THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2007
SPORTS
11B
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Doug Flutie joins Hall of Fame class
BY RALPH D. RUSSO ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Hail Flutie! The little quarterback who made a career of proving doubters wrong is now a Hall of Famer.
Doug Flutie was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame on Wednesday in his first year of eligibility, joining Ahmad Rashad and 10 other players honored by the National Football Foundation.
The 5-foot-10 Flutie won the Heisman Trophy in 1984 for Boston College and threw one of the most memorable passes in college football history. His 48-yard touchdown pass to Gerard Phelan as time expired gave the Eagles a 47-45 victory over Miami. The desperation 'Hail Flutie' toss and the sight of him leaping in the air as he sprinted down field to celebrate with his teammates has become timeless.
Kathy Willens/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dou Flutie, Boston College quarterback from 1981-84, speaks to reporters after being announced as one of 12 members of the 2007 College Hall of Fame class in New York on Wednesday.
a news conference at a Manhattan hotel to announce the newest Hall of Fame class.
"I guess I did more than just throw one pass." Flutie said during
Did he ever. Flutie threw for 10,579 yards in his college career and led BC to a 10-2 record and Cotton Bowl victory during his Heisman season.
"It's my whole life of being the little guy and having a little chip on my shoulder, from year to year trying to prove myself, and at the end of the day to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame is very special honor for me," he said.
Flutie was elected with Rashad, a star receiver and running back at Oregon, and former Dartmouth linebacker Reggie Williams.
The other new Hall of Famers are: Oklahoma center Tom Brahaney, Michigan defensive back Dave Brown, Clemson linebacker Jeff Davis, Texas defensive back Johnnie Johnson, Ohio State quarterback Rex Kern, Indiana running back Anthony Thompson, Houston
defensive tackle Wilson Whitley, Southern California linebacker Richard Wood and Notre Dame defensive tackle Chris Zorich.
Herb Deromedi, who won 110 games as coach at Central Michigan
over 13 seasons, also was elected.
The latest class will be inducted at the National Football Foundation's awards banquet in December and will be enshrined at the Hall in South Bend, Ind., in 2008.
》PGA
Storm puts damper on tour in Florida
BY DOUG FERGUSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
WILL DICKey THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla.
— Tiger Woods no longer is the most daunting name at The Players Championship. Someone named Andrea joined the strongest field in golf Wednesday.
the tour moved its flagship event from March to May was to avoid the kind of wet weather that has caused the tournament to end on Monday three of the last six years.
That was the name assigned the first storm of the year, off the coast of northeast Florida and arriving just in time to rain on the PGA Tour's parade. After all, one reason
"Welcome to sunny, dry, warm Florida," commissioner Tim Finchem said Wednesday. "We never said it doesn't rain in May. We just said the patterns are different, and it's not going to rain as much."
Players won't be the only ones tested when The Players begins Thursday with the deepest field of
Frank Lickliter braves the wind, rain and smoke during a practice session Wednesday for the Tournament Player's Championship golf tournament at the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
$12 million to make the famed Stadium Course as close to indoor golf as the game allows.
the year on a refurbished Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass for $9 million, the biggest purse in the golf.
Tired of a little rain leaving small rivers in the middle of the golf course, the tour spent more than
Every fairway was stripped of its grass and replenished with soil that allows for better drainage.
NASCAR
Young driver endures frustrating third season
BY MIKE HARRIS ASSOCIATED PRESS
When most people think about NASCAR's Hendrick Motorsports juggernaut, they envision four-time series champion Jeff Gordon or reigning champ Jimmie Johnson.
That doesn't concern Kyle Busch. He's just happy to be part of the stock-car powerhouse, racing in the shadows of his more famous teammates.
Heading into Saturday night's race
Busch, who turned 22 on May 2 and is already in his third full
at Darlington,
Gordon is leading
the Nextel
Cup standings,
with Johnson
second. Between
them, they have
won six of the
first 10 races this
season.
"It was a rough ride. Your head bouncing around between the headrests and stuff like that, anyway."
restraint system.
He won the inaugural Car of Tomorrow event at Bristol and has six top 10s already, including second last Sunday at Richmond.
But, in some ways, it's been a very frustrating year so far for Busch.
season in Cup, has fared poorly this season only in comparison with his older teammates.
People keep asking him what he
"It was a rough ride," he said after viewing the video. "Your head bouncing around between the head-rests and stuff like that, anyway. From even holding on as much as you could, you still got it bounced around and tossed around so it was a rough ride. It went along a lot faster on the video than it did in real life."
But the youngster walked away without injury and, seemingly, without any mental scars, either.
Busch, who also is running a fairly heavy Busch Series schedule, has crashed hard six times already in 2007. Three of them have come in the developmental series, and that includes a truly spectacular — and frightening — crash two weeks ago at Talladega.
In that big wreck, Busch was hit and veered sharply into the outside wall, skidded on his roof back down the banking into the infield grass and began flipping and barrel-rolling as the car appeared to disintegrate around him. The hit was so hard, it cracked his head and neck
KYLE BUSCH
NASCAR driver
thought after he saw the crashed car, but Busch has yet to look at it in person.
After that wild ride, Busch had to get into his Cup car the next day for the feature race on the same track. And, again, he crashed.
“There’s not much I can do about it,” Busch said. “You just have to put it behind you and keep going.”
He did that by bouncing back to almost win at Richmond, trailing Johnson across the finish line, just ahead of Denny Hamlin and Gordon.
The crashes are only part of this season's frustrations, though.
Last month in Texas, where Busch crashed his primary car and had to switch to his backup, he also hit the wall in the backup after working his way through most of the 43-car field. Busch, thinking his race day was over, left the track even as his team was repairing the battered car.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was also out of the race, was recruited to finish out the event for the absent Busch and wound up moving him up one more spot and gaining three additional points for the young driver.
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