Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/5/2009

10/5/1985:
The Air Force Academy defeats Notre Dame, 21-15, at Colorado Springs, the fourth straight time the Falcons have beaten the Irish. Air Force defender Terry Maki has a marvelous game, recording 30 tackles (19 of them unassisted). He also blocks a field goal attempt, which results in a 77-yard runback by A.J. Scott for the winning touchdown. This victory serves as a springboard for the Air Force en route to a 12-1 season, a Bluebonnet Bowl victory over Texas and a No. 8 ranking in the final wire-service poll.

Birthdays:
Barry Switzer b. 1937
Laura Davies b. 1963
Mario Lemieux b. 1965
Patrick Roy b. 1965
Grant Hill b. 1972

Packers Fact:
Late in the 1929 season, the 9-0 Packers beat the 8-0-1 Giants 20-6 in a key game in New York. The victory propelled Green Bay to its first league championship. The Packers went on to finish the season 12-0-1; the Giants were 13-1-1.

A CRAZY, MIXED-UP WORLD

Heyday is a sprawling 19th-century sort of novel, teeming with characters (the chief one being a young Englishman in love with an actress-prostitute), plots and subplots, historical personages (Charles Darwin, for instance), a plethora of historical detail, eccentrics, big ideas, gold, Paris, murderers, California, bestiality, and just about everything else. It’s the kind of book you read when you want to get thoroughly lost in a huge, crazy, mixed-up world that is definitely not your own.

HEYDAY, by Kurt Andersen (Random House, 2007)