The annual Trent Tucker Youth Program fund-raiser has a new event to complement the celebrity golf tournament. A celebrity poker tournament, with scheduled guests that include Michael Jordan and poker star Phil Ivey, will be held at Canterbury Park on Friday, September 8. On Saturday, September 9, Rush Creek Golf Course will be the site for a celebrity golf outing including you-know-who.
Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano talking about going back to his native Dominican Republic for the winter: “I was here in the winter this year for the Twinsfest. Pretty cold, man, I don’t like that. That’s not the way that I am used to it, you know.”
Former Gopher football coach Lou Holtz is promoting his new book, “Wins, Losses, and Lessons.” He said on WCCO Radio’s Sports Huddle: “I am the only guy who has written more books than he has read.” Holtz told the local radio audience he would have stayed at Minnesota and not gone to Notre Dame if the University had extended his authority in the athletic department.
Gopher junior safety Dom Barber visited his older brother, Marion III, in Dallas during the off-season. Marion, whose Dallas Cowboys play the Vikings Thursday night, spent time with Dom bowling, eating pizza and staying around the house and swimming pool. Dom, who played running back in high school, will play defense for the Gophers and not follow the running back tradition set by his father, Marion II, and his older brother, two of the school’s best runners ever. Another Barber runner may be coming, though. “Little Thomas, he’s eight now, and some day may be he will the next one to carry the tradition of running backs,” Dom said.
Matt Spaeth, recently named a Gopher co-captain, talked earlier this month about how the team must learn from the past and not give away games (see 2005 versus Wisconsin): “I think as a team we look at some of our games where we’ve had let downs. Fourth quarter letdowns or just stupid mistakes. Things like that that will cost us the game. We definitely (have) got to get rid of those.”
Former Viking coach Mike Tice’s son, Nate, and nephew, Mike, are both playing football for Edina High School.