Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 9/4/2009

9/4/1972:
Valery Borzov of Russia wins the gold medal in the 200-meter sprint in a time of 20 seconds flat, narrowly defeating American Larry Black in the Olympic Games at Munich. Added to the gold medal he picked up in the 100 meters two days ago, Borzov becomes the first dual winner of these two track-and-field events since Bobby Morrow of the United States in 1956 in Australia.

Birthdays:
Dawn Fraser b. 1937
Ray Floyd b. 1942
Tom Watson b. 1949
John Vanbiesbrouck b. 1963
Mike Piazza b. 1968

Packers Fact:
Hagemeister Park, the Packers' home from 1919 to 1922, didn't have locker rooms. Players either dressed at home before leaving for the park, or changed in a local National Guard armory (until it burned down).


Nigerian American author Uzodinma Iweala has produced a moving first novel about a boy soldier caught up in one of Africa’s endless and brutal wars. Much of the power of this heart-wrenching tale comes from its narration, which is from the point of view of the boy and in his uniquely expressive West African idiom. The book has garnered wide critical acclaim and won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

BEASTS OF NO NATION, by Uzodinma Iweala (Harper Perennial, 2006)