He Doesn’t Always Keep His Head Above Water

When Tiger Woods isn’t winning golf tournaments, signing autographs or making sponsor appearances, his passion is scuba diving. He has become a certified diver. Before the PGA, he spent time in the Bahamas, mostly under water.

When Butch Harmon, his golf coach, asked him why he enjoyed diving so much, Tiger replied: “When I’m down there among the fish, none of them know who I am.”

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Trivia time: What is the highest number of ticket requests for a Notre Dame home game?

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High hard one: The University of Kentucky’s projected starting quarterback is a redshirt freshman named Jared Lorenzen, who is 6 feet 4, weighs 270 pounds and throws the football so hard that it’s hurting his receivers.

“I’ve caught one in the ribs,” wide receiver Dougie Allen said. “You’ve got to look it into your hands because if you don’t, it’s going to touch your body and it’s going to hurt.”

One of Lorenzen’s passes hit Allen in the nose. Said Allen: “It woke me up a little bit.”

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Chasing Bear: With seven more wins, Penn State’s Joe Paterno will surpass Bear Bryant’s NCAA Division I-A record of 323 career victories.

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Mark ‘em down: The Orange Bowl will be the site of this year’s bowl championship series national title game on Wednesday night, Jan. 3, 2001. The 2001 national championship game will be played Thursday night, Jan. 3, 2002, at the Rose Bowl.

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No excuses: The Toronto ThunderHawks will never be able to convince their coach they are too tired to practice.

The expansion franchise of the indoor National Professional Soccer League has hired Gary Hindley to run the team-- seven months after Hindley suffered a stroke.

Hindley, 53, said his doctors have given him “full clearance” to resume coaching, telling him they could not recall another stroke patient recovering as quickly as he did.

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That hurts: The Indy Racing League recently announced it was dropping Walt Disney World Speedway in Florida from its 2001 schedule. Joe Daudish, in On Track magazine, deplored the decision.

“No Disney race?” he asked. “Mickey Mouse was the only thing that gave the league any credibility.”

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FYI: A football field is 100 yards long, 53 1/3 yards wide and the goalpost crossbar is 10 feet high.

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Trivia answer: 57,048, for the 1997 USC game.

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And finally: Applauding the choice of the San Diego Chargers’ Darren Bennett as the punter on the NFL all-decade team, Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union Tribune says Bennett is “probably the possessor of the best right leg since Betty Grable.”