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Joe Frazier training in 1973.

Denver’s Ron Lyle remembers Joe Frazier from the sweaty Philadelphia gym that served as Frazier’s training headquarters in the weeks before his stunning victory over Muhammad Ali — in a bout that fans still remember as the “Fight of the Century.”

Lyle — a former contender in the heavyweight division who compiled a 43-7-1 record — had just turned pro and was looking for work as a sparring partner. He ended up sparring with another contender, Ken Norton, who was sparring with Frazier.

The Philly gym had a small orbit of boxers and future stars with Frazier at its center.

“I got to watch him train,” Lyle said Tuesday, a day after Frazier died at 77 following a short battle with liver cancer. “Back then, Joe was at his best.”

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LM Otero, The Associated Press

NASCAR driver Kyle Busch at Texas Motor Speedway.

If you’re a fan of Kyle Busch, read no further. You won’t like it.

I’ve said many times in this motorsports blog that Kyle Busch is an idiot, a menace, a smart-mouth, among other things. I’ve also said he was a great driver and I’ll stand by that statement.

But now he’s gone too far, once again. His actions Friday night against Ron Hornaday in the Trucks race in Texas was another example of a dumb move by a full-fledge dumb guy.

NASCAR suspended him for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races at Texas. I don’t think that will teach him a lesson. Richard Childress punched him in the mouth once and that didn’t teach him anything so a good whuppin may not do the trick either. I don’t know what it will take.

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Grumpy's Toy.

Chevrolet celebrated its 100th birthday Thursday and it sparked some fond memories from an old car guy.

Drag-racing’s Grumpy Jenkins drove Chevrolets. And stock car’s Dale Earnhardt. And Tom Conway (he was our Fonzie in the small town where I grew up). He had a yellow Camaro that just rumbled like hell when he circled the drive-in where we hung out.

My first car was a 1956 Chevrolet, a beautiful blue and white 2-door sedan with a six-cylinder, 3-speed on the post. Bought it from a little old lady in Jones, Okla., for $400 and everyone said I paid too much.

AP

Dale Sr.'s race car.

As slick as that car was I traded it to my then brother-in-law for his hot rod, a 1961 Impala SS bubble top with mag wheels. Again blue, must have been my favorite color, still is I guess. This puppy would run. Had a 327 Corvette engine in it, double-hump heads, a big Holley with Edelbrock manifold, 4-speed Muncie with a Hurst shifter, 4.88 rear end. I could run in the low 13s with this thing and never lost on the street (beat a 442, a 396 Chevelle, a Super Bee and souped-up Ford Fairlane).

Chevrolet, Chevy. Wouldn’t have anything but. My friend Louie had a 1969 Z-28, silver with black stripes. God, it was beautiful. And ran damn good. I beat him the only time we ever raced, but I would have given anything to have that car. It was cool. My cousin had a 1966 Impala SS fastback, sky blue with blue tuck and roll interior with a big block. You think I didn’t long for that thing.

AP

A 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray "Spilt Window" Coupe

Of course, Chevys were cool. And people sang about them. Don McLean said in “American Pie” “Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry”; the Boss said “I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396 Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor” and the Beach Boys sang “She’s real fine my 409.”

Not to mention Corvettes. They were out of our price range (what were they $5,000 or so). But they were great, especially the 1963 split-window Sting Ray with fuel injection. That was my favorite. We use to drive 60 miles to the big city just to ogle them in the showroom parking lot. Loved the 65-67 models too, with the lake pipes of course.

Chevrolet has made some great cars, Chevelles and Novas included, and once you’re a Chevy person you’re going to be for life. Don’t come near me with a Ford. It’s called devotion.

When is Dodge’s birthday? Who cares.

AP

Carl Edwards flips out.

Only three races remain in NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup championship drive: Texas this week, then Phoenix and the finale at Homestead. And Carl Edwards is in prime position.

