Rejuvenated Nurmi Couldn’t Fly Today

When they called Paavo Nurmi “The Flying Finn,” apparently they didn’t know the half of it.

The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported Thursday that Nurmi, the distance runner who won 10 Olympic gold medals in the 1920s, endorsed a drug containing the hormone testosterone, which has muscle-building properties similar to those found in anabolic steroids, banned by the International Olympic Committee.

In an advertisement that ran in a 1931 edition of Idrottsbladet, a Swedish sports daily, Nurmi and three Swedish athletes endorsed a drug called Rejuven, which no longer exists. According to Swedish pharmacologists quoted by Dagens Nyheter, Rejuven contained testosterone.

The ad showed a picture of Nurmi and quoted him as saying: “In using Rejuven I have been astounded by its vitalizing effect on the body.”

Add Rejuven: Swedish 400-meter runner Nils Engdahl also endorsed the product, touting a use that more than a few modern athletes have since discovered: “By using Rejuven it is possible to train much more intensively. It is particularly remarkable that Rejuven eliminates the fatigue which comes with hard training.”

Diabolical duo: Linebacker Matt Millen of the San Francisco 49ers recently shared some observations on offensive linemen with Tim Keown of the Sacramento Bee:

“Every team’s the same. There aren’t any John Hannahs out there anymore. They’re all 300 pounds and 6-5. It used to be, ‘This guy’s 275--he’s tough.’

“Hannah was a genetic mutation. . . . Charley (John’s brother) wasn’t nearly as good. Charley had the ability to think, and that’s what separated the two.”

Trivia time: What was the nickname of Jay Carty, a Laker reserve forward in the late 1960s?

Roll tape: Congratulations to Mark Blazejewski of Fordham, who recently was named a second-team Division I-AA All-American inside linebacker by Sports Network.

Blazejewski sat out the 1990 season with a knee injury.

Add Blazejewski: He was voted the Sports Network award by a panel of college sports information directors.

Said Fordham SID Joe Favorito: “I didn’t vote for him.”

Mistaken identity: Thursday’s trivia answer stated that former Chicago Bear receiver Harlon Hill, after whom the annual award for the top player in NCAA Division II football is named, attended “North Alabama University.”

Readers Gene Adler, Al Simon and Tom Rickman were quick to point out that Hill attended Florence State Teachers College.

So when Beau Riffenburgh tackles the Fifth Edition of “The Official NFL Encyclopedia,” he can start by revising page 202. But Riffenburgh probably already knows that since the football program began at Florence State Teachers College in 1949, the school has changed its name three times--to Florence State College, Florence State University and the University of North Alabama.

Trivia answer: “Golden Wheels.” Carty, slow afoot, was a contemporary of swift Buffalo wide receiver Elbert (Golden Wheels) Dubenion.

Quotebook: Sports publicist Chris Behm, on why Brett Butler couldn’t keep his No. 2 (worn by Manager Tom Lasorda) if he joined the Dodgers: “It wouldn’t fit him.”