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Every Thursday on Page 2 of The Oklahoman sports section, I do a list. Best wishbone quarterbacks in history. Best Oklahoman performances in the World Series. Best streaks in major tournament golf. That kind of thing.

My list this Thursday is the 10 best Olympians in history. And it’s the most difficult list I’ve ever produced. I usually spend a lot of research time picking the top 10, but ranking any 10 comes easy. I have no problem with the courage of my convictions.  I can make a decision, based on solid reasons, and stick with it.

This time, I’ve waffled more than IHOP. I had difficulty cutting the list to 10, then I had difficulty picking No. 1.

First, the list:

10. Paavo Nurmi, Finnish distance runner

9. Larysa Latynina, Soviet gymnast

8. Jesse Owens, American sprinter

7. Mark Spitz, American swimmer

6. Emil Zatopek, Czech distance runner

5. Birgit Fischer, German kayaker

4. Eric Heiden, American speedskater

3. Michael Phelps, American swimmer

2. Nadia Comaneci, Romanian gymnast

1. Carl Lewis, American sprinter.

The list was incredibly difficult. How does Al Oerter not make it, after winning the discus in four straight Olympiads? Or Bjorn Daehlie, the Norwegian cross-country skiier who won 12 medals, eight gold, in three Olympiads. Or Sonja Henie, as big an Olympic superstar as ever produced, with three straight golds in figure skating from 1928-36?

But the two Olympians I most regretted leaving off the list were Greg Louganis and Steve Redgrave.

Redgrave, a British rower, is the only athlete to win gold medals in five straight Olympiads, 1984-00. Ultimately, I left Redgrave off the list because his golds weren’t won in singles. He had partners and teammates en route to his golds.

No such indictment of Louganis, the great American diver. Diving offers two gold medals for each gender; Louganis swept both golds in 1984 and 1988. In 1976, Louganis won silver in the tower diving. And in 1980, Louganis was favored to win both, but the U.S. boycott negated his chance. That’s an impressive resume’. But in this discussion, you can’t give Louganis credit for what he might have done.

But a far tougher decision was who to pick No. 1. I went back and forth between the top three, and really I considered Heiden, too. The single most dominant athlete ever at an Olympiad clearly is not Phelps, but Heiden. He won five gold medals, all individual since speedskating has no relay, ranging in distance from 500 meters to 10,000 meters.

But the other three athletes won gold at multiple Olympiads, so Heiden was relegated to fourth.

At first, I had Phelps No. 1. I then decided Comaneci deserved it, because no athlete ever has been better than Nadia at Montreal, and no athlete has so transformed an Olympic sport. But as the day wore on, I settled on Lewis No. 1.

Phelps is beneficiary of some quirky swimming traditions. Mainly, multiple gold medals handed out in races in which swimmers are not allowed to go as fast as they can. The butterfly, the backstroke and the breaststroke really are just ways to hand out more medals. Track does not produce races in which runners are required to run backwards, but swimming gives out gold to backstrokers.

Anyway, Carl Lewis won the long jump in four straight Olympiads, which is a feat worthy of Al Oerter. But Lewis also won the 100 and 200 meters in the same Olympiad, 1984, the 100 in world record time, which is a feat worthy of Usain Bolt. Lewis also won the 100 in 1988 (courtesy of Ben Johnson’s doping transgression) and won two 400-meter relay gold medals.

Single-Olympiad excellence and multiple-Olympiad success. That’s the requirement, and that’s exactly what Lewis did. Of course, Phelps did, too. He won six golds in 2004 and eight in Beijing, so he belongs on Mount Olympics, too.

But I went with Lewis because the track golds are a little more legit than the swimming golds. And I put Nadia No. 2, ahead of Phelps, because despite the hype and frenzy accompanying Phelps, nothing could compare to the way Nadia transfixed the world in 1976. She also was great in 1980, winning two golds, though not the all-around, in a squishy decision.

Did I pick correctly? I don’t know. This was the toughest list to rank I’ve ever done.

In our Stoops @10 series, we’re running a story Friday on the stability of Bob Stoops’ staff. No assistant on Stoops’ staff has been fired. Few coaches can say that. University of Washington coach Tyrone Willingham certainly can’t.

Willingham fired Bob Simmons last December. Simmons will not be on the Husky staff that duels OU on Sept. 13. Simmons spent three years with Willingham in Seattle and three years on Willingham’s Notre Dame staff. Yet Simmons and defensive coordinator Kent Baer were made scapegoats after Washington’s 4-9 season in 2007.

