Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 3/28/2011

3/28/1950:
Ten days after winning this season's NIT tournament, City College of New York captures the NCAA championship, becoming the first - and last - team to claim both titles. Coached by Nat Holman, the CCNY Badgers eliminated one favorite after another before defeating the top-ranked Bradley Braves, 69-61, in the NIT final. Tonight they meet Bradley again and emerge victorious with a final score of 71-68. All of CCNY's games in their Cinderella postseason run are played at Madison Square Garden.

Birthdays:
Vic Raschi b. 1918
Jerry Sloan b. 1942
Rick Barry b. 1944
Len Elmore b. 1952
Byron Scott b. 1961

Packers Fact:
After playing in 11 games as a rookie in 2008, Josh Sitton won the starting job at right guard in a training-camp battle in 2009.

ON PSYCHOS, PEPPY

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WOMAN WHO JOINED
CHEERLEADING SQUAD
PLEADS INSANITY

Associated Press headline

“Bravery never goes out of fashion.”

—WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, English novelist

ET TU, WHO?

It’s 52 B.C. The Roman Republic is in turmoil as Caesar and Pompey vie for power. Out on the Appian Way, Publius Clodius is murdered. Rome’s greatest lawyer, Cicero, needs to know who committed the crime and calls on Gordianus the Finder to help him learn the truth. The fifth of Steven Saylor’s Roma Sub Rosa series is as lively, well researched, and fun as the others.

A MURDER ON THE APPIAN WAY: A NOVEL OF ANCIENT ROME, by Steven Saylor (St. Martin’s Press, 1996)