Curling brings out the cool side of Las Vegas

Curling is a cool game — it often is called "chess on ice" — and it's on TV real late at night during the Olympics, and I have seen calendars featuring some of these women's curlers. Those are ... um ... pretty interesting, too.

But after picking up Friday's edition of "The Morning Cup," the official house organ of the World Financial Group Continental Cup, I think I finally may have discovered why curling packs them into Orleans Arena in the manner of Brigham Young vs. Gonzaga at the West Coast Conference basketball tournament.

On the bottom of the front page was a box with the day's schedule, and a photo of a curling fan clad in red, white and blue.

The headline said it was 3 degrees in Bemidji, Minnesota. And that Lynn Baird, whom I assume is from Bemidji, did not care, because she was in Las Vegas watching curling.

Men and women were curling the rock; other men and women were madly sweeping the ice in front of it, to make the rock curl less. The women wore stretch pants, which I believe makes it easier to curl the rock, and also makes curling calendars more popular among male fans.

Team North America beat Team World 6-4 in the women's match that curling fans seemed to be following most — it was Team Canada skip Jennifer Jones, the reigning Olympic champion, vs. Switzerland's Alina Patz in a rematch of last year's gold medal match at the world championships.

The Swiss missus won that one. I think this is why cowbells were rung and giant Canadian flags were waved and Tim Hortons doughnuts were raised in jubilant salute after Team North America prevailed Friday.

Afterward, Jennifer Jones told me there are 20 curling clubs in Winnipeg, where she is from, and that all the prairie towns in Manitoba have curling clubs, too.

She didn't mention the weather back home. When I started writing, it was minus-4 degrees at 3 p.m. at the international airport up there, and that was Fahrenheit, not Celsius.

Vegas rocks

Did you know you can curl the rock in Las Vegas?

The Las Vegas Curling Club — "Where Saints and Sinners Curl Like Winners" — was formed in 2011. Colorfully named teams such as Read 'em and Sweep, Curls Gone Wild and Sheet Out of Luck compete Sunday nights at rude hours at the Las Vegas Ice Center, where hockey players leave ruts in the ice.

It's a less-than-ideal situation, so the local curlers are seeking funding to build their own arena. Estimated cost: $3 million, plus whatever the rocks and the brooms cost, and a couple of six-packs of Molson Export.

Tecmo gizmo

Last week before the NCAA championship game, it was announced that former UNLV star Randall Cunningham would be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

If there was a Tecmo Bowl Hall of Fame, Cunningham would have been inducted a generation ago, on the first ballot. Tecmo Bowl was the first video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It featured "real" NFL players, the best of which would run in diagonal patterns toward the end zone.

The game sprite known to players as "QB Eagles" — Cunningham wasn't a member of the players association when the game came out, so his name couldn't be used — is considered the best quarterback in Tecmo Bowl history. As many of you know, Bo Jackson was the best Tecmo Bowl player, ever.

His ratings are based on his 1990 season with the Eagles, during which Cunningham was more unstoppable than Ms. Pac Man after skipping dinner.

There's a YouTube video showing "QB Eagles" running toward the end zone in diagonal patterns against 8-bit New England, leading Tecmo Bowl Philly to a rousing 83-0 victory. "QB Eagles" stats: 7 rushes, 593 digital yards, two completions to Mike Quick for 93 digital yards.

This was before the Bill Belichick sprite took over the NES Patriots and put in the Super Mario Bros. defense.

"He would want you to know …"

It was Tuesday morning when the phone rang at Jerry Izenberg's place in Henderson. It was Pamela Irvin, daughter of baseball Hall of Famer Monte Irvin.

"Dad passed away last night," she said to the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger's semi-retired Hall of Fame sports columnist. "He would want you to know."

Monte Irvin was the last Newark Eagle; he was one of the great Negro League ballplayers before Jack Roosevelt Robinson brought down the barrier; he played in two World Series for the Giants.

Izenberg recalled the last conversation he had with Pamela Irvin's dad. He wrote about it after she called.

"Listen," Monte said, "I've got something to tell you. You can't die."

"Ever?"

"Never. You are the last writer to see us play in the Negro Leagues. You die, and that leaves nobody to tell our story. The kids won't even believe we had a league. Don't die."

Jerry Izenberg, 85, told Monte Irvin stories at the weekly meeting of the Thursday Lunch Bunch at Main Street Station downtown. He didn't die. He might have complained about the French Onion soup a little.

Three dots …

When I woke up on the couch the other night, a replay of the Minnesota-New Jersey hockey game was showing on a cable channel, and Jason Zucker was skating down the left wing with the puck. Zucker, the first Las Vegan to play in the NHL, scored 21 goals for the Wild last season; this year he has 11. ... Bryce Harper recently treated a local youngster named Jacob Trussell to some 1-on-1 baseball instruction at Las Vegas High, Harper's alma mater. Only one of the three photos showed a big tub of Gatorade strategically placed in the background, which was a bit of an upset, given the "Sweat with the Best" promotion was sponsored by the sports drink giant. ... The health of Martrel Johnson, the former Durango High star and Montana State basketball player, has taken a turn for the worse. Johnson is in dire need of a kidney transplant. People interested in helping are asked to contact Danielle Griffin at 410-614-9435.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski