This Stanley Cup Team Went the Extra Miles in Title Quest

If you hear anybody in the NHL complaining about the travel during the playoffs, tell them about the Dawson City Nuggets. In 1905, the Nuggets traveled from the Yukon Territory to Ottawa, Canada, to keep a Stanley Cup date with the Ottawa Silver Seven.

The trip covered 4,000 miles and took 30 days. The first means of travel was dog sleds. Then bicycles. The Nuggets mushed and pedaled their way to a port, whence they took a boat to Vancouver. Then it was across Canada by train.

Along the way, the Nuggets played some practice games and picked up a few extra players. When they arrived in Ottawa, they had to play the same day.

A nice tag line would be that they won the game. Hardly. Ottawa won, 23-2. The Silver Seven were led by a one-eyed player named Frank McGee, who scored 14 goals.

Junior scores: Alabama linebacker Keith McCants has been projected as the No. 1 choice in the NFL draft, but his stock dropped at the Indianapolis scouting camp when he did only nine repetitions in the 225-pound bench press. The average for linebackers is 17 repetitions.

Said USC’s Junior Seau, who did 26 repetitions: “What I’ve seen of McCants did not impress me, and I just couldn’t believe all the press (reports) about him, that he was this and that.”

Add draft: Analyst Mel Kiper, predicting that the New England Patriots will take Illinois quarterback Jeff George, advised them to take Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware of Houston.

Of George, Kiper said, “He heads my all-overrated list.”

Trivia time: What major league player had the most extra-base hits in the 1980s? Would-you-believe-it Dept.: Starting the season, the Minnesota Twins’ Al Newman had gone 1,091 at-bats since hitting his last home run. That one came in 1986 at Atlanta while he was playing for Montreal. Unfortunately, nobody noticed. It was the same day that the Braves’ Bob Horner hit four home runs.

“Matter of fact,” Newman said, “I didn’t even get handshakes from my teammates. They didn’t have a chance. By the time I got to the dugout, our pitcher (had) hit the first pitch and it was gone, and they were all watching him.”

Note: The Expos won the game, making Horner the only man in modern baseball history to hit four home runs for a losing team.

Vicious: Said Coach Jerry Glanville of the Atlanta Falcons, when asked about his recent bout with pneumonia: “I thought maybe I was going to become a general manager, because I kept wanting to take a nap.”

More vicious: Said basketball Coach Jerry Tarkanian of Nevada Las Vegas, when asked if Stacey Augmon, a junior, would turn pro: “Where’s he going to? You can’t shoot 15-foot air balls in the NBA.”

Trivia answer: Dwight Evans of the Boston Red Sox.

Quotebook: Announcer Hank Greenwald of the San Francisco Giants, after a break for a supermarket commercial: “Speaking of food, up steps Rick Reuschel.”