Flyers nail it with ‘Hammer’ honor

In one of the greatest hall of fame inductions in the overwrought history of hall of fame inductions, the Philadelphia Flyers honored Dave Schultz last weekend.

They made “The Hammer” their 20th hall inductee, and he teared up. It was quite a sight given this once-infamous enforcer helped epitomize the “Broad Street Bullies,” and, with 472 penalty minutes in 1974-75, set an NHL record that has lasted 34 years and might just do so until the end of time.

Puckishly, the Flyers did it just right, according to Anthony Sanfilippo of the Trentonian.

“At the conclusion of his acceptance speech,” Sanfilippo wrote, “the Flyers’ public address announcer called Schultz for two minutes for roughing, five for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct and sent him to the penalty box where he watched his hall of fame banner rise to the roof of the Wachovia Center.”

Trivia time

Since taking the Ohio State job in January 2001 and stoking fans by vowing they’d be proud of the Buckeyes “in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Mich.,” how many times out of eight has Jim Tressel lost to the Wolverines?

Ancient history

Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post counted it up by last weekend, and the Knicks had gone 2,995 days and played 666 times since last winning a playoff game -- on April 29, 2001, against Toronto. In that game, the Knicks got 18 points from Glen Rice (now 42 years old) and used Dell Curry, the father of Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.

“Most people still used dial-up Internet,” Vaccaro wrote. “And compact discs. And VCRs.”

Game show

Reporting that the CBS affiliate in Boston interrupted “The Price Is Right” on Monday to broadcast New England Coach Bill Belichick’s continued explanation for his now-infamous fourth-down gamble Sunday night in Indianapolis, Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe wrote, “Good symmetry. ‘The Price is Right,’ but The Call is Still Wrong.”

Bad stat night

Bucks big man Andrew Bogut told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that during rookie Brandon Jennings’ 55-point flourish last Saturday -- the most for an NBA rookie since Earl Monroe in 1968 -- “I thought I was in great offensive rebounding position every time. I was waiting for it to come off the rim, and it just kept going straight through. I could have padded the stats a little bit if he missed one or two of them.”

Trivia answer

Once, by 35-21 at Ann Arbor in 2003.

And finally

Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle recommended USC and Florida State for San Francisco’s Emerald Bowl: “The Trojans, embittered by finishing a dismal fourth in the conference, would bring fans in numbers, and they would drink and eat that anger to the greater benefit of our local restaurateurs, hoteliers, rental-car operators, livery drivers and emergency rooms. Who can’t get behind that?”

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chuck.culpepper@yahoo.com