He Makes His Mark in Poland, and Fan Has Scar to Prove It

Billy Hamill, one of the world’s best speedway motorcycle riders, lives in Monrovia but is little known in Southern California by anyone except his family and a few classmates.

Katherine Schmidt, a German speedway fan attending Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana, says Hamill is idolized by racing fans in Europe. “Billy won a major race for Stal Gorzow, his home team in Poland, and his supporters lifted him up on their shoulders--the way they do football coaches over here. When he came down, the steel plate on his foot hit one of them in the head and opened a wide split over his eyebrow.

“When the stitches were removed, it left a big scar. Instead of being upset, the fan had, ‘This is where Billy Hamill hit me,’ inscribed in Polish, over the scar, and showed it off at the next race.”

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Trivia time: Who is the only coach to bring both a Pacific 10 and a Big Ten team to the Rose Bowl game?

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It must be the fluid: Sporting events have been called off because of fights, injuries, weather and even wars, but here’s a new one.

A high school basketball game in Missouri between Poplar Bluff and Dexter was halted in the third quarter because some of the players’ Converse sneakers were leaking fluid from the soles. The floor became so slippery, coaches decided it was too dangerous to continue.

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Priced out: Attendance is down in certain NHL cities, and Edmonton Oiler General Manager Glen Sather told the Canadian Press how he learned one reason why:

“I got my car washed recently and talked to a priest who was there, who loves hockey. But he said he makes $600 a month and asked how can he afford to go to hockey games. There’s the reality of it.”

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Great White Snake? Greg Norman had a pretty good year in 1995, but it was nothing like the day he had when American Brands purchased Cobra Golf.

Norman owns about 700,078 shares of Cobra, according to the trade publication Golfweek, and when the deal with American Brands was announced Monday. the Cobra stock went up about $7.88 a share, a nifty $5.5-million one-day profit for Norman.

In one day, Norman made almost 60% as much as he has won in his 12 years on the PGA Tour, where he has more than $9.5 million in earnings.

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Contrasting thoughts: Courtney Connell, a Texas club pro, says, “Some people mistake the golf course for a serious and somber sanctuary, when it’s actually a forum for fun and laughter.”

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Not so, says Sam Snead: “I shot a wild elephant in Africa 30 yards from me, and it didn’t hit the ground until it was right at my feet. I wasn’t a bit scared, compared to a four-foot putt.”

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Scare tactics: Elgin Baylor, Clipper general manager and an NBA Hall of Fame forward, recalls how he used to handle mouthy young defenders eager to make a name for themselves by stopping the high-scoring Laker.

“I’d wait till a free throw or something, and then I’d saunter over to the guy and just ask him if he knew who held the scoring record in the building we were playing in.”

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Trivia answer: Pete Elliott, California in 1959 and Illinois in 1964.

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Quotebook: The New York Post’s Ray McNulty, after watching the Buffalo Bills defeat the Miami Dolphins, 23-20: “Too many of Don Shula’s look-at-me players were too preoccupied with strutting and taunting and talking trash to do what was necessary to win a must-win game.”