Audible From A.D. Prompts Tate to Pass

One couldn’t blame Iowa quarterback Drew Tate if he were a little upset after playing in a charity golf tournament Friday. Hitting a six-iron, Tate had a hole in one on a 178-yard hole where $25,000 was being awarded toward the purchase of a new car to anyone who aced it.

But, according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Iowa Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby, who was at the tournament, pulled Tate aside and informed him that accepting the prize would be against NCAA regulations since he has a year of eligibility left.

James White of Cedar Falls, Iowa, one of Tate’s playing partners, said the All-Big Ten Conference quarterback told the group he wasn’t really upset.

“If it weren’t for football and the university, I wouldn’t be playing in this outing anyway,” White quoted Tate as saying.

Trivia time: What did Iowa’s football team and UCLA’s basketball team have in common this year?

He can talk trash: Joe Winkelsas, a 32-year-old reliever with the Milwaukee Brewers who hadn’t been in the big leagues since throwing one-third of an inning in 1999, spent the interim kicking around the bush leagues and even driving a garbage truck, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Wrote Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “Guess that explains those scouting reports purporting that, while he doesn’t throw as hard as he once did, he certainly has more junk.”

Good training ground: An interview Bob Costas did with outgoing NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was on a recent edition of HBO’s “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.” After the interview was shown, Costas told Gumbel that one thing Tagliabue planned to do in retirement was read more books, and read them from cover to cover.

“He kidded me, saying, ‘You know, people think I read a lot. I read the first chapter and I read the last. That way I’m conversant with the book.”

Said Gumbel: “Could have done morning TV.”

Anything suits Sutter: Former pitcher Bruce Sutter, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on June 30, won a Cy Young Award with the Chicago Cubs and a World Series title with the St. Louis Cardinals. Fox Sports radio’s Craig Shemon asked Sutter, “Are you going in as a Cardinal or a Cub?”

Sutter said he’s going in as a Cardinal but the Hall of Fame actually makes the choice.

“But,” he said, “if they told me I was wearing Mickey Mouse ears, I’d have worn them.”

Looking back: On this day in 1961, the newly formed American Basketball League became the first basketball league to adopt the three-point basket. The league folded Dec. 31, 1962.

Trivia answer: Both lost to Florida in the postseason. Iowa lost to the Gators, 31-24, in the Outback Bowl at Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 2, and UCLA lost to the Gators in the NCAA championship game.

And finally: Tiger Woods, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, said at a golf clinic in Little Rock that he hasn’t hit every fairway. “Hence, my last name is Woods,” he added.

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