It’s Olympic, but You Won’t See It in Atlanta

Spiros Nakos can remain an Olympian on New York’s Lower East Side, but he will have to lose the rings.

The U.S. Olympic Committee said that the Olympic Restaurant, Nakos’ 10-table coffee shop on Delancey Street, can keep the name for now. In return, Nakos agreed to remove the five interlocking Olympic rings from his menu and the sign out front.

The plight of the Greek-American restaurateur, who named his establishment Olympic because of national pride, pitted against the multimillion-dollar USOC caught national attention.

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Add Olympics: Last month, Nakos’ tiny restaurant was among 40,000 establishments nationwide that received letters from the USOC, warning that they were illegally using the Olympic name or trademarks.

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Trivia time: Before they became the Indians, what was the Cleveland baseball team’s nickname?

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They all count: After Dale Earnhardt won NASCAR’s Winston Cup stock car championship, despite having won only four races to eight for third-place finisher Rusty Wallace, Earnhardt’s car owner bristled at criticism of the series scoring system.

“It’s like playing 18 holes of golf,” Richard Childress said. “So you score eight holes in one. But what happens if you can’t keep it in the fairway on the other 10 holes?”

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One for AARP: So, who’s George Foreman?

A 59-year-old bull rider--14 years older than the heavyweight champion--stole the show at the National Senior Pro Rodeo finals in Reno. Ed LaTourneau of Madera, Calif., became the oldest cowboy to win the world bull-riding championship.

“Has there ever been a 60-year-old bull riding champion?” he asked, looking forward to next year’s competition.

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What comes around: Phil Linz, the former New York Yankee infielder best remembered for angering Manager Yogi Berra 30 years ago by playing a harmonica on the team bus after four consecutive losses, now wants his old boss as a client.

Linz is director of sales for Polar International Brokerage Corp., and is trying to sell Berra insurance. “As long as you don’t play that harmonica, you’ll be a success,” Berra told him.

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Single-minded: USC linebacker Donn Cunnigan, on his summer of playing minor league baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bradenton team in the Gulf Coast Rookie League: “My manager teased me about the way I kept running into fielders when I was running the bases. On a double-play ball once, I knocked over both the second baseman and the shortstop.”

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Logo watching: Norm Cohen of Newsday notes:

“From someone who apparently has way too much time on his hands comes the revelation that 525 sponsor logos are visible in SkyBox’s 27-card premier auto racing set. That’s 19.4 logos per card, for those of you keeping score.”

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Trivia answer: The Naps, Bronchos, Blues, Spiders and Forest Citys.

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Quotebook: San Jose Mercury News columnist Bud Geracie: “Dwight Gooden won’t be playing baseball in 1995. Will anyone?”