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Carolina’s blue
After serving only a year as mascot for University of North Carolina sports teams, Rameses the ram was found dead Sunday - gutted, its throat slashed and its left front quarter cut off.
“It’s difficult to imagine why anyone would maliciously attack an animal like this,” said Rich Miller, assistant professor of pathology at rival North Carolina State.
Police have no suspects, though owner Rob Hogan’s family has been at the center of a dispute for selling farmland to developers - angering nearby residents.
North Carolina mascots have been targets of pranks since the rams were introduced in 1924, but officials don’t believe the killing was athletically related.
Which rules out Rick Barnes as a suspect.
Career choices
Settling on their sport of choice wasn’t hard for Utah Jazz teammates John Stockton and Karl Malone.
Growing up in Spokane, Stockton weeded out football and baseball in high school.
“It got to the point I just didn’t enjoy baseball,” he said. “There was more raking than playing. You spent the first month raking and weeding the field.”
Gardening didn’t get him out of football - the veer offense did. “Every play, I’d read the defense,” said Stockton, who played quarterback in the eighth grade, “and then the biggest guy I knew at the time - a defensive end - would put his helmet directly into the center of my sternum.”
Malone, too, had his reasons for settling on basketball after briefly trying baseball as a high school sophomore.
“My first time up,” Malone said, “the guy threw at me. He said he didn’t, but I think he did. I’ll never forget his name - Johnny Phillips. I might be overreacting, but I thought I felt the thread on the ball go right across my nose.
“I said to myself, ‘This is not for me.’ I didn’t even talk to the coach. I just sort of looked at him and walked away.”
A perfect fit
Irishman David Feherty, a slumping golfer, confirmed rumors in Golf World magazine that both USA and CBS have approached him about working as a commentator on their golf telecasts.
“USA may be the favorite,” he said, “because they only televise Thursdays and Fridays, and I’m not used to working weekends.”
Labor of love
Most coaches wouldn’t think of leaving a playoff game in the third quarter. This one had an excuse.
Suzie McConnell-Serio, a former U.S. Olympian, went into labor during her Oakland (Pa.) Catholic team’s 60-48 victory over McKeesport. Hours later, she gave birth to 7-pound, 7-ounce Amanda Nicole.
The situation proved almost as stressful on her assistant coach - husband Pete Serio, who nervously sweated out both the game and news from the hospital during the final 1-1/2 quarters.
“What a night,” McConnell-Serio said. “It wasn’t what I expected. I was six days early. With my other two (children), I was late.”
The last word …
“You know you’ve been on the road too much when you dial 8 to call from your own home.”
- Golfer Joel Edwards, who spent 210 nights in hotels last year
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo