SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP)—Brian Kelly’s baby, his spread offense, was clicking for a half. Notre Dame’s no-huddle was snapping off plays so rapidly that Pitt’s defense was hurrying to get organized. The speed early on was almost dizzying.

But the 17-3 lead the Irish forged by halftime— thanks also to Pitt’s struggles to score from inside the 20—didn’t end in a comfortable win for Notre Dame. Not that style points mean anything to Kelly.

ELUSIVE—Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist, left, eludes Pittsburgh defensive tackle Jabaal Sheard on his way to a 10-yard touchdown during the first half of an NCAA college football game in South Bend, Ind., Oct. 9. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

You pretty much know that summer is about over when the winners of Champion Enterprises’ annual Mixed Doubles Celebrity Tennis Tournament raise their trophies in victory. The 35th consecutive year of the tennis spectacular got off to a great start with a record breaking field of 20 teams, magnificent weather and some of the best area tennis players in western Pennsylvania.

As usual the event was attended by local celebrities including former Super Bowl champion Judge Dwayne Woodruff and wife, Joy; former NBA stars Armon Gilliam and B.B. Flenory; sports talk show host John Tate; members of the fabulous Diamond Models Fashion Troupe and drivers from The Pittsburgh United Rays Corvette Club.

BRAINTRUST—Bruce Schifino, Judge Dwayne Woodruff, tournament runner up Eric Ruka, Jim Quigly and Bill Neal.

by Malik Vincent
For New Pittsburgh Courier

When it comes to the City League, until recently, nobody has looked in Allderdice’s direction to be the big winner. Perry owned the league for much of the ’90s and most of the last decade. Brashear took over and ran the show with back-to-back titles in ’07 and ’08. Even Schenley, who hadn’t won a title in 50 years, broke their championship drought in 2009. But now it’s the Dragons, who are looking to avenge their “non-winning” ways of late, as they’d lost every game for the two seasons prior to this one. If you ask Allderdice’s coach, Jerry Haslett, he’s not afraid to voice his views on his team’s recent success.

The Steelers weren’t able to go undefeated during the absence of Ben Roethlisberger, losing to the Baltimore Ravens 17-14, but they are going into their bye week with a sparkling 3-1 record, one of the biggest surprises of the season.

Now they must get Big Ben prepared for the remaining 12 games. Roethlisberger will have two weeks of practice to get his game together in preparation for his first game of the season against the 1-3 Cleveland Browns who upset the Cincinnati Bengals last week, 23-20. Even though they’ve lost three games, the once lowly Browns have played everyone tough and may be ready to finally be a force in the AFC.

C’MON REF—Steeler head coach Mike Tomlin pleads with the officials after a call went against the Steelers Oct 3 at Heinz Field. (Photo by William McBride)