Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
AP
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Knute Rockne was one of the most prominent figures in America — let alone the famous coach at Notre Dame — when his plane crashed in a Kansas pasture 75 years ago Friday.
Easter Heathman, however, didn’t know anything about him that morning. The 14-year-old boy merely heard a loud noise, ran to the scene — and later helped carry Rockne’s body on a stretcher.
“I remember it just like it was yesterday,” Heathman said in a telephone interview from his Kansas home.
Rockne’s death at age 43 at the height of his career — having led the Fighting Irish to consecutive undefeated seasons his final two seasons — shocked football fans nationwide and made front-page news across the country. President Herbert Hoover called it “a national loss.”
“The fact that he died when he did, when he was at the top of his game, is a true travesty,” current Irish coach Charlie Weis said.
Heathman, now 89, recalls his uncle calling on March 31, 1931, saying he’d seen a wing fall off after the plane emerged from clouds.
“He said the plane was turning end over end, and the wing came fluttering down to the ground a half-minute or so after the plane crashed,” Heathman said.
Over the years, Heathman has become the unofficial caretaker of the crash site near Bazaar, Kan., and the monument that was built there. He and others plan to gather Friday to commemorate the life of Rockne and the seven others who died.
Another ceremony will be held Friday in Rockne’s hometown of Voss, Norway. At Notre Dame, the video documentary “Knute Rockne and his Fighting Irish” will be shown hourly Friday afternoon.
“It’s a time for us to reflect on true greatness, which is what he was,” Weis said.
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“He set the bar,” Weis said. “And everybody else just tries to live up to that bar he set. It’s probably unreachable, but at the same time it’s great to have something for everyone to shoot for.”
Murray Sperber, an Indiana University professor emeritus who wrote “Shake Down the Thunder,” a history of Notre Dame football, said Rockne did more than build a great football team. The money he raised through football helped build Notre Dame.
“When he took over, Notre Dame was a small school and it was hard to schedule games,” Sperber said.
Rockne hired game officials who were friendly to the Irish, promoted himself and the school to sportswriters, and permitted any radio network to broadcast Irish games for free, allowing them to become better known, Sperber said.
It took a while for the light bulb to go on, but when it did, Jonas Gray finally showed the talent many had expected from the blue-chip prospect from Detroit. In a recent interview, Gray, who is rehabbing an ACL injury to get ready for the NFL Scouting Combine, expressed the confidence and support he has for head coach Brian Kelly.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.
