Bo Completes High Degree of Difficulty

Now, Bo knows graduation.

Ten years after winning the Heisman Trophy as a senior at Auburn, Bo Jackson recently marched in a different kind of uniform, a gown and mortarboard, and earned his college degree.

Jackson was only six courses short of graduating when he left school for a career in football and baseball.

Jackson, 33, became the first of 10 children to earn a degree from a four-year university, but he’s not the best educated person in his family. Jackson’s wife, Linda, has a PhD from Auburn.

His degree was not earned without sacrifice. In order to finish his studies, Jackson had to take correspondence courses. Only thing was, his classes were administered through the University of Alabama, Auburn’s cross-state archrival.

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Add Bo: Jackson, who is pursuing an acting career, was asked if he would be willing to abandon his role-model persona and play a villain in a film.

“I really don’t think I’ll have a problem with it if I’m making the kind of money Jim Carrey’s making. I’ll dress in drag.”

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Trivia time: What significant event occurred on Feb. 14, 1896?

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High hopes: Sports columnist Simon Barnes of the Times of London: “I can report on a great triumph for Britain. ‘Following two days of intense competition,’ I read breathlessly as the paper unfurled gently from the fax machine, ‘Britain’s champion team, Airkraft, has just won the sixth World Cup Sport Kite Championships in Australia.’

“They are the first non-American team to win. They took first place in both the precision and ballet sections of the event, beating such teams as Aftershock of Japan, Sky Dance, also British, Kite-O-Holix, of Austria and Lucky Landing Albatross, of Switzerland.

“There can’t be much wrong with Britain when its young people are the best in the world at flying kites.”

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Punch drunk? Nino Benvenuti, the former world middleweight champion, abruptly left his wife and home in Italy and flew to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa.

Benvenuti explained his change of heart and life by telling friends, “We’re egoists! We’re always demanding! We never succeed in giving! I must make my contribution to society and do it fast!”

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Excess luggage: It used to be an honor, and profitable, to go to major bowl games. The money isn’t always great. The University of Oregon will spend more than $1.4 million to play in the Cotton Bowl, and probably make a $50,000 profit.

“In the short term, the Cotton Bowl translates into a windfall of prestige and a modest financial benefit for the UO and the state of Oregon,” said Brodie Remington, the school’s vice president for public affairs and development.

Most of the money for the Jan. 1 game will be spent on travel, housing and food. The university will send 108 football players, 70 coaches, trainers and support personnel; 197 band members, 17 rally squad members, the Duck mascot and an unspecified number of staff from the office of public affairs and development.

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Trivia answer: The first intercollegiate hockey game was played in the United States. Yale defeated Johns Hopkins, 2-1.

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Quotebook: From Boston Coach M.L. Carr, after a fight in which Miami Heat rookie Kurt Thomas sucker punched Celtic forward Pervis Ellison in the face: “There’s no place in the game for that and I used to do it.”