The Retirement Nest Egg That Ruth Built

Marion Townsley Jr. has kept a Babe Ruth baseball card for 30 years and he’s in no rush to give it up now--even if the 1914 card is worth at least $7,000.

Townsley, 59, who relies on $1,400-a-month disability checks, said he might sell the card in a year or two but for now he’s only going to share it with other baseball fans.

The card, showing the Baltimore-born Ruth as a member of the then-minor league Orioles, will go on display at the Babe Ruth Museum on Thursday, the 102nd anniversary of the famous slugger’s birth.

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Trivia time: UCLA’s basketball program began in 1919. Which school did the Bruins play in their first game?

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Just like Popeye: As part of a personality profile for the University of Louisville, basketball players were asked to name their favorite food for a midnight snack. Alvin Sims replied: “Spinach.”

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Disturbed traveler: San Antonio’s Dominique Wilkins was asked during a live chat on the NBA’s Internet site what he learned from playing in Greece last year:

“Never to go back.”

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Ultimate diplomat: Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News recalls how Pete Rozelle, the late NFL commissioner, once handled a ticklish subject at a news conference, prompting this remark from Tex Maule of Sports Illustrated: “They oughta let Pete handle the Vietnam mess. He’d have us out of there in a week, plus two draft choices.”

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Stomping ‘The Worm”: Anicka Rodman has countered her former husband’s book, “Bad as I Wanna Be,” with her own book: “‘Worse Than He Says He Is: Off the Court with Dennis Rodman.”

It’s an account of her turbulent seven-year relationship with basketball’s controversial “bad boy.”

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Relic retired: The University of California men’s basketball team will play its last game in 64-year-old Harmon Gym on March 6 against Arizona State. The 6,500-seat facility will be replaced by a new, increased seating arena next year.

One of the more bizarre incidents in Harmon occurred in 1956, when fans, upset with official Al Lightner’s calls in a game against USC, threw hot pennies onto the floor in the closing minutes. The game was then forfeited to the Trojans, who were already comfortably ahead, 77-64.

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Proper priority: Duffy Daugherty, former Michigan State football coach, was once asked by a reporter: “Whom are you happiest to see returning next year?”

Daugherty replied: “Me.”

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Trivia answer: Manual Arts High School. UCLA won, 46-38.

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And finally: Dale Brown, who recently announced that he will retire as Louisiana State’s basketball coach, has always been a man of varied interests.

Randy Holtz of the Rocky Mountain News recalled that during a news conference at the 1987 NCAA tournament Brown, in a 20-minute talk, touched on the planet Saturn, the United Nations, the Titanic, the Homestead Act, David and Goliath, Bo Derek, the Roman Empire, and The Little Engine That Could.