She’s Too Old to Make Name for Herself

A female boxer in Massachusetts, who won a sex discrimination case against two boxing federations, can’t take advantage of the ruling. She is too old to compete.

She is 36, four years older than the maximum age allowed for amateur fighters by USA Boxing and AIBA, the International Amateur Boxing Assn.

That’s a pity, because boxing loses one its greatest names: Gail Grandchamp.

Add boxer: Grandchamp, who argued her case in court, said she was attempting to organize a group of women to apply for amateur licenses.

It has been a long legal fight for Grandchamp, whose November, 1984, application to the New England federation for an amateur boxing license was denied.

Trivia time: What do Hugh McElhenny, Lynn Swann, Bobby Bonds and James Lofton have in common?

Too nice: Mike Monroe of the Denver Post suggests that the Nuggets fired coach Paul Westhead mainly because he’s too nice a man.

“An NBA bench is no place for gentility,” Monroe writes. “Westhead’s discourse during timeouts too often sounds like that of an English professor explaining the subtleties of the Shakespearean sonnet.

“Four-letter invective works better, but when Westhead curses it sounds forced. Players who mumble and grumble about coaching decisions need to be dealt with strongly and immediately.”

It’s all over: Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle predicts that the Utah Jazz will sweep the Clippers in their best-of-five NBA playoff series that begins tonight in Salt Lake City.

“It’s suddenly very cool to like the Clippers, to rave about the genius of Larry Brown, to call this team the ‘sleeper’ in the playoffs,” Jenkins writes.

“The Clippers had to improve under Brown. They’d never had a coach with such presence or command. Get off the bandwagon and take a hard look:

“They still have Gary Grant in the backcourt. Doc Rivers has never been a winner. Buffed-out Ken Norman remains his own biggest fan. And Ron Harper, despite his Ervingesque talent, will only break your heart in the end.”

Add playoffs: Jenkins praises the Lakers’ character in making the playoffs, but dismisses them by saying Portland will win in four games.

Makes sense: An excerpt from “The Comedy Quote Dictionary,” compiled by Ronald L. Smith:

George Carlin: “In boxing they have the ‘undisputed heavyweight champion.’ Well, if it’s undisputed, what’s all the fighting about?”

End of an era: The news that King owner Bruce McNall, along with Laker owner Jerry Buss, is exploring the possibility of building a new arena to replace the 25-year-old Forum raises questions.

Will the new building be called “Fabulous Forum II,” and will pieces of the demolished structure be sent to Jack Kent Cooke, who built the original Forum, as a memento?

The Coliseum, which was built in 1923, still stands and renovations reportedly have been indefinitely delayed.

Get smart: “You should understand there’s a difference between ‘smart’ and ‘smart for an athlete,’ ” Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post writes. “ ‘Smart for an athlete’ refers to athletes who know that ‘Hamlet’ wasn’t written for Mel Gibson.”

Trivia answer: They were all California State high school long jump champions, and McElhenny also won the high hurdles.

Quotebook: Milwaukee Brewer announcer Bob Uecker, a career .200 hitter, on modern baseball salaries: “If I was playing today, I’d be a million-dollar player. Is that scary, or what?”