The points standings:

1. Carl Edwards, 2,273
2. Tony Stewart, 2,265
3. Kevin Harvick, 2,252
4. Brad Keselowski, 2,246
5. Matt Kenseth, 2,237
6. Jimmie Johnson, 2,230
7. Kyle Busch, 2,216
8. Kurt Busch, 2,215
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2,200
10. Jeff Gordon, 2,197
11. Denny Hamlin, 2,193
12. Ryan Newman, 2,184.

It would be hard to root against Carl Edwards. He’s a nice guy, probably not as nice as he appears on TV, but if not, he’s a good actor. But compared to the others involved, he’s by far the most likeable.

I expect a lot of people were cheering for Jimmie Johnson to win his sixth straight title. I would like that too, although maybe not as much now after hearing him and his crew chief Chad Knaus discuss cheating so openly at Talladega. But, I guess you’d have to be a fool not to think every driver/crew chief combo cheats a little.

The good news about this year: The Busch brothers are out of it.

The bad news: Junior stinks again; Regan Smith didn’t make the Chase, although overall he’s had a pretty good season.

More good news: The races have been exciting; no major issues to deal with in the off season; lots of on and off the track confrontations to keep things interesting and excellent TV coverage (good announcers, good interviews, no major complaints about Fox or ESPN).

All in all, a good season, helping NASCAR get back what it lost. They may have seen some fans disappear over the last few years (there are still a lot of empty seats), but the true stock car racing fans stuck with them and continue to support the sport.

Barely five months have passed since the last powder day up Berthoud Pass. Nov. 2 up Butler Gulch … first powder shots of 2011-12. The 2011-12 season is certainly tracking toward memorable.

Ronald Martinez, ALLSPORT

It’s playoff time for the Colorado Rapids, the defending MLS Cup champs. So it’s the prefect time to pitch your soccer questions to Marcelo Balboa for the next edition of The Denver Post’s “Fan Mail” feature.

Balboa, a three-time player for the U.S. World Cup team and a stalwart for the Rapids for six seasons, remains deeply involved with the game.

Balboa, who lives in Superior, is the executive director for the Trebol Soccer Club in Boulder County. He’s also an analyst for Rapids soccer on Altitude Sports and hosts a Sunday radio show on Mile High Sports, 1510.

So fire away. Ask him about the Rapids, youth soccer, American soccer in general or the international scene. Balboa is bound to have an answer.

Send your questions in an email to fanmail@denverpost.com. Please make sure to include your first name and where you are from.

AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

Omar Cummings tebowing after his goal in the MLS Cup Playoffs match in Commerce City, Colo., Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

When Omar Cummings powered home a goal in the final seconds of the first half of the Colorado Rapids MLS Cup wild card game, the crowd went nuts, his teammates ran to congratulate him and then the Jamaican dropped to one knee.

Wait a minute….was he… Tebowing?

“That was the Tim Tebow pose,” Cummings said after the match.

Was he thanking God?

“That too, definitely,” Cummings said.

After a season in which Cummings only found the back of the net three times, the Rapids and their supporters may be thankful as well. After all, the team’s leading goal-scorer during their 2010 MLS Cup championship run had just scored his first career playoff goal, effectively hitting the reset button on the 2011 campaign.

“That season’s done,” Cummings said. “You don’t pay attention to it. You’re in the playoffs. That’s all that counts. You try to make a run in the playoffs.”

The Rapids went on to win the match 1-0 to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals against Sporting KC. Their first match of the home-and-home aggregate scoring contest is Sunday.

View more photos.

Dan Boniface | The Denver Post

Colorado Rapids midfielder Jeff Larentowicz (center) sizes up a free kick with Pablo Mastroeni (left) and Sanna Nyassi (right) in an August 5, 2011 match against Columbus Crew at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

During the 2011 season, midfielder Jeff Larentowicz always seemed to come up with the big goal when the Colorado Rapids needed it the most.

That was the case on Saturday when Larentowicz buried a free kick in Vancouver to tie up the match against the Whitecaps, a game that was critical in the Rapids quest to host a playoff match. They would go on to win 2-1.

