Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 3/7/2011

3/7/1954:
The NBA experiments with a 12-foot basket during a game between the Minneapolis Lakers and the Milwaukee Hawks at the Minneapolis Auditorium. Teams in the league average 79.5 points per game this season with 10-foot baskets. One player who quickly takes to the new 12-footer is Milwaukee's Bill Calhoun. He scores 22 points on nine field goals and four free throws, well above his season average of 8.3 points per game and his career mark of 7.8.

Birthdays:
Franco Harris b. 1950
Lynn Swann b. 1952
Joe Carter b. 1960
Ivan Lendl b. 1960
Jeff Kent b. 1968

Packers Fact:
After one season (1968) in the Packers' front office, Vince Lombardi decided the sideline was the only place for him. He returned to coach the Washington Redskins in 1969, but died of cancer before the 1970 season.

ON CLICHÉS, PAINFUL

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You’re on the horns of a two-edged blade!

broadcaster Wally Webb

HEROISM . . . IS
ENDURANCE FOR
ONE MOMENT MORE.

—GEORGE KENNAN, American explorer

LIVING HISTORY

Carlotta Walls was only 14 in 1957 when she and the eight other students who became the “Little Rock Nine” launched a historic and difficult fight to integrate Little Rock Central High School. President Eisenhower and the 101st Airborne helped them get in the door, but it was Carlotta’s perseverance and courage, through the bombing of her home and the relentless attempts to turn her from her path, that saw her to graduation. With numerous photographs; an inspiring and important story.

A MIGHTY LONG WAY: MY JOURNEY TO JUSTICE AT LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, by Carlotta Walls LaNier with Lisa Frazier Page (One World/Ballantine, 2009)