Bobsledder breakout big news

Maybe he pushed when he should have pulled.

Johnny Quinn might not win a medal at the Sochi Olympics,but the American bobsledder has already made his mark a few days into the winter games.

Quinn, a 30-year-old from McKinney, Texas, found himself stuck in the bathroom of his room atthe Olympic Village in Sochi, Russia, on Saturday. The door was jammed, he had no phone and, according to the Twitter account of teammate Dallas Robinson, Quinn was “barefoot, naked and alone.”

So what did Quinn do? In a move that would make Jack Nicholson proud, Quinn broke a giant hole through the door (which, according to a photo on Quinn’s Twitter, was designed to open inward) so he could climb through, Kool-Aid Man-style. Oh, yeah.

“With no phone to call for help, I used my bobsled push training to break out. #SochiJailBreak,” Quinn tweeted on Saturday. His Twitter post garnered at least 26,000 retweets and gained the former NFL and Canadian Football League wide receiver 11,000 followers.

In an interview later that morning with ABC’s Good Morning America, Quinn then explained how he handled the mangled door.

“Once I got out of there, I put a towel on, I look back at the door and was like, ‘Oh, man, there’s a giant hole. I might get in trouble for this,’” Quinn said. “So I went down there and immediately contacted the USOC and followed our protocol. … They came in right that evening and got us a new door.”

Maybe a nice curtain would work better.

Unwelcoming gesture

The Oregon basketball team traveled to Arizona State on Saturday and lost a Pacific-12conference game 74-72. Apparently, one Sun Devils fan was still upset despite his team coming away with a victory.

Two university police officers followed Oregon into their locker room after the game to investigate what fans said was an Arizona State student spitting on an Oregon assistant coach and trainer.

Oregon assistant coach Brian Fish told The Oregonian that he and trainer Clay Jameison were the recipients of the gesture, and that it also happened at halftime.

At Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Ariz., the visiting team’s locker room is accessed from the court by walking through a tunnel that is flanked by sections of student seating.

Oregon officials declined to press charges.

“Say what you want to us, but don’t spit on us,” Fish told The Oregonian. “I didn’t want any charges, just for [the student] to be scared [witless]. We all deserve second chances, he’s a college kid.

But that was completely uncalled for.”In this corner …

It is said that coaches will do just about anything to land a top recruit. Nebraska’s Bo Pelini almost let one of his signees beat him up recently.

Pelini was visiting offensive lineman Tanner Farmer in his home in Highland, Ill., recently when the two got to talking about wrestling.

Pelini was never a wrestler, having played defensive back at Ohio State before going into coaching.

Farmer, however, still is at his Illinois high school. As the story was told in the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, Pelini joked to Farmer during a visit that he couldn’t take the coach down.

Farmer’s father then told him “If he wants to go, go.”

Then Farmer, all 6-4, 315 pounds of him, got Pelini in a hold and lifted him in the air. The recruit then turned wise, though, AND instead of slamming his new coach to the ground, he set him down and the two hugged.

“It was a cool moment,” said Brian Farmer, Tanner’s father.

Quote

of the day

“She didn’t finish anything from 5 feet today and that was tough on her.” Arkansas women’s Coach Tom Collen on freshman Jessica

Jackson, who was held to eight points in the

Razorbacks’ 67-49 loss at South Carolina on Sunday afternoon

Sports, Pages 14 on 02/10/2014