News
College football
Saban named first Bowden Award winner
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama's Nick Saban had homefield advantage in winning the inaugural Bobby Bowden national collegiate coach of the year award.
Saban received the award from the Over the Mountain Touchdown Club of Birmingham on Sunday with former FSU coach Bobby Bowden, a Birmingham native, in attendance. "It's hard for me to think that there's a coach in the country right now better qualified than him, and his record shows it," Bowden said of Saban, who won the national title and a school-record 14 games.
Saban, a native of West Virginia, said the honor was especially meaningful because of a gesture Bowden made when Saban was a young assistant at Kent State. Bowden was the coach at West Virginia at the time and knew Saban's father.
"After my father passed away, my mother was having a lot of problems, and Coach Bowden called and said if I needed to come home, he'd create a graduate assistant position for me," Saban recalled. "I never, ever forgot that."
Sailing
Frenchman circles globe in record time
French skipper Franck Cammas and his nine-man crew broke the around-the-world sailing record by more than two days to take the Jules Verne Trophy.
Cammas and his multi-hull vessel Groupama 3 crossed the finish in Brest, France, late Saturday, beating the mark set by Orange 2 in 2005 by 2 days, 8 hours, 35 minutes. Cammas finished his circumnavigation via the capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn in 48 days, 7 hours, 44 minutes, 52 seconds. Afterward, he said bad weather had slowed his boat and that "the new record can be improved."
ET CETERA
nfl: Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown, who had no previous record, was arrested on suspicion of DUI in Atlanta on Friday, the Miami Herald reported. Brown, 28, a native of Rome, Ga., was pulled over when he made a lane change without using his blinker.
Bowling: Brian Kretzer of Dayton, Ohio, ended his 167-event winless streak, beating 13-time Professional Bowlers Association title-winner Patrick Allen of Wesley Chapel 629-566 in the finale of the Go RVing Match Play in Norwich, Conn.
College baseball: Former Alonso High standout Sherman Johnson homered in the eighth to spark Florida State (15-4, 3-3 ACC) to a 5-3 come-from-behind win over host North Carolina. … Austin Maddox hit a three-run homer in the eighth to lift host Florida (16-3, 3-0 SEC) past Mississippi State 4-1 and complete a sweep. … Host USF (7-13) pounded out 14 hits before the rain and beat Mercer 13-4 in eight innings. … Catcher Yasmami Grandal hit a two-out RBI double in the top of the ninth as Miami (14-5, 5-1 ACC) swept host Duke with a 7-6 victory.
College hockey: Jessica Wong scored in the third overtime to lift Minnesota Duluth (31-8-2) to a 3-2 win over Cornell (21-9-6) in the Women's Frozen Four title game in Minneapolis.
Horses: Leading jockey Daniel Centeno won his 100th race for the fourth consecutive season at Tampa Bay Downs with Ben Ben Mechon ($16) in Race 6 at Oldsmar. A total of 104 horses were nominated for six $85,000 stakes races on Florida Cup Day scheduled for April 3 at the Downs.
Tennis: Ivan Ljubicic outlasted Andy Roddick 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5) to win the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. In the women's final, Jelena Jankovic beat Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-4.
Times correspondent Don Jensen, Times wires
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