It was a career-high seventh goal for Larentowicz, enough to earn him the Rapids’ Golden Boot, an honor that goes to the team’s leading scorer.

“It’s great,” said Larentowicz. “That’s something I’m not expecting, and I wish it weren’t me.”

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Anja Niedringhaus, Associated Press file

Kara Goucher celebrates after winning the bronze medal in the women's 10,000 meter race at the world championships in Osaka Japan in 2007.

Kara Goucher has joined the Oregon Track Club Elite group coached by Jerry Schumacher, joining Olympic bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan and young distance star Lisa Koll just weeks after parting with former coach Alberto Salazar.

Goucher, a former University of Colorado distance standout, announced the move in her personal blog, talking about how difficult it was to leave Salazar’s Oregon Project, but that she’s “blissfully full of hope” after only her second workout with her new training partners.

“I feel so lucky to be able to train under an incredible coach and alongside two of the best female runners the U.S. has ever produced,” she wrote. “My decision to leave the Oregon Project was a very difficult one, and a decision that I gave endless thought and consideration.”

After a disappointing finish at this summer’s world championships in South Korea — in which she finished 13th in the 10,000 because of a nagging hip problem — Goucher decided to leave Salazar. She gave birth to a son, Colt, about a year ago and has decided to turn her focus on training for the marathon, as The Post’s John Meyer reported just a few weeks ago.

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Karl Gehring/ The Denver Post

Columbus forward Barnardo Anor (7) and Colorado defender Drew Moor (3) go for the ball in the second half. The Colorado Rapids defeated the Columbus Crew 2-0 on August 5, 2011.

The Colorado Rapids will host the Columbus Crew in a wild card playoff match this Thursday at 8 p.m. at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park as they begin their defense of the MLS Cup.

The Rapids secured the home match by virtue of a 2-1 comeback win on Saturday over Vancouver Whitecaps FC in British Columbia.

“It’s a good win for us and it secures home field in the playoffs,” midfielder Brian Mullan said Saturday after the win. “This win gives us a little confidence and means we don’t have to travel as much in the playoffs.”

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Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jessica Ebelhar

Dan Wheldon, front, and Will Power crash during a wreck that involved 15 cars during the IndyCar Series' auto race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas on Sunday.

More photos from the 15-car crash at the Las Vegas 300 on Sunday that led to Dan Wheldon’s death.

First of all, let me say I think it’s a tragedy that Dan Wheldon was killed. He was a great driver, a very outgoing, fun-loving person who had a beautiful family and it’s a damn shame what happened.

Of course, it’s terrible anytime a race-car driver dies in an accident. So many drivers are young that when the worst happens they usually leave behind a young spouse and children who will be forever affected by their untimely passing.

However, my concern here is the effect this has on the racing world as a whole. When something awful like this happens, the “do-gooders” come out of the walls wanting to change racing because it’s just too dangerous, they say.

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Jason Blevins | The Denver Post

Stephan Drake @ the SIA 2011 show, debuting his DPS Spoon 150 ski

Stephan Drake is the ski turn visionary behind the iconic DPS skis, the featherweight carbon-fiber boards that have gleaned a cult-like following since forging the rockered-ski movement in 2005. At this year’s SIA show, Drake and his equally visionary partner, ski designer Pete Turner, unveiled the DPS Spoon 150, a radical design with a convex base that delivers high-speed, lengthy slides and schmears down snowy slopes.

The not-quite-carvy rides sport a chubby 150mm underfoot with a 3D “cleat technology” shape that grabs snow when angled. It’s a funky-looking ride for sure. But it looks like it can shred. This morning Drake dropped the first-ever footage of him and his Spoon in action in Little Cottonwood Canyon. He calls his pioneering sliding carve “slarving.” Give DPS some love on their Facebook page and possibly win a pair of Spoons.

