A food fight Bay Area is glad to miss

Maybe former California basketball coach Todd Bozeman had to choke down too many ham-on-rye sandwiches during his eight-year ban from coaching. Or maybe he was still seething from the turkey he had witnessed, his Morgan State team having blown a 10-point lead in a loss to Longwood University.

Whatever the reason, Bozeman found himself in a pickle last weekend.

On a postgame food run, Bozeman threw a Bob Knight-like hissy fit at a restaurant in Farmville, Va., as an argument about sandwiches escalated.

“The coach ... just went belligerent, screaming that he didn’t want ham sandwiches,” Carlos Holland, the manager of Mulligan’s, said. “He put his hands on one of our managers ... just grabbed her and shook her.”

According to Holland, the first-year Morgan State coach became angry about the selection of ham and turkey. An assistant coach had ordered 52 sandwiches, requesting Philly cheesesteak and chicken, but was told that selection could not be filled completely.

“I don’t understand this guy,” Holland said. “Me being an African American also, I was very upset. All over a ham sandwich.”

Bozeman left, police were called and a misdemeanor assault warrant was issued.

“He yelled, ‘I ain’t scared of you country bumpkins. I want my ... money back,’ ” Holland said. “We had kids in here eating, nice and quiet with their families. He’s the head coach of a university, showing a bad example.”

Still, as Bozeman lead-by-example moments go, this was an improvement. He had to eat a little crow after the last one, when he offered $30,000 to a recruit’s family.

Farmville Five-O?

Apparently, the Bozeman incident was treated as a major crime spree in Farmville, a town of fewer than 7,000.

“We had every cop in town here to handle this,” Holland said.

OK, so after Andy and Barney arrived ...

Trivia time

Before Lance Armstrong in 2006, who was the last Tour de France winner to fail to defend his title?

Crowe bars cheerleaders

Russell Crowe, part owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby club in Australia, decided sideline sex appeal was getting in the way of the on-field violence.

So the club’s cheerleading squad was given the boot this week because, “It makes women uncomfortable and it makes blokes who take their son to the football also uncomfortable,” Crowe said in News Ltd. Newspapers.

So, A Beautiful Mind 1, some beautiful women nil.

The team’s “Master and Commander” said club officials had become concerned that the women, whose outfits included fishnet stockings and tasseled miniskirts, were inappropriate entertainment.

And the movie, “Mystery, Alaska,” wasn’t?

In other sideline news ...

Manual Jose, the Portuguese coach for the Al Ahli soccer team that has won the Egyptian and African championships, apologized for partially undressing on the sidelines to protest a referee’s call during a game in Cairo last week.

“I forgot at that moment that I was in a country whose traditions are a little bit different than my country,” Jose said in a statement on the club’s website.

Portugal embraces the tradition of coaches stripping on the sidelines?

Trivia answer

Italy’s Marco Pantani, who won in 1998, the year before Armstrong began his seven-year run as champion.

American Floyd Landis, the 2006 winner who is under investigation for possible doping, has agreed not to race in France this year.

And finally

Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh had his own take on the problems facing Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman.

“The media, the sports media, has got social concerns that they are first and foremost interested in,” Limbaugh said during his show Monday. “They are dumping on this guy, Rex Grossman, for one reason and that’s because he’s a white quarterback.”

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chris.foster@latimes.com