Jack Takes Lid Off Cloudy Past

Jack Nicklaus says he hasn’t caught any grief for his admission in Golf Digest that he once tried marijuana - except from his wife Barbara.

“Anybody who tells you the truth probably tried it at some time in their life,” Nicklaus said after a practice round Monday. “What’s the big deal about it? I don’t ever lie about something if I can avoid lying about it.”

In an interview for the July issue of the magazine, Nicklaus said he was having dinner with a college buddy some 30 years ago when his friend asked if he could light up a joint.

“I never had a puff of the stuff, so I said, `Let me have a puff.’ I felt terrible, man,” Nicklaus said. “I never want to touch that stuff. If my kids ask me, I tell them, `Man, it was terrible.’ That’s what it was.”

Is there life after basketball?

Conrad Brunner in the Indianapolis Star: “While this series marks the end of (Larry) Bird’s coaching, it is just the beginning of (Phil) Jackson’s run with the Lakers.

“Ultimately, that may be the biggest difference between the two. Jackson is a coaching lifer. Bird would rather have a life.”

Management 101

Bernie Lincicome in the Chicago Tribune, on the rift between Cubs manager Don Baylor and Sammy Sosa:

“How can any manager alienate his best player, the most valuable pony in the petting zoo that is the Cubs? This is not leadership, this is envy.

“Just keep Sammy happy. No one should have to say this out loud.”

Ahh, gee Wally

Get those nudge-nudge wink-wink jokes in while you can, because Beaver College has decided to change its name.

The board of trustees of the 2,800-student school in the Philadelphia suburb of Glenside voted 23-1 to form a committee to recommend a new name.

The vote by the trustees comes after Beaver president Bette E. Landman said in a letter earlier this year that the name “too often elicits ridicule in the form of derogatory remarks pertaining to the rodent, the TV show `Leave It to Beaver’ and the vulgar reference to the female anatomy.”

Beaver College has appeared on David Letterman’s Top 10 list, and Conan O’Brien and Howard Stern have made jokes about it.

The last word …

“When it (Stanley Cup) ended, there was no coulda, shoulda, woulda attached. The way it was, that was the right way. Only the best team wins the Stanley Cup, and the New Jersey Devils proved without a doubt they earned the privilege to tote the cherished piece of silver back to the toxic waste dump.”

- Columnist Randy Galloway in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.