Wolverine Fans Do the Wave the Right Way

You get an A for the day in Useless Information 101 if you know that when students at the University of Washington gave the world The Wave in the 1970s, the original version went from the bottom row of Husky Stadium to the top, not sideways.

At Michigan Stadium, they’ve been doing it the original way for years. Spectators in the lower rows stand up to see the action, creating a domino effect--the “Hey, down in front” wave.

Thursday, the University of Michigan board of regents threw $1 million in athletic department funds at the problem, voting to lower the stadium’s field 3 1/2 feet as part of the project that will convert the surface from artificial to natural turf.

Add lower field: The regents’ move did not please interim athletic director Jack Weidenbach, who said: “I don’t take that lightly. It’s our athletic department funds. A million here, a million there--it adds up.”

Trivia time: Name the only National Football League team coached by a Kohawk.

That championship season: For Laker fans who thought their team’s 74 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday night was its lowest output since moving from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960, reader Arthur Steiner has good news: It was only the Los Angeles Lakers’ lowest regular-season point total.

In the first game of the Western Conference finals on April 9, 1972, the Lakers lost to Milwaukee, 93-72.

Return requested: Two and a half years ago, Chris Mills, the former Fairfax High forward who had committed to the University of Kentucky, became entangled in a recruiting scandal when $1,000 in cash fell out of an air-freight package containing a videotape on its way from the university to Mills’ father.

Mills eventually transferred to Arizona, and led the Wildcats to a victory over Arkansas in the final game of the preseason National Invitation Tournament.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution saluted him with the headline: “Mills carries the mail for Arizona.”

Bubby-buddy: Shari Warren, a reporter for KSLA-TV in Shreveport, La., had just finished interviewing Pittsburgh quarterback Bubby Brister in the locker room after the Steelers’ 9-6 victory over New Orleans Sunday.

Another reporter was asking Brister a question when Warren said, “Bye,” kissed him and left.

Objective reporting?

Warren said she has known Brister since he was in high school and added: “We were teasing around. That’s what we’ve always done. I hugged him like I would any old friend.”

Trivia answer: The Buffalo Bills, whose coach, Marv Levy, was a running back in 1948-50 for the Coe College Kohawks and returned to coach them in 1953-55. Sightings of the Kohawk in the wild are rare, but cartoon renderings clearly place the bird in the genetic lineage of Sam the Eagle, official mascot of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

Quotebook: David Meggett, the New York Giants’ second-year running back, on not being voted onto the NFC Pro Bowl team after having made it as a rookie in 1989: “Yeah, I’m disappointed. No Mai Tais for me this year.”