Seattle media reported Simmons’ firing as unexpected. But Willingham’s move was not unique. Sacrificing assistants to appease disgruntled administrators and boosters is common in college football.

Simmons has not returned to college football and at age 59 might not.

Watching the Olympics the other night, something interesting struck me. This is a small, small world.

I was watching the women’s 100 meters or 200 meters or some track event, and the runners were being introduced, and like all Olympic races, they came from all over. And it hit me.

In 1976, I watched the Montreal Olympics on ABC and took in every telecast. Huge, huge fan. That Olympiad included two females from another hemisphere who competed at Montreal, and who now I know personally. Without so much as leaving the county.

Nadia Comaneci, you know about. I don’t claim to know Nadia well, but since her 1996 marriage to Bart Conner, I’ve gotten to know her a little. Bart, of course, is one of the all-time great people, a man of unsurpassed charm. If you know him, he makes you think you know him well. And Nadia is usually along for the ride. They make their home in Norman, and you can run into her at the dry cleaner or the grocery store.

I know Ukpe Mbong even better. Ukpe was a Nigerian sprinter who made the Olympic finals in the 200-meter dash. She placed seventh at Montreal. In 1982, she and her husband came to the U.S. for school, and they stayed and raised a family. I taught two of their four kids in Sunday School at Lakeside Church of God in Norman, and we still attend church together. I saw her Sunday.

The world is a small place, with big adventures. The Olympics prove that like no other event.

The emails are in, and this week, the talk is about Josh Jarboe, the Olympics, NBA ticket prices and the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.

Craig wrote, “I don’t think the $250 tickets will sell very well. I was shocked when I saw those prices. I am a business owner with expendable income and I will not pay $10K for each season ticket when I need six. The Hornets offered us a suite with 12 tickets for $35K. If I cannot get the seats I want, which is what I had with the Hornets, I am NOT going to purchase more expensive seats. Maybe other companies bigger than mine will snatch up all the $250 season tickets. Too rich for my blood.”

Hey, too rich for almost any blood that’s not very, very blue.

Jim questioned my use of the term “affordable prices” for the NBA team. “We sat in the suite level (with the Hornets) in the corner. Seats were approximately $50 per game. This year they are $75. That’s, what, a 50 percent increase? Multiply $25 times 41 games and that’s $1,000 and change per ticket more than last year. My mother in-law is having second thoughts about season tickets this year. And no, she won’t consider the upper deck. I pointed out that the end zone of the suite level is $45 each, but she wants back in the same spot.”

Well, I want to pay 30 cents an ear for corn. But Saturday at the farmer’s market, it was 50 cents an ear. So I either pay the 50 cents or eat potatoes. Supply and demand will determine whether the Not-the-Sonics have to cut prices.

It wouldn’t be a week of emails without some name-the-team correspondence. Don wrote, “My family and I have decided if Thunder is the name chosen for the OKC team, then we plan to open a new eatery … in the

Bricktown area. Beantown was the choice. The ad should get us

some business. “All you Thunder fans stop by Beantown on

your way to the game, and join us for a bowl of beans. Then,

throughout the game, we can all create some THUNDER!”

I would recommend a new advertising agency.

Sam wrote about Beijing. “Earlier this week I was surprised to find that I was NOT watching the Olympics on television. At first, I thought it was because I prefer the Winter Olympics. But last night, when it was announced that Michael Phelps had already won 11 gold medals, I laughed — then I realized: the Olympics have gone the way of major league baseball. I remember during the 1952, 1956 and 1960 Olympics, the official line was that if the U.S. won the majority of medals it was a vindication for our system - the Soviet athletes were paid by the government to train, their living expenses were also paid for. Our athletes, on the other hand, were private individuals, with no government financing or organizational patrons; they were like you and me, and most trained in their spare time. So our modern athletes are not like the American athletes of 50 years ago, they are like the Soviet athletes of 50 years ago. Pampered, wholly-subsidized freaks who will (after they appear as pitchmen for some commodity or another, then retire) teach a generation of pampered, wholly-subsidized freaks. They are a separate social class, not at all like you and me.

If I was guessing, I would say great athletes always have been unlike you and me.

