Grieving Hockey Fans Tie One On

Magnetic car ribbons that express everything from support for U.S. military troops to cancer awareness have become a pop culture phenomenon.

And now, according to Associated Press, there are magnetic car ribbons that express hockey fans’ frustration over the NHL’s 122-day-old lockout.

“I need my hockey fix(ed),” reads the black-and-orange magnets created by Doug Sitler of Buffalo, N.Y., who quickly sold more than 2,000 of them.

“The first person I saw who had one was a 70-year-old woman in a Lexus,” he said.

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Trivia time: Three legendary quarterbacks, whose last names all begin with the letter L, played for the 1948 Chicago Bears. Who were they?

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A willing donor: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is sponsoring a bill to ban legalized gambling on college sports, told ESPN.com that that doesn’t mean he doesn’t gamble.

“When I go to Las Vegas to see a fight ... I contribute a couple of hundred dollars to the ailing Las Vegas economy at the gambling table,” he said.

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Getting the message out: To reach college athletes, the NCAA is planning to launch an anti-gambling campaign on the Cartoon Network.

“You know what’s sad about this?” Jay Leno said. “Not the gambling, but the best way to reach college athletes is the Cartoon Network.”

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Material evidence: Reader Lynne Lawlor, USC class of ‘57, responding to a Morning Briefing item about the school’s not wanting to be called Southern Cal, e-mailed a photo of a “Southern Cal” sweatshirt she bought from a Trojan catalog.

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No need to celebrate: Greg Cote of the Miami Herald was correct in his preseason NFL picks with five of the eight division winners and seven of the 12 playoff teams.

“My glorified guesswork was OK,” he wrote, “but to crow would be a celebration of mediocrity somewhat mindful of Greg’s father making a big display of his eighth-place ribbons in ‘Meet the Fockers.’ ”

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Incidental information: Regarding a Morning Briefing mention of the Chicago Packers, reader Jerry Kobin says the NBA team changed its name to Zephyrs in their second season in Chicago (1962-63) and then became the Baltimore Bullets.

Today, the Bullets are the Washington Wizards.

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Looking back: On this day in 2001, the women’s basketball teams from NCAA Division III Peace College of Raleigh, N.C., and Bennett College of Greensboro, N.C., played one of the most lopsided basketball games ever. Peace won, 98-3.

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Trivia time: Johnny Lujack, Sid Luckman and Bobby Layne.

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And finally: Deion Sanders, as a guest on James Brown’s Sporting News network radio show, had this to say about Randy Moss: “He’s like a beautiful woman who can’t cook, doesn’t want to clean and doesn’t want to take care of kids. You really don’t want her, but she’s so beautiful that you can’t let her go.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.