31.   He recognizes his position, his place in sports history, a man who has played professional football and baseball and has excelled at both sports.

32.   He still is biggest disappointment in professional sports history.

33.   How different the last few years of New England sports history might have been if Mamula had opted for the Granite State rather than Chestnut Hill.

34.   I sometimes think swimming is an inch on the yardstick of sports history.

35.   I needed to watch Venus Williams play her quarterfinal singles match, in a different part of town, down a different path in sports history.

36.   If it comes to a strike, the WNBA will either grow up or grow cold in the ash heap of sports history.

37.   I will not soon forget my hockey season glimpses at the most distinctive, most prehistoric bare pate in New York sports history.

38.   If that happened, it would be the most damning indictment of industry management in pro sports history.

39.   In fact, Klotz has the informal title of all-time-losingest coach in sports history.

40.   In what may amount to perhaps the largest press conference in modern sports history, the incomparable star of the Chicago Bulls makes his retirement official to the world.