The Bear Knew the Kid Could Make a Name Playing for Tide

The story has been told before, but they still like to tell the one about Bear Bryant and how he tried to foil the color line at the University of Alabama.

At a high school all-star game, a certain black running back was making one long run after another, and Bryant said to a friend, “I sure wish we could get that kid.”

“He’s light-colored,” the friend said. “Why don’t you say he’s Italian?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Bryant said.

A couple of plays later, the kid broke loose again. Only this time Bryant was running alongside.

“Go Garibaldi,” he shouted.

Sorry, Chris: ESPN’s Chris Berman calls him John (Charcoal) Burkett, but the San Francisco pitcher says the nickname doesn’t work. His name is pronounced BURK-it, not Burr-KETT. “I hate to ruin the nickname but my family wants it done right,” he said.

Trivia time: Who was the first American to break four minutes in the mile?

For the record: Golf announcer Gary McCord went to UC Riverside, not USC.

How times have changed dept.: Owner John McMullen of the Houston Astros, on today’s players: “They have an argument with their wives, they’ve got to call their agent to settle it.”

True confession: If you thought Brent Musburger tended to babble when doing play by play, he says you’re absolutely right.

“When I’m watching tapes of a game I did, there are many times when I get tired of the sound of my own voice,” Musburger told Entertainment Weekly. “I turn the sound off or just shut the thing off and walk away.”

Generation gap: Ken Griffey Jr. of Seattle wears No. 24. Because of Willie Mays, right? Wrong. Because of Rickey Henderson.

Add Henderson: Says announcer Tony Kubek: “He has a combination of talents I don’t think anybody has brought to the game before. I might get some old-timers mad at me, but I haven’t seen anybody like him.”

Unhappy Padre: San Diego shortstop Garry Templeton thinks the club needs a shake-up that should start with the uniform.

Of the Padre pinstripes, he says, “It’s time to do something about them. We’ve got to change these things. We need to start looking like a ballclub, instead of like jailbirds.

“We look like Taco Bell.”

Trivia answer: Don Bowden of the University of California in 1957. He ran 3:58.7.

Quotebook: Detroit’s John Salley, on the limp Chicago’s Michael Jordan carried with him in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals. “A hip injury? I just thought he had a cool walk.”