A Grip on Sports: On this Christmas Eve, we share a present that has little to do with sports

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Today is Unboxing Day. Not to be confused with Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. Nope. Today is the day we unbox everything we had delivered from Amazon and the like, throw some wrapping paper on it and put it under the tree. Welcome to Christmas Eve, 2020 style.

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• On the sacred day, when we harvest our crop of gifts we’ve been growing throughout the month of December, we’ve decided to fill this column with thoughts about the holiday. Not just sports thoughts, but other things as well.

Good thing too. The only sporting event on TV today is a solitary bowl game. The New Mexico Bowl. From Frisco, Texas. Yep. It’s 2020. So the New Mexico Bowl is in Texas. And pits Houston and Hawaii. What a year.

Let’s hope the players build some Christmas memories.

The first Christmas memory I have is an awful one. I mean awful in the way kids see it. Let’s go back to 1965, the year of Selma, “Rolling Thunder,” the Watts riots, Dylan going electric and, of course, Mr. Cool, James Bond.

I was nine. James Bond was bitch’n, though I would have never used that word in front of my mother. He drove a cool Aston Martin DB5. We all wanted one. So Sears decided to take advantage. The world’s largest retailer sold an A.C. Gilbert 007 road race set. It was an “exciting Sears exclusive,” as the box said.

Tiny cars, tiny tunnels, even a tiny oil slick.

It was all the rage. Everyone wanted one. It was the PS5 of 55 years ago. And it cost, get this, $34.95. Talk about expensive.

My dad pulled a few strings. He had a buddy, a Sears vice president, who found one for him. Christmas Eve – with my dad’s job, Santa always came to our house early on Christmas Eve – there was a big box under the tree. The James Bond race-car set.

If people had iPhones back then, I’m sure my reaction would have gone viral.

And my dad’s reaction, Christmas afternoon after he spent hours and hours trying to get the snap-together set to work? Same. Except in a bad way.

See, Sears needed the toy for Christmas, to cash in on the Bond mania. A.C. Gilbert, maker of the Erector sets, used a Portuguese company to build the race set. It met its impossible deadline. But about 80 percent of the sets didn’t actually, you know, work. We did not get one of the 20 percent.

That Christmas Day my dad’s patience disappeared. My joy as well. And the company ended up going bankrupt, which is a good adjective to use about Christmas, 1965. Instead of being able to invite my friends over to play the coolest game of the year, I had to relate a tale of woe. Come to think of it, it seems like the perfect training ground for my years covering football in Pullman.

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WSU: There was a sporting event in Pullman yesterday. The Cougars played basketball. Faced Northwestern State, which has played more games in the 509 than Gonzaga. Washington State turned up the defensive intensity and won, 62-52. … Theo Lawson sums up the 2020 football season by looking at five things we learned during the short schedule. … He also has a story on the newest transfer to the program, a linebacker from TCU. … Around the Pac-12 and college football, Arizona hired New England Patriots’ assistant Jedd Fisch as its football coach. What a short-sighted way to save money. And alienate your fan and alumni base. … There are some Huskies who have to make a decision about their future. … Oregon State’s defense didn’t make many strides. … There is a deep group of running backs at Oregon, so everyone must wait their turn. … What a weird year for everyone, including USC. … Utah’s quarterback room is in a state of flux. Lots of flux. … The Utes lost an assistant athletic director. … Colorado has a lot of fuel heading into the Alamo Bowl. … In basketball news, the showdown between Oregon and UCLA in Eugene was postponed yesterday. The usual reason, COVID-19. The unusual reason? The outbreak had to do with the officials. … The Ducks hope to have their point guard back soon. … The road is starting to feel homey to Colorado.

Gonzaga: The biggest news from GU isn’t Drew Timme’s mustache (more on that in a second). Nope. The biggest news is the No. 1-ranked Zags changed their starting lineup. Jim Meehan explains why and how it has impacted Anton Watson’s role. … OK, now on to Timme’s mustache. Justin Reed covers that undeniably thin piece of news. … The Zags are still No. 1 in just about everyone’s power rankings. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Pepperdine lost at home to Cal State Bakersfield. Odd. … BYU kept Weber State at bay and won 87-79.

Idaho: The Vandal women were blown out in Tucson by the sixth-ranked Arizona Wildcats, 96-42. … Around the Big Sky, Idaho State bounced back to top Northern Colorado and split the conference series. … As we mentioned above, Weber State fell at BYU.

Preps: Alyssa Randles is one of the top female wrestlers in the nation. Ryan Collingwood introduces us to the Coeur d’Alene High sophomore. … A former prep wrestling coach recently spent a harrowing night in the woods. Brian Adamowsky has Mike Bundy’s story.

Seahawks: The secondary envisioned at the beginning of the season really never came together. Quinton Dunbar is out for the rest of the year with a knee injury. … Josh Gordon is still out for unannounced reasons, but everyone is speculating. … The Rams’ Josh McVay is still the hot young coach. But it isn’t easy to stay hot (and impossible to stay young).

Mariners: Hey, a mailbag.

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• Merry Christmas Eve. Growing up in my hometown, Santa would ride the fire engine to the park – go with it – and sit on his throne as all the kids lined up. We told him what we wanted and his elves gave us a prepackaged stocking full of nuts and apples. It was a different time. Then we would head home, the lasagna would be served and afterward, while we fought off sleep, dad would throw open the doors to the living room and, behold, a bounty. Some nights we opened everything. Other times, just a few. Dad would head off to work and the rest of us to bed. The next morning the L.A. Times was in everyone’s driveway and my dad was exhausted. Nothing a little Irish coffee couldn’t fix. But nothing could fix that James Bond road race set. What a disappointment. If I wanted to, I could spend a couple thousand bucks and buy one now. Knowing my luck, however, it wouldn’t work. And I’m too old to be building more of those type of “happy” memories. Oh, well. On to Christmas, 2020. We’ll be back Saturday morning with a preview of the Gonzaga game with Virginia. Christmas in Texas. How fun for the Zags and Cavaliers. Until later …