Jim wrote that “I think it is silly, shameful (I really can’t think of the proper word) for the Olympics to use professional athletes. Baseball (some AAA players), basketball, tennis as examples. So why not use all professionals, like boxers, etc. I have no doubt that some amateur(?) athletes are being paid. A shame that in the past, some athletes lost their medals because they were amateur/professionals.”

Why is everyone worked up about this amateur/pro thing? Let everybody in, else you’re restricting many sports to the rich.

Jo wrote about Josh Jarboe transferring to Troy. “Was anything said as to why Jarboe went to Troy and why major school(s) didn’t go after him. You know he was a great kid with a fine reputation, according to Stoops and his high school coach. Wonder why?”

You’re trying to start something, but the answer is easy. The big boys didn’t touch him for the same reason OU dismissed him. Not worth the risk.

Others chimed in on my column about Bob Stoops’ web site containing video with violent lyrics. Sean wrote, “I highly doubt Stoops would get fired for bringing a gun to work. He’d be smart to, with all the insane OU fans that threaten firing or worse on the rare occasions that he loses.”

I still wouldn’t recommend it.

Larry wrote, “Most folks will probably think that you overreacted, but you highlighted a really important problem that most people simply aren’t aware of. Gangs are here in Oklahoma City, and they are having an increasing influence in our schools. The gangster rap lyrics you mention is one part of the gang culture.”

I’m not trying to play social cop. I just think what goes for a player should go for a coach.

Tyson wrote, “It’s encouraging to see media with morals. Please don’t take offense to that. I’m only 31, but I often feel like I’m at the tale end of the last generation with morals and work ethic.”

Again, I really wasn’t trying to get on a soapbox writing about the lyrics, I just thought it was interesting.

Scotty wrote, “Do you honestly believe Bob Stoops put that web site up? How long did you have to search to dig this up? It is obvious this is all about selling papers and getting your buddies at the Sports Animal to talk about it. It appears to be a weak attempt at keeping your name out there.”

Not only do I not believe that, I didn’t write that. I wrote that Stoops didn’t post the lyrics, didn’t OK them and no doubt wouldn’t understand them on first listen. Your letter, Scotty, was a weak attempt to defend an indefensible position.

Mike wrote about my Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame candidate list. “Hard to quibble, but I’d submit one name I think will deserve consideration. You had Jamal Williams on a list as a future possible inductee but no mention of Kelly Gregg. While Jamal has received a little more notoriety in the NFL, the stats comparison would suggest Kelly Gregg has been every bit the player. For his career, he’s averaged quite a few more tackles and has more sacks since both started being productive in the NFL in 2001. Add to that, Kelly Gregg is certainly one of, if not the, best heavyweight high school wrestlers in state history — and a model citizen. Just my two cents from a homer OU fan who continues to be amazed at the lack of respect Kelly Gregg gets in this state.”

Mike is right. Kelly Gregg is absolutely deserving of Hall of Fame status. I should have had him on the list. Mike is wrong about Gregg being the equal of Jamal Williams, but that doesn’t lessen Gregg’s candidacy.

Another Mike wrote, “Why is there never a discussion about Lester Lane? He was on the 1960 Olympic team. Was a star at OU and an excellent coach.”

Lane is a solid candidate. Jerry Shipp made the Hall of Fame last year for his AAU and Olympic basketball exploits; I don’t know why Lane would be any different.

We kicked off our Bob Stoops-at-10 series today, and I wrote about Stoops’ place in OU history. For the visual element, artist Steve Boaldin drew a Mount Rushmore edition of Sooner coaches.

The only discussion we had: Should Bennie Owen join Stoops, Bud Wilkinson and Barry Switzer on the list? The answer was, absolutely.

Brent Clark is an OU football historian. He wrote the Sooner Century book and a Joe Don Looney biography. Ask Clark who the greatest coach in OU history is, and he’ll answer Bennie Owen. Every time.

Owen coached in the days before national championships — at least before the AP poll brought the most elementary legitimacy to the process — but truth is, none of Owen’s OU teams were national-title caliber. Most were very good and some were great, but they weren’t Army/Navy/Ivy League/Notre Dame/Big Ten status.

Owen was great for another reason. He made football important at OU. When Owen became coach at OU in 1905, football had been played 10 years on campus, and the students loved it. But under Owen, OU football became a public entity. Not the statewide institution that Wilkinson made the Sooners in the late 1940s, but Owen made OU football appealing to fans in Norman and Oklahoma City and the surrounding areas.

