PG’s Bouchette to be honored

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports writer Ed Bouchette will be inducted into the IUP Athletic Hall of Fame Saturday before the Crimson Hawks’ home football game Saturday against Seton Hall.

The public event will start with a reception at 10:45 a.m. followed by the induction luncheon at 11:30 at Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex.

Bouchette, who joined the PG in 1983 and has been covering the Steelers since 1985, earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from IUP in 1973.

Golf

Bubba Watson will be at the Ryder Cup, even if it’s not exactly the way he imagined it. U.S. captain Davis Love III announced that Watson was added to the team as a fifth vice captain. The twotime Masters champion and seventh-ranked player in the world competed as a player on the past three U.S. squads, and said at the start of the year that his goals were to play in both the Olympics and the Ryder Cup. Watson was described as “heartbroken” after the first three picks went to J.B. Holmes, Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar. But he also made it a point to let Love know he “still wanted to be part of the team,” even if it meant as a non-playing assistant. That appeared to count for little after Love used his final pick to add Ryan Moore just hours after he lost the Tour Championship Sunday to Rory McIlroy in a playoff. But the U.S. captain said he remained impressed by Watson’s unselfish gesture and decided to add him Monday.

Hockey

The Boston Bruins signed forward Brad Marchand to an eightyear, $49 million contract extension. The team announced the deal as Marchand prepares to play for Canada in the final of the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto. Marchand, 28, had a career-high 37 goals and 60 points in 2015-16.

College

An Auburn man charged with desecration of a venerable object in a fire that damaged oak trees at Toomer’s Corner as fans celebrated a victory against LSU now is facing a felony charge. Police said Monday in a news release that damage to the oak tree exceeded $2,500, requiring the 1st degree criminal mischief charge. Auburn police said in a news release Sunday that Jochen Wiest, 29, was initially arrested on a charge of public intoxication, but that witnesses identified him in connection with the tree’s burning. His bond was set at $1500 for those two charges. Police executed an arrest warrant for Wiest Monday while he was in jail. He received an additional $3,000 bond.

Iditarod

Organizers of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska said fourtime champion and cancer survivor Lance Mackey dropped out of the 2017 1,100-mile race because of health reasons. Mackey started the 2016 race, but later scratched because of health concerns. Mackey was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2001 and had extensive surgery as well as radiation treatment and the loss of his salivary glands. After returning to the sport he went on to become the only musher to win the Iditarod and the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International race in the same year. He has accomplished the feat twice.