They Are Feuding Like the Hatfields and the McCoys

After West Virginia beat state rival Marshall, 42-31, on Aug. 30, Mountaineer Coach Don Nehlen said:

“Marshall was given an opportunity to play us [in the future], and they turned us down. I’m not going to play at Marshall. I’m not very smart, but I can add.

“They have 25- or 30-thousand [capacity] and I have 65,000. I passed English and I don’t use ain’t, but I ain’t going to Marshall.”

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Trivia time: Which school holds the NCAA Division I-A record for the longest unbeaten streak, including ties?

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Say it isn’t so: For the first time in the 62-year history of the Heisman Trophy, the Downtown Athletic Club in New York has leased the Heisman image to Coors Brewing as part of a season-long contest.

“What’s next, the Washington Monument?” asked ESPN commentator Beano Cook. “Nothing is sacred.”

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Cheap title: From the SportsLetter of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles: “Let’s get ready to rumble and rumble and rumble. Boxing statistician Bob Yalen’s annual survey of professional boxing’s championship fights recorded 213 world title bouts in 1996 sanctioned by the WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO and WBU. That’s up from 197 championships in 1995.

“That averaged out to a ‘world championship’ fight every 1.7 days.”

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Refreshing: In an era when San Francisco’s Candlestick Park has been renamed 3Com Park and Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium has become Cinergy Field, the Detroit Tigers will call their new stadium--are you ready?--Tiger Stadium.

The sale of naming rights could have produced millions of dollars for owner Mike Ilitch, who has committed $145 million toward the new stadium. The Tigers also have agreed to cover any cost overruns.

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Look out below! Sam Adams of the Rocky Mountain News tells the story of a teenage John Elway and the family swimming pool, which didn’t have a diving board.

When a real estate agent asked Elway’s mom, Jan, about the pool, she replied: “How did you know we had one?” Said the agent: “I saw your son jumping off the roof.”

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Laker “Wizard”: Rick Fox, the new Laker who was recently acquired from the Boston Celtics, has acting aspirations.

He played an inmate in “Oz,” an HBO series that aired eight episodes this summer. A repeat episode is scheduled Saturday. More episodes have been ordered.

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Looking back: On this day in 1963, 42-year-old Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves tied a National League record when he became a 20-game winner for the 13th time.

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Trivia answer: Washington, 63 games--59 wins, 4 ties--from 1907-17.

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And finally: In putting together a highlight film for the Colorado football team to watch, Coach Rick Neuheisel spliced in clips from the movie, “The Ghost and the Darkness,” a story about two lions hunting together.

Neuheisel told his team he wanted his players to be like the lions. When someone pointed out to Neuheisel that the lions in the movie eventually were killed, he said: “Sometimes I leave things out.”