Filmmakers Don’t Let Facts Get in Way of a Good Story

In a scene from the upcoming film, “Rudy,” the seniors of the 1975 Notre Dame football team march into Coach Dan Devine’s office and, one after one, lay their jerseys on his desk.

The gesture is supposed to force the coach to put a walk-on named Rudy Ruettiger on the dress list in his last game of eligibility.

“Completely false,” Devine told Richard Sandomir of the New York Times. “There’s not an iota of truth to it. Rudy was on the original dress list and there was never any intention to hold him out of the game.

“And anybody who knows me knows that if any kid came in and put his jersey on my desk, he’d never see it again.”

Trivia time: Who is the major league’s all-time leader in runs batted in?

Locker room MVP: The return of holdout running back Emmitt Smith to the Dallas Cowboys is meaningful to some of his teammates both on and off the field.

“We miss Emmitt more than just on the field,” cornerback Kevin Smith said. “He plays dominoes and cards with us. He agitates and he keeps the locker room loose.”

Trashing George: Center Ray Donaldson, who formerly played for Indianapolis and is now with Seattle, compared Seahawk quarterback Rick Mirer to the Colts’ Jeff George:

“Mirer has more heart than Jeff George has ever thought of having and he’s a better athlete.”

“One caller suggested the Giants hire a Mariachi Band to ‘wake up the team.’ ”

Futile trip? Seve Ballesteros, a member of the European Ryder Cup team, says the American team’s flight on the Concorde will be nothing but an expensive courier service.

“All they are doing by coming here is bringing us the Cup back. We will win the Cup. No question,” Ballesteros said.

Different cup: In recent years, the Ryder Cup golf competition between the United States and Europe has grown dramatically in popularity.

As John Nelson of the Associated Press observed: “Let’s say it’s 1963, and you ask a Cub or a Bronco booster: What’s a Ryder Cup? And they say: ‘Silly you, a protective device for rental-truck drivers.’ ”

Trash bin: Before North Carolina’s football program gained respectability, people poked fun at it, according to USA Today:

“Have you heard about the man who saw two Carolina football tickets lying on the dashboard of a car? He broke a window and left two more.”

Trivia answer: Henry Aaron with 2,297.

Quotebook: Philadelphia Eagle running back Herschel Walker, when asked about the mass exodus of his teammates via free agency this year: “You know I’m from Georgia, so I guess I’ll continue to play for peanuts.”