A HOSTESS HONOR ROLL

When they dedicate the Hostesses' wing at the college football Hall of Fame, the charter members should include the following:

•Valerie Wilson, Razorback Belles. Since Arkansas coach Ken Hatfield founded the Belles in '84, Valerie has been the group's only three-year member. She is one of the reasons, says Hogs recruiting coordinator Billy Gray, that Arkansas has landed every in-state player it has offered a scholarship since 1985.

•Lailee van Dillen, Sweet Carolines. She was crushed after failing her cheerleading tryout before the 1972 season. Little did she know that Bill Dooley, then the North Carolina coach, was even more crestfallen that Lailee wouldn't be gracing his program with her Nordic looks. So he made her an offer: Round up a bunch of your friends, and we'll create a group for you. Thus began the Sweet Carolines, an unabashed vehicle for the most stunning woman at Chapel Hill. Today, Lailee and former pro tennis player Erik van Dillen have three kids and live in San Francisco, where she writes about sports.

•Kathy Manning, Rebel Recruiters. This Ole Miss miss, class of '85, was Miss America's first alternate in 1985 and heads a long line of hostesses who have gone on to become homecoming, bowl-game, festival and beauty queens.

•Yvette Hill, Solid Gold. She hostessed star fullback Stefan Scotton during his visit to Georgia Tech in February and followed up with a letter. Alas, Scotton soon committed orally to Vanderbilt. But he wrote Yvette back, she said, "spilling his guts to me" about how he had chosen Vandy only because his girlfriend was going there. The Tech coaching staff was alerted, and Scotton is a Yellow Jacket today. Says Yvette with a shrug, "They just seem to open up to us more than to the coaches."

•Lois Winklemann, Horned Frog Associates. Lois can tell you right away who is signed, who is committed and who is leaning where. Lois bagged linebacker Chuck Mooney for TCU—beating out Michigan, which had a noted alumnus named Gerald Ford working the case—and often hears a recruit's final decision before anyone on the coaching staff does. Lois, who plays on the TCU golf team, displays an intense dislike of Oklahoma for the forays of its recruiters south of the Red River. "When they come down here and take our guys," she says, "it makes me sooooo mad."

PHOTO

Wilson is Hatfield's Hog hostess with the mostest.