1974 Year

When he died last month at 92, Democrat Robert C. Byrd was the last serving member of the Senate born before 1920. The man named Friday to replace him will become the first U.S. senator born in the 1970s. Carte Goodwin, 36, was appointed by West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III to serve until a special election this November decides who will hold the seat. Goodwin, the former chief legal counsel to the Democratic governor, gives Democrats in the Senate a crucial 59th vote just as they prepare to push for passage of a key priority, an extension of unemployment benefits.

During 16 years at Loyola High School, Father Jerold Lindner was admired as an energetic teacher exceptionally devoted to his students. Superiors lauded him as the model of "a Christian educator." A colleague in the English department nominated him as "chairman for life." Others outside the school say they knew a different Lindner.

Lisa Tully's season hasn't been perfect. If it had been, she never would have gotten off to that slow start. And she wouldn't have gone into a little slump during the Canyon tournament. But her year still can have a storybook ending when the final chapter of Mater Dei's season is written tonight. The Monarchs are playing for the Southern Section Division I championship against Marina at Mayfair Park in Lakewood. Marina is trying to win a record fifth major division championship.

A founder of Championship Auto Racing Teams, Dan Gurney co-founded the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in 1974. This year will be different for the patriarch of All American Racers. This year, the Santa Ana race shop owner won't be in Sunday's main event. But even though Gurney couldn't secure sponsorship for a CART Champ Car team for the 2000 season, he will be connected to a race this weekend--the Toyota Atlantic Series on Saturday.

The Dana Hills High School surf team, by its members' own measure, has been pretty awesome since 1974, the year the Dana Point school opened its doors and its surf program began. But this past spring, the surfing Dolphins "totally shredded," taking first place in the California Interscholastic Surfing Federation's state championships at Oceanside.

The harbor freeway, 2 o'clock on a saturday afternoon, and I'm driving home from LAX after having collected a friend from New York, and suddenly she is shrieking, "God, that's wonderful." I look around wildly. What in L.A. could provoke a New Yorker to such an outburst? A scream alone I could understand; the "wonderful" I couldn't get a fix on. Might she have been struck as I was by the thrill of driving in a new carpool lane for the first time?

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, an obstetrician who was a leading champion of the abortion rights movement until he switched sides and vaulted to prominence as the narrator of the grisly anti-abortion film "The Silent Scream," died Monday at his New York City home. He was 84. The cause was cancer, said his wife, Christine. FOR THE RECORD: Bernard Nathanson: The obituary in the Feb. 23 LATExtra section of Dr. Bernard Nathanson, the former abortion supporter who narrated the controversial anti-abortion film "The Silent Scream," said that he left his position at St. Luke's Hospital in New York in 1978.

In a foregone conclusion, Woody Stephens sent his last two horses to another barn at Belmont Park last week, ending a 61-year career as a trainer. Stephens, 84, unofficially announced his exit from the game in June, a few days before the Belmont Stakes. Stephens hadn't started a horse in the Belmont in a decade, but as long as he was around it was de rigueur to stop by.

In 1974 -- the year Renata Kanclerz and Lisa Coleman's Hollywood Hills kitchen was previously remodeled -- dark plywood cabinets, butcher-block counters and red brick backsplashes were considered cutting edge. Three decades later, however, those materials were too old to be hip and too young to be historic.

What a homecoming they might have at San Diego High this year. San Diego's football team is 4-0. The last time the Cavemen had this kind of a start, Elvis Presley had four top-10 hits. The alumni have been waiting 32 years for a season like this. It was 1959, and the homecoming crowds at Balboa Stadium were anywhere from 15,000 to 28,000. Back then, the alumni didn't miss a game. San Diego football games were a big attraction for the entire city.