Ditka Entered a Guilty Plea in This Case

Can you imagine volatile Mike Ditka begging a quarterback to return to a game? It actually happened in 1984, when Ditka was coaching the Chicago Bears.

Ditka had chewed out Rusty Lisch during a Monday night game in San Diego. The quarterback then refused to go back in the game.

“I go over and beg him to go back in,� Ditka told Don Pierson of the Chicago Tribune. “I’m saying, ‘I didn’t mean that stuff. You’re a great kid. You’ve got to go back in.’

“The next Tuesday, he comes in and gives me a crucifix and said, ‘This will help calm you down.’ �

Trivia time: Who are the five PGA Tour players with career earnings of $8 million or more?

Tables turned: John Eisenberg of the Baltimore Sun, on the irony in a recent NBA front-office hiring:

“Fifteen years after he played for coach Dick Motta as a member of the Dallas Mavericks, Allan Bristow is now Motta’s boss as the new general manager of the Denver Nuggets, replacing Bernie Bickerstaff. Bristow said Motta will be ‘reevaluated.’ �

Battling baby: David Letterman, on the new Dennis Rodman doll: “It’s $19.95, assault and battery not included.�

Color blind: For their 30th anniversary weekend in the middle of March, the Kings are going back to their old purple-and-gold uniforms for two games.

Former owner Jack Kent Cooke referred to the purple portion as “Forum blue,� which mystifies King President Tim Leiweke.

“For the life of me, I can’t figure out what was wrong with Cooke that he called them ‘Forum blue.’ They look purple and yellow to me.�

Concerned: Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune, on the recent retirement of skier Marc Giardelli: “Hope you didn’t have Luxembourg in your Olympic Rotisserie League.�

FYI: Washington State set a Pacific 10 Conference basketball record for points by a losing team with 111 against Arizona (115) on March 2, 1995.

Looking back: On this day in 1960, Philadelphia Warrior rookie Wilt Chamberlain set an NBA record with his fourth 50-point game of the season--58 in a 129-122 victory over the New York Knicks.

Trivia answer: Greg Norman, Tom Kite, Fred Couples, Mark O’Meara and Corey Pavin.

And finally: The Toronto Maple Leafs recently received an anonymous package in the mail posted from Richmond, Canada, containing three pieces of brick with a note saying the material came from the exterior of the Maple Leaf Gardens.

“I secretly chipped these off during my tours of the Gardens last summer,� the note read. “I may have put a curse on the team and am now returning them to their rightful place.�

Help is indeed needed--Toronto is near of the bottom of the NHL’s Western Conference.