This Guy Is as Old as, uh, Leather

Ralph Horween, a running back for the Chicago Cardinals in 1921-23, today will become the first former NFL player to turn 100 years old, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Horween family still is involved with the NFL. It supplies the leather used in the manufacture of the league’s Wilson football.

Horween’s biggest NFL check was $275 for a 1923 game against the Chicago Bears at Wrigley Field. “I quit and bought a ring for my fiancee, and we eloped,” Horween said.

Trivia time: Tennis has made the shift from white to yellow balls, but when was the first time baseball tried it?

Nothing new: When Michael Johnson and Frankie Fredericks faced off in Thursday night’s final of the Olympic 200, it was the 22nd time they raced. Johnson holds a 16-6 edge after his gold-medal win.

They met for the first time in the 1989 NCAA championships when Fredericks, who comes from Namibia, ran for Brigham Young and Johnson represented Baylor.

Musical chairs: Dave Barr had better keep looking over his shoulder to see if Jay Fiedler is behind him. When he is, it’s not good news for Barr.

Last year, Fiedler beat out Barr for the Philadelphia Eagles’ third-string quarterback job and Barr was released. Barr hooked on last week with the Cincinnati Bengals. On Wednesday, Fiedler asked for his release from the Eagles so he could--you guessed it--sign with the Bengals.

Finders not keepers: Carl Lewis lost his ninth Olympic gold medal after his historic long jump. But not for long. Lewis and NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw were scheduled to do an an interview when autograph-hungry fans forced them to flee in separate cars.

Much to Brokaw’s surprise, Lewis’s pager went off inside his bag. Brokaw found the medal in there too. His assistant rang Lewis’ assistant who promptly came to retrieve the medal.

Fish tale: Randy Johnson, Seattle’s hard-throwing pitcher, creates his own baseball cards as a hobby. For one on the Angels’ Tim Salmon, he took Salmon to a Seattle fish market to get a picture of Salmon holding a salmon like a bat.

Said Salmon: “Randy walked up to the fish guy and said, ‘Hi, I’m Randy Johnson. Can we borrow a fish?’ ”

Speak clearly: The Oakland Raiders hired Larry Kennan as quarterback coach to develop the vertical-stretch offense so coveted by Al Davis. Noting that Kennan was offensive coordinator for a Seattle team in 1992 that went 2-14 and averaged a league-low 8.8 points per game, Sam Farmer of the San Jose Mercury News said Kennan’s offense may be more of a “vertical-stench.”

Brash youth: Pete Kaiser, 25, will be driving a top fuel eliminator in the Goodguys nostalgia drag race Sunday at Pomona Raceway. Why does he do it: “I like beating up on the old guys.”

Trivia answer: On Aug. 2, 1938, the Brooklyn Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals used a yellow baseball in the first game of a doubleheader as an experiment. The two teams went back to the white ball in the second game as the Dodgers swept the doubleheader, 6-2 and 9-3.