Can’t Wait for Their Version of Wild Wing

You have the Mighty Ducks in Anaheim and, well, just the plain Ducks in Beijing.

The Ducks are among 12 teams ready to play when China’s new basketball league, modeled on the NBA, starts its first full season on Dec. 10.

The Ducks didn’t like the initial design for their logo, which showed a friendly duck.

So they have a new logo: a fierce-looking duck, eyebrows arched, with a streak of lightning in the background.

That should scare the opposition.

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Trivia time: Who was the first UCLA basketball player to score 40 or more points in a game?

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Great collapse: Olympic historian Bud Greenspan, in his new book “100 Greatest Moments in Olympic History,” writes of the 1908 marathon in London.

Dorando Pietri, a 22-year-old candy maker from Italy, entered the stadium, about 400 meters from the finish, in the lead. But he collapsed and eventually finished only with help from officials. Later, because of that help, Pietri was disqualified and the gold medal given to American Johnny Hayes.

Pietri’s collapse, Greenspan writes, was so dramatic that he became an international celebrity. Irving Berlin wrote a song in his honor: “Dorando, Dorando, Dorando.” But the final word on the matter came from Joe Deakin, a relay gold medalist, who said, “The problem was, the people along the roadway were giving him glasses of Chantilly instead of water. Pietri wasn’t exhausted. He was drunk.”

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Good guess: Santa Rosa’s Kim Karwoski, a Northwestern grad proud of her school’s sudden football success, recently wore a purple sweat shirt engraved with a letter “N.” A friend saw her and complimented her on her Nordstrom shirt.

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Happy-go-lucky: Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun is keeping close tabs on Mike Keenan, coach of the St. Louis Blues.

“For those not keeping watch, Keenan has publicly berated Brett Hull, Dale Hawerchuk, Chris Pronger, Grant Fuhr and Jeff Norton this season,” Simmons writes.

“At his current rate, Keenan will eclipse all his past records for coldness, anger and public humiliation.”

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Wrong number: The Colorado Avalanche Information Center is being snowed under with calls for hockey tickets.

There’s only one problem: The center deals with real avalanches, the ones made of sliding snow, not Denver’s new hockey team.

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Looking back: On this day in 1952, Notre Dame spoiled USC’s unbeaten season with a 9-0 victory in South Bend, Ind. The Trojans went on to defeat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl game, 7-0.

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Trivia answer: Gail Goodrich, with 40 against Brigham Young on March 12, 1965.

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Quotebook: Denver Bronco Coach Mike Shanahan when asked if he had heard the new Beatles release: “I have no idea what you’re talking about. My culture is limited.”