Follow-up (by o.p.):

I could not solve this with any variation of 'sort' parameters, so -- since
I had to get the table sorted -- I cloned the date column and through a
series of 'find/replace' operations (using wildcards) created a second 'date'
column with only the year (4 digits -- e.g., 1999, 2003, etc.).  I then used
that to get the 'sort' done.

That obviously should not have been necessary.  I have been reviewing the
original sort results and they are just bizarre -- as I described them above.
The sort works correctly for February 1999 (2/99, the earliest date in the
table) through January 2001 (1/01).  Then, instead of going from 1/01 to
2/01, 3/01, 4/01, etc. it goes from 1/01 to 1/02, 1/03, 1/04, etc. -- i.e.,
as previously mentioned, the 'sort' starts prioritizing on the 'month'
instead of the 'year.'

Are there documented bugs with WORD 97's 'sort' feature that might account
for this?