Owen formed an athletic department, and he started the drive for a new stadium, which finally opened in 1925, his next-to-last year as coach, and remains the foundation for what is now the glittering coliseum on Jenkins Avenue. Sooners for almost 100 years have played on Owen Field, and the real estate is most adequately named.

Owen could coach a little, too. He pioneered the forward pass in this part of the country, he fostered rivalries with Oklahoma A&M and Texas, he won 122 games, which allows OU to lay claim, as soon as Stoops gets his third win this season, as America’s only school with four 100-win coaches.

Owen gave OU football a tradition from which to launch the glory that was to come.

In 2003, I interviewed Dale Arbuckle, who that year turned 100 and had played for Owen in the 1920s. Here’s what he said about Owen: “He was very quiet. Very thought-provoking, as well as systematic. Was not as critical as coaches usually are. He was more like your father.”

In some ways, Owen was like a father to every Sooner fan. The father of OU football.

Saturday morning is my favorite time of the week. April through August (and later if football cooperates), I try to hit the Farmer’s Market at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds.

The rewards are many. The market is not a flea market, like you hit some places. This is a real farmer’s market. Table after table of tomatoes and peppers and corn and onions and okra and green beans. I always come home with arms full of fresh-grown vegetables, then try to talk my wife or my mom or someone into cooking it, although I’ve been experimenting with the peppers.

I also love the market because my granddaughter likes to go. My daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter are living with us while my son-in-law is deployed in Iraq. This morning, Rileybird got up early, so I sent her mom back to bed, grabbed some yogurt and we set out. She ate her yogurt on the front porch in what might be the greatest weather morning in Oklahoma history. It was about 62 degrees, a tiny mist, and mid-August. Stunning.

Then we hopped in the Mazda, picked up my mom and went to the market. Rileybird likes to see the horses, because the fairgrounds often has a horse show brewing on Saturday morning. No such luck today. But she has a high time walking around and talking to anyone who will talk back and seeing the dogs and the strollers and dancing and sticking her face in front of the huge electric fans that cool off the indoor portion of the market.

My other favorite part of the market is seeing people I don’t always get to see. Last week was rich. I saw all kinds of people, notably Sid and Jan Burton. Jan Burton worked many years in the OU athletic department as an editor of their publications, then she worked at the Norman Transcript in my last years there. Jan is one of the most passionate people I’ve ever known; crazy about her family and her friends and Barry Switzer and the Cubs. About in that order. Jan is one of the all-time great literary editors; she keeps me straight via email on grammar and such things. Attitude, too.

This week, we got to see an aunt I hadn’t seen in awhile, and for a bonus, I ran into Robert Griswold, one of my history professors at OU. Professor Griswold taught Women in Modern America, a thoroughly fascinating class, which frankly, most of my classes were. I was a double major, English and history, and I can count on one hand the number of boring history or English classes I had.

But Professor Griswold was great because he was a sports fan, which meant we had a connection. Excluding two classes I took the summer I graduated high school, I didn’t start at OU until I was 26. I was already writing for the Norman Transcript, so I got to know many of my professors on non-academic levels.

Professor Griswold was a big soccer fan — his daughter played — and he played tennis and was just a sports fan in general. He went to Iowa undergrad and got his Ph.D. from Stanford. And the story I’ll always remember is from the 1989 Final Four. That’s the spring I took his class, and he told us the story of the Seton Hall-Michigan final. Griswold taped the game on his VCR (remember those?) because he had a class or something, then went home and started watching. He got to the end of the game — remember, that’s the game that went overtime — and his tape ran out. He didn’t get to see Rumeal Robinson’s foul shots that won the NCAA title.

When the OSU crowd claims I’m an OU homer because I went to school there, I laugh at them inside. Yes, I have a soft spot in my heart for OU. But it has nothing to do with Bob Stoops or Billy Tubbs or Barry Switzer. It has everything to do with James Yoch and William Savage and Professor Goldsmith and a bunch of great teachers. Including Robert Griswold.

With season-ticket prices ranging as low as $10 per game, it’s easy to say that Oklahoma City’s NBA franchise is making this season affordable for most every fan. With the really good seats going as high as $150 and $250, it’s also easy to say that the NBA remains a rich-fan’s league.

The truth is, it’s both. OKC, like much of the NBA, is soaking the big spenders. The franchise doesn’t even reveal the price of the best seats, the NIcholson seats at courtside where fans literally can — and occasionally do — reach out and touch the players. It’s one of those if-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it prices. Best guess from the Hornets’ days: $999 a game.

