The Starkey Hearing Foundation will hold its annual awards gala fundraiser on Sunday, July 25 at the RiverCentre in St. Paul.  The event will honor humanitarians such as boxer Muhammad Ali, entertainer Steve Martin and former Gophers golfer Harvey Mackay, now a Minneapolis businessman and New York Times best selling author.  Ticket pricing begins at $1,500.00.

The University of Minnesota is expected to appeal the verdict involving the school and Jimmy Williams, but if the former college basketball coach wins his case financial damages for reputation will not be subject to taxes, while damages for lost wages will be.

Astros ace Roy Oswalt has a no-trade clause in his contract.  If he were traded to the Twins or another team he might insist on a new deal before allowing the Astros to move him.

Delmon Young has hit safely in his last 10 games, batting .361.  The Twins outfielder has 13 RBI in his last nine games, 25 in the previous 22.  Young has hit four home runs since May 31.

Twins pitchers have given up the fewest walks in the American League, 134.  The team has also committed the least errors, 21.

Joe Mauer’s grandfather, Jake Mauer, has returned to Canterbury Park after a brief retirement to sell his tip sheet on Saturdays and Sundays.

Vikings coach Brad Childress talking about his feelings regarding Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson not being at the team’s mini-camp practices: “I know that Brett is still doing what he’s doing down there. Adrian has a commitment. The upside of it is that a guy like (rookie running back) Toby Gerhart doesn’t have to be there, picking his nose. He’s getting elevated turns.”

Former Gophers defensive coordinator Greg Hudson is an assistant coach at Florida State.

St. Thomas senior softball player Alison Wright and Gustavus Adolphus senior hockey player Melissa Mackley are the MIAC nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. The award honors senior student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership.  The award winner will be announced in October.

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Pre-season college football magazines are predicting the Gophers will finish in 10^th or 11^th place in the Big Ten Conference this fall.  Athlon, Lindy’s and Sporting News all have the Gophers at or near the bottom of the projected standings but Minnesota coach Tim Brewster welcomes the publicity.

“…For the most part, it’s uniformed prognosticators,” Brewster told Sports Headliners. “We feel good about our football team.  We feel good about the young talent we’ve infused.  It’s certainly motivation when someone says you’re not very good—adds a little something for your team.  I love the position we’re in because most prognosticators don’t think we’re very good.”

The predictions about the Gophers will be brought up by Brewster in team meetings.  He will talk about internal expectations and sometimes also discuss what others are predicting for the Gophers.

From the perspective of the publications, too much is uncertain to write optimistically about the Gophers.  Athlon, for example, forecasts the Gophers for a last place finish, noting that Minnesota will have “at least nine new starters” on defense and offensively last year’s team was last in the conference in scoring, rushing and total offense.

Regarding the top end of the Big Ten, it’s both a similar and different story, according to pre-season publications.  Ohio State, which has won or shared the last four titles, is the favorite to be league champion in 2010.  But traditional powers Penn State and Michigan figure to chase not only Ohio State but Wisconsin and Iowa, too, in the opinion of many writers.

In the national rankings, Boise State is receiving more pre-season support for a high top 10 finish than ever before.  Years ago the Broncos were on a potential scheduling list for college football powers looking for a Charmin-soft opponent.  Now, following several impressive seasons and a couple of turn-your-head bowl performances, the little school from Boise and the Western Athletic Conference finds itself mentioned in the same sentences with programs like Alabama, Oklahoma and USC.

“I think it speaks volumes for the job that (coach) Chris Petersen does,” Brewster said. “Boise is no secret.  They’ve done as good a job as anybody in the country.  They’ve taken on all comers.”

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News reports about the recent death of 10-time national championship basketball coach John Wooden referenced how he might have coached at Minnesota instead of UCLA.  Not so well known is that the Gophers athletic department probably could have had both Wooden and college football legend Bud Wilkinson coaching here in the 1950s.

Wooden, who had been an All-American guard at Purdue, was coaching at Indiana State in 1948.  Both Minnesota and UCLA were interested in hiring him away from Indiana State, but Wooden preferred the Gophers job because of his Midwest roots.  While Wooden waited for a final offer by telephone from Minnesota, a snowstorm delayed the call.  In the meantime, UCLA telephoned and offered him the Brunins job which he accepted thinking the Gophers had lost interest.

Wilkinson had grown up in Minneapolis, played on national championship teams for the Gophers in the 1930s and started coaching at Oklahoma in 1947.  He won conference titles year after year and his teams were national champions three times in the 1950s.

Despite his success at Oklahoma sources have said that Wilkinson was very interested in leaving the Sooners in the 1950s and returning to his home town and alma mater.  The interest, according to the same sources, wasn’t mutual.

A de-emphasis on athletics was part of the campus scene at Minnesota after World War II.  The University of Chicago had left the Big Ten Conference in the 1930s and some Minnesota officials wanted a similar fate for the Gophers, according to University sports historian Mike Wilkinson (no relation to Bud Wilkinson).

Mike Wilkinson said University of Minnesota president James Morrill was outspoken about his dislike of big-time college athletics.  In the early to mid-1950s there was huge public interest here in bringing back Bud Wilkinson to coach the Gophers, a program that won five national championships in the 1930’s and 1940s but had become mediocre.

The public pressure necessitated that Wilkinson receive an interview but it was supposedly an awkward meeting with Morrill.  Sources have reported over the years that Wilkinson was kept in the president’s reception area for a couple of hours, a not so subtle message regarding the administration’s lack of interest in him.  When Wilkinson and Morrill finally met, the president told the home town hero that he probably wouldn’t want to come here because of the intent to de-emphasize athletics, according to Mike Wilkinson.

Bud Wilkinson returned to Oklahoma where he enjoyed several more years of legend making football including a winning streak of 47 straight games.  By 1960 the Gophers had climbed back to the top of college football with a national championship season under coach Murray Warmath, an unpopular choice to coach Minnesota when he started here in 1954 and a coach who had nowhere near the resume of Wilkinson.

Interestingly, when the Gophers received their first bowl invitation in school history in 1960 there were faculty leaders on campus who proclaimed this should be Minnesota’s first and last Rose Bowl.

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