Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/12/2008

Architect of two national championship teams (1935 and '38) and head coach of the TCU Horned Frogs football team for nearly two decades, Dutch Meyer espoused unyielding dedication from his teams as he exhorted his players to: "Fight 'em till hell freezes over-then fight 'em on the ice."

Birthdays:
Joe Cronin b. 1906
Jaroslav Drobny b. 1921
Tony Kubek b. 1936
Jack Marin b. 1944
Charlie Ward b. 1971



One was a Muslim, one a Jew. One was black, one white. One was young and pretty, one old and ugly. That was Ali and Cosell: a team that never failed to keep its viewers fascinated and talking. Veteran sports writer Dave Kindred knew both of them, and in this book he seeks to “recover Muhammad Ali from mythology and Howard Cosell from caricature.” This is a story about two careers circling and working off each other to dazzling effect, told as only an insider could.

SOUND AND FURY: TWO POWERFUL LIVES, ONE FATEFUL FRIENDSHIP, by Dave Kindred (Free Press, 2006)