For The Record
Defeated by 63-year-old Jack Nicklaus, three of his four
sons--Jackie, 41; Gary, 34; and Michael, 29--at the BMW Charity
Pro-Am in Greenville, S.C. Never have so many members of a family
played in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event, and Papa Bear one-putted
his last 10 greens in the second round to shoot a 67; he was the
only Nicklaus to make the cut and went on to finish 45th at
four-under. While the hordes following the elder Nicklaus were
awed by his performance, his progeny were unmoved. "You knew my
dad was going to play well," said Jackie, a pro golfer himself.
"To be low Nicklaus in a family outing, well, he's done that a
few times before."
Declared by 33-year-old center Alonzo Mourning, his intention to
return to the NBA next season. In October 2000 the seven-time
All-Star was found to have the incurable kidney disease focal
glomerulosclerosis. He played the '01-02 season for the Heat in
partial remission but suffered a relapse and sat out last season,
the final year of a seven-year, $105 million deal. Said Mourning
last week, "Until September, they'll continue to monitor my body
chemistry to see if I will be able at that time to play. But
right now they're giving me the thumbs-up." Gerald Appel, his
nephrologist, says Mourning "feels good and has been practicing
daily." Mourning says he would like to play for Miami but may
test free agency.
Named to the Premiership's team of the year, goalkeeper Brad
Friedel, the first U.S. player ever to earn a spot on the English
soccer all-pro team. Friedel, who led the U.S. to the World Cup
quarterfinals last year, has had 14 shutouts for Blackburn Rovers
this season. He has attracted attention from English giants
Arsenal and Manchester United, but Blackburn manager Graeme
Souness, who got Friedel on a free transfer three seasons ago, is
unlikely to sell his star. "I couldn't put a price on his head,"
he said. "He has to be the best signing I've ever made."
Died of undetermined causes, Sue Sally Hale, 65, the first woman
member of the U.S. Polo Association, of whom it was said, "She
could ride a horse like a Comanche and hit a ball like a Mack
truck." Before the polo association let her join, in 1972, Hale
played tournaments pretending to be a man. She tucked her hair
under her helmet, taped her bosom, wore a fake mustache and went
by the name "A. Jones." Hale played polo until a week before her
death; she also painted and wrote poetry, including this verse:
"The ultimate goal in which to believe/Is to pass from this life
out where we achieve/On the field of honor, that's covered with
grass/On top of a horse with a ball to thrash."
--Of brain cancer, Charlie Tolar, 65, a star fullback for the AFL's
Houston Oilers from 1960 to '66. At 5'6", 210 pounds he was
nicknamed the Human Bowling Ball while rushing for 3,288 yards
and playing on three All-Star teams. Said Oilers founder Bud
Adams, "Defensive players couldn't see him half the time because
he ran so low to the ground."
Offered by I.M. Chait Galleries in Beverly Hills, Calif., the
"home plate meteorite." The 18-by-18-inch space-rock, speckled
with peridot and olivine and cemented in a nickel-iron matrix,
fell in a meteorite shower 1,000 years ago in Chile and is
expected to fetch $65,000-$80,000 at auction this Sunday. Its
owner, Darryl Pitt of New York City, acquired the piece from
London's Natural History Museum partly because it looked like
home plate. "That hadn't occurred to the cricket-playing
British," says Pitt, who hopes a big league team enters the
bidding. "The Houston Astros would be a natural," he says.
COLOR PHOTO: J.D. CUBAN (NICKLAUS)
COLOR PHOTO: COURTESY OF MACOVICH COLLECTION (METEOR)
