The story often has been told about how the pronunciation of Joe Theismann's last name was changed to rhyme with Heisman before his senior season at Notre Dame in 1970. The way the story goes, his name was originally pronounced \o7Theez\f7-man.
But that's not exactly correct, according to what the former quarterback told The Times' Jerry Crowe at the ESPYs celebrity golf tournament at Industry Hills this month.
Theismann said that before he gave approval to the pronunciation change, he had to run it past his family.
So, he said, "I called my grandmother, who was kind of the patron saint of the family, and I said, 'Granny, look, they're thinking about changing the pronunciation of my last name from \o7Theez\f7-mann to \o7Thighs\f7-mann ... and she said, in her very hard German accent, 'Vel, I think it's OK. Actually, the correct pronunciation is \o7Tice\f7-mann, so it's a lot closer and that's fine.' "
Trivia time
Theismann finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1970. Who was the West Coast quarterback who won the award?
NFL rookie gets put in his place
After a successful four-year stint in Canada, Theismann hooked on with the Washington Redskins in 1974, where he had to compete against two veteran quarterbacks, Billy Kilmer and Sonny Jurgensen.
Kilmer, the former UCLA quarterback who now lives in Coral Springs, Fla., remembers Theismann having a good outing in the second or third exhibition game.
"The next day, I pick up the paper and read where he's saying, 'I'm going to put those two old men on the bench.' So I call Sonny to see what he has to say about that, and Sonny says, 'We'll have him catching punts before the end of the year.' And we did."
Job security
Don't look for the Dallas Cowboys to be unloading Terrell Owens any time soon, at least if team owner Jerry Jones is to be believed.
"I interviewed 11 people after Bill Parcells left -- 11 who wanted to coach the Dallas Cowboys," Jones told Craig Shemon and James Washington on Fox Sports radio. "To the man, there wasn't one of them that didn't quickly ask, 'Now we're going to keep T.O., aren't we?' "
Nuptial news
Boxer Laila Ali, the 29-year-old daughter of Muhammad Ali, and Curtis Conway, 36, a former USC and NFL wide receiver, were married in Los Angeles on July 23.
Wrote Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: "No truth to the rumor she ditched the traditional prenuptial rehearsal dinner and replaced it with a weigh-in."
