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SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
quote of the dav
"It's like a division sign." I just wish you would take those off!"
Evan in "Superbad," a movie in which Keith Loneker played a small role. Source: IMDB.com.
Winter holidays breed sports memories
fact of the day
Keith Loneker isn't the only former Jayhawk athlete to play small roles in films, Greg Ostertag had a part in "Eddie," and Rex Walters played a role in "Blue Chips."
Q: Which sports movie did Robert DeNiro win a Best Actor Oscar for?
trivia of the day
A: "Running Bull"
The snow fell Tuesday afternoon and it felt like the holidays. The holidays, of course, are about a lot of things. They're about family and food and snow and the 24-hour marathon of "A Christmas Story" on TNT.
But for me, the holidays have always been about sports. The holidays mean NBA thrillers on Christmas and bowl games on New Year's Day. The holidays mean NFL playoffs, afternoon games at Allen Fieldhouse and high school basketball in loud, claustrophobic gyms. Yep, besides March or maybe October, the holidays might just be the best sports time of the year.
But for me, the best holiday sports moments never occurred on television, inside Allen Fieldhouse, or even in a high school gym. The memories were always formed in my front yard. And with that, as we close out 2008, here's The Morning Brew's top three ways to make your holiday sports moments memorable.
1. Backyard Snow Football
1. Backyard Snow Football
It's a classic American tradition.
You choose up sides, throw on a puffy winter coat and roll around in the snow. The only thing better than the football is the hot chocolate afterwards.
2. Brett Favre Football
Brilliant reader Ryan McIntosh gets credit for this new twist on the old backyard family football game. Seen the Brett Favre commercial for Wranglers jeans? It's the one with Favre and a group of friends playing two-hand touch football in the middle of some empty field. You can probably see where this is going.
Brett Favre football is pretty simple. You grab a bunch of friends, put on a pair of jeans — preferably Wranglers — drive to a city park — preferably in a truck — and play. Just remember: You can't wear coats and you always go deep on third down.
3. Community Fitness Center Basketball
Pickup basketball is an old staple and hardly unique. But there's always something special about being back at home, venturing out into the cold with a group of old friends, and ending up at some random fitness club with a bunch of locals running five-on-five.
There's always some old crafty lefty named "Bones" who can stick the three. There's always some old man wearing a heandband, tank top and knee braces who grabs every rebound and loose ball. And the goals always seem to be a little shorter than 10 feet.
INSIGHT BOWL HISTORY
So Kansas is already a heavy favorite against Minnesota in the Insight Bowl. No surprise there. But do you remember this? Minnesota has some bad history in Tempe, Ariz. Two years ago, at the 2006 Insight Bowl, Minnesota pulled off one of the greatest chokes in sports history. Seriously, it was bad. The Golden Gophers led Texas Tech 38-7 with 7:47 left in the third quarter. But somehow, against all conceivable odds, Texas
Tech rallied to score 31 consecutive points. The game went into overtime and Texas Tech won 44-41. It was the biggest comeback in bowl history. And of course, the coach of that Minnesota team was former Kansas coach Glen Mason.
WEDNESDAY YOUTUBE
SESH
Mario Chalmers continues to impress for the Miami Heat, and
on Tuesday,
Chalmers finished the most spectacular dunk of his young career against the Charlotte Bobcats. To see, type
"Mario Chalmers dunks against the Bobcats" into your YouTube search. Enjoy.
Chalmers
SPEEDWAY CRIME Man convicted by jury for shooting at detective
— Edited by Andy Greenhaw
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Jurors have convicted a man of attempted murder, robbery and other counts in the shooting of a detective who was guarding a Kansas Speedway vault just hours after a Nextel Cup race ended.
The Kansas City Star is reporting that Fredrick Douglas was convicted Tuesday of attempted capital murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and attempted aggraviated robbery. The 68-year-old Kansas City man was acquitted on an aggravated battery charge.
Defense attorney Debera Erickson conceded that Douglas was at the scene of the Oct. 1, 2006, shooting of Kansas City, Kan., Detective Susan Brown. But Erickson argued that there was no evidence that Douglas and co-defendant Nolden Garner went to the speedway with the intent to kill Brown.
Garner goes on trial in January.
It's gotta be the pants
Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 6.
Associated Press
Andreas Strodl, from Germany, almost crashes as he skis in the downhill during the men's World Cup ski race at Beaver Creek, Colo. Strodl finished in 45th place.
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Wie faces uncertain future after entering LPGA
LPGA
BY DOUG FERGUSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
Michelle Wie has a clean slate for a future that remains muddled.
Considering all she has gone through, there's simply no telling what will happen next.
When she won the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links at 13, it would have been hard to imagine her going six years without another trophy to call her own. And when she had a share of the lead on the back nine of three majors her first year as a pro, who could have guessed she would be fighting for
her future at Q-school just two years later?
Then again, with an average score last year of 76.7 — no rounds in the 60s, only two better than par — what would have been the odds that she could even survive Q-school to earn LPGA Tour membership?
But as much as Wie wants to move forward, it will be difficult for her to escape expectations created by her past.
"I have a clean slate," she said. "I took the long way to get here, but I feel really good about it."
that even the LPGA Tour brass finally recognized. Tour officials erected a tiny grandstand behind the 18th green for the final stage of Q-school, and a crowd close to 500 that surrounded the green Sunday when Wie finished was about 475 more than who usually watches this event.
There remains a fascination about the 19-year-old from Hawaii
Swing coach David Leadbetter was asked if the LPGA Tour needed Wie as much as she needed the tour, and he found his answer walking up the final hole with a couple of hundred fans who had gone the distance.
The question is whether that
"Look around," he said.
Q-school winner Stacy Lewis, the former NCAA champion from Arkansas who went 5-0 in the Curtis Cup this summer in her last amateur event, was the latest who couldn't figure out from a player's perspective why Wie received so much attention.
Such thinking used to be naive.
stem thinking user to be have.
No other teenage girl came within three matches of qualifying for the Masters and nine holes of qualifying for the men's U.S. Open.
No other female showed enough potential to bring in $15 million in endorsements during her junior year in high school.
fascination continues now that Wie looks more like everyone else.
She famously qualified for an LPGA event in seventh grade, played in the final group of an LPGA major at 13. More impressive than her score at the Sony Open — a 68, the lowest by any female competing against men — was her age. She was 14.
But even if Were to win a major this year, that would only make her the third-youngest LPGA major champion behind Morgan Pressel (18 at the Kraft Nabisco) and Yani Tseng (19 at the LPGA Championship).
But now it's a fair question.
"Nothing about me?" Herron said. "You don't want to know about my eagle? No 'Happy New Year, good to see you, how are you playing?' All you want to know is how far some 12-year-old girl is blowing it by me?"
Also gone is the power that once caused PGA Tour players to stop what they were doing on the range to watch her.
For one thing, Wie no longer has youth on her side.
Wie remains a big hitter, but Lewis kept up with her on occasion, and others (Sophie Gustafson, Brittany Lincicome) have shown to be just as long if not longer.
One of the more memorable lines that helped create the mystique of Wie came from Tim Herron, who played with her in a junior pro-am at the Sony Open. Coming off the 18th green, Herron acted indignant when a magazine reporter asked him about Wie.
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