OFFBEAT : FIGHTING IRISH BULLY OHIO SCHOOL OVER LOGO.

Notre Dame's tiny leprechaun is causing some big problems for an Ohio high school.

Catholic Central was forced to abandon the logo it had used for nearly 20 years after Notre Dame officials discovered last fall it was a copy of their trademarked leprechaun. That irked some residents of Springfield, Ohio, who've been known as the Fighting Irish for as long as they can remember because of their Irish heritage.

Even worse, the school had just redone its gymnasium floor and put up new scoreboards at the gym and football field - all with the leprechaun logo prominently displayed. Removing the symbols on center court and the scoreboards will cost up to $4,500.

``Notre Dame is just one level below heaven here,'' said Ann Colliflower, Catholic Central's director of development. ``What was great for Notre Dame was great for us.''

School officials always wondered if they'd hear from Notre Dame, and they figured it was only a matter of time once basketball star Jason Collier began drawing nationwide attention. Collier, a 7-foot center, was one of the highest-rated recruits last year, and pictures of him playing in the leprechaun-decorated gym were all over.

Coaches from across the country - including Notre Dame's John MacLeod - packed the gym to see Collier play. Collier eventually signed with Indiana, and Notre Dame officials said that had nothing to do with the letter Colliflower received in October, telling her the leprechaun had to go.

Underdog: It's not often that Michael Jordan is the underdog at something, but that's the case this week at the Isuzu Celebrity Golf Championship. The odds on the Chicago Bulls star winning are 100-1.

Jordan is one of more than 70 sports and entertainment stars in the field for the July 12-14 event at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course. The tournament, televised by ESPN on Friday and NBC on the weekend, also includes Johnny Bench, Dan Quayle, Mario Lemieux, Bryant Gumbel and Pete Sampras.

The favorite at 7-5 in Tahoe, where gambling is legal, was former major-league pitcher Rick Rhoden, who has won the seven-year-old event three times and is the all-time leading money winner on the Celebrity Golf Association tour.

New X venue: After a two-year run in Rhode Island, ESPN's X Games will move to San Diego in 1997.

The X Games, set for next June 23-29, will bring 400 of the world's best alternative sports athletes to San Diego for sports such as street luge, wakeboarding, in-line skating, skateboarding, sportclimbing, skysurfing and bicycle stuntriding.

Nearly 25 percent of the X Games participants come from California, said Jeff Ruhe, ESPN senior vice president.

Mariner's Point in Mission Bay will be the primary site for the games.

The 1995 Extreme Games drew 200,000 fans and pumped $15 million into the Rhode Island economy. Officials expect that the 1996 impact will be calculated at more than $20 million.