Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 03/10/2008

3/10/1996:
The University of New Hampshire Lady Wildcats outlast the Providence College Lady Friars, 3-2, in five overtimes to win the ECAC women's hockey championship. UNH's Brandy Fisher ends the marathon at 5:35 of the fifth sudden-death period, establishing this game as the longest collegiate hockey game, men's or women's, in history. It's Fisher's 25th goal of the season, and she'll complete her four-year career in 1998 as the all-time leading scorer in UNH women's history with 129 goals.

Birthdays:
Ara Parseghian b. 1923
Leroy Ellis b. 1940
Austin Carr b. 1948
Rod Woodson b. 1965
Shannon Miller b. 1977

1967:
Clocked in a time of 1:48.9, the middle-distance runner Dave Patrick set an indoor half-mile world record and handed Jim Ryun his first track defeat in two years.

"Far out in the lead was blond, sturdy Dave Patrick of Villanova, sprinting tirelessly around the 160-yard board track as if the finish line were always just a step ahead, his lips moving silently as he counted off the laps that clattered by at a world-record pace." -Gwilym S. Brown, March 20, 1967

Packers Fact:
While a backup quarterback as a freshman at Florida in 2002, Ingle Martin also punted and played wide receiver.


“Forges a near-perfect synthesis of fine writing and fascinating material. May be the best sports biography ever published.” —Ron Fimrite, Sports Illustrated

David Maraniss, author of biographies of Bill Clinton and Vince Lombardi, has written a fact-driven, evenhanded, and enthralling account of baseball’s first great Latino superstar, right fielder Roberto Clemente. It’s an extraordinary story with a tragic ending: Clemente was killed in a 1972 plane crash while delivering relief supplies to the victims of a Nicaraguan earthquake.

CLEMENTE: THE PASSION AND GRACE OF BASEBALL’S LAST HERO, by David Maraniss (Simon & Schuster, 2006)