Few have had more impact

Lyndon Johnson was president when Joe Paterno, nearly 40, became football coach at Penn State. NASA hadn’t reached the moon yet. Most television sets were black and white.

Four decades later, Paterno, now 81, is still coaching the Nittany Lions and was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

Paterno reached the hall with a record of 372-125-3, national championships in 1982 and ’86 and five undefeated seasons.

But wins and losses often took a back seat to the simple joy of competition for the Brooklyn native with Coke-bottle glasses who disappointed his father by choosing football instead of law school.

His dad had one message for him nonetheless -- “Have an impact” -- which Paterno said he never forgot as he tried to teach athletes how to become not only better players but better people.

“That kind of stuck in my craw,” he told the Associated Press.

“I think a way to have an impact on the place is to have an impact on the people -- the people around you and the people you coach.”

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Trivia time

Paterno’s induction originally was set for December 2006, but he had to postpone it. Why?

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Sex sells

Sex appeal in women’s tennis, as Tennis Week magazine recently put it, had been a little secret in the sport but lately “it no longer looks so little or so secret.”

It pointed to a growing focus on the players’ allure, from Ana Ivanovic being photographed with British tycoon Sir Richard Branson to glamour shots of Daniela Hantuchova in an airline magazine.

Then there’s Ashley Harkleroad on the cover of Playboy.

“All sports are trying to distinguish themselves through their athletes and the glamorous nature of what they do,” Larry Scott, chief executive of the Women’s Tennis Assn. tour, told London’s Financial Times last month. “That’s what sponsors are after.”

Harkleroad told ESPN that her boyfriend and agents negotiated the Playboy appearance, adding that “I enjoy being in front of a camera.”

As for any reaction from other WTA players, she said: “I think they understand what I was doing; I haven’t heard any negative feedback from them.”

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Inspired driving

Speaking of tennis, Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal is a source of inspiration for Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton, 23, stunned the auto racing series in 2007 by nearly winning the world championship in his rookie year, but he lost by a single point.

The British driver is in the hunt for the title again this season and, as he prepared for today’s German Grand Prix, Hamilton said Nadal’s recent victory over five-time Wimbledon winner Roger Federer gave him fresh determination.

“Nadal had never tasted it, and for me I can probably identify with his hunger to win that first title,” Hamilton told AP, adding that he listened to the final moments of Nadal’s victory on the radio after winning the British Grand Prix earlier that day.

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Fan favorites

A Harris Poll of baseball fans found that the New York Yankees were their favorite team -- for the sixth year in a row.

The Atlanta Braves were second, followed by the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs. The Dodgers climbed to fifth from 11th the previous year.

The Colorado Rockies, fresh from their World Series appearance last season, made the largest move up, rising to 13th from 27th a year earlier.

And the Angels? They dropped from 23rd last year to next-to-last in the latest poll, ahead of only the Toronto Blue Jays.

No reason was provided by Harris, so perhaps Briefing’s readers can explain the poll’s fallen Angels.

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Trivia answer

Paterno was nursing a broken left leg suffered a month earlier when two players ran into him on the sideline during a loss to Wisconsin.

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And finally

The English youth soccer league in Northumberland has started erecting sideline barriers at its games, Britain’s Daily Mail reports.

The reason: To curb the abuse that overbearing parents heap on the referees.

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james.peltz@latimes.com