- Publish date:
For The Record
Completed the 13 laps he failed to finish in the 2001 German 500
CART race, Alex Zanardi. On Sept. 15, 2001, Zanardi, a two-time
CART champ and one of the circuit's most popular drivers, lost
both of his legs in a gruesome crash on the EuroSpeedway in
Lausitz (SI, Sept. 24, 2001). Before Sunday's race at the track,
Zanardi drove around the two-mile oval 13 times at nearly 200
miles per hour in a car with the same number and color scheme as
the one he wrecked. The car was equipped with a hand-operated
accelerator, and Zanardi controlled the brake with his artificial
right leg. "I have overcome fear," Zanardi, 36, told the crowd
afterward. "But I wanted to enjoy one last time that incredible
feeling you have when you drive a racing car at high speed."
Offered on eBay, the five-bedroom Green Bay home of Packers
quarterback Brett Favre. The redbrick house, built in 1994, sits
on 2.77 acres off a wooded cul-de-sac and includes a master suite
with a Jacuzzi and an indoor racquetball/basketball court.
Bidding began at $1 million, and realtor Wade Micoley has been
inundated with calls from locals worried Favre will retire.
Favre, however, says he'll play in 2003 and is selling because
his 14-year-old daughter, Brittany, is starting high school and
wants to stay in Mississippi, where Favre grew up and the family
has a house. "She asked, 'Do you mind if I stay down here full
time?'" said Favre. "I thought, Oh, God, pretty girl, 14. We'll
have to make a decision."
Exonerated of wrongdoing in the Kentucky Derby, jockey Jose
Santos, who rode 12-1 shot Funny Cide to victory. A photo and
story in The Miami Herald purported to show Santos holding
something other than his whip and the horse's reins in his right
hand, prompting speculation he might have used a device to shock
the horse into running faster. Santos denied the accusation.
After poring over photos and videotape and conducting several
interviews, Churchill Downs stewards cleared Santos and upheld
Funny Cide's win.
Named as the new bugler at Arlington Park racetrack, 29-year-old,
classically trained trumpeter Bonny Brown, who beat out five
other finalists to replace Joe Kelly, who in his 22 years at the
track had made more than 30,000 post calls. "When the pressure is
on, you have to hit every note," said Brown after winning the
competition on Saturday. Brown, who plays in Big Fun, a Chicago
blues band, will earn $150 a day to play the 34-note Call to the
Post on weekends and holidays. (The track uses a recording during
the week.) Says Brown, "It's every trumpet player's dream."
Died of undetermined causes, Cowboys running back Ennis Haywood,
23. Haywood, who spent last year on the practice squad, was
expected to compete for a roster spot. He completed Dallas's
three-day mini-camp on Friday, then began vomiting Saturday
morning. Soon after, he stopped breathing and was taken to the
hospital and placed on life support. He died on Sunday. "He was
always spirited," said Cowboys tackle Flozell Adams. "He was so
excited about this season." Initial autopsy results were
inconclusive.
Died of heart and kidney failure, sportswriter Sam Lacy, 99, who
had a hand in Jackie Robinson's breaking the major league color
barrier and who was lauded last year by Baltimore mayor Martin
O'Malley as "a teacher, historian and social scientist." In 1944
Lacy, a writer for the Baltimore Afro-American, wrote to every
major league owner suggesting the formation of an integration
committee, which he and Dodgers owner Branch Rickey served on.
Lacy and Wendell Smith, a Pittsburgh Courier writer, pestered
Rickey to sign Robinson, who had competed against whites as a
five-sport star at UCLA. When Rickey signed Robinson to a Triple
A contract in 1945, Lacy traveled with him, often staying in the
same "colored-only" hotels and boarding houses. (At one such
establishment in Macon, Ga., a cross was burned in the front
yard.) Lacy, who was inducted into the writers' wing of the
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998, continued to write for the
Afro-American until his death; his final column, about his
generous neighbors, appeared last Friday. "I've always felt that
there was nothing special about me," Lacy said in '98. "And I
know how this may sound. But any person with a little vision, a
little curiosity, a little nerve could have done what I did."
Died of liver and kidney failure, former LSU and NFL quarterback
David Woodley, 44, who as a Dolphin in 1983 became the youngest
quarterback to start a Super Bowl. A Shreveport, La., native,
Woodley threw for 2,084 yards and rushed for 833 yards in four
years of sharing snaps at LSU with fan favorite Steve Ensminger.
But he was wounded by the boos he received and became distant,
often sitting alone with a newspaper and a beer. "David was a
gifted, intelligent athlete, but he suffered," says Lynn Amedee,
Woodley's LSU quarterbacks coach. "He never felt like he was 'our
guy.'" Nor did Woodley feel at home with Miami. He started Super
Bowl XVII against the Redskins but did not complete a pass in the
second half of a 27-17 loss. The next year he was traded to the
Steelers, and he abruptly retired two years later at 27. In 1992
Woodley underwent a liver transplant, which led him to quit
drinking and to speak publicly about organ donation. Recently,
though, except for a stint last fall as a football radio
commentator for his high school, he was seldom seen. "He loved to
talk football but very rarely about himself," says his
co-commentator, Charlie Cavell. "When he did mention his career,
you got a sense of regret. David was, I think, a lost soul."
COLOR PHOTO: MARK THOMPSON/GETTY IMAGES (CAR, ZANARDI)
COLOR PHOTO: MARK THOMPSON/GETTY IMAGES (CAR, ZANARDI) Zanardi
COLOR PHOTO: STEVE GRANITZ/WIREIMAGE.COM (BENIGNI) HOOPS CLONE Foreign-born star Roberto Benigni
COLOR PHOTO: JOE MITCHELL/REUTERS (GINOBILI) HOOPS CLONE Foreign-born Spur Manu Ginobili
B/W PHOTO: COURTESY OF AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS (LACY) SAM LACY 1903-2003
B/W PHOTO: THE TIMES-PICAYUNE/AP (WOODLEY) DAVID WOODLEY 1958-2003
