Should’ve called back
Pete Carroll spent a year out of football before accepting the USC coaching job. Carroll was asked recently that if during that time there were any college coaching opportunities that interested him.
Carroll said he’d called North Carolina to inquire about the opening at that school, but no one called back.
Wonder if the person who was supposed to call back now realizes that he or she might have made a mistake?
He’d be grateful
Former college and NBA basketball star Bill Walton has a new gig. The longtime Grateful Dead fan will serve as the host of a weekly three-hour rock-music program, “One More Saturday Night With Bill Walton,” on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Channel 17.
Asked what John Wooden might think of one of his former players doing such a show, Walton said, “We are going to start the show after Coach Wooden goes to bed so that he won’t have to worry.”
They’ve got (a lot of) game
A 30-hour, 12-minute basketball game played at a Nebraska high school in August is officially the world’s longest.
The organizers were informed Thursday the basketball marathon will be recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records.
“This is awesome,” Jim Weeks, the event organizer and Beatrice High School boys basketball coach, told the Beatrice Daily Sun. “We have been waiting and waiting and waiting.”
Before all the waiting, there was playing and playing and playing.
The game started at 8 a.m. on Aug. 6 at Beatrice High between an Orange and White team. It ended at 2:12 p.m. on Aug. 7 with the Orange team winning 4,107-4,018. The previous world record was 26 hours, 42 minutes, set in March 2003.
Twenty-four people, from ages 15 to 35, played. Most players were Beatrice High graduates or were still attending the school. More than 200 people watched as the final minutes were counted down.
Players could leave the court for one hour but could not leave the gym for more than five minutes. Naps were allowed. .
You don’t need a name
One of the myths of the NFL is that you have to run the football to be successful. Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer debunks the theory, noting “The Eagles are 10-1. Name me their ‘feature’ back. That’d be Brian Westbrook, the 19th-best runner in the league.
“How many championships did Barry Sanders win? Eric Dickerson? Earl Campbell, Gale Sayers, O.J.? Walter Payton won one, on a team celebrated for its defense.”