We have reached Witt’s end

A world-class athlete retired Tuesday, ending an era of dramatic performances on a frozen surface. No, not Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre, but skater Katarina Witt, who gave her last performance Tuesday night in Hanover, Germany.

The tale of the tape:

Favre won one world championship. Witt won four.

Favre shilled for Bowflex. Witt posed for Playboy.

Favre had a cameo in “There’s Something About Mary,” and was jilted by Cameron Diaz. Witt had a small role in “Ronin,” and was the focus of an assassination plot.

Favre was Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year for 2007. Witt was once called “the most beautiful face of socialism” by Time magazine.

On retiring, Witt told the Associated Press, “Not as many tears fell as I maybe feared.”

Favre can’t claim the same.

Trivia time

Witt’s Playboy issue in 1998 was only the second edition to sell out completely. What was the first?

No Big Blue!

Big Ten coaches are hardly humming “Hail to the Victor” about new Michigan Coach Rich Rodriguez.

After Rodriguez went on a cloud-of-dust recruiting push, absconding with four recruits previously committed to other universities, Purdue Coach Joe Tiller ranted in the Indianapolis Star, “If we had an early signing date, you wouldn’t have another outfit with a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil get a guy at the last minute.”

Rodriguez defended his actions in the Michigan Daily this week, saying that an oral commitment by a player who continues to take recruiting trips is like “you’re engaged to someone but you continue to date. Your fiancee ain’t going to be very happy.”

West Virginia fans can certainly identify with the whole jilted-lover simile.

Just winging it

Golfer Tripp Isenhour isn’t the first athlete to run a-fowl with the law for killing a bird. Dave Winfield, then with the New York Yankees, killed a sea gull with a throw during warmups before a 1983 game in Toronto. A charge of animal cruelty was later dropped.

Then there was the dove whose flight plan crossed paths with a Randy Johnson pitch during a 2001 spring training game. Johnson, unlike Isenhour, was not charged with anything. But, then, Isenhour allegedly was trying to kill the bird. Johnson didn’t complain that the dove was crowding the plate.

The highest bidder

Patrick Ochs of the Daily Mississippian speculated Thursday about a collegiate football draft, where coveted prep quarterback Terrelle Pryor is selected No. 1 by Duke.

“Imagine if the NCAA had a draft . . . “ Ochs wrote.

Pryor’s agent probably would vow his client won’t play for Duke and start fielding offers from USC and LSU, while talking to Nike about a new line of shoes.

Peace at last

A proposed statue of Gandhi in Leicester, England, is running into resistance, as resident Lee Ingram has started an online petition against the plan.

“Gandhi has no connection to English culture,” Ingram told the Daily Mirror. “We’ve local heroes.”

Ingram is proposing Leicester native Gary Lineker, a former English soccer star, as an alternative.

Now there’s a choice. Gandhi, the symbol of nonviolent protest. England soccer, often the symbol of violent protest.

Trivia answer

The inaugural Playboy issue, which featured Marilyn Monroe, whose sports connections included pitching woo with Joe DiMaggio and a rumored tryst with John F. Kennedy, the most famous touch football player of them all.

And finally

After a 25-point loss to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, Heat Coach Pat Riley told the Miami Herald, “I should write a check tomorrow to each season-ticket holder and send them back [their money] at least for tonight.”

Rebates for poor play? The scream you just heard came from Donald Sterling’s office.

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chris.foster@latimes.com