There are times when Kenny Mayne is the funniest guy on TV. But
unless you watch SportsCenter on ESPN, you probably don’t know
who he is. As one of the anchors on the daily highlight show, the
native Northwesterner (he grew up in Kent, Washington) salts and
peppers his commentary with intelligent snark and subtle wit.
With the release of his book, An Incomplete and Inaccurate
History of Sport, Mayne’s sense of humor gets a larger playing
field to run on as he examines everything from bowling to tetherball
and even those spazzy little electric football games from the ’70s. But
wait—no hacky sack?! “I regret not including hacky sack,” he
tells me. I asked him to talk about some local legends to make up for
the error.
MERCURY:Clyde Drexler.
MAYNE: I liked how he called out the judges on Dancing with the
Stars. After taking criticism, he finally just said, “We are not
real dancers. We’re doing the best we can.” That’s the closest I’ve
ever seen him come to losing his cool.
Neil Lomax.
He tore it up at Portland State. I was playing (very little) at the
time at UNLV [University of Nevada, Las Vegas]. I used to be jealous of
his stats. He would throw the ball 70 times a game. I think that was
the number of passes in my entire UNLV career.
Bill Walton.
He could have been even greater if it weren’t for his injuries.
Personally, he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve met.
Ahmad Rashad.
I knew him as Bobby Moore. I recall a game he played for Oregon
against Washington State. He went for about 230 yards on the ground
that day.
I can’t think of any famous baseball players from Oregon.
I know a guy named Jim Swanson, who I believe is the only
left-handed catcher to ever sign a major league contract. He played for
a minor league team in Portland owned by Kurt Russell’s dad. Swannie
later owned a comedy club in Seattle. It would draw all the visiting
baseball teams. One night I saw Ron Guidry there and got him to sign a
bar napkin that said, “Kenny, you took me deep in wiffle ball.” All
this because of Swannie.