Couldn’t Write Original Headline? Well, That’s Life
Life University won the NAIA men’s basketball title by beating Mobile, 63-60, in the closing seconds last Monday night.
And the Associated Press reported, “It was Life at its best.”
Ah, but that’s just one of the puns associated with the team from Marietta, Ga.
The success of the Running Eagles has prompted such headlines as “No Ordinary Life,” “The Game of Life,” “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
When the team loses, a probable headline is “Get a Life.”
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Trivia time: Who holds the record for rebounds in the men’s Division I NCAA championship basketball game?
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No-, no-, no-hitter: The Gallery column of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the baseball team at Woodland High near Sacramento is 7-0 and is believed to have set a state record by winning its last three games on no-hitters.
A spokesman for Cal Hi Sports said the periodical doesn’t keep records in that category but believes the feat is unprecedented.
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Recognition: PGA Tour pro Fred Funk discussing his name in an interview with Tom Callahan in Golf Digest:
“It’s a hard name to grow up with, but it’s easy to remember. Sometimes on tour, I’m ‘Funky,’ or ‘the Funkster.’
“In Japan this last trip, it was ‘Funk-san.’ They’re getting to know me, ‘Funk-san! Funk-san!’ ”
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White flag: Chris Carrawell, Duke’s junior swingman, on his team’s dominance:
“A lot of teams, when we’re up 25, it’s not so much what they say but how they look--guys bending over and asking to come out when we’re like, ‘Let’s go.’ That’s kind of intimidating.”
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Paltry sum: From Jay Leno: “Do you know that each nominee and presenter went home from the [Oscars] ceremony with a gift bag loaded with $16,000 worth of gifts? Or, as the Olympic Committee calls it, a slow day.”
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Ski-daddling: Wondering about the state of competitive cross-country skiing in the U.S.? Ekaterina Ivanova is the first Russian to leave her powerful national team to come here to study and ski, at the University of Vermont.
Since her arrival in January, Ivanova has won 18 of 19 races, two against the U.S. national team of Olympians.
“If she was a U.S. citizen, she would be our best Olympic skier,” Vermont Coach Bruce Cranmer said.
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FYI: Villanova holds the men’s NCAA championship game record for the best shooting, 78.6%, against Georgetown in 1985.
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Trivia answer: Bill Russell of the University of San Francisco, 27, against Iowa in 1956.
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And finally: Woody Paige of the Denver Post, reasoning that Bronco quarterback John Elway shouldn’t retire after winning two consecutive Super Bowls:
“Michelangelo didn’t quit after he sculpted ‘David.’ He still had a ceiling to paint. . . . Ludwig van Beethoven didn’t rest on his laurels or his butt after his first and second symphonies. He had to do a third.
“William Shakespeare, who was not in love, could have been satisfied to stop writing with ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ but his creative juices flowed into ‘Hamlet.’ ”