Fast Break
Colleges
Half-century enough
Frank Broyles announced his retirement Saturday in his usual lively style, telling stories about old football teams and speaking with pride about the athletic department he’s dominated for much of a 50-year career.
“It’s been a Razorback miracle that I’ve witnessed,” the 82-year-old Broyles said. “And the fans of Arkansas deserve all the credit.”
As Arkansas football coach and athletic director, Broyles built a program with high-profile coaches and top-notch facilities. He told the university’s board of trustees Saturday he will retire at the end of the year, ending days of intense speculation about his future.
Broyles’ career at Arkansas began Dec. 7, 1957, when school trustees hired him away from Missouri, where he had coached one year.
While he was coaching, Broyles became famous for hiring top assistants. More than 25 of them eventually became head coaches, including Joe Gibbs, Jimmy Johnson, Johnny Majors and Jackie Sherrill. The Broyles Award is now given each year to the nation’s top assistant football coach. Broyles became A.D. in 1973.
Basketball
Hardaway accepts invite
As the firestorm continued over Tim Hardaway’s anti-gay remarks on radio, the mayor of North Miami, who is gay, invited the ex-Heat star to spend a day with him.
On Friday, Hardaway accepted, the mayor said.
“We’re just trying to show him that there are living, breathing people that just happen to be gay,” said North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns, who lives with his partner of 23 years and an adopted daughter.
The plan is for Hardaway to join Burns and his family for a routine weekday at the mayor’s office and home – doing things like dropping off Burns’ child at school, meeting with constituents and dinner with the family.
Though he has apologized since, Hardaway has been hit hard since a radio broadcast on which he said “I don’t like to be around gay people” and other remarks.
Baseball
No new dirt on Rogers
Kenny Rogers’ sensational postseason was smudged as soon as TV cameras caught that brownish substance on his pitching hand.
But almost four months later, the Detroit Tigers’ pitcher laughs at anyone who thinks he threw 23 straight scoreless innings last October because he was cheating.
“I can take a tool belt full of whatever and give it to some of the best pitchers in the game, and they’re not going to do the things I did in the postseason,” Rogers said Saturday.
“I did nothing different than any other pitcher. I don’t feel bad about anything. I’m proud of my achievements and I don’t have any regrets.”