UConn coach might look at map next time
When Bob Diaco arrived as head football coach at Connecticut in 2014, he sought out a rival for the Huskies.
For some reason, he chose American Athletic Conference foe Central Florida and dubbed the contest “The Civil ConFLiCT” (FL for Florida, CT for Connecticut).
According to Sam Cooper of Yahoo! Sports, it has a trophy and everything.
Never heard of it? Don’t worry. Neither has Central Florida.
Diaco said last year that he didn’t even reach out to Central Florida to see if it would be receptive to the idea and then UCF Coach George O’Leary said he “didn’t know about it” and “it’s hard to be a rival when you’re nine states away.”
Nonetheless, the rivalry — in Diaco’s mind, at least — marches on and the trophy was on display when the teams met Saturday in Storrs, Conn. After Connecticut won the past two seasons, Central Florida won 24-16.
Neill Ostrout of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn., was covering the game.
“UCF players and coaches leaving the field without the Civil ConFLiCT trophy,” Ostrout tweeted after the game.
“UConn staffer just picked up the trophy, looked around for advice on what to do with it, and placed in on the UConn bench.”
“Same UConn staffer just shrouded the trophy with a towel.”
Shannon Green of the Orlando Sentinel was in the interview room after the game and noticed the trophy never made it inside.
“No one really addressed the trophy. RIP to the Conflict,” Green tweeted.
Saying Grace
Dorothy Farrell’s face is familiar to anyone who watched the Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to advance to the World Series: She’s the 90-yearold season-ticket holder who was beaming with jubilation in a frontrow seat.
Farrell, who’s been sitting behind the visitor’s dugout in Section 31, Row 1 since 1984, was 19 the last time the Cubs made it to the World Series in 1945, but don’t ask her about the Curse of the Billy Goat.
“I don’t believe in that crap!” she said in an interview published on the Wood Family Foundation’s website.
Earlier this year on Windy City Live, she said her favorite Cub of all time was first baseman Mark Grace.
“Oh I spent a lot of time with that man,” she said, explaining that Grace once gave her a kiss. Of the current Cubs lineup, she said she enjoys yelling at first baseman Anthony Rizzo, particularly “Earn your money!”
Fox Sports interviewed Farrell after the Cubs won Game 6 of the NL Championship Series on Saturday night in Chicago. She says she’s not worried about the Cleveland Indians, who the Cubs will face Tuesday in Game 1.
As Farrell put it, “I just wished wish my brothers were alive to see this … They loved the Cubs. And my father did too. But they’re all dead now. This old lady’s still living.”
When asked how she would celebrate the victory, she said: “I’ll probably have a Jagermeister.”
They said it …
Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., to The Players’ Tribune, on his playing career: “I do miss running into an outfield wall. I don’t miss what comes after running into an outfield wall.”
RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com, on the latest domestic-abuse revelations by an NFL player: “The gene pool of these guys can use some chlorine.”
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, to Dallas’ KRLD-FM Radio, on conjecture he should trade away star wideout Dez Bryant: “That’s absurd … I’ve not even had a bad dream about trading him.”