Sports in 2 Minutes

Notre Dame football star Gipp exhumed for DNA testing

From The Associated Press

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.—The body of George Gipp, the Notre Dame football player who inspired the rallying cry “Win one for the Gipper,” was exhumed recently for DNA testing in his Upper Peninsula hometown.

The test was sought by the Gipp family and met legal requirements, Houghton County Medical Examiner Dr. Dawn Nulf said Wednesday, although it angered some relatives who live in the area where Gipp was born and raised.

Nulf declined comment about why the request was made.

An ESPN crew filmed the exhumation for an upcoming story, but a spokesman said the network played no role in arranging it.

Gipp’s remains were taken Oct. 4 from Lake View Cemetery near the village of Laurium, about 550 miles northwest of Detroit, where he was buried in 1920 after dying from pneumonia and a strep infection during his senior year at Notre Dame. They were returned to the grave the same day, Nulf said.

Gipp was a prolific runner, passer and kicker who was Notre Dame’s first All-America selection. He scored 83 touchdowns and held the school career rushing record for more than 50 years.

But he’s best known for the deathbed exhortation attributed to him years later by coach Knute Rockne. During a pregame pep talk, Rockne inspired his underdog Fighting Irish with the story of a dying Gipp urging the team to “win one for the Gipper.”

The phrase became a political slogan for Ronald Reagan, who portrayed Gipp in the 1940 movie “Knute Rockne, All American.”

Gipp remains a local hero in the adjacent villages of Laurium and Calumet, the center of a bustling copper mining industry when he was born in 1895. Calumet High School presents a George Gipp Award to its top male athlete each year.

Nulf said she was contacted a couple of months ago by a family representative seeking the DNA test. She determined a court order was not required for the body to be exhumed. Instead, the family presented an affidavit that was approved by the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department.

Nulf declined to identify the relative but referred a reporter to Mike Bynum, a sports author who has researched Gipp and attended the exhumation. Bynum said it was requested by Rick Frueh, whose grandmother was one of Gipp’s sisters.

Schuerholz stepping

aside as Braves GM

ATLANTA—John Schuerholz stepped aside as general manager of the Atlanta Braves on Thursday to become team president after assembling teams that won a record 14 straight division titles and the 1995 World Series championship.

Schuerholz, who turned 67 last week, remains second in command to chairman Terry McGuirk. Assistant general manager Frank Wren, a former GM with the Baltimore Orioles, replaced Schuerholz as the executive as the one who oversees trades, free-agent signings and other roster decisions.

Outfielder Jeff Francoeur said he got word of Schuerholz’s decision earlier Thursday.

“I figured he would be with us another year of two,” Francoeur said. “It kind of happened quick for all of us. It caught us off guard.”

The team had no immediate comment other than to schedule an afternoon news conference for a “major announcement.” Schuerholz was baseball’s longest-serving general manager with one team.

The Braves won 14 consecutive division titles from 1991—Schuerholz’s first season in Atlanta—until 2004, a streak unprecedented in any of the major American sports. The only blemish on his resume was a lack of success once his teams got the playoffs.

Atlanta’s only World Series title came 12 years ago, a six-game victory over the Cleveland Indians that gave the city its first, and still only, major sports championship.

Landis will appeal

doping ruling

Floyd Landis has one more chance to regain his 2006 Tour de France title. Like almost every other campaign he has waged in this long struggle, he’ll be starting from behind.

The American cyclist decided Wednesday to try to regain his championship at the Court of Arbitration for Sport—the top court for sports—hoping arbitrators there will reverse an earlier decision to ban him for two years and strip him of his title for using performance-enhancing drugs.

“I hope that the arbitrators of the case will fairly address the facts showing that the French laboratory made mistakes, which resulted in a false positive,” Landis said. “Although the process of proving my innocence has been difficult for me and my family, I will not stop trying to prove my innocence.”

The CAS confirmed Thursday that it had received Landis’ appeal.

Landis will, once again, be an underdog in this case, just as he was when he went into the first arbitration hearing, and when he began his sensational comeback during Stage 17 of last year’s race. The appeal surely will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, though probably not millions, because much of the evidence already has been established and heard.

Etan Thomas has

open heart surgery

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Washington Wizards center Etan Thomas underwent open heart surgery Thursday at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to repair a leak of the aortic valve, an irregularity discovered during a routine physical before start of training camp.

The Wizards were expected to make a statement later Thursday, and the doctor and team president Ernie Grunfeld were expected to comment Friday.

“Hopefully they can correct the problem,” forward Antawn Jamison said following the team’s practice. “We know how much he loves the game of basketball and what he means to this team, but the most important thing—you just hope that the surgery goes well.”

Whether the 29-year-old Thomas will play in the NBA again is unknown, and at the very least he will need months to recuperate before rejoining his team.

NBA veteran Fred Hoiberg was forced to retire after open-heart surgery for an aneurysm on the aortic root in 2005, but Ronny Turiaf was able to begin practicing with the Los Angeles Lakers less than six months after open-heart surgery for an enlarged aortic root that same year.