John Blanchette

SEATTLE – Chuck Knox became the ninth member – and first coach – inducted into the Seahawks Ring of Honor on Sunday, and his legendary stone-faced toughness and dry humor elicited an affectionate story from current Seattle coach Mike Holmgren. It dates back to Holmgren's days as head coach at Green Bay – home of the "frozen tundra" so loved by NFL announcers – and Knox's end-of-career stint in Los Angeles.

SEATTLE – The law of averages – and coach Mike Holmgren – insisted that the Seattle Seahawks would eventually score a point in the second half of a game this season. "I was right on that one," Holmgren laughed Sunday.

Hank Anderson once jokingly credited his longevity as basketball coach at Gonzaga University to it being "the only school that would have me" – but that was a reach longer than he could manage even standing 6-foot-7. The truth was, the Bulldogs were more than grateful to have him – and so were a couple schools after he left Gonzaga as the winningest basketball coach in the university's history.

Carl Bonnell would like to tell you that life with his new bride, Katie, has helped his football game – but the truth is, he hasn't experienced married life yet. Not really. "We got married a month ago," Bonnell reported midway through Washington's fall camp. "We had a two-week honeymoon in Hawaii and I'm in my third week in the dorms. So it's not as if we've had any 'everyday' life."

SEATTLE – Good thing there's a bit of a quarterback controversy at the University of Washington, even if the controversy is whether the Huskies have even one legitimate quarterback among four candidates. Otherwise, new coach Tyrone Willingham isn't giving his constituents much to talk about.

You think maybe Wally Stanley is getting the hang of this game? The former superintendent of the Central Valley School District took up golf in retirement a little more than two years ago and on Wednesday made his second hole-in-one, this one at The Links Golf Club in Post Falls – and said he was "a little embarrassed to admit it."

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – The anticipation mounts for Ryne Sandberg. So does the abuse. Induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame for the Spokane native and Chicago Cubs great is today at 10:30 a.m. (PDT), which will bring considerable relief – that his speech in front of an expected crowd of 15,000 will be over and that he'll no longer have to endure the rookie "hazing" from his HOF brethren.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – George Brett was so stressed out by his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 that he almost didn't care if he ever got back. That's not the case anymore.

He was defiant one second and tearful the next, but Ronny Turiaf tried mightily Friday to put the sunniest spin on the devastating revelation that his basketball career could be over. For the moment, he's simply resisting that notion.

When Greg Riddoch was named manager of the San Diego Padres in the middle of the 1990 season, the club lost 11 of its next 12 games. That's only the half of it. Riddoch himself lost 22 pounds, on a diet of pressure and fear. So he called a team meeting, gathering together the increasingly dysfunctional Padres, preseason favorites in the National League West but at that point 16 games under .500. The previous season's Cy Young winner had been allowed to escape as a free agent. Joe Carter, the slugger acquired in the requisite blockbuster trade and signed to big money, was on his way to hitting .232. Lethal sourpuss Jack Clark publicly sniped at franchise star Tony Gwynn, and eventually most everyone else. Garry Templeton was doing another serial stew.

Kendall Mays and Krista Hoffman engaged in perhaps the day's silliest celebration at the Eastern 3A Regional track, a bit of impromptu wrestling in the pole vault pit after a 1-2 finish. And then the two juniors from North Central made a serious point: their jumps of 10 feet, 10 inches would have won the 4A meet, too.

Never go to a track meet without your form chart. You might need it to shade your eyes from the sun's glare. Otherwise, such a document wasn't much good at the Eastern 4A Regional track and field meet Saturday at University High School.

The easiest part of the job this season for University of Idaho women's track coach Yogi Teevens? Uniform checkout. It may be a record – the Vandals are redshirting 11 of their top women while casting an eye toward their official entrance into the Western Athletic Conference next year.