But move off the court some, and the prices don’t seem kooky high. Almost all of the upper deck is priced at $10, $15 or $20, which isn’t bad at all. Check out the prices at movie theaters; I promise the NBA offers better entertainment.

The pricing seems like a sure winner in these heady times of NBA euphoria. The Not-the-Sonics will play before a packed house every night. How long that will last will be determined by several factors. Team success, the organization’s ability to duplicate or even surpass the Hornets’ entertainment quality and the economy.

But that will be then. This is now, and now, the ticket prices seem solid.

When Josh Jarboe was dismissed from the OU football team, I speculated that he might end up at a place like Houston or Troy. And indeed, Jarboe is headed to Troy. I figured a school like Georgia or Tennessee wouldn’t welcome Jarboe, either.

But why? That’s a question that will make you think. It certainly makes me think.

Why is a place like Troy considered a halfway house for troubled athletes? Why is Bob Stoops taking a big risk by putting Jarboe (and his gun conviction) on scholarship, but Troy coach Larry Blakeney isn’t? If Jarboe gets in further trouble, why does Blakeney get a pass, but if Jarboe had encountered further hot water at Tennessee, Phil Fulmer would have been roasted?

A place like Oklahoma or Tennessee comes under a great deal more scrutiny than a place like Troy. To whom much is given, much is expected.  And schools like Troy have to take a chance on a background like Jarboe if it ever wants to suit up a talent like Jarboe.

It’s becoming clear that we — media, fans, players/coaches – don’t have our arms around this Internet business. This is the summer of Internet scandal for OU football.

Some yahoo in Austin posts a fictitious story about Sam Bradford and Landry Jones. Someone posts Josh Jarboe’s rap video that mocks his gun conviction from a few months earlier. OU’s bobstoops.com accompanies some highlight videos with lyrics touting guns and drugs.

A few things we need to remember and learn about the Internet:

1. What happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet. Everyone is quick to pull stuff off the world wide web, but it stays somewhere in cyberspace. I just pulled up Jarboe’s rap from more than two weeks ago. The web is as permanent as a newspaper.

2. The Internet is the primary information source for young people, which is problematic. The Internet is full of amazing information, but it’s also full of deceit, which explains why some people believe Barack Obama won’t put his hand over his heart for the Pledge of Allegiance. Young people don’t have the filter of traditional news sources, which aren’t always pristine but provide an excellent counter to the wave of stuff on the Internet.

3. Things don’t happen in a vacuum. If Josh Jarboe did not have the gun conviction, his rap video would have been labeled silly but relatively harmless. When it reached the OU fan base and became widely viewed, Jarboe might have run stadium steps until he puked, but that would have been about it. If Josh Jarboe did not have the gun conviction, no one would have dug into bobstoops.com and figured out the lyrics of the highlight videos, and if they had, everyone would have shrugged. That’s just what kids listen to. But Jarboe did have the gun conviction, so his rap video and Stoops’ highlight videos don’t live on an island.

I know less about the Internet than anyone. I just know what I need to know to get around, to post what I’m supposed to post and to find what I need to find. For us old codgers, we need to realize the world has changed. But the web masters must realize that the freedom provided by the Internet comes with responsibility, and if not responsibility, consequences.

This week’s emails are heavy on Ole Miss. Seems I bounced the University of Texas a couple of weeks back for not scheduling any powerhouses. I pointed out that in 2012 and 2013, UT’s best non-conference foe is Mississippi, which hasn’t been a power in 40 years and, I pointed out, won’t be in 2012 or 2013. Ole Miss fans started passing around my column and is shocked - shocked! - that someone would question their college football pedigree.

Larry wrote, “I just read your joke of a column about cupcakes. A tornado must have dropped a house on your head and caused you to lose your memory. Let me help you out: the last time Oklahoma played Ole Miss, they got their (butt) whipped. In fact, it was the first college game completed in the year 2000. Maybe you should try doing something else for a living.”

