The most magical week in sports is returning to Orlando for the second time, as the city has been selected to host NBA All-Star 2012 at the new Amway Center. Orlando Magic President Bob Vander Weide, Magic Chief Operating Officer Alex Martins and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer joined NBA Commissioner David Stern downtown on Tuesday to make the official announcement.

David Stern (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

Orlando also hosted the 1992 All-Star Game.

The 61st NBA All-Star Game will be played on Sunday, Feb. 26 following a weekend of events featuring the Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam on Friday, Feb. 24 and NBA All-Star Saturday Night which consists of Shooting Stars, Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest and the Slam Dunk Contest. The NBA All-Star Jam Session and interactive basketball celebration will be held at the Orange County Convention Center, where fans will have the chance to meet and collect free autographs from NBA players and legends.

The 2011-12 season will mark the 28th year that Turner Sports will provide NBA All-Star coverage, and the 10th consecutive year the All-Star Game will be televised in primetime on TNT.  The All-Star Game will be seen by a worldwide television audience in more than 200 countries and territories and in more than 40 languages.

During NBA All-Star 2012, the NBA will continue to celebrate its tradition and commitment to social responsibility with a schedule of NBA Cares events. NBA Cares will partner with schools, government, and local nonprofit organizations in Orlando and surrounding areas to highlight the league’s grassroots and community initiatives that reach millions of young people and their parents while providing critical resources to community-based programs.

– Remember When? –

Few All-Star Games have rivaled the one Orlando hosted in 1992 in which the West defeated the East, 153-113, at Orlando Arena. The game is best remembered for the return of Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson, who had retired in November 1991 after contracting HIV.

By the time the final buzzer sounded on that game, Johnson had gone one-on-one with both Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan, and turned in a vintage performance by recording game highs of 25 points and nine assists to win his second All-Star MVP award. Golden State guard Tim Hardaway, who had allowed Johnson to replace him in the starting lineup, contributed 14 points and seven assists.

Florida Head Coach Jay Gruden and his staff are conducting the workouts on Saturdays in Miami (May 8), Orlando (May 15) and Atlanta, Ga. (June 26).

Each tryout camp will last approximately four hours as athletes are timed in the 40-yard dash and 20-yard short shuttle before participating in a series of individual and team drills.

The tryouts are for all positions, including kickers and punters.

Cost for registration is $60 (cash or money order only). Participants will be asked to fill out a registration form and injury waiver.

Athletes should come dressed to participate on a natural grass playing surface.

Registration for all three tryouts begin at 7 a.m. with the tryout getting underway promptly at 9 a.m. – rain or shine.

For those interested in sending film in advance of the tryout, send it to Player Personnel Department, The Florida Tuskers, 1 Citrus Bowl Place, Suite 201, Orlando, FL  32805.

– The Miami Tryout is scheduled for Nova Southeastern University (3301, College Ave., Ft. Lauderdale-Davie, FL  33314).

– The Orlando Tryout will be held at the practice field adjacent to the Florida Citrus Bowl (1610 West Church Street, Orlando, FL  32805).

– The Atlanta Tryout is slated for Sandy Creek High School (360 Jenkins Road, Tyrone, GA  30290).

Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier, threats of violence kept him from playing in Central Florida.

Robinson also starred in one of Orlando’s biggest games ever – a 1949 exhibition that attracted a standing-room-only crowd at Carter Street Park, the home of the city’s Negro Leagues team.

Two generations later, Robinson’s historic achievements and struggles are chronicled in an upcoming exhibit at the University of Central Florida’s main library. The exhibit also features photographs and memorabilia from the Orlando All-Stars, which competed in the Negro Leagues throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

“Pride & Passion: The African American Baseball Experience” tells the story of African-American baseball players in the United States from the Civil War through the present, and it relates their experiences to the struggle for civil rights.

The exhibit will open Friday, March 5, and run through Thursday, April 15. Admission to the exhibit and several related lectures and discussions will be free.

