Maybe Guy From Commercial Can Auction Off Olympic Beer

Every day at exactly 1 p.m., an employee of the Lillehammer Olympic Organizing committee, in skiing knickers and a floppy hat, mounts a stool on the town’s main street and summons a crowd clanging a cowbell.

Up for auction is a countdown T-shirt, one for each day left until the Games.

“This is a historic day,” auctioneer Morten Svensen shouts from his stool.

That is the same thing the auctioneers have said every day since the auctions started 1,000 days before the Games. The T-shirts, especially ones with special numbers like 100, draw astonishing bids. The highest was $3,700; the average is $320.

Add Olympics: German brewers are being urged to provide free beer to the country’s competitors at the Winter Olympics because the Germans’ favorite drink costs too much in Norway.

“German brewers, support our Olympic team. Free beer for Lillehammer,” Bild, the country’s biggest newspaper, said in a front-page article.

Bild complained that Lillehammer bars would be charging between 14 and 25 marks ($8 and $14) for half a liter of beer--between three and five times more than in Germany.

Trivia time: Who was UCLA’s first consensus All-American in basketball?

Precocious Chris: If Chris Webber makes the NBA All-Star game, he will become the youngest player ever in the midseason contest.

Shaquille O’Neal, who was 13 days shy of his 21st birthday when he played last year, is the youngest. Webber would be three days younger if he plays on Feb. 13.

Polar Bear: Somebody should tell Ted Sakovich that the Chicago Bears refers to the animal, not a state of undress.

There he was on one of the coldest days of the year, trotting around Calumet City, Ill., clad only in underpants, gym shoes and a headband with the word “Bears.” A wind-chill of 38 degrees below zero turned his bare skin red.

“I didn’t even feel it,” he said as he completed the two-block run and returned to the comfort of the Rose & Crown tavern. His mistake was to have bet on the Bears, wagering they would finish the season .500 or better. The team lost its last four games, finishing 7-9.

The other way: Unlike Michael Jordan, who made his fortune and retired from pro basketball, Don Calhoun made his fortune and got a job shooting hoops.

Since winning $1 million by sinking a 75-foot shot at a Chicago Bulls’ game promotion last April, Calhoun has quit his $5-an-hour job and joined the Harlem Globetrotters--as a shooting guard.

New sport? Golfer Fred Couples attended a Dallas Stars hockey game and tried his hand at a slap shot in the Reunion Arena shooting cage. He recorded the night’s top speed, 104 m.p.h.

Trivia answer: Walt Hazzard in 1964.

Quotebook: The San Antonio Spurs’ Dennis Rodman, on coaching Dennis Rodman: “John (Lucas) knows I’m a competitor. He knows I’m out there doing my job, which is to kick ass. But I wouldn’t want to coach me. No way. It’s hard to coach Dennis Rodman.”