NEWPORT BEACH : Sunday Marks Start of Irrelevant Week

Larry Wanke, the last player selected in the recent National Football League draft, will be the guest of honor during Irrelevant Week, which kicks off Sunday.

As the last pick in the NFL draft, Wanke, a quarterback selected by the New York Giants, automatically became Mr. Irrelevant 1991, the center of a 15-year tradition of good-humored, weeklong activities held primarily at the Balboa Bay Club.

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Michael Whittaker also will be recognized because he was the last Desert Storm veteran to step off a troop plane.

Coincidentally, that plane, which returned to Yuma, Ariz., on April 22, landed at the same time Wanke was selected by the Giants.

The men will be honored with trips to golf tournaments, a dance, Hollywood Park, Knott’s Berry Farm, Disneyland, San Diego and Catalina Island.

Former USC and San Francisco 49er end Paul Salata and his wife, Beverly, began the celebration in 1976.

They have adopted as a motto their original purpose: to do something nice for someone for no reason.