I’m not seein’ it. For starters, the jerseys worn by the 1990 NCAA championship team said “REBELS” on front, not “UNLV.” Nike can talk all it wants about how eliminating nine inches of jersey fabric is going to make the Rebels run faster and jump higher. But if UNLV could recruit another guy like Larry Johnson, they could play in burlap bags and it wouldn’t matter.

Local locos

Speaking of uniforms, I loved the train engineer get-ups those four guys in the front row wore Wednesday to the Locomotives vs. Florida Tuskers UFL game at Sam Boyd Stadium. If they can talk about 25,000 of their pals into doing the same, the Locomotives might even stay on the track a little while longer.

Cowboy up

You remember the supposedly wretched Wyoming football team that has a new coach and was predicted to finish somewhere south of Thermopolis in the Mountain West standings this season? Well, the Cowboys have won four games this year — as many as UNLV won in Mike Sanford’s first two years.

GOING DOWN

Welcome to his nightmare

The inclusion of Alice Cooper notwithstanding, the quality and quantity of celebrities playing golf in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open is still lacking. Here’s who might have been available if the organizers had only bothered to stroll up and down the Strip this week: Bob Dylan, Rita Rudner, Frank Caliendo, Lance Burton, Blue Man Group, Louie Anderson, Jay Leno, Penn & Teller, Gordie Brown, Terry Fator, Donny & Marie, Carrot Top, Engelbert Humperdink, Moby, Zowie or Bowie and Big Elvis. This doesn’t have to be rocket science, especially when it’s for a good cause.

Dealing with adversity

Junie Browning, the mixed martial arts fighter, apologized for his arrest and apparent suicide attempt last week, which apparently touched UFC President Dana White so profoundly that he cut Browning the very next day. This sort of reminds me of the way Major League Baseball treated Steve Howe, the former relief pitcher who battled drug addiction for most of his career, if you take away the six or seven second chances.

Speak no “Mo”

Shortly after the Locomotives were nearly booed out of their own back yard, commissioner Michael Huyghue announced the Las Vegas UFLs will play their Nov. 20 game against the New York Sentinels at Sam Boyd Stadium instead of an Original Tommy’s Hamburgers parking lot in Los Angeles because “We just thought it was important to capitalize on the fact that we have some momentum building here.” Wednesday’s announced crowd was 12,160. Last Thursday’s announced crowd was 14,209. Feel the momentum.