What a Wahoo! : He’s Crashed Into Movies

Ron Shelton, who wrote and produced the film “Bull Durham,” told Peter Gammons of the Boston Globe that he got the name, Crash Davis, played by Kevin Costner, out of a minor league encyclopedia.

Soon after the film was released, the real Crash Davis called Shelton and assured him he wouldn’t sue for the use of his name.

But he asked, “Do I get the girl?”

Replied Shelton: “Not only do you get the girl, but you get Susan Sarandon.”

Add Davis: Gammons writes that Davis later became friends with the filmmaker. In Shelton’s latest film, “Cobb,” the man who plays Wahoo Sam Crawford is Lawrence Columbus (Crash) Davis, who once played for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics before setting a doubles record with the Durham (N.C.) Bulls.

Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA Division I basketball record for points in a game?

Ultra hype: Raymont Harris, Chicago Bear rookie running back, wants to be known as “Ultra Back.”

“See, the way I’m constructed at six feet and 225 pounds, I’m not a halfback. But I’m not a fullback either because I can do more things than a fullback.

“I’m an ultra back. I can run the ball, catch the ball, block, do everything. An ultra back does it all.”

Varoom!ESPN’s Joe Theismann on Indianapolis Colt running back Marshall Faulk: “He’s like Tony Dorsett. He goes from 0 to 60 with no gears. He’s here, right now.”

War of 1994: The British Columbia Lions’ 26-23 victory over Baltimore on Sunday in the Grey Cup game for the Canadian Football League championship sparked a war of words:

From Pete McMartin of the Vancouver Sun: “This is not the first time a Baltimore team has met a Canadian team in a championship. They met once before. It was for the championship of North America, in a series known as the War of 1812. The best Baltimore managed--even with the home-field advantage--was a draw. Baltimore played a defensive game. We were on offence.”

Responded Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun: “A draw? Oh, yeah, Mr. Big Shot Historian Pete McMartin, you don’t even know how to spell offense. And you had to steal from Baltimore to get a name for your newspaper.”

Different tempo: C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle on the resignation of Stanford Coach Bill Walsh:

“When (Stanford) had the ball, Walsh’s teams have quick-stepped up and down the field with the snap and precision of the USC drum and bugle corps.

“Unfortunately, on defense they looked more like the Stanford band.”

Looking back: On this day in 1984, Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie became the 50th winner of the Heisman Trophy.

Trivia answer: Frank Selvy of Furman, with 100 against Newberry on Feb. 13, 1954.

Quotebook: Shaquille O’Neal, after going to the free-throw line only 12 times in a stretch of three games: “I’m calling myself ‘Desert’--no food, no water, no calls.”