Not All Irish Eyes Will Even Be Watching

Scott Bentley’s father always wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and go to Notre Dame. And that’s where the young Bentley will be going Saturday, wearing a Florida State football uniform and trying to fulfill his role as the Seminoles’ kicker.

Bob Bentley lettered in basketball and baseball for Notre Dame and filled his son with the spirit of the Fighting Irish, but it didn’t take. The father will be in the stands, cheering for his son, but Scott’s mother, Kathy, will not be there.

“She said she didn’t want to hear 60,000 people boo one kid, and I guess especially her own,” the younger Bentley said.

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Trivia time: Where did Ram Coach Chuck Knox play football in college?

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Trash sports: The University of Kansas holds a Custodial Olympics in which janitors from several Kansas colleges take part in such events as the wet-sponge throw, the polishing-pad toss and the mop-bucket race.

Wonder if it’s NCAA sanctioned.

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Making it pay: After Henry Benfield slid across the infield grass at Charlotte Motor Speedway during a stock car race, he presented speedway President Bruton Smith a bill for $3,500 for “grass-cutting services, with weed-eating services tossed in at no charge.”

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Soccer fans: With an eye toward its image as host of the 1998 World Cup, France is cracking down on soccer hooligans with fines and prison terms to punish violence and neo-Nazism.

A new law provides for a year in jail and an $18,000 fine for provoking hate and violence toward the referee, players or any other person.

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Changing times: Golf’s legendary Gene Sarazen, 91, isn’t too sure that golfers aren’t overpaid these days.

“I hate to say so, but they make so much money,” Sarazen told Golf World. “I see that the 165th man on the PGA Tour money list has so far this season won more than I did in 70 years.”

And Sarazen was the first player to win the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA and British Open.

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Different strokes: At Johns Hopkins University, lacrosse is taken so seriously that the school’s annual homecoming is scheduled when that sport is in season in the spring, not during football season.

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Once only: Off-road racing veteran Walker Evans, a nine-time class winner in the Baja 1000, has his own special reason for preferring the race when it runs the length of the Baja peninsula to La Paz. There is no round trip.

“Every time you hit a bump on the way to La Paz, you know you don’t have to hit it again,” he reasoned.

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How many pass? The Chronicle of Higher Education newsletter reveals that learning how to run a 26.2-mile marathon is part of the curriculum in a course called “Fitness and Mental Health” at the University of Northern Iowa.

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Remember them: Who are Akebono, Takamio and Sunahama?

American sumo wrestlers--real names Chad Rowan, John Feleunga and William Hopkins--who scored victories in the Kyushu Grand Sumo tournament in Japan.

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Trivia answer: Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., where he was a tackle.

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Quotebook: Tom Landry on Mike Ditka: “I’m sure leaving the Bears hurt him more than it would have hurt somebody else who just happened to get fired. But if George Halas were still alive, Mike would be there, that’s for sure.”