LITTLE ROCK — Top recruit gets JoePa to roll pants
Here's the story behind Penn State Coach Joe Paterno's rolled-up pants.
Back in the late 1960s, his wife, Sue, suggested he raise the cuffs so mud wouldn't get on his wool slacks while coaching.
That was no longer a worry once Paterno switched to his trademark khakis.
"Then it became superstitious," Sue said. "I don't care if he rolls them up or not, I can just throw them in the washer."
Sue and Joe have been married 47 years.
They met at the library during her freshman year. She was an English literature honors student buried in research; he was an assistant football coach who checked players in and out of study hall.
Was it love at first sight?
"No, he was telling me to keep studying," she said. "I said, 'Fine, mister, mister, mister.' It took awhile."
They were married in 1962, and Joe did most of the pursuing.
"Yeah, I was being recruited. I didn't know it," Sue said.
Ump strikes out Oops of the week from Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News:
"A volunteer umpire at a youth baseball tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., thought it was his lucky day when he spotted 350-game winner Greg Maddux in the stands. He asked him to autograph a ball for him, and Maddux, who was with his son, obliged.
"The umpire then mistakenly reached into his ball bag and threw it to the pitcher. But he figured it was no big deal, that he'd just switch it out after the first pitch. Except that it never got to the catcher.
Instead, the batter hit it into the crowded left field bleachers for a home run." What rivalry?
While the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox played recently at Fenway Park, the Boston Herald said David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox dined with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees. And Boston's Jon Lester was spotted with New York's Phil Hughes and Robinson Cano at a nightclub.
Long in the tooth
The Florida Tuskers - the new United Football League team in Orlando, Fla. - conducted player tryouts last week.
"No word on whether NFL alumni Horace Ivory or Ivory Sully showed up, but what better Tusker than Steve Tasker?" writes Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times.
They said it
NBC's Conan O'Brien: "The White House is denying rumors that President Barack Obama has plans to play a round of golf with Tiger Woods. Although Obama is planning to ask Tiger if the government can borrow 300 trillion dollars."
Comedy writer Jerry Perisho, on former NBA referee Tim Donaghy getting sent back to jail for violating probation by failing to show up for work: "In an ironically cruel turn of events, Donaghy wants to know who blew the whistle on him."
Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times, on actor Bill Murray's son, Luke, joining the Arizona basketball coaching staff as a graduate assistant: "Fans of Cinderella stories predict the Wildcats will be leading the Pacific-10 by Groundhog's Day."
Tampa Bay Rays Manager Joe Maddon, on the reaction from the customs agent in Toronto when she looked at his passport and compared it to his newly dyed black hair: "She wanted to know if that was my dad in the picture. I think it was tongue-in-cheek. But maybe not."Quote of the day "I wouldn't say Matt
could go on American Idol, but he covers well." Arkansas offensive lineman Mitch Petrus on safety Matt Harris' singing ability
Sports, Pages 24 on 08/30/2009