Leading off today: I know it's the weekend, youngsters, but you've had too many snow days this year. So here's a combination history/language lesson for you:

   The word "Ruthian" used to be part of the American subset of the English language. It was inspired by the feats on one George Herman Ruth, a guy many of you know as "The Babe" or "Tha Bambino."

   In between quaffing spirits and chomping tube steaks (yes, I know I'm being silly but please humor me a bit), Ruth hit home runs. Lots of them. So many in fact that his career total of 714 four-ply swats (sorry!) was long considered out of reach of mere mortals.

   Hence the word "Ruthian." Feats so fantastic that they figured to go unmatched for decades or even centuries were referred to as Ruthian.

   And it was appropriate . . . right up until the late 1960s when Willie Mays ("The Say Hey Kid") and Henry Aaron ("Hammerin' Hank") were in the midst of "Dialin' Eight" (OK, I promise I'll stop now) so frequently that it had become apparent that one or both had a good chance of breaking the Babe's record for career home runs.

   Suddenly, we needed a new word to describe feats so extraordinary that they approached incomprehensible. And we got it October 18, 1968, when a skinny but muscular young man out of the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens unleashed the mother of all long jumps at the Olympic Games in Mexico City.

   The distance became ingrained in our minds. Twenty-nine, two-and-a-half. A leap so staggering that it blew away the existing world record by a ton.

   Never mind the fact that he was jumping at altitude and with the maximum allowable tailwind helping him. He became the first man to jump 29 feet. Heck, he was the first man to jump 28 feet.

   The feat was more than amazing. It was Beamonesque, as in Bob Beamon.

   But you know what? The record lasted a mere 23 years -- impressive but not to be confused with eternity. Mike Powell went sailing beyond it in Tokyo in 1991.

   In light of the fact that he broke Beamon's record by only two inches, the word "Powellian" never caught on. And now

here we are 16 years later looking for a successor to "Beamonesque. So here's a nomination, and stop me if you've heard this one before (just kidding!):

   "Beamonesque" still works, and here's why: New York State Sportswriters Association colleague Steve Grandin was leafing through the weekly newsletter last week and realized that Beamon's New York scholastic record, set in 1965, still stands.

   It is, by far, the oldest major track and field record still surviving in the Empire State. The record must be an antique, because I was only 2 years old when he set it. Now it says tons about the current state of high school track and field in this state -- and the U.S., for that matter -- that so many records are old and bordering on ancient. Despite breakthroughs in training methods, equipment manufacturing and track surfaces, there are a lot of really old records out there.

   The mile/1,600 meters mark still belongs to Matt Centrowitz from 1973. The intermediate hurdles and triple jump date back to '77 and '78 respectively, and Ed Ellis' 1982 shot put of 67-8 might stay in the books until we start holding meets in a zero-gravity environment.

   As Steve pointed out, about two-thirds of the major individual outdoor records are at least 14 years old. And the Beamon record has lasted three times as long.

   That's not to say we haven't had guys take a run at 25-3.5 over the years. Beamon contemporaries Henry Jackson and Alvin Pearman both went 24-1.5 in 1966, and Greg Flippen hit 25 feet even as a junior in 1970.

   But no one has come within a foot under legal conditions in more than a decade.

   Face it. The record remains Beamonesque.

   AD/coach Smith retiring from CBA: Jim Smith, 59, is leaving his roles as athletic director and football coach at Albany CBA at the end of the school year, the Albany Times Union reported this morning.

   He served as AD for 26 of the past 30 years, taking a break in the early 1990s to be an assistant coach at Union College, and was 56-53-1 in football since 1995.

   CBA has not selected its new AD. Long-time assistant Matt Gormley will take over the football program.

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