Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 3/14/2011

3/14/1903:
After defeating the Rat Portage Thistles, 4-2, to win the Stanley Cup, the Ottawa Silver Seven celebrate their victory by kicking the Cup into the frozen Rideau Canal in a night of drunken revelry. (They'll rush back in the morning to find it resting on top of the ice.) This isn't the only indignity suffered by the Stanley Cup. In 1924 the Montreal Canadiens will leave it by the side of the road after changing a flat tire, and in 2004 it will be left behind at the airport in Vancouver.

Birthdays:
Don Haskins b. 1930
Bob Charles b. 1936
Wes Unsold b. 1946
Kirby Puckett b. 1961
Larry Johnson b. 1969

Packers Fact:
Offensive lineman Daryn Colledge had never missed a game in college or the NFL - a span of more than 100 games - entering 2009.

ON STARRING AS HIMSELF

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Game show host Steve Wright: Who played agent 007 in the 1989 film License to Kill?

Contestant: Err . . . James Bond?

MAKE DO
AND MEND.

—British World War II wartime slogan

SPORTS WORLD

Bill Walsh, nicknamed The Genius, turned the abysmal San Francisco 49ers into a powerhouse team and, according to some, changed NFL football forever with strategies such as the West Coast defense that exemplified his brainy and innovative insights into the game. Analysis by sportswriter David Harris (The League) enlivens the portrait of this NFL VIP and shows the extent of Walsh’s teaching and influence.

THE GENIUS: HOW BILL WALSH REINVENTED FOOTBALL AND CREATED AN NFL DYNASTY, by David Harris (Random House, 2009)