He pounces on a chance for a...

He pounces on a chance for a zinger

Former UCLA football players James Washington and Matt Stevens co-chaired a charity golf tournament and dinner last week at the Black Gold Golf Club in Yorba Linda to benefit Shelter 37 Inc., an after-school and outreach program founded by Washington in 1993. The honored guest was former UCLA coach Terry Donahue.

Even though the attendees included former USC basketball players Bill and Jerry Sharman, father and son, it was predominantly a UCLA gathering. So a story Donahue told, insisting it was true, went over well.

He said he was at the Quiet Woman, a restaurant in Corona del Mar, the Thursday before last season’s USC-UCLA game.

At a nearby table was a group of USC alums. One of them wanted to bet Donahue on that weekend’s game. Donahue said he unsuccessfully tried to talk his way out of it.

“Finally, I said, ‘OK, if you can tell me my record against USC in my 20 years as the head coach at UCLA, 20 years of competing and fighting against those guys, I’ll bet with you,’ ” Donahue said. “The guy goes and confers with his buddies, then comes back and says, ‘I got it. You were 8-4.’ ”

Trivia time

What was Donahue’s 20-year record against USC?

Proper perspective

Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman is continuing to take a lot of heat in the Windy City. But Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune points out it could be worse. Some examples:

“Your team is the Atlanta Falcons and your star quarterback is probably going to jail.”

“Your team is the Oakland Raiders and your hot-shot rookie quarterback still hasn’t shown up.”

“Your team is the New York Giants and your quarterback’s leadership skills have been called ‘almost comical at times’ by your former running back.”

Eli’s coming around

The criticism aimed at Giants quarterback Eli Manning came from Tiki Barber on NBC. Responded Manning to reporters: “I guess I could have questioned his leadership skills last year with calling out the coach, having articles about him retiring in the middle of the season, and [how] he’s lost heart. As a quarterback, you’re reading your running back has lost the heart to play the game and it’s about the 10th week.”

Said Barber on the Sirius Satellite Radio weekly show he does with twin brother, Ronde: “I’m glad he’s sticking up for himself.”

A shining Knight

A $100-million donation was recently given to the University of Oregon to create an athletics legacy fund. The donor was Nike founder Phil Knight.

“Or, as he’s better known around Eugene, The Duck That Lays the Golden Eggs,” wrote Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times.

Scoreboards can lie

Washington, besides being an analyst on the FSN West and Prime Ticket “Bruins Live” postgame shows, does a national talk show for Fox Sports Radio with Craig Shemon. On Thursday, a guest on their show, which is not carried by a Los Angeles station, was the Dodgers’ Matt Kemp, who had four hits in a 15-3 victory at Philadelphia the previous night. It was the same night Texas beat Baltimore, 30-3.

“One scoreboard flashed 30-3, and the other scoreboard said it was 10-3,” Kemp said. “And we were like, ‘Well, it had to be 10-3 because they couldn’t have scored 30 runs.’ But the scoreboard in the outfield only went to 1; it didn’t go to 3.”

Trivia answer

10-9-1. (Donahue lost four of his first five games against USC but won his last five.)

And finally

Mike McGee, the son of former professional golfer Jerry McGee, found a fitting setting to propose to girlfriend Annika Sorenstam on Saturday morning at their home in Orlando. “I’ve been carrying the ring around for a week, and it just seemed like the right time,” he said. “She was relaxing peacefully at home with her cats and I know that’s when she is the most content.”

Sure beats hiring a skywriter.

larry.stewart@latimes.com