Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 01/28/2008

1/28/1967:
Two world indoor records are set and a third tied at an invitationsl track meet at Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bob Seagren of USC betters his own record by pole-vaulting 17'2". Theoron Lewis, formerly of Southern University, sets a record of 47.1 seconds in the 440-yard dash, breaking Wendell Motley's mark of 47.3 set just last year. Jim Hines of Texas Southern University ties the 60-yard dash record of 5.9 seconds, the third time he's achieved that clocking. Seagren, in the pole vault, and Hines, in the 100-meter dash, are destined to win gold medals next year at the Olympic Games in Mexico City.

Birthdays:
Pete Runnels b. 1928
Colin Campbell b. 1953
Tony Delk b. 1974
Jermaine Dye b. 1974
Daunte Culpepper b. 1977

1984:
Larry Nancy won the first NBA Slam-Dunk Contest.

"The dunk has assumed an importance that far exceeds its role in the game. Defense and team play are nice, but did you see that punk-funk-get-outta-the-way-cuz'-it's-turnin'-all-others-to-junk dunk? A slam dunk is a manifestation of a player's soul, one that his peers appreciate as much as the fans." -Anthony Cotton, February 6, 1984

Packers Fact:
As a nine-month old infant, Ahman Green needed a blood transfusion and spent three weeks in the hospital while recovering from the near-deadly intestinal disease Shigelia.

FASCINATING NONFICTION

In 1951, 23-year-old Che Guevara set off on an eight-month journey through South America with his friend Alberto Granado on his motorcycle, La Poderosa II (The Mighty One). His journal from the trip was translated in 1996 as The Motorcycle Diaries. The inner landscape of the young man is as varied and surprising as the geography he traverses on the increasingly less mighty motorcycle, from Argentina to Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia: Poetry gives way to lust, macho bravado to social consciousness, friendship to rivalry, exhaustion to joy, riding to walking. The book is rich and thoughtful, offering a unique look at one of modern history’s most charismatic and enigmatic figures.

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES: NOTES ON A LATIN AMERICAN JOURNEY, by Ernesto Che Guevara (Ocean Press, 2003)