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Chalk up a win for political correctness. From the Argus Leader-
North Dakota’s Board of Higher Education has agreed to drop the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname and Indian head logo, a move intended to resolve a decades-long campus dispute about whether the name demeans American Indians.
The name and logo, which is a profile of an American Indian man with feathers and streaks of paint on his face, could still be saved if North Dakota’s Standing Rock and Spirit Lake Sioux tribes agree by Oct. 1 to give UND permission to use them for at least 30 years.
However, tribal officials say that possibility is remote, and board members and UND President Robert Kelley spoke of the logo and nickname in the past tense on Thursday. Unless the name and logo receive tribal endorsement, they will be retired for good on Aug. 1, 2010.
The board, which met Thursday at Dickinson State University, voted 8-0 to retire the logo and nickname.
So what should the new North Dakota nickname be? The fighting Certified Public Accountants? The armed and ready B-52s? Any other suggestions?
Hat tip- Joanne Jacobs
Someone might say “I went to a bodybuilding championship and a track and field competition broke out.” From AP-
The Belgian bodybuilding championship has been canceled after doping officials showed up and all the competitors fled.
A doping official says bodybuilders just grabbed their gear and ran off when he came into the room.
Next year the drug testers need to wear sneakers and be prepared to run when they arrive.
“I have never seen anything like it and hope never to see anything like it again,” doping official Hans Cooman said Monday.
Twenty bodybuilders were entered in the weekend competition.
You mean all twenty of them took off?
Cooman says the sport has a history of doping “and this incident didn’t do its reputation any good.”
You think so?
During testing of bodybuilding events last year, doping authorities of northern Belgium’s Flanders region found that three-quarters of the competitors tested positive.
All who fled are guilty till proven innocent. Ban them all.
The twenty-year-old from South Korea defeated Suzann Pettersen by four shots. Michelle Wie and Paula Creamer tied for 3rd six shots back.
This was Oh’s second LPGA win ever. She won the State Farm Classic in a playoff last July over Yani Tseng. I think this win shows Oh is more than a one tournament wonder.
Today’s finish was much closer than the four-stroke margin of victory would show it to be. After 11 holes Pettersen and Oh were tied for the lead. Then Pettersen made bogey at the 12th. For the next four holes Oh and Pettersen matched pars. Then at the 17th, Pettersen missed a two-foot par putt.
At the 18th Oh made her first birdie of the back nine while Pettersen came apart on the par 5 finishing hole. The Norwegian golfer who after winning 5 LPGA tournaments in 2007 and has come up winless since, has problems controlling her frustration or temper on the golf course at times. She didn’t just play the 18th hole poorly, but walked off to the 18th tee before Oh was finished putting out at the 17th green. That’s not proper golf etiquette.
Any golf nut besides myself notice Oh has stopped wearing her glasses? Someone dig out the record books* for when a LPGA golfer won a tournament without eyeglasses when she donned eye gear at her previous win.
I’m sticking to my prediction that Michelle Wie is going to win this year on the LPGA Tour. She wasn’t really a factor today. She to within 3 strokes of the lead after 11 holes but then put one in the water at the 12th to take herself out of contention. Still Wie is getting results, and soon enough she’ll put it all together for one week.
Kraft Nabisco winner Brittany Lincicome continues to finish well. She didn’t have a good weekend(72-77 for Saturday and Sunday) at the Sybase, but her comeback from a disastrous 2008 outing continues. Her sixth place finish is a definite boost for Brittany’s quest to make the Solheim Cup team again.
*- I’m being sarcastic. Some people were making hay out of Lorena Ochoa wearing a skirt earlier this year.
One of the hazards that comes with the Designated hitter rule. From AP-
An error on the Tampa Bay Rays’ official lineup card forced starting pitcher Andy Sonnanstine to bat in Sunday’s game against Cleveland.
The Rays listed Ben Zobrist and Evan Longoria as the third baseman on the card given to the umpires before the start of the game. Longoria was supposed to be the designated hitter.
After the top of the first, in which Zobrist played third, the game was delayed 13 minutes as the umpires discussed the matter among themselves and individually with Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon and Cleveland manager Eric Wedge.
The umpires pulled the Indians off the field midway through the delay.
The Rays lost their DH position due to the error, meaning Sonnanstine replaced Longoria in the third spot of the lineup. Longoria was available to come off the bench.
Once in high school, our coach deliberately tried to re-use a player who had left the game. The other team wasn’t fooled, after one pitch the batter was declared out and the game was over. We were only one run down and the tying run was in scoring position.