“We had to have a certain amount of self-discipline to survive while traveling around to different cities under the ill winds of racism,” recalled Bob “Peach Head” Mitchell, one of four former Negro Leagues players who will visit UCF on March 19. “It’s very important for kids today to hear those stories.”

The UCF Libraries were selected as one of 50 nationwide sites for the “Pride & Passion” exhibit, which was organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the American Library Association and funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The traveling exhibit is based on a permanent exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. A portion of the exhibit is funded through a grant from the UCF Office of Diversity Initiatives.

To tell the story of Central Florida’s rich but often forgotten baseball history, UCF will display collections from partners such as the Sanford Museum, the Wells’Built Museum of African-American History and Orlando resident Carol Mundy.

The Central Florida connections include:

– Before Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, threats of violence forced the cancellation of a spring game in Sanford. A day game in DeLand was called off due to “malfunctioning lights.” Robinson was able to take the field in Daytona Beach, the spring home of the Dodgers, and the stadium there was renamed “Jackie Robinson Ballpark” in 1990.

– Sunday afternoon Negro League games were major social gatherings for African-Americans. Fans dressed up for the games, and players drove through the streets to promote the games. The Orlando All-Stars played at Carter Street Park because Tinker Field was reserved for whites.

For more information and a full schedule of events, visit UCF Library.

– Shrine Game Coverage –

Video and story at ESPN

Zach McCann recap at Orlando Sentinel

News and notes at Orlando Sentinel

Sandy Frost investigates at Newsvine

Josh Lobdell recap at Examiner

– East-West Shrine Game photos by Scott McCall –

Collin Wagner (#36) and Jeremy Boone (#41) (Photo by Scott McCall)

The homegrown 5-9, 173-pound junior out of State College, Pa. capped off the season with a career day following what otherwise may have been remembered more as a statistical underachievement.

His 21-yard field goal with 57 second to play after the final 12-play drive of the game for Penn State, led by Clark, was Wagner’s fourth field goal in as many tries against LSU in a 19-17 win. That tied a Nittany Lion bowl game record with Travis Forney, who kicked four field goals in the 1999 Outback Bowl.

“Coach told us before we got out there ‘All we need is a couple points so let’s get down there and get in some field goal range. If we can score a touchdown, we can score a touchdown. If not, we have a reliable kicker in Collin Wagner’,” said Clark.

Paterno not only praised Wagner but also credited the entire special teams group for their efforts.

Collin Wagner (Photo by Kevin Baldinger)

“Those kids from LSU came awfully tough on that last one,” said Paterno. “And if there was just that much of a hesitation, if we had to make that much of an adjustment, or Wagner doesn’t have confidence, doesn’t step through it, we might not get it.”

If Wagner was indeed beaming with any measure of confidence, he doesn’t exactly seem to be someone who wears it on his sleeve. Afterwards he was just as calm and cool (if not uncomfortable) while talking to members of the media about kicking in the muck that the Citrus Bowl turf had become.

Each time he was called upon to kick he said he did his best to find a decent patch of grass to plant his foot on before eventually converting on chip shots from 18, 20, 21 and 26 yards out.

If getting the opportunity to make the game-winner was not enough, it was the first time he’s ever made four field goals in any game of his football career. And the impact he had at the culmination of bowl week for Penn State was not lost on the life-long Nittany Lion fan.

“It’s almost indescribable actually, to come out, especially in these kind of conditions, and to perform in this way,” Wagner said.

Game-winning field goal by Collin Wagner. (Photo by Scott McCall)

Although he finished the regular season as one of three placekickers in the Big Ten to nail every one of his extra-point attempts (45-of-45), he ranked just No. 8 in the conference in made field goals and No. 9 in field goal percentage (61.1 percent on 11-of-18 tries).

Not quite the resume that would foreshadow such a storybook ending. Yet such is the life of a walk-on.

