After Brad Childress was fired last week as Vikings coach, it might be precedent setting for a major city like Minneapolis to have both its NFL and major college head coaching jobs open at the same time. Childress and Brewster are friends and it won’t be surprising if the two spend time together in Florida where Brewster has been running the beaches of Naples.
St. Paul’s Gene Harrington was the NFL’s first conditioning coach, filling that role for Green Bay’s Vince Lombardi in 1965. Harrington celebrated his 82nd birthday last week. He covers local teams including the Vikings for two national radio networks.
When the Vikings play at Detroit in their last regular season game on Sunday, January 2, the two teams could be competing to avoid last place in the NFC North. The Vikings are 4-7 after yesterday’s win over Washington. The Lions are 2-9.
Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett seemed like a good fit for the Gophers’ job in 2007 before Tubby Smith was hired. Bennett, the son of former Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett, was making national headlines as Washington State’s coach. Now Bennett coaches the Virginia team (3-3) that plays the Gophers tonight as part of the ACC/Big Ten challenge at Williams Arena. Among the losses is a 106-63 game against nationally-ranked Washington.
Trent Lockett, who played for Hopkins, is now a sophomore at Arizona Sate where as of last week he was leading the Sun Devils in scoring at over 20 points per game. He averaged 6.7 last season. He had a career high 24 points last week versus Weber State.
Rick Stelmaszek, among the Twins coaches recently signed to contracts through 2012, is the longest tenured coach in major league baseball having been Minnesota’s bullpen coach since 1981.
The Twins’ interest in Japanese infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka is indicative of the franchise’s scouting for international players. The Twins are in a 30 day negotiating period to reach a contract agreement with the speedy Nishioka. In recent years the franchise has signed players from the Dominican Republic, Germany and Australia.
St. Paul Saints president Mike Veeck will talk about a possible new ballpark for his franchise at a luncheon starting at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday at Mancini’s Char House & Lounge. The event is sponsored by the Minnesota Minutemen with more information available at www.minnesotaminutemen.com.
Nick Schultz purchased hats for his Wild teammates and other team personnel who are growing moustaches as part of the “Movember” promotion. The red and white hats have the Wild logo and a large black moustache with the words “Wild Mo Bros” written across the top. “Movember” is a moustache growing charity effort during November to create awareness about prostate cancer.