Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 1/16-17/2012

1/16/1970:
The National Football League conducts a lottery to determine the divisional lineup for the upcoming 1970 season. The move is prompted by the merger of the NFL and the NFL. The NFL had 16 teams in 1969; the AFL fielded 10. To balance the newly named National and American Football Conferences with 13 teams each for the 1970 season, the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers move to the AFC. However, the NFC can't agree on which teams to place in the three divisions. Commissioner Pete Rozelle resorts to extreme measures, placing five different plans on slips of paper in a vase. One of them is then drawn out by his secretary. According to the selection, the Eastern Division will include Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Washington; the Central, teams from Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, and Minnesota; and the West, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and San Francisco.

Birthdays:
Dizzy Dean b. 1911
A.J. Foyt b. 1935
Jack McDowell b. 1966
Roy Jones Jr. b. 1969
Albert Pujos b. 1980

1/17/1971:
In the fifth Super Bowl - the first following the NFL-AFL merger - the Baltimore Colts defeat the Dallas Cowboys, 16-13, at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The two teams combine for 10 turnovers on six interceptions and four fumbles. The winning Colts commit six of teh turnovers, three of them on interceptions. Colts quarterbacks Johnny Unitas and Earl Morrall, and the Cowboys' Craig Morton combine to complete just 22 passes in 50 attempts. Baltimore ties the score 13-13 on a two-yard run by running back Tom Nowatzke with 7:35 left on the clock. With 1:09 remaining, Morton throws an interception to Baltimore linebacker Mike Curtis, who returns it 13 yards to the Dallas 28. As time expires, rookie kicker Jim O'Brienh boots a 32-yard field goal to win.

Birthdays:
Jacques Plante b. 1929
Kip Keino b. 1940
Muhammad Ali b. 1942
Chilli Davis b. 1960
Jeremy Roenick b. 1970

TRUE CRIME

A riveting account of James Earl Ray’s stalking and killing of Martin Luther King Jr. Determined to make his mark on history by whatever kooky means necessary, Ray was an obsessive nut. Ultimately, the mark he left was to elevate King even more. Though we know the ending, Hellhound is a nail-biter: a fascinating portrait of a psychopath and his prey, a nationwide manhunt, and a nation on the brink of change. The New York Times calls it a “bold, dynamic, unusually vivid book.”

HELLHOUND ON HIS TRAIL, by Hampton Sides (Doubleday, 2010)

GONZO JOURNALISM

Journalist Chris Ayres decided the ideal antidote to his reporting tour in Iraq would be a visit to Los Angeles, and poor La-La Land doesn’t stand a chance against his rapier pen. He takes pokes at the celebrities, the rich, the facials, the cars, the bikinis. And himself. If you like the snarkiness of Toby Young’s How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, then Death by Leisure is your bag, baby. “Fast and funny,” says The New York Times.

DEATH BY LEISURE: A CAUTIONARY TALE, by Chris Ayres (Grove Press, 2010)