Stephan Drake and his DPS Spoon 150 in Little Cottonwood Canyon

Professional BASE jumper Jeb Corliss this weekend nailed a stunt he’d been scheming for years. Leaping from a helicopter, Corliss piloted his wingsuit through a 100-foot wide gap in Tianmen mountain in Hunan Province, China.

Mel Evans, The Associated Press

Brendan Schaub, left, vs. Mirko Filipovic at UFC 128 in New Jersey in March.

Rarely does an athlete stop playing football in exchange for something less soft. But Denver’s Brendan Schaub, a former University of Colorado fullback under coach Gary Barnett, ended up a mixed martial arts fighter. And a good one.

Schaub, 28, is 8-2 in the UFC’s heavyweight division. He has statement victories over Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic at UFC 128 in New Jersey last March — one that earned him knockout of the night honors — and a TKO of Chris Tuchscherer at UFC 116 in Las Vegas in 2010. He’s also a veteran of Spike TV’s The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights show.

A member of the Easton’s Brazilian Ju Jitsu in Denver and Grudge Training Center in Wheat Ridge, Schaub is an MMA insider, in a perfect position to take your questions in this week’s installment of The Denver Post’s “Fan Mail.”

Send your questions to Brendan in an email to fanmail@denverpost.com. Please include your first name and where you are from.

What are his thoughts on UFC 135 in Denver? Is Jon Jones worthy of his hype? Does Rampage Jackson have any more good fights in him? What fight would he want if he played match-maker for a day? Who are the young UFC stars? What is Schaub’s next fight? Everything is on the table, so ask away.

Your questions and his answers will publish Thursday in the paper and at denverpost.com/sports.

Andy Lyons, Getty Images

Suzann Pettersen of Europe celebrates on the 18th green with caddie Dave Brooker on the third day of the 2011 Solheim Cup Killeen Castle Golf Club in Ireland.

Tom Ferrell is editor-at-large for Colorado AvidGolfer magazine and is director of communications at Colorado Golf Club, host of The 2013 Solheim Cup. He reported for The Denver Post from Ireland over the weekend for the 2011 Solheim Cup. Follow his reports here.

The European chants of “Ole, Ole” have not even begun to fade as the sun sets over the Irish countryside. The Europeans have just won their first Solheim Cup matches since 2003, and with style. And though the party on the ground will last well into the night, the air is whipping the Colorado Golf Club flag above the closing ceremony, in a tangible reminder that the most exciting event in women’s golf — some might say all of golf – is coming to the Centennial state in less than two years.

I walked into the tent village at Killeen Castle outside of Dublin, Ireland, at 8 a.m. local time, a full two hours before the first final-day singles match. Already, the songs rose from grandstands surrounding the first tee, some 400 yards from away. A steady stream of fans stopped at The 2013 Solheim Cup booth, most with very specific questions. “Where should we stay? What are the best restaurants.”

It’s not “if” these fans are coming to Colorado. They are.

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Tom Ferrell is editor-at-large for Colorado AvidGolfer magazine and is director of communications at Colorado Golf Club, host of The 2013 Solheim Cup. He reported for The Denver Post from Ireland over the weekend for the 2011 Solheim Cup. Follow his reports here.

COUNTY MEATH, Ireland - When the 2013 Solheim Cup tees up in August 2013 at Colorado Golf Club, fans will see the royal and ancient game in a new light. You see, The Solheim Cup is becoming the Grateful Dead of golf. Fans don’t just wait for the show to come to them. They go to the show. And then they keep going.

“We have fans who have been to all 12,” says Becky Newell, director of sales and marketing for The 2013 Solheim Cup, “but we have tons of fans who have been to three or four or more. It’s such a great experience. People just love it.”

Even as the singing and chanting builds in the stands surrounding the first tee here at Killeen Castle, a steady flow of fans is streaming through the expo booth for the 2013 event, asking questions about Colorado and picking up tourism information for Denver. Some are even pulling the trigger and buying tickets on the spot.