She was the first filly to win the second leg of thoroughbred* horse racing’s triple crown in over 80 years. Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Byrd finished 2nd only one length back.
Jockey Calvin Borel won two triple crown races with different horses. Much was made of this, but in harness horse racing I think it is not a unheard of happening. Drivers like the late Stanley Dancer or Billy Haughton had large stables with many top horses at the same time.
The question is now whether Rachel Alexandra will race in the Belmont Stakes. Borel did say the filly didn’t race her best. The may that Mine That Byrd closes, I think Rachel Alexandra would have great difficulty winning the Belmont. The Belmont is the longest triple crown race at a mile and a half.
*- It is often reported the Preakness, Belmont, Kentucky are the legs of horse racing’s triple crown. There are other types of horse racing, not just thoroughbreds. Standardbreds and Quarterhorses for two. Harness racing’s Little Brown Jug and Hambletonian are as much triple crown races as are the three legs of thoroughbred racing’s are.
He died at age 82 after falling in Indio California.
Rosburg or ‘Rossie’ as he was nicknamed was the 1959 PGA Champion and came one shot short of a playoff at the 1969 US Open. He may have been Scott Hoch before Hoch was. Rossie missed a short putt on eighteen to tie.
Fifty years removed from his major championship triumph, Rosburg is best known to the casual golf fan for his work on television broadcasts. I don’t critique the announcers very often(or very well) but remember what my father said about Rosburg. Some chip or pitch is always ‘an impossible shot’.
Golf Observer’s Sal Johnson wrote a long tribute(I posted some of it below) up to Rosburg and I suggest all of your read it. RIP Rossie.
Bob Rosburg, who became more famous as a commentator for ABC Sports than as a major champion, died Thursday morning. “Rossie” had been battling cancer for the last year and a half, but the cause of death was a head injury suffered in a fall coming out of a restaurant in Indio, Calif. He was 82.
Rosburg won six times on the PGA Tour, the highlight being his victory at the 1959 PGA Championship. Instead of becoming a club pro in the mid-1970s, when his PGA Tour days were over, Rossie turned to television. He had dabbled in TV during the late 1950s and ’60s, but when ABC hired him in 1974 Rosburg took on a special assignment. He became golf’s first truly on-course announcer.
The idea to have an announcer walk with players was hatched by Roone Arledge, the head of ABC Sports, and golf producer Chuck Howard. Their first stab at on-course commentary involved Bud Palmer, who was stationed on a tower behind the 15th hole were he did commentary until the last group past his hole. He then put on some special gear and would pick up the final group and follow them in. Palmer was a very capable announcer, but he was a fish out of water in terms of on-course analysis. Howard quickly realized that the job needed to be handled by a player. He was hunting for a special player and Steve Reid, who was the television coordinator between ABC and the PGA Tour told him about Rosburg. He interviewed for the job and got it. In talking with Howard 20 years later, he said that Rossie was just what they wanted because he knew the players, so they didn’t feel it was intrusive when he looked over their lies and assessed the circumstances for viewers. Rosburg figured out early that his job was to tell what kind of lie a player had, what kind of shot that player had to execute, what the conditions were, and how well the player succeeded. Rosburg perfected the art of the roving announcer, thus paving the way for Judy Rankin, Roger Maltbie, David Feherty, Mark Rolfing and others.
Rosburg was with ABC for 31 years, making him the longest serving active golf announcer on television. He didn’t do much work for ABC after 2000, but the network did make sure he was aboard for their last PGA Tour telecast, the Tiger Woods Target Challenge in December 2006.
Rossie was a renown story teller. As a Tour player, he competed against and socialized with Ben Hogan, Billy Casper, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Dave Marr and Raymond Floyd. When Rosburg first came on Tour, he became friendly with Hogan and played a lot of high stakes practice rounds with Hogan and Claude Harmon.
He was ACC Defensive player of the year last year. From AP-
Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich, the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year, revealed Thursday that he is battling cancer.
Herzlich, a senior, was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a cancer most often found in bone or soft tissue.
“Obviously, I was shocked. I had been extremely focused on preparing for my senior season at Boston College and for life beyond that. Now, I must channel all that energy into facing my toughest opponent yet, and that is exactly what I will do,” Herzlich said in a statement released by the school.
Herzlich has returned to his native Pennsylvania to be near his family and undergo tests to determine a course of treatment.
Herzlich was a finalist for the Butkus Award, given to the nation’s top linebacker, last season. He led the Eagles with 110 tackles, six interceptions, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.
