Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 1/18/2008

1/18/2004:
Ernie Els of South Africa celebrates with his daughter after winning the Sony-Hawaiian Open for the second straight year in a sudden-death playoff. Today, on the third extra hole, he drains a 30-footer to beat Harrison Frazer of Texas; last year, he converted a 40-foot putt to defeat Aaron Baddeley of Australia. Els becomes the first back-to-back winner of the Hawaiian Open since Corey Pavin in 1986 and '87 and the first golfer to win the same tourney back-to-back in playoffs since Nick Faldo at the Masters in 1989 and '90.

Birthdays:
Syl Apps b. 1915
Curt Flood b. 1938
Mark Messier b. 1961
Brady Anderson b. 1964
Mike Lieberthal b. 1972

1974:
Notre Dame's Dwight Clay sank a crucial jump shot and gave the Fighting Irish a 71-70 upset victory over the UCLA Bruins. The loss snapped the Bruins' 88-game winning streak, the longest in college basketball history.

"Dwight Clay stared opportunity in the face and never shivered. His jump shot with 29 seconds remaining wiped clean UCLA's 88-game winning streak and once again cast Notre Dame as the bad seed in the Bruins' victory garden." -Barry McDermott, January 28, 1974

Packers Fact:
Brett Favre's 14 3,000-yard passing seasons in his career (entering 2006) are the most in NFL history.

The beloved author of Prince of Tides and Lords of Discipline reexamines the themes of masculinity, failure, fear, and writing, from a vantage point 30 years after his excoriating experience as a point guard during his college years at the Citadel, in Charleston, North Carolina. Conroy can write well about anything, and this happens to be a darn good book about sports, for one thing, and, of course, a thoughtful, even haunting, foray into memory and the scars of youth.

MY LOSING SEASON, by Pat Conroy (Nan A. Talese, 2002)