THE OPENING LINE

Monday, July 10, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.

The bad thing about driving to visit my mom in New Mexico is that she usually makes me take a box of my childhood memories home with me.

Actually, it's really not a bad thing. In fact, it's kind of fun to look at my old report cards and pictures of myself on prom night, when I had a full head of hair, a powder-blue tuxedo jacket and the keys to my old man's Buick Electra, the one with the FM radio and a back seat roughly the size of the outfield at Yankee Stadium.

This last trip, I also found an unexpected treasure tucked under a bunch of old Indy 500 programs and a Green Hornet lunch box.

There, in remarkably good shape, given they were written between 1948 and 1965, were five hard-cover books from the Chip Hilton sports series that I collected.

William "Chip" Hilton was a figment of legendary Long Island University basketball coach and author Clair Bee's imagination.

A three-sport high-school star who went on to shine at generic State U, The Chipster would usually score the winning touchdown or sink the winning basket against equally nondescript rivals such as Northern State, Southwestern or A&M - but not until overcoming some personal crisis or hardship along the way.

There weren't any pictures in the books - just a cover illustration, usually of guys wearing football helmets without facemasks or white canvas basketball shoes - but I enjoyed them anyway. There also was a head-and-shoulders rendering of handsome Chip Hilton on the spine of every volume in the 23-book series. He looked like Frank Gifford in those old newsreels.

Maybe that's why they put his likeness on a trophy. Each year, the NCAA presents the Chip Hilton Award to the Division One men's player who demonstrates character both on and off the court. This year, it went to Syracuse's Gerry McNamara.

Bob Knight once said the Chip Hilton books "were the most meaningful and priceless examples of what is right and fair about life."

Again, I read them anyway. So did my old man. I remember coming home from school one day to find him engrossed in my copy of "Buzzer Basket."

A few months later, Dad came home early from work to find me engrossed in the copy of Playboy magazine he kept hidden in his sock drawer.

As I recall, he didn't exactly see them as similar situations.

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Las Vegas D1 Drift Grand Prix and Extreme Autofest and NHRA Sport Compact Nationals, Friday-Saturday, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Who knew that spinning your wheels could be so much fun?

TICKETS: www.lvms.com or 644-4444.

ON THE WEB: www.lvms.com

ALSO WORTH A LOOK

Las Vegas Summer League, Today-Friday, Cox Pavilion.

NBA hopefuls hoop it up at UNLV before embarking on careers in the Istanbul Basketball Association.