For The Record

SUITED UP For practice at Division I-AA Florida International,
52-year-old former Dolphins quarterback and current Golden
Panthers coach Don Strock. After starting quarterback Jamie Burke
tore his right ACL, Strock stepped in to throw during some of the
seven-on-seven drills. "I was very rusty, like an old vintage
car," says Strock, who completed 13 of 16 passes at one practice.
"The kids love it, though. They all want to get a pick off the
old man."

FOLDED Five days before the Women's World Cup, the WUSA. Formed
two years after the U.S. won the 1999 Cup, the eight-team league
was $16 million in the red. Several players took pay cuts, but
that didn't make up for a shortfall in sponsorships, according to
John Hendricks, chairman of the WUSA board of governors, which
voted unanimously to disband. Games had a 0.1 rating on PAX this
year, and average attendance was 6,667, a 4.2% decline from 2002
and an 18% drop from the inaugural season, making a fourth season
unaffordable.

REHIRED By the Trail Blazers, Bill Schonely, who called games
from the team's inception in 1970 until 1998, when he was
replaced at age 69. Famous for such phrases as rip city (for a
swish), lickety brindle through the middle (a layup down the
lane) and bingo, bango, bongo (a fast break with quick passes),
Schonely was beloved in Portland, and the team's new management
has brought him back to appeal to a fan base that is increasingly
disenchanted. Though Schonely won't call games, he will work in
community relations and host segments on TV and radio. Said
Schonely, "I'm back ... and I'm thrilled."

SET Yet another NCAA football attendance record, Michigan. The
announced crowd for last Saturday's win over Notre Dame (page 48)
was 111,726, which eclipsed by 151 the mark set by the Wolverines
against Ohio State in 1999--despite the fact that Michigan
Stadium has a capacity of 107,501. The record figure includes
fans, ushers, working press and band members (approximately 250
of whom were moved onto the field to open up more seats). An
extra row of standing room was added to the student section as
well, and single tickets that often go unused were sold on the
Internet.

DIED Of a gunshot wound to the torso, Yetunde Price, a nurse,
beauty salon owner and personal assistant to her younger sisters
Venus and Serena Williams. Price, 31, was with a man in an SUV
shortly after midnight on Sunday in Compton, Calif., when they
became involved in a confrontation, according to the sheriff's
department. Neighbors reported hearing up to 20 shots, and an
assault rifle was found nearby. Aaron Michael Hammer, 24, of
Compton, was arrested for investigation of murder, and two other
suspects were sought. Price is one of five sisters, all of whom
grew up in Compton before the family moved to Florida in 1993.
"She was our nucleus," the family said in a statement. "Our grief
is overwhelming."

DIED Of natural causes at her home in Poecking, Germany,
controversial filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, 101, a seminal figure
in sports cinematography. In her innovative, two-part documentary
of the 1936 Games in Berlin, Olympia, she placed cameras in the
pits during jumping events and underwater during dives and used
dramatic close-ups of Jesse Owens in his sprint races--techniques
that are commonplace today. Considered by some to be the best
female filmmaker of the 20th century, Riefenstahl's work was
despised by many because it was funded by Adolf Hitler, for whom
she made four movies, including Triumph of Will, a propaganda
film of a 1934 Nazi rally in Nuremberg.

COLOR PHOTO: RONALD C. MODRA (STROCK) Strock (in 1982)

B/W PHOTO: PHOTOFEST (OLYMPIAN)