Scorecard

"You who won many contests, I wish you to win this contest of love," one of the seven priests who presided over Saturday's hour-long ceremony at Bucharest's ancient Romanian Orthodox Casin Monastery told the happy couple. (The day before, the bride and groom had followed a police escort to the city's 19th-century military hall for a civil ceremony; Romanian weddings, it seems, are divided into compulsory and optional events.) Though Robert DeNiro and Arnold Schwarzenegger were no-shows, some 250 guests were on hand, including Ilie Nastase, the erstwhile bad boy of Romanian tennis who's now running for mayor of Bucharest, and a bevy of Romania's young gymnasts who, dressed in leotards, lined the stairs of the church.

After the ceremony the couple greeted a crowd of 2,000 shouting, singing fans. Comaneci then tossed her bouquet—unfortunately straight into the hands of a man, proving she's not always perfect.

Can't Hold This Tiger

SI's Christian Stone reports on the hero of Colorado's spring football game last Saturday:

Freshman defensive end Tyronee (Tiger) Bussey Jr. participated in 11 plays and made two tackles and a sack, a seemingly less-than-spectacular performance for a player who as a high school senior in the fall of 1993 was rated among the nation's best prospects. But it was a small miracle that Bussey took the field at all. In March '94 he was diagnosed as having acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, a disease that severely weakened his immune system. The leukemia triggered a series of medical crises that included the rupturing of his appendix and the deterioration of his colon. Bussey underwent a bone-marrow transplant on Nov. 3, 1994, but his enfeebled immune system could not ward off a case of double pneumonia that left him in a coma for two weeks in June '95. Since then, however, he has steadily gained strength, and he began full-contact workouts in December.

"I'm not saying I was never scared, but I had that football player mentality," says Bussey, whose disease is in remission. "I thought I was indestructible. I would just tell myself the disease was like a knee injury. Eventually I would beat it." Such spirit came as no surprise to Tiger's parents, Tyronee Sr. and Mildred, who used to walk into their infant son's bedroom and find the spokes of his crib strewn about the floor. "He tore them out," recalls Mildred. "He hated being caged in that crib. So we nicknamed him Tiger. Oh, that Mr. Tiger—did he ever have some fight in him."

Bussey's battle is not over. It may be another five years before doctors know whether he is completely rid of the leukemia. But Bussey is back with his teammates, playing the game he loves. Although Colorado coach Rick Neuheisel speculates that it will be a year before Bussey is ready to challenge for a starting role, he has pledged that Tiger will be on the field for the season-opening kickoff against Washington State on Aug. 31. "I still have a ways to go," Bussey says, "but I plan to see this comeback through."

Everyone's Favorite: Song

When Unbridled's Song raced to a 5¾-length victory in the Florida Derby on March 16, covering the nine furlongs in the sparkling time of 1:47.80, he emphatically installed himself as the favorite to win Saturday's Kentucky Derby. And four weeks later, in winning the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct by a length and a half, he did nothing to discourage his army of admirers.

Unbridled's Song has more going for him than any other recent Derby favorite. Endowed with considerable natural speed, he is easily the fastest horse in the field, and that should help him stay clear of traffic in a race in which 20 horses are expected to start. As a son of the 1990 Derby winner, Unbridled, he has the pedigree to go the mile and a quarter. Physically he quite looks the part of a champion.