The Losing Streak at Maryland Has Lasted Nearly Four Years

John Eisenberg of the Baltimore Sun had this to say of the beleaguered University of Maryland athletic program:

“And so the beat goes on in the athletic department at College Park, Md. And on and on and on. The people there could screw up winning the lottery. Put them in a one-team conference, they’d come in second.

“They can’t do anything right. Talk about a losing streak. This one has been going on since the night Lenny Bias died, almost four years ago. The crimes and misdemeanors are many. Drugs. Academic failure. Widespread violation of NCAA rules. Money moving in odd directions. Players can’t even bail out the right way. They turn pro too soon.”

Trivia time: On this date in 1964, who rode Northern Dancer to victory in the Preakness?

The enforcer: The first time Garth Franklin, editor of Hoop Scoop scouting magazine, saw Ed O’Bannon was when the Nevada Las Vegas-bound basketball star was a sophomore playing a spring league game at Dominguez High in Compton.

Franklin was outside the gym one day when he heard some bizarre noises coming from inside. He wondered what was going on.

“I get to the door and I hear a grunt, and it’s Ed O’Bannon snatching a rebound just growling and screaming and pivoting with his elbows out flared, just like a real East Coast stud.”

Wild kingdom: With his foot firmly implanted in his mouth, Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan is not returning reporters’ calls this week.

Department spokesman Steve Goldstein has been left in charge of damage control after Lujan wondered aloud to a Denver Post reporter last week why construction of a National Science Foundation telescope in Arizona should be stalled to protect an endangered red squirrel.

“He made an inopportune comment,” Goldstein said. “He indicated to me that if he had it to do over again, he wouldn’t have made that statement. He sort of felt like the squirrel after he said it.”

Return to Green Acres: The Gridley Invitational basketball tournament draws stars from the big city to the self-proclaimed kiwi fruit capital of the world north of Sacramento.

“The city kids had no concept of what life is like here (in Gridley),” said Dave Hughes, a star in the tournament 30 years ago. “A lot of them didn’t know where milk came from. A lot of them thought it just came from cartons.”

Hogan’s a hero: Four-time U.S. Open champion Ben Hogan, one of golf’s most reclusive figures, surprised a group of former Colonial Invitation winners Tuesday by arriving for a group portrait on the first tee at the Colonial Country Club at Ft. Worth.

Hogan, 75, has avoided public life since his pro golf career.

Trivia answer: Bill Hartack.

Quotebook: Luca di Montezemolo, organizer of soccer’s 1990 World Cup in Italy, on his job: “I would never do this again, for nothing in the world.”