Gee, Donovan, That’s Not Very Neighborly of You

Donovan Bailey, Olympic 100-meter gold medalist and world-record holder, was selected male athlete of the year in voting conducted by the Canadian Press.

But he didn’t receive a single vote for the Associated Press award won by U.S. sprinter Michael Johnson--and he’s upset about it.

“That’s just the total ignorance of Americans,” Bailey said. “They think they’re the world. They don’t know what’s going on in the rest of society. It doesn’t matter what those guys think.

“It probably motivates me even more to beat them at the major championships. I think what we have to do is keep hammering them every day.”

Trivia time: Who holds the single-game record for most points scored against the Lakers?

No fun zone: It’s presumed that members of the North Carolina and West Virginia football teams had a good time in Jacksonville, Fla., before their Gator Bowl game Wednesday.

Such wasn’t the case when North Carolina played Georgia in the 1947 Sugar Bowl game in New Orleans--no parties or visits to the French Quarter.

“It was terrible,” former Georgia All-American Charley Trippi told the Associated Press. “And we didn’t get anywhere close to Bourbon Street until after the game. We had a coach [Wallace Butts] who was very strict and he didn’t want his players exposed to any activity until after the game.”

Southern humor: The Star Banner in Ocala, Fla., passes on these jokes that Florida fans tell about rival Florida State:

Q: Why do Florida State graduates put their diplomas on the dashboards of their cars? A: So they can park in the handicap spots.

Q: What do you get when you go slow through Tallahassee? A: A diploma.

Looking back: On this day in 1975, the New Orleans Jazz set an NBA record by scoring only 20 points in the first half against the Seattle SuperSonics.

Trivia answer: Wilt Chamberlain, 78 points in three overtimes, while playing for the Philadelphia Warriors on Dec. 8, 1961.

And finally: Houston football Coach Kim Helton, commenting on oddsmakers who made his Cougars 16 1/2-point underdogs to Syracuse in the Liberty Bowl:

“I never met an oddsmaker who knew anything about football.”

They know enough, Coach. Syracuse won, 30-17.