August 8, 2006: Roger Goodell is chosen as the NFL’s next commissioner, succeeding Paul Tagliabue. Goodell was unanimously elected by the league’s 32 owners on the fifth ballot. He has been a polarizing figure, but most commissioners are.
August 7, 1935: The birthday of the iconic Lee Corso. He spent 15 years as a head coach in college football, but he’s famous (of course) for his role on ESPN’s College GameDay, a spotlight he’s enjoyed since 1987.
The preseason rankings that get the eyeballs are the AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll, of course—and the Coaches Poll is out. Boise State is No. 25, the only Group of 5 team on the list.
August 5, 1985, 40 years ago today: Jim Cobb, a 69-year-old amateur golfer from Craig, CO, scores three holes-in-one over a 30-hour period. The odds against this happening are 8,404,101,101 to 1. Calculated by some guy with entirely too much time on his hands.
August 1, 1945, 80 years ago today: The legendary Mel Ott, standing only 5-9 and weighing 170 pounds, becomes the first National League player in history to hit 500 career home runs, connecting for the New York Giants off Boston Braves pitcher Johnny Hutchings.
July 31, 1990, 35 years ago today: With an 11-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers fireballer Nolan Ryan becomes the first and only pitcher to reach 300 career wins in the 1990s.
As fall camp moves into Day 3 (and it’s still July), we’re talking the Boise State offensive line. And where we may have thought there was one position battle, there are two.
July 29, 2000, 25 years ago today: The best player of the Boise Junior College era, Dave Wilcox, joins two other San Francisco 49ers greats, Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott, as new inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
July 24, 1978: New York Yankees manager Billy Martin “resigns” a day after saying slugger Reggie Jackson and owner George Steinbrenner “deserve each other” with the infamous line,“One’s a born liar, and the other’s convicted.”
Four words that were uttered more than one at Mountain West Media Days in Las Vegas last week: “Sire Gaines is healthy.” Gaines, a redshirt freshman in eligibility, will be a focal point of a deep running backs group when fall camp opens next Monday.