Heads and tales: Being Bobby Bowden

Orange you glad I didn’t say Bowden?: Tonight’s Orange Bowl features two ol’ salts for coaches: Penn State’s JoePa and Florida State’s Bobby Bowden. Born in Birmingham, Bowden played at Woodlawn High School, Alabama and Howard College (now Samford University). Both he and rival Joe Paterno share much in common, prompting Bowden to observe, “There’s a lot of similarities with what we’ve done. About the only difference between us is he’s a … Yankee.” The game airs at 7 on ABC 33/40. Or just download the game for two bucks Wednesday on iTunes.
• More Than Age Binds Paterno and Bowden [New York Times]

Murder, y’all: The final toll for Birmingham homicides in 2005: 105. That’s compared to 64 in 2004, and 108 in 1997. The most glaring insult: 43 remain unsolved. Among the open cases are three teenagers, Rodriquez Lovejoy, Lemane Edwards and Jeffrey Reynolds. In Shelby County, only one of the six homicides from '05 remains unsolved.
• 43 slayings unsolved in city this year [Birmingham News]

Wednesday bloody Wednesday: Hoist a pint for others. The 20th annual Alabama’s Biggest Blood Drive takes place Wednesday at the Wynfrey Hotel at the Riverchase Galleria. Supplies can be low during the winter, so step forward and roll up your sleeve, either one. It runs from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• 20th Annual ‘Alabama’s Biggest Blood Drive’ [NBC 13]

Also:

• Bessemer family competes to log most hours not exercising
• New sticker features Calvin peeing on blue dot
• So far, black-eyed peas fail to deliver lucky or lucrative 2006

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Posted: Tuesday, January 3, 2006, 7:19 pm, in Headlines.
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