Names In The News

BOCOG said that Chinese children “will be taught how to behave at sports events as part of an Olympics program in schools” in advance of the ’08 Beijing Games. The program will target teenagers and will involve int’l student exchanges. Athletes in the past have complained about “mobile phones ringing and audience chatter” at various events in the country (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 10/19).

New Book Examines Curt Flood’s Fight For Free Agency

FLOOD WATERS: Late MLBer CURT FLOOD, whose legal challenges paved the way for free agency in MLB, is profiled in a new book by BRAD SNYDER titled “A WELL-PAID SLAVE.” In DC, Bruce Schoenfeld writes Snyder “left a legal career to undertake this project without a publisher. Anyone with a sociological interest in American sport should be glad he did.” Snyder, while writing with “dispatch and grace,” puts Flood’s challenge against MLB “squarely where it belongs, as the final radical act of the 1960s civil rights movement” (WASHINGTON POST, 10/19).

EASY-BAKE OVEN: Former Vikings Owner RED MCCOMBS has become the majority investor in 21ST CENTURY FOODS LTD., which produces the Redi-Quick and Total Meals lines. McCombs first invested in the company “several years ago and took a harder look at the company’s potential after he sold the [Vikings] last year at a huge profit.” He currently owns the “largest piece of the food company and has become actively involved in management.” While sales figures were not released, projected ’06 revenue for the company “should be six times higher than it was two years ago” (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 10/19).

READY TO RUN: RUNNERS’ WORLD magazine has named the 40 Most Influential People & Moments in Running over the past 40 years. Included on the list are Nike co-Founder BILL BOWERMAN; Nike Chair PHIL KNIGHT; N.Y. Marathon co-Founder FRED LEBOW; PowerBar co-Founder BRIAN MAXWELL; USATF CEO CRAIG MASBACK; and JEFF GALLOWAY, who founded the world’s first running store, Atlanta-based Phidippides (Rodale).

IN MEMORY: Swiss IOC member MARC HODLER, “who blew the whistle on corruption in the Salt Lake City Olympics bidding process,” died yesterday at age 87. Hodler was also Int’l Ski Federation President from ’51-98 (AP, 10/18).