Organizers of The 2011 Solheim Cup estimate that 7,000 fans have come to Ireland for this year’s competition. Solheim 2013 tournament director Doug Eibling says the economic impact to Colorado could top $20 million.

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Adrian Dennis, AFP/Getty Images)

Michelle Wie drives off the 10th hole during Day One of The Solheim Cup at Killeen Castle in Dunsany near Dublin, Ireland.

Tom Ferrell is editor-at-large for Colorado AvidGolfer magazine and is director of communications at Colorado Golf Club, host of The 2013 Solheim Cup. He reported for The Denver Post from Ireland over the weekend for the 2011 Solheim Cup. Follow his reports here.

COUNTY MEATH, Ireland — Stanford student Michelle Wie got up early Friday morning. Not for the same reasons her classmates may have. No, Wie had another type of deadline — yet another exam on the first tee, this one in Group 1 of the 2011 Solheim Cup atKilleenCastle.

A full decade after the Hawaii native bounded onto the scene as a precocious 12-year-old, she has both fulfilled and left unfulfilled a boundless potential. You watch her play and listen to her talk, and it’s hard to know whether she has been blessed with her incredible talents or cursed by them.

Wie’s career arc is unlike any the game has ever seen. Possessing physical gifts almost from birth, she captivated the golf world. At 13, Wie won the U.S. Women’s Public Links Championship (losing the following year in the final to an equally talented wunderkind named Yani Tseng). She competed against the men on the PGA Tour at age 14. And she contended in women’s majors, right from the start.

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Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post

Bandimere Speedway in Morrison.

Bandimere Speedway, the Morrison drag strip that is home to the NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals, announced this week that tickets are now on sale for the 2012 event and, more importantly, that there will be fewer tickets available next year because Bandimere is widening its West Side grandstand seats from 18 to 21 inches.

Opinions vary as to the reason for this move to widen the seating areas. Some say it’s because of what surveys say is a girth expansion taking place nationally, however Bandimere states in its announcement that it was the No. 1 complaint of fans, the so-called sardine effect, and that they are just interested in spectator comfort and appreciation.

Will this enhance the drag racing experience for the average fan? It may be too early to say for sure, but from a personal observation, it can’t hurt. Some racing fans, again from a personal observation, are none too healthy, at least from the concession availability of turkey legs, beer, funnel cakes, etc.

Tatoos, butt cracks, bra straps and wide-bodies not withstanding, this move is expected to be a welcome relief.

Getty Images

UFC president Dana White.

UFC president Dana White on Wednesday went on a 15-minute rant with his thoughts on the Floyd Mayweahter-Victor Ortiz fight last weekend — and why that controversial ending is a problem shared by boxing and MMA.

“The referee destroyed that fight,” White said at a press conference for UFC 135 in Denver on Saturday, headlined by a Jon Jones-Rampage Jackson title bout.

“Everybody says this is the problem with boxing,” White said. “Not true. It’s a problem for us too.”

White, an outspoken fan — and well-informed follower — of boxing, was talking about the Mayweather-Ortiz ending, in which Ortiz head-butted Mayweather, had one point deducted, tried to apologize one too many times, then got rocked by a one-two combination from Mayweather to end the fight. Veteran referee Joe Cortez has been criticized heavily for his handling of the fourth and final round.

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Ethan Miller, Getty Images

Floyd Mayweather Jr. celebrates after defeating Victor Ortiz by fourth round knockout during their WBC welterweight title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Sunday.

Floyd Mayweather’s biggest victory Saturday after a controversial fourth-round knockout of Victor Ortiz in Las Vegas wasn’t the estimated $40 million payday.

No, Mayweather’s coup was upping his heel factor. He’s the best sports villain since Bill Laimbeer.

The chorus of boos that rained down on Mayweather from fans after his one-two sucker punch sent Ortiz dazed and confused to the mat, only increased Mayweather’s draw.

He’s the boxer fans love to hate — and they can’t not watch. That’s why his run-in with 80-year-old HBO announcer Larry Merchant, during a post-fight interview, became an instant YouTube hit.

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