It’s Just Repaying an Overpayment by the University

After Joe Paterno and his wife Sue gave $3.5 million to Penn State for new teaching positions, scholarships, a new interfaith spiritual center and a sports hall of fame, the veteran coach said:

“I have made more money than I should make for doing what I like to do. It just seemed like I ought to give it back.”

Penn State President Graham Spanier’s reaction:

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m the luckiest university president in the United States.”

Trivia time: How many persons have won a Super Bowl as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach?

Beach bum: Doug Flutie--six times MVP in the Canadian Football League--will be in San Diego during Super Bowl festivities, leading a team of former NFL stars in the Cuervo Margarita Bowl. The game will be played on the beach between a group of former professionals and some of the country’s top amateur flag football players.

“I am really looking forward to playing in a game where I don’t have to stand on the sidelines in front of a heater,” Flutie said. “My only concern in San Diego will be whether or not I have enough sun block on.”

Price of winning: Green Bay Packer frenzy is not limited to this year’s championship team, at least not at Packer City Antiques, a Green Bay store specializing in Packer memorabilia. For instance:

A 1960 Green Bay team yearbook is priced at $347.50. A game-day program in perfect shape from Sunday, Oct. 24, 1926, when the Packers played the Racine Tornadoes, can be had for $350.

For modern-minded collectors, an unused ticket from last year’s Super Bowl costs $275.

It’s about time: Move over Super Bowl and make way for baseball. Spring training begins in less than four weeks.

Tired cliche: Packer Coach Mike Holmgren would like it if he never again heard the phrase, “West Coast offense.”

“I think that’s kind of a lazy term, really,” he said. “I mean, it was kind of a cute little deal at one time, and now it’s been six years [since it was introduced]. It’s not the same.”

Attn. Mike Tyson: Australian Simon Fenn, who needed 25 stitches for an ear wound he said was the result of a bite by an opponent, may not have been bitten after all.

Philip Bliss, a doctor who deals with rugby injuries, said no teeth marks were found in the wound and suggested the injury may have been caused by a boot stud or other hard object.

The way it is: Estelle Staley, the Philadelphia Rage’s all-star point guard, on why attendance is so low in the ABL: “We haven’t given people a reason to come to us.”

Trivia answer: Two: Tom Flores and Mike Ditka.

And finally: The Countess of Arran, an island off the coast of Scotland, is coming out of retirement at 79 to resume racing powerboats.

“Waiting for God is boring,” she said, “so I thought I would be better off back behind the wheel.”