“It’s great just to get a chance at the Division I level and Penn State gave me that chance,” he said. “It’s a credit to the coaches – I thank the coaches – for even giving me that chance.”

He won the starting job this season after converting on his only field goal attempt a year ago while playing behind the program’s record-setting kicker, Kevin Kelly. Wagner’s long this year was a 47-yarder in a win against Minnesota and he also went 2-for-2 in road wins against both Northwestern and Michigan.

From here on out though it’ll be what he did at the Citrus Bowl that all other games he plays will be measured by.

LSU running back Trindon Holliday slips on the turf between Navorro Bowman (#11) and Stephon Morris. (Photo by Scott McCall)

Fans saw passes from both quarterbacks hit the ground with regularity, passes that had no business ending up there after bouncing off receivers and defenders throughout the day. And they witnessed each shift made by ball carriers do more to help out a defender than they could do to break a runner free on such a slop of a field.

Such chaotic conditions resulted in a matchup that would go on to break the Capital One Bowl record for punts (15) and punt yardage (549) thanks to the extra efforts of Penn State’s Jeremy Boone and both Derek Helton and Josh Jasper of LSU. The treat for fans though finally came through, in the fourth quarter, with the kind of finish that would go down to the last minute of the game.

The first six possessions of the day went for punts before the game’s most valuable player, Daryll Clark, found Derek Moye for a 37-yard touchdown pass with less than two minutes to go in the opening quarter.

LSU answered on their next possession with a 25-yard field goal from Jasper. Two punts followed between the two teams. Then came a Penn State field goal from the game’s unofficial MVP, Collin Wagner, who would later boot the game-winner (his fourth of the game) with 57 seconds to go. And then again, two more punts before the Tigers were intercepted and another field goal gave the Nittany Lions a 13-3 lead at intermission.

Penn State wide receiver Derek Moye kicks up some water after hauling in a pass. (Photo by Scott McCall)

Before the game even began many wondered aloud why in the world marching bands were permitted to perform on the field beforehand, where puddles were beginning to form and the strain it took when Miami and Wisconsin battled there three days earlier in the Champs Sports Bowl showed through. The same sentiment would again be echoed at halftime when the performances raged on with little-to-no consideration for the poor slobs of turf that had already been under far too much duress.

If there was ever a time when she could have handled hosting a local high school football team’s regular season schedule, two weekends worth of state championship games, two college football bowl games ­– and all the in betweens that go along with it – those days looked far behind our sweet lady of Orlando.

In the second half players continued falling over themselves in minature mines of mud. Blooper-like plays came and went throughout. When passes weren’t bouncing off of the chests of receivers they were bouncing off one player and into the unsuspecting hands of another. The balls were wet. The balls were muddy.

LSU wide receiver Terrance Toliver keeps his eye on the ball while Nick Sukay falls out of the play. (Photo by Scott McCall)

But then LSU punted for the final time with seven minutes to play. That opened the door for Penn State to slip and slide their way through 12 plays over 65 yards to set up the final 21-yard field goal attempt from Wagner, who left just under 50 seconds of false hope for the Tigers under an overcast sky in 60-degree breezing weather.

You would have thought the ground was moving out from underneath them the way LSU made their final go at retaking the lead - the same lead they captured and seemingly relinqueshed in an instance.

And come to think of it, guess you could say it actually was.

Miami got battered and bruised on a chilly December night by the Badgers, who looked as though they thrived off of the atypical 50-degree conditions in Orlando. Wisconsin allowed just 188 yards through the air and 61 yards on the ground while sacking Hurricane quarterback Jacory Harris five times in the win.

“One of our main goals was to get after their quarterback,” said Wisconsin Coach Brett Bielema. “When he goes, they go. We felt we kind of disrupted his rhythm all day.”

The Badgers gave up just 2-of-11 conversions on third down and snuffed out all three attempts on fourth down by the Hurricanes. O’Brien Schofield tied a Champs Sports Bowl record with two sacks and also forced a fumble.

