Sports

We are not making this up:

A trivia question for you: Who today is the leading jockey who was born in the U.S.?

The answer is Rosie Napravnik. Yes, of all our American jockeys, the one with the best record is a woman.

Napravnik's mounts have earned more than $11 million this year, and none of the seven jocks who have earned more began life in this country. So, even in a dangerously athletic job like race-riding, a woman can sometimes compete straight up with men.

First-person shooter games have become more cinematic and aesthetically pleasing over the years and dominate the video game industry. Stephen Totilo, editor in chief of online video game publication Kotaku, explains the appeal of point-and-shoot games.

"My dad was such a comedian," Jennifer Lickteig tells Kansas City's KSHB-TV. "He loved the Chiefs, so we had to let him have the last word."

Which explains why his obituary begins this way:

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LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

It's been 24 years since Notre Dame won college football's national championships. But after a wild weekend of upsets, the Fighting Irish are the number one team in the country, following the release last night of the BCS standings. And the powerful Southeastern Conference, which appeared out of the running, is suddenly back in the picture, with several teams right behind Notre Dame in the rankings.

NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman is here. Tom, good morning.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Good morning.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And in Austin, Texas, after a five-year absence, Formula One racing returned to the U.S. A Formula One track called the Circuit of the Americas, was inaugurated over the weekend in a race won by Lewis Hamilton. Formula One is immensely popular in Europe and much of the world, but it's failed to win a big audience in the U.S., dwarfed by the homegrown culture of NASCAR and the Indy circuit.

Update at 4:05 p.m. ET: Lewis Hamilton of the legendary McLaren team wins the inaugural F1 race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Hamilton — the 2008 series champion — also won the race the last time it was run in America, five years ago in Indianapolis. Championship leader Sebastian Vettel placed second today in a closely fought race.

College football bowl season is just around the corner, and with it comes the seemingly perennial controversy around the bowl game selection process. Rachel Martin and NPR's Mike Pesca discuss the vagaries of the Bowl Championship Series ranking system, and why you can't just blame it on computers.

Forty-four years ago, a little girl changed the world of sports in an incident known today as "The Heidi Game."

That day — Nov. 17, 1968 — is when the modern age of football began, Dave Zirin, the sports editor for The Nation magazine, says.

The New York Jets were up against the Oakland Raiders. At the time they were two of the best teams in the American Football League, just before it merged with the National Football League.