Neither Ice Nor Snow Will Stop These Dogs

Phil Morgan this week became the last musher to finish the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Willow, Alaska, to Nome. It took him more than 15 days, but he had an excuse.

Soon after setting out, he discovered that three of his female dogs were in heat and several of his males became too preoccupied to focus on racing.

“We had love on the trail,” Morgan told the Anchorage Daily News.

More mushy stuff: Despite the fast moves they were putting on each other, Morgan’s team of dogs averaged only 2.98 mph on the trail, compared to the nearly 5-mph average of winner Robert Sorlie’s team, which arrived in Nome after 9 days 18 hours 39 minutes.

Trivia time: On this date in 1936, Mud Bruneteau scored to give Detroit a 1-0 victory over Montreal in a semifinal of the Stanley Cup playoffs. What was significant about that game?

More is merrier: Pat Summitt, coach of the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team, has an NCAA-record 880 victories. There were times when she wished 880 fans would attend Volunteer games.

For example, only 53 showed up to watch victory No. 1 at Tennessee’s Alumni Gym against Middle Tennessee State in 1975. There were 13,188 on hand Tuesday at Knoxville for victory No. 880, a mob scene by comparison.

But then the Volunteers’ 75-54 thrashing of Purdue at Knoxville was an NCAA tournament contest.

Eye sore: The Boston Red Sox were visited last week by the cast and crew of the television show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” Five players will be featured in a June 7 episode.

Fashion advisor Carson Kressley wasted no time loosening them up. “Look at the Green Monster,” he said in mock horror, pointing to catcher Doug Mirabelli’s big toe.

A grand slam: Barry Bonds’ announcement that he may not play this season because of injury, insult and various other issues, brought columnists out swinging.

Wrote Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: “Now the Giants come to the recriminations phase of a blindly co-dependent relationship with an aging, hobbling, steroid-deprived, self-pitying, federally investigated sourpuss and theoretical adulterer/tax dodger, who, by the way, is also one of the greatest baseball players ever.”

Yes, Kawakami acknowledged, that is a notable “by the way.”

Not working: Rocky Thompson never parks his golf cart on a crack. Ed Dougherty always carries three long tees, two short tees, four nickels and a ball marker in his pocket. Doug Tewell always keeps a penny in his pocket.

Perhaps these Champions Tour golfers need some new superstitions: Six events into the season, Tewell is the best of the three -- 63rd on the money list.

Trivia answer: It was the longest game in NHL history, going six overtimes and lasting 176 minutes 30 seconds.

And finally: Jay Leno on the world-record feat by 40 pro surfers, who rode a 40-foot-long, 10-foot-wide surfboard off Australia: “And today people in Cuba said, ‘Why didn’t we think of that?’ ”