A super send-off in Miami

As University of Phoenix Stadium prepares for its first Super Bowl, the Orange Bowl, site of five Super Bowls, said goodbye to football last Saturday, about a month before its scheduled demolition.

The Miami Herald reported that about 12,000 fans turned out to watch a group of former Miami Dolphins play against former University of Miami football players in a flag football exhibition.

Among the participants: Dan Marino, Mark Duper, Mercury Morris, Jim Kelly and Bernie Kosar.

Don Shula coached the Dolphins players while Howard Schnellenberger coached Miami. The Hurricanes won, 65-51, despite four touchdown passes by Marino.

“It’s a shame we’re not going to have the Orange Bowl anymore,” Marino said. “It meant a lot to a lot of people.”

Trivia time

Between the Orange Bowl and Pro Player Stadium, the Super Bowl has been played in Miami nine times. But which stadium has held the most Super Bowls?

He’s on the game

Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard may have won the 2005 NL rookie of the year award and the 2006 NL MVP, but it wasn’t until this week that he fulfilled his childhood dream: He’ll be on the cover of the video game MLB ’08 The Show.

“It’s definitely an honor, because I remember when I was 15 and playing video games, being in college and playing video games, making yourself up as a character on the actual game,” he said. “I thought that was the coolest thing that when I got called up in ‘04, in ‘05, the next year, I was in a video game.

“It was definitely something cool for me for Sony to call me up and ask me to be on the cover of MLB ’08 The Show. I think it just took it over the top.”

Drinking it in

Yan Ligang is the director of logistics for the Beijing Olympics, meaning he’s responsible for millions of purchases needed for the Olympics, including equipment for each event.

The job comes with pressure and Yan said he sometimes dreams of his work.

“I feel unsteady as the Games approach,” he said. “If one link in the chain is broken, it will cause problems.”

So what will he do once the Games are over?

“I will get very drunk with all of my colleagues,” he said.

Coach McGruff

A high school wrestling coach in Pittsburgh has agreed to resign rather than face possible criminal charges for allegedly biting one of his wrestlers in the leg during a recent practice.

Mike Marshall, 36, is a probation officer in the Cambria County Department of Juvenile Probation.

Maybe he was confused and trying to take a bite out of crime.

Blind tee shot

The St. Petersburg Times reports that Leo Fiyalko recently made a hole in one at a Clearwater, Fla., golf course, but he doesn’t know what all the fuss is about.

Never mind that he’s 92, legally blind and had never made an ace in 60 years of playing golf before sinking his tee shot on the 110-yard, par-three fifth hole at Cove Cay Country Club.

“It was my first hole in one, and I never saw it,” Fiyalko said.

“I was just trying to put the ball on the green.”

Trivia answer

The Superdome in New Orleans has been the site of six Super Bowls: XII, XV, XX, XXIV, XXXI and XXXVI.

And finally

Golfer Lorena Ochoa has reached No. 1 in the women’s world rankings, which is a big deal in her native Mexico, even though many of her fans have yet to embrace the game.

“You get lots of crazy Mexicans, with the Mexican flag, running around,” she said. “Not all of them understand the game, but they all come and watch and walk with me and cheer with me as if I was playing a soccer match.”

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peter.yoon@latimes.com