Pro Day Risers and Sliders - CNNSI
...Risers
Chauncey Washington, RB, USC...
...the star of USC's pro-day...Washington's performance solidified him as a top-75 pick and there's a good chance he could break into the second round.

Keith Rivers, OLB, USC
...every bit the part of being a top 10 choice...looked terrific in position drills...

...Sliders...
...Sam Baker, OL, USC
...looked slow and sluggish during pro-day...he has little opportunity to play tackle in the NFL...

...Chilo Rachal, G, USC
...looked stiff, unathletic and out of shape...

Laurinaitis, Maualuga highlight candidates for Lombardi Award - Lindy's Sports
The preseason Rotary Lombardi Award list is out and 54 players are among those on the watch list...

...The Rotary Lombardi Award goes annually to the college football lineman -- offense or defense -- who...best exemplifies the discipline of Vince Lombardi.

Eligibility for the Rotary Lombardi Award is limited to down linemen and those defensive players who line up within five yards of the football. The candidates earned a place on the preliminary watch list by earning All-American honors or by being named to their respective all-conference first team as selected by the conference's head coaches.

The preliminary watch list for the upcoming 2008 season are as follows:...Rey Maualuga, LB, Southern California...

Agent Guy McElwaine dies at 71 - Variety
Guy McElwaine, long one of Hollywood's top agents and studio execs, died Wednesday in Los Angeles...He was 71.

McElwaine was a founding partner of International Creative Management and served as a VP of production at Warner Bros., president of Columbia Pictures and, most recently, as prexy of Morgan Creek Productions...

...McElwaine was an L.A. native who attended USC and played baseball professionally out of college. He began his showbiz career as a manager and publicist, working with clients such as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Warren Beatty, The Righteous Brothers and The Mamas and the Papas...

OBITUARY: Tennis player ranked among best in world - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
There was no mistaking Roger Knapp's tennis prowess. By the age of 6, he had already claimed victory in the 10-and-under division of a city championship while growing up in Des Moines, Iowa.

Knapp, 48, who suffered a fatal heart attack Sunday, was a high school and college tennis standout who went on to become one of the top 150 players worldwide by 1985. That same year he beat one of the top 10 players, Henri Leconte, at a tournament in Bristol, England.

After leaving the pro tour the following year, Knapp coached at his alma mater, the University of Southern California, and later at Drake University in Des Moines, where he helped the tennis team reach the NCAA tournament in 1992 for the first time in the school's history.

"That was a monumental achievement," said a friend...