Vikings’ rookie quarterback John David Booty, who was a starter last season for USC, said coach Pete Carroll means it when he tells players they’re Trojans for life.  Booty said he and Carroll text message regularly.

Vikings’ rookie center John Sullivan has been playing that position since fourth grade.  “It’s a natural feeling,” he told Sports Headliners.  “Something I’ve been doing for so long.”

Sullivan backs up center Matt Birk, the Vikings’ 11-year veteran.  Sullivan said he spends perhaps 20 percent of his time practicing at offensive guard.

Vikings’ coach Brad Childress has become friends with Murray Warmath, 95, the former Gopher national championship coach who also was a defensive line coach for the Vikings after he left the University of Minnesota.   Warmath, who uses a wheelchair, visited Vikings’ practice last month.

An MIAC spokesman estimates about half of the league’s nine football teams run some spread offense, the popular formation that’s been sweeping college football for awhile now.  Included is Saint John’s coach John Gagliardi who said “it’s almost like a touch football game.”  Gagliardi, 81, has been coaching in the MIAC for 55 years while all the other league coaches have a combined total of 46 years.

The Minnesota Wild’s Kurtis Foster, along with Wild minor league system players Danny Irmen (a former Gopher) and John Scott all were married this summer. Foster recently started skating again for the first time since fracturing his left femur on March 19 in San Jose.

New Wild forward Owen Nolan, signed as a free agent after playing for Calgary, is from Belfast, Ireland.

Goalie Josh Harding recently participated in an on-ice promotional shoot for EA Sports 2009 in Burnaby, British Columbia. The game was released last week.

The Wild opens training camp on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.  The training camp roster released last week lists 39 players, with possible additions coming from players participating in the 2008 NHL Centre I.C.E. Prospects Tournament in Traverse City, Michigan that started on Saturday and continues through tomorrow (Tuesday).  Center Corey Locke is the smallest player listed on the training camp roster, 5-9, 171, while defenseman John Scott, 6-8, 247, is the biggest.

The Wild unveil the team’s first-ever mascot on Sunday, October 5, at an exclusive Hot Tamales Wild Kids Club event at Xcel Energy Center from 3:30 to 7 p.m.  The mascot will target young fans, families and community events.  Hot Tamales Wild Kids Club members are being encouraged to send their ideas for mascot names to the team.

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DeLeon Eskridge, who scored three touchdowns for the Gophers in Saturday’s 35-23 win over Montana State, is a true freshman who has yet to start a game for Minnesota (3-0).  He replaced Shady Salamon, another true freshman in the first half, and provided the Gophers with more quickness.  Prior to Saturday, Eskridge had only one previous rushing attempt for five yards against Bowling Green.  At Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, California he broke the school touchdown record of former USC and Pittsburgh star Lynn Swann.

Local dentist John Williams and other former Gopher athletes and Minnesota friends will travel to Las Cruces, New Mexico later this month to visit Dr. McKinley Boston.  They will watch the New Mexico State-New Mexico football game on Saturday, September 27 in Las Cruces.  Boston, the former Gopher football player and later athletic director, is now the athletic director at New Mexico State.

Former University of Minnesota football letter winner Eric Dalen, 1993-94, is an NBA referee.

Joe Mauer is likely to catch 135 games or more for the Twins, a high number for any catcher.  Mauer, 25, is still young but some people fret about the physical toll catching takes on any catcher.  He has caught 126 games this season and his previous high for catching was 120 in 2006, according to baseball-reference.com.

Twins’ rookie right fielder Denard Span has hit safely in 45 of his 67 games since being called up from Triple A Rochester.  He has 20 RBI in his last 23 games.  A decent prediction for next year is that Span will move to center field replacing the erratic Carlos Gomez while Delmon Young remains in left and Michael Cuddyer takes over in right after injuries have limited him to 64 games so far this season.

Gomez has stolen 30 bases, the most by a Twin since Luis Rivas had 31 in 2001.

The Twins are 38-40 in games when American League MVP candidate Justin Morneau doesn’t have an RBI.  Morneau is tied with Josh Hamilton of Texas for the league lead in RBI with 124. The Twins have scored 769 runs this season with Morneau’s RBI’s accounting for 16 percent of them.

Jim Holden will be signing copies of Tennis in the Northland from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday at Reed-Sweatt Tennis Center in south Minneapolis.  The former Northfield tennis coach has written a comprehensive history of boys’ high school tennis in Minnesota.  Among the many people he writes about is 1951 state singles champion Vincent Bugliosi from Hibbing who was the lead prosecutor at the Charles Manson trial and author of the book Helter Skelter.  More recently Bugliosi has authored the best seller The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

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Tim Brewster admires Indianapolis’ Tony Dungy as a football coach but listen to what he has to say about him as a person.  Although Brewster knew Dungy before taking over as Gopher coach, he has become much better acquainted with him since January of 2007.

“…Just the classiest human being that maybe I’ve ever been around and met,” Brewster told Sports Headliners this week.  “And the way he carries himself with such dignity, and the way he treats others is just amazingly inspiring.  And to know that he’s a Minnesota Golden Gopher makes me extremely proud.”

Dungy, of course, quarterbacked the Gophers in the 1970s, later was an assistant coach at Minnesota and then worked as Denny Green’s defensive coordinator for the Vikings from 1992-1995. Although Dungy has been the Indianapolis head coach since 2002, this Sunday will be the first time he’s brought the Colts here for a game against the Vikings.

The Dungy name is part of the coaching gold standard in the NFL.  He became the first African American to coach a Super Bowl winner when his Colts won XLI in 2007.

The Colts, 0-1 after losing their opener to Chicago, are favored to again win the AFC South.  Indianapolis has won the last five AFC South titles.  Dungy’s record with the Colts is 73-24 and his overall NFL wins and losses including his time at Tampa Bay as head coach is 136-75.  His Colts have won 12 games or more each season for five consecutive years, an NFL record.

Why does Brewster have several photos of the former Gopher on his office wall?  “Because it says everything about who we are to be associated with a guy like Tony Dungy,” he said.  “He stands for everything that’s great in coaching in dealing with people.  If I could be a quarter of what Tony Dungy is as a man, that would be more important to me than anything about being a coach.”

Brewster said Dungy was encouraging to him after his first Gopher team finished 1-11.  He said a five minute phone conversation with Dungy can make him feel better.

The Vikings, 0-1 after Monday night’s loss to Green Bay, will be following precedent if they lose to the Colts on Sunday.  Indianapolis has won 21 of 22 games in September and October since 2004.

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