NASCAR on Friday announced that the sanctioning body's charitable arm, the NASCAR Foundation, will relocate to Daytona Beach in the latter part of the '12 race season and will begin a nationwide search for a new Exec Dir. Current Exec Dir SANDY MARSHALL will stay on until the position is filled. The foundation will relocate some employees from Charlotte, though it will continue to have a presence in North Carolina. It will move to the Int'l Motorsports Center, which also houses offices for NASCAR, ISC and Grand-Am Road Racing (NASCAR). In Daytona Beach, Clayton Park noted several of the foundation's board members have homes in the Daytona Beach area, including BETTY JANE FRANCE, team Owner RUSTY WALLACE and NASCAR President MIKE HELTON. The foundation “has grown to support more than 100 nonprofit organizations throughout the country” (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 2/11).
TAKING THEIR LEAVE: In L.A., Pringle & Lin II write under the header, “L.A. Coliseum Commission Officials Cash In On Unused Sick Leave.” Top officials at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum “have shown a knack for banking healthy chunks of unused sick leave on the public payroll.” Univ. of California figures show that Interim GM JOHN SANDBROOK used his sick leave allotment “for most of his university career to boost his annual pension by $655 a month for life, to nearly $183,000.” City and state records revealed that former GM PATRICK LYNCH “left with more than nine years of accrued sick time, adding $1,630 annually to his retirement benefits” (L.A. TIMES, 2/13).
DELAY OF GAME: In Green Bay, Warren Gerds noted "nobody saw ‘Lombardi,’ a motion picture starring ROBERT DE NIRO as the legendary" Packers coach. The movie “was to premiere in the week leading up to this year's Super Bowl.” The film “was announced in March 2010” and was “to be developed by ESPN Films.” But the project "faded away, proving again that announcing that a movie is going to be made and completing it are two different things.” The film “is nowhere near the first attempt at such a movie,” as one dating back to '95 was also slated to star De Niro. A hang-up “is the increasing difficulty of trying to realistically re-create the pivotal Ice Bowl.” That is “one of the reasons ‘The Ice Bowl,’ an ESPN made-for-TV movie announced in January 2003, never made it to the screen by that December” (GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE, 2/11).
GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION: In N.Y., Seth Schiesel reviewed the first video game produced by ESPN baseball analyst CURT SCHILLING’s 38 Studios and wrote, “I’ll admit it. I wasn’t expecting Kings of Amalur: Reckoning ... to be very good.” Schiesel: “It's been a long time since I’ve been so happy to be so wrong. Fabulously wrong.” The game “sings with infectious, engaging excellence.” Schiesel: “I underestimated Curt Schilling yet again.” He deserves “a tremendous amount of credit” (N.Y. TIMES, 2/11).
HIGH AMBITIONS: Notre Dame women’s basketball player SKYLAR DIGGINS said this summer if “everything goes right, I’ll be interning with espnW,” and eventually “maybe I’ll get into sports commentating.” Asked if she is bothered by the NCAA making lots of money while college athletes “sign away their likenesses in perpetuity without pay,” Diggins said, “When I see these people walking around with my jersey on, I’m like, Where does that money go? But I’m living the life. As high as the tuition is, I probably wouldn’t be able to go here as a regular student. So anything that’s good for Notre Dame is good for me and our program” (N.Y. TIMES MAGAZINE, 2/12 issue).
NAMES: A commemorative license plate for the NFL Giants was “unveiled hours after their Super Bowl victory,” and now two N.Y. lawmakers said that a “similar but delayed tribute to the real heroes of the 9/11 attacks is long overdue.” They said that the “first responders and victims shouldn’t take a back seat to millionaire athletes who are honored after championships with license tags.” The plate for the Giants was “issued despite a moratorium on new commemorative plates in New York” (AP, 2/10)….Singer SCOTTY MCCREERY “helped draw a sellout crowd of 8,500” to the annual Hoops 4 Hope event at North Carolina State Univ. The event “builds awareness for breast cancer, honors survivors and raises money for the cancer fund that bears the name of former NCSU women’s basketball coach KAY YOW, who died of the disease” in ’09 (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 2/13)....The Univ. of South Carolina Board of Trustees Friday approved a new contract for football coach STEVE SPURRIER that will pay him $3.3M per year through the ’15 season. With his new deal, Spurrier “becomes the sixth member of the SEC’s $3 million club” (ESPN.com, 2/11)....The Astros celebrated the franchise’s 50th anniversary Friday night at the 27th annual Houston Baseball Dinner (MLB.com, 2/11)....Patriots President JONATHAN KRAFT and wife PATTI attended the 11th annual Franciscan Hospital for Children’s Friends Ball at Boston’s InterContinental Hotel on Friday (BOSTON HERALD, 2/13)....Celtics Gs KEYON DOOLING, RAJON RONDO and MARQUIS DANIELS and Fs KEVIN GARNETT and CHRIS WILCOX helped serve 400 families in need at two Boston community centers Saturday (BOSTON HERALD, 2/12)
IN MEMORY: Sportswriter JAMES TUITE, 90, died Saturday. He had been “suffering from Alzheimer’s and been in declining health.” Tuite was a sports editor at the N.Y. Times and a contributor to several newspapers (NEWSDAY, 2/12).
