He Was the Game’s First Mac O’Grady

The newly-formed World Golf Assn. is campaigning to return golf to the Olympic Games for the first time since 1904, when George Lyon of Canada won the gold medal at St. Louis.

Writes David Wallechinsky in “The Complete Book of the Olympics:”

“George Lyon was an eccentric athlete who did not pick up a golf club until he was 38 years old. Before that he had competed successfully in baseball, tennis and cricket. Once he even set a Canadian record in the pole vault.

“Lyon was 46 when he traveled down from Toronto to take part in the Olympics. On the course, he was an endless source of cheerful energy, telling jokes and even doing handstands.

“His final match was a surprise victory over the 23-year-old U.S. champion, Chandler Egan. Lyon was awarded a $1,500 sterling silver trophy, which he accepted after walking down the path to the ceremony on his hands.”

Add golf: In the 1900 Games at Paris, Margaret Abbott, a 22-year-old Chicago socialite, became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold medal. She traveled to Paris in 1899 with her mother, literary editor and novelist Mary Ives Abbott, so she could study art.

Ten women played in a nine-hole final. Abbott later told relatives she won the tournament “because all the French girls apparently misunderstood the nature of the game scheduled that day and turned up to play in high heels and tight skirts.”

Trivia time: On this date in 1981, St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Mark Littell gave up the hit to the Philadelphia Phillies’ Pete Rose that broke Stan Musial’s National League record for hits. Littell is better known for surrendering what hit in 1976?

Would-you-believe-it Dept.: Of Stan Musial’s 3,630 hits, 1,815 were hit at home and 1,815 on the road.

Ouch: From Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Evening Sun: “After winning a half-dozen tournaments last year, Andre Agassi is down to zero this year and being blasted away during the early rounds of tournaments. The annoying little head case is in the habit of bailing out of matches when the going gets tough, up to and including a run for the bus in the deciding match of the Davis Cup loss to West Germany. Still, at Stratton Mountain, Vt., last week we heard, ‘Andre, we love you,’ from young fans.”

Add Jackman: Of Danny Ferry, he wrote, “Besides learning the language, he has something to shoot for as he heads off to Italy to start his pro basketball career. Recently, La Gazzetta dello Sport voted Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) as the best American player ever in Italy. Grabbing the place and show positions were Bob McAdoo and Spencer Haywood, respectively.”

Trivia answer: Pitching for the Kansas City Royals, he gave up the game-winning homer to the Yankees’ Chris Chambliss in the ninth inning of the deciding game in the American League playoffs.

Quotebook: George Foreman, former heavyweight boxing champion, on how oversleeping cost him a better education: “If school had started at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, I would have been a college graduate.”