Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 1/14/2008

1/14/1995:
Virginia rallies from a 46-23 deficit with 18 minutes left at Cameron Indoor Stadium and overtakes Duke, 91-88, in double overtime. The Cavaliers go with a three-guard offense and score points on 19 of their last 22 possessions in regulation to forge a 71-71 deadlock. Junior Burrough leads the Wahoos with 23 points, while Cory Alexander and Harold Deane add 22 each. Duke struggles without their head coach, Mike Krzyzewski, who will miss the rest of the year recovering from back surgery and fatigue.

Birthdays:
Smead Jolley b. 1902
Sonny Siebert b. 1937
Fred Arbanas b. 1939
Gene Washington b. 1947
Terry Forster b. 1952

1968:
The Green Bay Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders, 33-14, in Super Bowl II, which Vince Lombardi had hinted would be his last game as Packers head coach.

"In the second half, the Packers...seemed a bit sharper and more determined than they had in the first half and Jerry Kramer, the offensive guard, explained why. "Some of us old heads got together," he said. "We decided we'd play the last 30 minutes for the old man." -Tax Maule, January 22, 1968

Packers Fact:
League merchandise sales figures for the spring and early summer period in 2006 ranked two Packers among the top-25 selling jerseys. Brett Favre, of course, was one of them, at number 14. The other was Rookie A.J. Hawk, who ranked 25th.

FATHER KNOWS WHAT?

At the age of 16, Essie Mae Washington-Williams learned that her mother had been a maid on a South Carolina plantation and that her father was one of the South’s preeminent racists, Senator Strom Thurmond. In a fascinating tale of contradictions and ironies, Essie Mae reveals that her father had been loving (“after his fashion”), nurturing, and generous to her in private, while in his public life he would not acknowledge her. Like the rest of the world, but with a unique perspective, Essie Mae followed Thurmond’s determination over many decades to “save” the South from “mongrelization.”

DEAR SENATOR: A MEMOIR BY THE DAUGHTER OF STROM THURMOND, by Essie Mae Washington-Williams and William Stadiem (ReganBooks, 2005)