Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 12/30/2007

12/30/1948:
The St. Louis Billikens hold off defending national champion Kentucky, 42-40, to win the Sugar Bowl basketball tournament at New Orleans. Easy Ed Macauley and Lou Lehman have 12 points each for the winners as they hand Coach Adolph Rupp's Wildcats their only regular-season loss en route to repeating as national champs. This win will enable St. Louis to gain the honor of becoming the first team ever to be listed as No. 1 in the Associated Press weekly collegiate rankings when the wire service initiates its poll next month.

Birthdays:
Sandy Koufax b. 1935
Kerry Collins b. 1972
Tiger Woods b. 1975
Kenyon Martin b. 1977
LeBron James b. 1984

Ursula Blanchard is not your everyday detective: She’s a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I and a spy. If you like a good, cozy mystery and you like Shakespeare, then pleasures await you in the books of Fiona Buckley, who expertly weaves history and fiction. Queen of Ambition, the fifth in the series, sees our heroine going undercover in Cambridge, where she investigates a student’s death in a suspicious play and ensures the safety of the queen. “Engrossing,” says Publishers Weekly.

QUEEN OF AMBITION, by Fiona Buckley (Pocket Books, 2002)