Golf | Largent plays the politician

SNOQUALMIE — Seahawks legend Steve Largent says that if the previous Sonics ownership group headed by Howard Schultz wanted to make sure the NBA team stayed in Seattle, it shouldn't have sold to out-of-state buyers.

Largent, an Oklahoma native who represented the Sooner state for four terms in Congress and ran for governor, said the Sonics "deserve to stay in Seattle."

Largent was interviewed while playing in the "Rumble at the Ridge," a charity event at the TPC at Snoqualmie Ridge sponsored by Lumbermens that features former NFL players.

Largent said he knows from talking with Clay Bennett, head of the Sonics' Oklahoma-based ownership group, that Bennett's "first intention" is to keep the team in Seattle. However, if a deal for a new arena can't be accomplished, the team will move, Largent said.

"At the end of the day, business is business," said Largent, who now lives in Washington, D.C., where he is president of a firm dedicated to the concerns of the wireless communications industry.

Largent's handicap index is 7.6 and he belongs to Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. Monday, his team had the low scramble score of 58.75.

Memory lane

One of the NFL celebrities at the "Rumble" was Sam "Bam" Cunningham, best known for his stellar game in 1970 for USC when the Trojans beat Alabama 42-21 in Birmingham, Ala.

Cunningham's two-touchdown, 135-yard performance in his first college start prompted Jerry Claiborne, an assistant coach on the all-white Alabama team, to say, "Sam Cunningham did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years."

Cunningham, a former New England Patriot who now lives in Los Angeles, said that game "set a lot of things in motion."

"I truly think that the people saw black and white, but they also saw cardinal and gold [USC's colors] working with one another."

He said he thinks Southern fans might have starting believing that integration "could possibly work for the Crimson Tide."

Krieg on target

One of the best shots of the day was the tee shot on No. 14, the Canyon Hole, by former Seahawks quarterback Dave Krieg. The shot traveled 260 yards across the deep canyon and stopped 20 feet past the pin.

Then Krieg and everyone else in his group missed the eagle putt.

Krieg and his family live in Chandler, Ariz., and he does public-relations work and pubic speaking.

One fan asked Krieg for an autograph and was surprised he was right-handed.

"You're thinking of Jim Zorn," said Krieg, referring the Seahawks' left-handed QB.

NOTES

• Curt Warner, turning to the gallery after hitting a good tee shot on No. 10: "You tell Dave Krieg where that ball landed!" Warner, a former Seattle star running back, owns Curt Warner Chevrolet in Vancouver, Wash.

• Eight qualified for the Boeing Classic that starts Friday by winning berths in a qualifier Monday at Druids Glen. Jack Ferenz of Vero Beach, Fla., shot 4-under-par 68, and Harry Taylor, Old Hickory, Tenn., shot 69. Six golfers who shot 70 — Perry Arthur of Plano, Texas; Mitch Adcock of Apopka, Fla.; James Blair of Ogden, Utah; Buddy Harston of Lexington, Ky.; Kevin King of Bluffon, S.C., and Ray Stewart of Abbotsford, B.C. — survived a 10-man playoff.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com