One Thing the Vikings Didn’t Figure

Lori Shontz of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a growing number of women’s college teams are taking unladylike nicknames. Some examples:

“The University of Alaska’s mascot is the Nanook. Translated literally from an Eskimo language, nanook means ‘male polar bear.’

“Which means that the women’s teams, when called the Lady Nanooks, are actually Lady Male Polar Bears.

“At Northland College in Wisconsin, there are Lumberjacks and Lumberjills. (Another school with the same nickname, Stephen F. Austin, calls its women’s teams Ladyjacks.)

“At Augustana College in Illinois, there are Vikings and Vi Queens.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL record for most consecutive passes without an interception?

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Small consolation: Florida Coach Steve Spurrier is frustrated that his team can’t win the national championship. Florida lost to Tennessee and Florida State earlier in the season.

As for the national championship game between Tennessee and Florida State on Jan. 4, Spurrier said: “The bad news is, one of those teams will win the national championship. The good news for the Gators is one of them is going to lose.”

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Still going: When trainer Noble Threewitt saddles Old Topper in today’s $200,000 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita , it will not be the first time Threewitt has run a horse on opening day at Santa Anita.

He ran a horse named Beeson on Santa Anita’s first opening day: Dec. 25, 1934. Threewitt will be 88 on Feb. 24.

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Bruin nightmare: Dan Lebatard of the Miami Herald in a interview with University of Miami running back Edgerrin James, who rushed for a 299 yards in a final regular-season game against UCLA:

* Question: “Describe the look you saw on the faces of UCLA defenders?”

Answer: “Shocked.”

Q: “Can you elaborate?”

A: “Real shocked.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1960, the Philadelphia Eagles came from behind twice on a 35-yard scoring pass to Tommy McDonald from Norm Van Brocklin and a five-yard run by Ted Dean and beat the Green Bay Packers, 17-13, in the NFL championship game.

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Looking back again: On this day in 1976, the Los Angeles Rams lost to the Minnesota Vikings, 24-13, in the NFC championship game in Minneapolis.

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Trivia answer: Bernie Kosar of the Cleveland Browns, 308, 1990-91.

And finally: Bill Lyon in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “This comes under the category of let’s-be-a-man-about-this-and-just-admit-I-was-wrong.

“Randall Cunningham has become everything that I, and most of Philadelphia, thought he never would, or could. It’s our usual luck, of course, that he has gone and done this someplace else.

“For all of us who ever said that Randall Cunningham would never, ever take the Eagles to the Super Bowl . . . it is looking more and more as if we were half-right.”