The BBC yesterday held its '12 Sports Personality of the Year Awards, naming Tour de France winner and Olympic Gold Medalist BRADLEY WIGGINS the overall Sports Personality of the Year. Soccer player DAVID BECKHAM presented the Lifetime Achievement award to former LOCOG Chair SEBASTIAN COE. The Team of the Year award was given to Team Great Britain and Paralympics Great Britain (London INDEPENDENT, 12/17). The Duchess of Cambridge KATE MIDDLETON attended the event and presented awards (AP, 12/17).
EXPANDING EMPIRE: In N.Y., Lois Weiss notes DONALD TRUMP is "snatching up golf courses across the country." Trump last Friday night "invited 320 members of the former Ritz-Carlton Golf Club & Spa in Jupiter, Fla., to a ritzy dinner at Trump International in Palm Beach." The Jupiter club is to be "renamed Trump National Golf Club at Jupiter after the developer bought it last month." The Jupiter purchase "brings to 12 the number of Trump National golf courses in the continental U.S." (N.Y. POST, 12/17).
WEDDING BELLS: Ravens LB TERRELL SUGGS on Saturday married CANDACE WILLIAMS (BALTIMORESUN.com, 12/15)....Reds 3B TODD FRAZIER on Friday married JACKIE VERDON, a "former Rutgers gymnast who grew up 20 miles away from Frazier in Freehold, New Jersey" (CINCINNATI.com, 12/15)
NAMES: The new Perot Museum of Nature & Science yesterday "announced a partnership" with the Cowboys after Owner JERRY JONES and his wife, GENE, donated $5M to the museum (DALLASNEWS.com, 12/16)....T'Wolves F KEVIN LOVE and Cardinals WR LARRY FITZGERALD were recognized prior to Saturday's Mavericks-T'Wolves game for the $86,000 they raised for breast cancer awareness (PIONEERPRESS.com, 12/15)....Rams Owner STAN KROENKE has purchased the Manchester Highlands shopping center in St. Louis (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 12/15)....ESPN NFL analyst MIKE DITKA was at Binny's Beverage Depot in Niles, Ill., last Tuesday "promoting his new line of wines with names like 'The Player' and 'The Hall of Famer'" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 12/14)....Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures Partner ADAM HELFANT is the uncle of one of the victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, GRACE AUDREY MCDONNELL (ATPWORLDTOUR.com, 12/16).
