Honor

Calvin Hill, former All-Pro football player and former executive with the Orioles, will be honored today when residents of Turners Station name a street in his honor -- Hill Court.The dedication ceremony will start at 11 a.m. Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will attend.In case of rain, the ceremony will be held in Dundalk Middle School.

Hagerstown Mayor William M. Breichner is pitching an alternative tribute to Willie Mays, saying he wants to name the field at Municipal Stadium after the baseball great who made his minor league debut there. Rebuffed in his attempt to rename a city street - Memorial Boulevard - in Mays' honor, the mayor asked the City Council on Tuesday night to consider naming the ball field after the legendary center fielder. Local veterans had angrily opposed changing Memorial Boulevard's name because it is the only tribute to them in town.

Ravens Stadium got the Unitas touch yesterday, from the 13-foot statue of John Unitas to a ring of honor induction for Baltimore Colts Hall of Famers to an eloquent halftime address by the late quarterback's wife. "He was very much looking forward to today and still was in awe of it," Sandy Unitas said after an elaborate ceremony honored her husband and seven of his former teammates. "He really didn't think he deserved it. That was just John. But he would have been very, very proud and thankful for the fans."

Baltimore City and Prince George's County's school boards will vie for the 2012 title of "Urban School Board of Excellence" this year, as both are named finalists for the national award, due to presented in October. The two will compete against Nevada for the honor. According to the National School Boards Association, the finalists for the 2012 Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) award were selected by an independent judging panel--and were judged based on excellence in school board governance, building civic capacity and closing the achievement gap, and demonstrated success in raising achievement.

A cracked bone in his leg couldn't stop him. The same bone cracked again couldn't stop him. And yesterday, in the Northern Wolf Stakes at Laurel Park, bad racing luck couldn't stop him. In C C's Honor, a 6-year-old gelding of immense ability, overcame all that and prevailed in a dramatic four-horse photo finish to win the $75,000 stakes for older sprinters. His time of 1 minute, 2.90 seconds for 5 1/2 furlongs nearly matched the track record of 1: 02.80. The winner recorded that time despite losing momentum around the turn when two horses, one inside and one outside, squeezed him as if he were jelly in a sandwich.

With patriotic fanfare, pupils at Sandymount Elementary School honored the nation's war dead, bestowing wreaths and poppies to representatives from branches of the armed services. Sandymount's annual Remembrance Service began outside the school Friday morning with a trumpet salute by Robert Coffey, owner of Coffey's Music in Westminster. "We are here today to honor those Americans who sacrificed their lives in order that we are able to live in freedom and pursue happiness," said Sgt. 1st Class James O'Connor of the Maryland National Guard.

At the height of World War II, a young Army sergeant was promised a battlefield commission. Two days later, he was severely wounded. For the next few years, he recovered, and an officer's insignia became a distant memory. Then came marriage, four children and decades of work on the family's three Carroll County farms. That the promotion has come 56 years after the promise, when he is 77, in no way diminishes the honor for Joseph A. Farinholt. The decorated veteran has pinned silver lieutenant's bars to his military cap and placed the notification of his promotion among an array of combat service awards at his Finksburg home.

Rays of sun streamed through towering oak trees on about 100 people gathered on the lawn at Springfield Hospital Center yesterday. They came to honor those who had made the ultimate gift at the end of their lives. "We applaud these generous acts of giving and remember their contributions in this memorial service," said Ronald S. Wade, director of the Anatomy Board of Maryland during the 20th commemoration at the hospital in Sykesville. The board honored the 552 most recent donors who gave their bodies to science, and reflected on the thousands who did so in the past.

As Scott Lake saddled McKendree before his victory in the Maryland Million Sprint, he noticed the long, lean bay gelding in the next stall. That horse was In C C's Honor. He finished fourth in the Sprint, but in his next start, an optional-claiming race, Lake claimed him for $75,000. The racing world found out why yesterday. Running his first race for Lake, the winningest trainer in the country, In C C's Honor defeated 10 sprinters to capture the $75,000 Lite The Fuse Stakes at Laurel Park.

The state Board of Public Works is forging another fishing legacy for Lefty Kreh: a seven-mile trail in Gunpowder Falls State Park to be named for the former outdoors editor of The Sun. The trail's moniker will become official at the board's meeting Dec. 21 in Annapolis. Kreh, 86, is expected to attend. The Cockeysville resident, who has authored more than 30 books on fishing, appeared humbled by the honor. "I appreciate [the state] doing this, but it kind of embarrasses me," said Kreh, who grew up in Frederick and spent 18 years writing for The Sun until his retirement in 1990.