I’m a cancer survivor myself. As one I wish Herzlich the best and hope he beats the dragon.
The 2006 NFL Defensive Player of the Year returns to the team he played his entire career with, excepting the 2008 season. From the Sun-Sentinel-
Jason Taylor, a six-time Pro Bowler, rejoined the Miami Dolphins today.
Taylor’s agent, Gary Wichard, said the defensive end/linebacker signed a $1.5 million, one-year contract.
Taylor played his first 11 seasons with the Dolphins before being traded to the Washington Redskins. He was released by Washington this offseason after one injury-plagued season.
Taylor had expressed a desire to be closer to his South Florida home.
“My heart has always been in Miami and so I’m truly excited to call myself a Dolphin once again,” Taylor said in a statement.
For a one-year rental of Jason Taylor to the Washington Redskins, Miami got another 2nd round draft choice. The Dolphins spent that on Pat White, and I still think that wasn’t a wise draft choice. Back to Taylor, he is still a good player and should be of help to the Dolphins. I don’t expect Miami to have as much success in 2009 as they did in 2008, mostly because the team faces a far more difficult schedule.
There will be no Canadian Stanley Cup champion this year. From AP-
The kids made sure the Blackhawks are moving on.
Patrick Kane had his first hat trick and Jonathan Toews scored the go-ahead goal in a wild third period Monday night as Chicago advanced to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1995 by beating the Vancouver Canucks 7-5.
LeBrun: Hawks Have Arrived
Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane wrapped up a second-round series that even they didn’t think was possible at the beginning of the season. Yes, the Hawks have arrived, writes ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun. Story
“It’s about time I got the first hat trick. I’ve been waiting two years. I guess it can’t come in a better game than this,” the 20-year-old Kane said.
In the thunderous United Center, the Blackhawks rallied from a one-goal deficit twice in the third period and put up four scores against Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo to win the series 4-2. Next up is either Detroit or Anaheim.
Before the series began I didhn’t think the Canucks had enough offense to beat the better balanced Blackhawks. Vancouver now faces a challenging off season. The team has many key players who are free agents. Four of them are the Sedin twins, Goalie Roberto Luongo, and one of their defensemen who I believe is Mattias Ohlund.
NBC must be happy with Chicago’s victory. Otherwise the network would have to go to unexplored territory. Unexplored territory- An NHL game broadcast from west of the Mississippi. They still may have to, but I’ll be surprised if Anaheim comes back and beats Detroit.
In the Eastern Conference, Washington defeated Pittsburgh in overtime last night. This sets up a game 7 showdown. Boston plays Carolina last night. The heavily favored Bruins have to win or they’re out of the playoffs.
This news comes as no surprise to this golf fan.
Without a new title sponsor, the future of Milwaukee’s PGA Tour stop will be in serious jeopardy. Getting that kind of commitment out of a company is not easy in this economy — especially for a tournament that is played opposite the British Open.
U.S. Bank will not renew its sponsorship after this year’s tournament in July, and tournament director Dan Croak is searching for a replacement.
“We need a big sponsor — or, as we’ve had in the past, a couple of big sponsors — to take the biggest piece of the puzzle,” Croak said Monday. “And then we’re able to sell smaller pieces within the community. We are moving forward as if we need a title sponsor to continue.”
Sponsorship is a major chunk of a tournament’s budget; Croak wouldn’t give a specific figure, but allowed that it accounts for “probably 50 percent” of revenues.
“The way that the PGA Tour structures itself, you can’t do it without [a sponsor],” he said.
That’s untrue. The now defunct BC Open was still a PGA Tour stop till 2006 and never had a sponsor in its 35 year history. Its only been in the last two decades that almost all tournaments came to have a sponsor. Better yet, before US Bank became sponsor, The modern Milwaukee Open never had a sponsor from the 1968(It’s first tournament) up till 2003. It was called the Greater Milwaukee Open for all of those years.
The PGA Tour and its golfers have to be realistic. You can’t expect a sponsor to shell out millions for an event where no top golfer with the exception of Kenny Perry can be expected to play. What do you do? Play for less money or not play at all? I predict the PGA Tour and its players will have to make that decision about this tournament and a few others.
Croak says the tournament’s commitment to raising money for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin makes it more attractive to companies.
“It’s much easier to say the primary beneficiary of this tournament is Children’s Hospital,” Croak said. “And then they say, ‘Oh, yeah. It is about charity.’”
The charities will have to decide too if less is better than none.
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