College Was Too Big of a Hill to Climb

David Hill, who as chairman of Fox Sports is one of the top executives in television, was part of a Digital Coast Roundtable panel at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills this week.

When Hill was introduced, it was noted he didn’t go to college.

“There’s a good reason I didn’t go to college,” Hill said. “It’s called high school.”

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Calling it like it is: On the panel with Hill was Pat Hawk, the sister of skateboarder Tony Hawk. She explained that extreme sports are now called “action sports.”

Said Hill: “Isn’t every sport, with the exception of curling, an action sport?”

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Trivia time: When David Duval won the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in 1999, what was his final-round score?

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Weathering the storm: The New York Mets had no idea that attempting to license their logo and the words “Met” and “Mets” in Great Britain would cause a problem. But it did.

The Met Office in London, Britain’s meteorological service, filed a complaint with the patent office, saying they word “Met” might confuse the public.

Jeremy Philpott, a spokesman for the patent office, in explaining why the weather service’s complaint was denied, told Associated Press, “Have you ever gone out shopping intending to buy a Lotus car and come back with Lotus software?”

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Erasing all doubt: So how smashed was Joe Namath when he did that “I-want-to-kiss-you” interview with ESPN’s Suzy Kolber?

“We had been going since three or four in the afternoon,” Namath tells ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap in an interview that will begin airing Sunday.

Namath also says, “Every time that something in my life has gone askew, alcohol has been involved.”

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Perfect match: Jay Leno, on New England quarterback Tom Brady: “He is such a heartthrob that Britney Spears said she could see herself married to him for a whole week.”

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Road woes: From Channel 9’s Alan Massengale: “I have a feeling this is going to be the toughest road trip for the Lakers since Kobe Bryant got ahold of that bad cheeseburger in Sacramento a couple of years ago.”

And that was before their charter didn’t show in Dallas on Friday.

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Don’t drink the water: Before the USC baseball team took off for Cuba on Friday, where the Trojans will play three games, Coach Mike Gillespie was asked by CSTV how this trip differed from trips the team usually took.

“We don’t deal with passports and visas and affidavits,” he said. “And taking your own bottled water. That’s a whole new issue.”

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Trivia answer: 59, at the Palmer Course at PGA West.

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And finally: Greg Norman was in Los Angeles this week to celebrate Australia Week and answered questions during a clinic at the Jacob’s Creek Golf Day at MountainGate Country Club. Asked what had happened to Duval, who is currently not even playing, Norman said: “Someone turned out the lights and he went to sleep.”*

Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].