Author: David Shama

John Gagliardi, the legendary Saint John’s football coach, was named the 2009 recipient of the American Football Coaches’ Association’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Award last week. The award honors those “whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football” and will be presented to Gagliardi in January at the AFCA Convention in Nashville.  Previous winners include Paul “Bear” Bryant (1983), Woody Hayes (1986) and Joe Paterno(2002).

Gagliardi broke former Grambling State head coach Eddie Robinson’s NCAA record for the most games coached (588) on September 20 against Concordia College-Moorhead in Collegeville. Gagliardi’s 60 years of collegiate coaching is the most in college football history, surpassing the prior record of 57 years held by Stagg.

John Vadnais, a former Saint John’s player, works with other Gagliardi alums at a company in Minneapolis.  Vadnais wrote the following edited e-mail: “They (we) all have the same reaction to having been a player of the master.  He has a certain magic about him that makes a player do things above and beyond the normal.  My sense during our conversations…are that they have an extreme reverence for him. …”

Vikings’ quarterback Gus Frerotte, 37, talking earlier this month about his decision to return for another season, his 13^th, in the NFL:  “It’s the game.  I had a long talk with coach (Brad Childress).  I said, ‘You know it’s the game that keeps you coming back.’  It’s not necessarily practicing and doing all this stuff with the media.  It’s playing on Sundays, getting those emotions built up in you, making the throw and guys high-fiving.  Every time you go out and start, you feel pretty darn lucky.  You’re one of 32 people (starting quarterbacks in the NFL).  I’m just going to go out and have fun and really enjoy myself.”

Scott Baker, who kept the Twins in first place by winning yesterday’s game against Kansas City, had a 4-0 record with a 2.37 ERA in his last six starts.

The Timberwolves open training camp tomorrow and will have daily practices through Friday at Bresnan Arena in the Taylor Center on the Minnesota State University campus in Mankato. The team will conclude camp on Saturday with a scrimmage beginning at 7 p.m. at the Bresnan Arena. The scrimmage is free and open to the public but a ticket is required for admission.  Tickets are available at the U.S. Bank locations at 204 S. 2nd St. and 312 Raintree Road in Mankato from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. There is a limit of four tickets per person.

The Gopher men’s hockey team is ranked ninth in the preseason national poll by USA Today and USA Hockey Magazine. The Gophers begin the season in the top 10 for the seventh consecutive year.  Minnesota was 12th in the final 2007-08 poll and has 12 new players on the roster.  Defending national champion Boston College, which eliminated the Gophers in the 2008 NCAA tournament, is the nation’s top-ranked team.  Minnesota opens its regular season at No. 15 ranked St. Cloud State on October 17 and then hosts the Huskies at Mariucci Arena on October 18.

The Sports Show, with Dark Star, Mike Max, Patrick Reusse and Sid Hartman, is still on the CW Twin Cities, Ch. 23, but has a new starting time on Sundays, 9:30 p.m.

Resilient.  The Minnesota Twins players could wear that word on their uniforms.  A team that many thought would play .500 baseball or worse, and has now lost 15 of its last 25 games, finds itself 2.5 games behind Chicago in the Central Division race with the White Sox coming to the Metrodome for a three-game series starting tomorrow night.

With only six games remaining in the season for the Twins, probably nothing less than a sweep of the White Sox will keep the division title drive on track.  That would leave the Twins 8-1 in the dome against the White Sox this season.

The Twins hope their strengths, pitching, defense, and timely hits, will be in place this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.  The White Sox, who like the Twins have been stumbling in September losing 10 games and winning nine, will want to show their power game, 223 home runs, best in the majors.

Twins president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners on Friday he hopes his team can minimize White Sox power.  “If we can keep the ball in the park, I like our chances a lot,” he said.

The easy guess is to write that the Twins are too far back to win, but the White Sox are playing without the injured Carlos Quentin, their best player gone for the season, and they’re not playing winning baseball.  Then, too, the Twins have been surprising most everyone all season.

“It’s going to come down to pitching,” St. Peter said.

The White Sox finish their season at home against Cleveland and could have to make up a previously postponed game against Detroit on Monday of next week if the division race is still being decided.  The game would be in Chicago.

The fans were booing the Vikings’ offense and presumably coach Brad Childress with gusto in the first quarter of yesterday’s game against Carolina, a Minnesota 20-10 win.  St. Paul native and 11 year Vikings veteran Matt Birk isn’t critical of the fans, though.  He told Sports Headliners he understands their passion.

Vikings’ defensive end Ray Edwards said during the off-season he wants to break Michael Strahan’s single season NFL sack record of 22.5.  Through three games Edwards has no sacks but he says the “sky’s the limit.”

Edwards told Sports headliners that so far opponents aren’t verbally giving him a bad time about his sack drought.  A third year pro, Edwards’ contract is up after next season and he’s using the sack goal for inspiration.  “A lot of motivation?” he asked.  “Yes, because if I do that I definitely set up my family up for life.  Retire my grandmother and everything will fall into place for me.”

Brett Favre will celebrate his 39^th birthday on October 10 but Vikings wide receiver Robert Ferguson, who played six seasons with Favre in Green Bay, still sees a kid in the New York Jets quarterback. “He’ll bring enthusiasm to their offense,” Ferguson told Sports Headliners.  “He has a little boy spirit. …Just brings a passion to the game.”

Ferguson thinks Favre’s throwing arm is still special but mobility likely isn’t what it was.  “In the past he probably scrambled a little bit more to create more time to make plays, but now he knows (different),” Ferguson said.  “He’s probably a little less (with) mobility.”

When the two were in Green Bay, Ferguson said Favre adopted a country song called “I Ain’t As Good As I Once Was.”  The lyrics include the line “But I am as good once as I ever was.”

“He used to walk around saying that all the time,” Ferguson said. “I think he really believes that.  He might mess up here and there but he’s going to have a couple plays that he’s extraordinary at.”

Here’s a trivia question, courtesy of Dave Mona’s new book, Beyond the Sports Huddle:  Who is the former Vikings’ running back who starred as a cop on TV’s Hill Street Blues?  (Answer at bottom of column.)