Look at Ted’s Excellent Adventure

In an interview in Modern Maturity magazine, Ted Koppel of ABC’s “Nightline” tells of his athletic background:

“I was an all-city, all-state soccer player--even had a few votes for All-American at Syracuse.

“I jog about three times a week, I bike, I play tennis. And I love to sail. My friends kid me when they visit our Florida home--they call it Camp Koppel.”

*

Trivia time: Who holds the NBA single-game record for three-point field goals?

*

A real eyeful: Bernie Lincicome in the Rocky Mountain News: “Virginia Tech’s Michael Vick is expected to be the No. 1 draft choice of the San Diego Chargers, but no one in the NFL is quite sure what to make of Texas A&M; running back Ja’Mar Toombs after Toombs was measured at 5 feet 11 and weighed in at 275.

“A consensus of pro football scouts concurred that Toombs had opened a lot of eyes at the scouting combine weigh-in.

“ ‘Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to see all of him,’ one scout said.”

*

Future film: Tom FitzGerald in the San Francisco Chronicle: “No doubt buoyed by President Bush’s tax-cut plan, Frank Thomas has returned to the White Sox camp.

“But Elliott Harris of the Chicago Sun-Times suggests that the Big Hurt will star in a movie about an octet of brooding ballplayers entitled, ‘Eight Men Pout.’ ”

*

Addicted: Steve Rosenbloom in the Chicago Tribune:

“If Charles Oakley is right about 60% of the NBA smoking marijuana, then people who show up to watch the Bulls must be proof of the dangers of second-hand smoke.”

*

Is that all? Bill Suda in the San Diego Union-Tribune: “For eight years, the superstitious Shaq O’Neal has eaten the same luncheon on game days: two club sandwiches with extra mayo on the side, fries and four Sprites.

“This morsel comes from the special ‘NBA Cafe: Eat to Win’ on the Food Network.”

*

Win, win situation: Bud Geracie in the San Jose Mercury News:

“In salary arbitration, the player either gets what he wants or what he wants and more.”

*

Add Geracie: “All things must pass. Except Allen Iverson.”

*

Hello, sports fan: Keith Olbermann of Fox Sports Net on the XFL:

“If the ratings go any lower, the announcers will be able to address the viewer by his first name.”

*

Long gone: Cincinnati Reds’ pitcher Mark Wohlers, while watching an umpire call a pitch above the belt a strike:

“Great. That’s a strike now. But that’s the one they hit 400 miles.”

*

Trivia answer: Dennis Scott, 11, while playing for Orlando against Atlanta on April 18, 1996.

*

And finally: Hunter S. Thompson in ESPN.com, commenting on the declining ratings of the XFL on NBC:

“If the Dow Jones index plunged that many points in four weeks, the sidewalks of New York would be littered with the broken bodies of stockbrokers.

“Five-hundred people a day would be leaping to their deaths off the Golden Gate Bridge.”