Mickey Turner (36) and MVP John Clay (Photo by Scott McCall)

When Wisconsin was on the offensive – which was nearly 20 minutes more than Miami – they controlled the clock with precise passes from quarterback Scott Tolzien until the typical dose of Badger run blocking helped generate an MVP performance from John Clay, this year’s Big Ten standout on that side of the ball.

Clay rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries, including a huge 51-yard gain in the second quarter, while Montee Ball compiled 61 yards rushing on 15 carries.

“Wisconsin football, we just run the ball,” said Clay afterwards. “Third, fourth quarter, you could see them sucking air, they had their hands on their hips just waiting for this to get over with.”

Doing most of the chasing around for Miami was linebacker Darryl Sharpton. The senior tallied the second-most tackles in Champs Sports Bowl history with 15 (10 solo, 5 assisted) to his credit.

Randy Neal of Virginia (1994) and Chad Brown of Colorado (1991) hold the record with 17 tackles apiece.

Garrett Graham (Photo by Scott McCall)

But Wisconsin ran for 170 yards in all and Tolzien threw for 260 yards on 19-of-26 attempts and one interception, which came on a tipped pass.

Tight ends Lance Kendricks and Garrett Graham were his primary targets as Kendricks hauled in seven passes for 128 yards and Graham caught six balls for 77 yards.

The game remained a close one on the scoreboard in the second half but was far more out of control than Miami (9-4) would have liked. Wisconsin finishes the year 10-3 overall.

“I think the key was just focusing on the next play,” said Tolzien. “You could see Miami was maybe getting tired.  But I think the key for us was just focusing on us and to just keep grinding (it out).”

As for the Hurricanes, their first 10-win season since 2003 will have to wait another year as they never were really able to keep up with the Badgers.

“Things just didn’t happen our way,” said Miami Coach Randy Shannon. “I can’t explain why. They just didn’t go our way tonight.”

– More Champs Sports Bowl coverage –

Angel Melendez at Sports News and Scores

Christina De Nicola at The Miami Hurricane

Eitan Horwitz at Examiner

Ryan Bass at The Sports Report

Sam Oleson at Bleacher Report

Photos at US Presswire

Photos at Orlando Sentinel

(Photo by Scott McCall)

With both teams vying for a 10-win season, history is not exactly on the side of the Badgers. Wisconsin returns to the Champs Sports Bowl for the second straight year after losing 42-13 a year ago to Florida State in front of 52,692 fans. With that, the ACC has won the past six games since Illinois last won it for the Big Ten, back when it was dubbed the MicronPC Bowl and was played in Miami.

This is the fourth time in five years that the Badgers have played their postseason bowl game in Orlando.

Wisconsin led the Big Ten in scoring offense this season with 32.8 points per game and is led by quarterback Scott Tolzien and the Big Ten’s top rusher in John Clay with 116.3 yards per game.

Although the Champs Sports Bowl marks the first postseason appearance in Orlando for Miami, it’ll be the second time this season that the Hurricanes have come to town after visiting UCF during the regular season.

This game also marks the second time that Miami senior defensive tackle Joe Joseph, from Oak Ridge High School, and freshman Ray Ray Armstrong, from Seminole High School, will have the chance to play in front of family and friends. Another local talent, freshman defensive end from Seminole, Dyron Dye, redshirted at Miami this season.

The Hurricanes enter the game averaging 268.1 yards per contest through the air behind sophomore quarterback Jacory Harris. On the other side of the ball, Miami’s defense has allowed an average of 321.3 yards per game.

This year’s meeting between the two schools will be the fourth all-time and the first since back-to-back games in 1988-89, which were both won by the Hurricanes. The Badgers won the first matchup back in 1958.

– More Champs Sports Bowl coverage –

- Matt Maxendall preview at College Sports-Fans