This is going to be fun. Fun and easy. Sometimes, even people who are wrong at least have a point. Mississippi fans have no point. Their program stinks. Ole Miss Fact No. 1: The Rebels’ last SEC title came in 1963. And yes, Ole Miss beat OU in the 1999 Independence Bowl, which ended an hour before Y2K and was not contested even in the early minutes of 2000.Mike wrote, “I nearly choked on my coffee when I read your remarks in regard to Texas’ football schedule over the next few years listing Ole Miss as one of their ‘cupcake’ opponents. Not being a regular reader of your column or listener to your radio show, I don’t know how long you have been in the sports commentary business. Obviously, not long enough, however. We have been national champs more than any team in the Big 12 other than Oklahoma and Texas. We are a respected and charter member of the Southeastern Conference. I might also remind you that Mississippi’s last bowl appearance was five years ago when we whipped your Big 12 member Oklahoma State. Prior to that, we defeated both Oklahoma and Nebraska in the Independence Bowl. Granted, our record in the last 3-4 years would not demand much respect, but most people who follow Division I football don’t just look at the most recent years in considering a program. Anyone looking at Nebraska’s last couple of seasons and not considering anything else would not give them much respect, and we all know that they will be back.”

Mississippi fans can’t read. What else can be deduced? I never said Ole Miss was a cupcake, although that’s exactly what Ole Miss has been the last four years. I said it’s not a power, and it’s not; hasn’t been since the SEC integrated. As for Ole Miss national titles, Ole Miss counts three of those fraudulent titles from computer rankings. AP and the coaches? Zero. Ole Miss fact No. 2: Since 1971, Mississippi has been in 11 bowls. Five of those have been the Independence Bowl. Ole Miss fact No. 3: The Rebels are 14-32 the last four years.Kevin wrote, “You might want to check and see what happened to OU the last time they played Ole Miss. I’m an Ole Miss fan, of course, and agree with the premise of your article, but I’ll bet you a steak dinner we win one of those games against Texas. Us being a power is unlikely, but a top 25 program by then is a strong possibility. Watch the Rebs this year and take them and the points early. The secret will be out pretty quick and you’ll see the Rebs giving up points to teams like Bama, Ark and South Carolina. We just might see the Sooners at the end of the year somewhere.”

Of course Ole Miss will see the Sooners at the end of the year. They will see OU in a January bowl game while the Rebels are sitting home. Ole Miss fact No. 4: Last top-10 finish? Eighth in the 1969 AP poll. Ole Miss fact No. 5: The Rebels have won at least 10 games once since 1971. Ole Miss fact No. 6: Rebels never have won more than 10 games in a season.Enough nonsense about a program that was good when Minnesota and Army were good. Pete is one of those OU fans who just likes to talk Sooner football. “I just wanted to get your view on the Sooner defense this year. Will we be more aggressive instead of laying back in the soft zone and let the hurry-up/spread offenses that are starting to proliferate the college football landscape nickel and dime us down the field? Do we have the personnel to play man on the outside? Is the D-line capable of getting pressure without the blitz? How do the safeties look? Do we have a Roy Williams, Brandon Everage, Scott Case with fire and motivation? My view is that we have had enough offense to compete effectively, but all of our loses have been when we have given up too many points or been unable to get a stop at a critical point in the game.”

I think we’re seeing something pretty rare at OU. I think Brent Venables is under more scrutiny than Kevin Wilson, and hardly ever do you see a defensive coordinator more under the microscope than the offensive coordinator. Venables’ defense has been just fine; it completely snookered Missouri in the Big 12 title game. And yes, West Virginia ran wild in the Fiesta Bowl, but it wasn’t because of lack of aggression. The Sooners just couldn’t catch quarterback Pat White. And no, OU doesn’t have another Roy Williams. And neither does anyone else.And it’s not a week unless we’re debating the Oklahoma City NBA team name. Thomas wrote, “The bullfrog is our state amphibian. I wish I’d known of this before now, because I know it’s getting late, but you gotta let Mr. Bennett know. Bullfrogs is so much better than Thunder. I’m just saying. I’m sure it’s too late and we can’t really do anything about it, but it just makes sense.”

Well, I think Bullfrogs is goofy. But remember when Express Sports, which owns the Blazers, was going to bring in an arena2 football team and call it the Bullfrogs? They backed off when the Arena Football League wanted to come in, but they were sold on Bullfrogs.Phil wants to know, “how do you get a suggestion in the mill for consideration of the new name for the Sonics? My suggestion is to consider: the Naturals. This name can be worked to relate the club to Oklahoma and its environment and to a wide array of other applications. I recognize this comes from a movie with Robert Redford as the star. This may have more positive effects than negative.”

I guess it’s better than the Sundance Kids.Keith wrote, “Copperheads. Has real sssssssssssizzle, doesn’t it?”

I’ve heard worse.