Talking Points: Did you notice the NHL labor dispute is over?

1

Hey! Did you hear that the NHL labor dispute ended on Sunday?

No?

Well, you were probably too busy watching NFL playoff football on TV.

Or the GoDaddy.Com Bowl.

Or Oregon-Oregon State basketball.

Fútbol Mexicano: Guadalajara vs. Toluca on Telemundo?

AMA Supercross from Anaheim?

There were plenty of other programs for folks who had long since given up on the knuckleheads behind the protracted NHL labor dispute, like ..

“Dinner for Schmucks”

“Hoarding: Buried Alive”

“The Biggest Loser”

“Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”

“Family Feud”

2

The BCS championship game is tonight, and it’s interesting to consider the nicknames of the two competing schools originated by dispariging remarks made about the football teams.

According to Mike Lessiter’s book “The College Names of the Games,” Alabama’s football teams were known simply as the Crimson and White until newspaper headline writers began calling them the Thin Red Line in 1906 to describe Alabama’s feeble football players.

But the Thin Red Line had a big game in a 6-6 tie with powerhouse Auburn on a flooded field in Birmingham in 1907. Thus, the Thin Red Line became the Crimson Tide.

As for Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish nickname probably emerged as an abusive taunt by opposing fans toward athletes from the small, private, Catholic school in the Midwest.

But a columnist for the New York Daily News in the 1920s spun the moniker, saying it characterized the team’s never-say-die spirit and Irish qualities of grit, determination and tenacity. In 1927, Notre Dame officially adopted the Fighting Irish nickname.