He Really Knows How to Fight Traffic

For the last 30 years, former middleweight boxer Andy “Kid” Heilman, who was ranked as high as No. 3 in the world in the 1960s, has been a longshoreman with a long commute. He leaves his four-acre quarter-horse ranch in Winchester near Hemet at 3 a.m. each workday, traveling 200 miles round trip to the docks in Long Beach and San Pedro.

He put 557,000 miles on his last vehicle, a Dodge diesel truck.

On Saturday, Heilman was inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City.

This time, he left the driving to someone else. He and a group of family and friends arrived at the luncheon in a limousine.

Trivia time: Alvaro “Yaqui” Lopez, another inductee, boxed James Scott in 1979 in New Jersey. What was different about the site for the 10-round bout?

Big boxing fan: Pulitzer Prize-winning Times sports columnist Jim Murray was inducted posthumously. His widow, Linda McCoy-Murray, was there to accept the honor and reminded those in attendance what her late husband thought of boxing, citing this passage from Murray’s autobiography:

“There is no moment in sports to rival the electric charge that goes through an audience in the moments just before the bell for a championship fight.”

Another big boxing fan: Actor Ryan O’Neal, who played a boxer managed by Barbra Streisand in the 1979 movie, “The Main Event,” has always been involved in boxing.

He thought he was attending Saturday’s luncheon simply as a guest but was a surprise inductee.

Moved to tears, Ryan said, “Boxing is everything to me. Acting, eh. Boxing is my life.”

Good point: On the next edition of the ESPN Classic series titled “Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame ... ,” airing Tuesday at 3 and 6 p.m., the topic is the lack of a college football playoff. On the show, NCAA President Myles Brand says, “These are student-athletes, and I want to emphasize the student part. So let’s not make college sports very much like the professional game.”

The Times’ Steve Springer, also appearing on the show, indicates that maybe it is a good thing there are differences between the college and pro games.

“Imagine in the NFL,” Springer says, “if the regular season ends, and then they vote on who should go to the Super Bowl. Who would put up with that?”

Looking back: On this day in 1997, A.C. Green of the Dallas Mavericks broke the NBA record for consecutive games, making his 907th straight appearance -- in a 101-97 loss to Golden State. Green surpassed Randy Smith’s mark of 906, set from 1972 to 1983.

Trivia answer: It was held at the Rahway State Prison, where Scott was an inmate. Scott won what could be called a “home-town” decision.

And finally: NBC announcer Bill Weber, on the renovations at Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of today’s NASCAR Nextel Cup finale, said, “This track has had more work done on it than Joan Rivers, and it came out looking like Charlize Theron.”

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