He Just Couldn’t Help Falling for Elvis

With Elvis Presley’s early career being featured on television this week, former UCLA running back and defensive back Mitch Dimkich recalled playing in a touch football game against him at Beverly Glen Park in 1960.

Dimkich, then a sophomore, said a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity brother who knew Ricky Nelson recruited him and a few other members of the Bruin football team to play for Nelson’s team against Elvis’ team, which included several of his bodyguards.

Dimkich said Elvis was a good athlete and did most of the ballcarrying for his team.

“The game got a little physical, and at one point I tackled Elvis,” he said. “I wrapped him up pretty good. As we hit the ground, I thought, ‘Boy, I bet there are a lot of girls who would like to be in my position right now.’ ”

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Trivia time: What do former UCLA football coaches Tommy Prothro (1965-70) and Bill Barnes (1958-64) have in common with Elvis?

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Another Elvis story: According to Fred Mitchell of the Chicago Tribune, the late Harry Caray used to tell about the time Elvis called Caray in his hotel room when he was in Memphis to announce a St. Louis Hawk basketball game in the early 1960s.

The way the story went, Caray didn’t believe it was Elvis, so the caller said, “Be in front of the hotel in 10 minutes.”

Caray then went downstairs and, sure enough, up rode Elvis in a Cadillac to take Caray to his mansion.

“We wound up eating ribs and drinking Budweiser and shooting the bull until the wee hours,” Mitchell quotes Caray as saying.

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Making “A” point: Reader Larry Yells of Hermosa Beach says, “Since George Steinbrenner has an overrated third baseman named A-Rod, I find it only fitting that he rename his overrated Kentucky Derby entry A-Dud.”

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Tuned in: Ken Rudulph, an anchor for the horse racing network TVG, touted Giacomo on the air to win the Kentucky Derby. For one thing, Rudulph, who plays in a band, liked that Giacomo is owned by recording industry heavyweight Jerry Moss. Rudulph put his money where his mouth was and bet $25 on Giacomo to win.

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Looking back: On this day in 1963, the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax pitched the second of his four no-hitters, an 8-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants.

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Trivia answer: They all went to high school in Memphis. Presley was a 1953 graduate of Humes High. Prothro, who died May 14, 1995, at 74, and Barnes, at 87 a regular at Riviera Country Club, went to Central High.

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And finally: The Memphis Grizzlies’ Jason Williams was fined $10,000 by the NBA last week for improper conduct. Williams twice grabbed a pen out of the hand of Geoff Calkins, a columnist for the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Williams also screamed at the writer, “Where do you live?”

Steve Aschburner of AOL Sports suggests, “A more pressing question for J-Will soon might be, ‘Where do you play?’ ”

Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].