For The Record

Sponsored

By fans of late-night comedian Stephen Colbert, the U.S. Olympic speedskating team. Last month the team lost its biggest sponsor when Dutch bank DSB went bankrupt, leaving a $300,000 hole in the squad's budget just three months before the Vancouver Winter Games. Last week Colbert, who hosts the mock-news Colbert Report on Comedy Central and often asks his fans to support charities he favors, struck a deal with U.S. Speedskating: He will promote the team on his show and ask fans to send contributions; in return U.S. skaters will wear his name and show logo on their uniforms. (Colbert raised $40,000 on the first day of fund-raising.) "On their enormous, billboard thighs, it will say, COLBERT NATION," Colbert said. "It will be easy to see because [they] will be in first place."

Died

At age 83, Lou Filippo, a longtime boxing judge and referee who was a member of the World Boxing Hall of Fame. The Los Angeles native was an accomplished amateur fighter before turning pro in 1947; he stepped out of the ring in '57 with a professional record of 23-9-3. Filippo then became one of the sport's most respected arbiters, refereeing or judging 85 world title bouts, including Sugar Ray Leonard's split-decision win over Marvin Hagler in 1987. (Filippo scored it in Hagler's favor.) He also appeared in five Rocky movies; he was the ref who counted out Apollo Creed in Rocky II's climactic bout.