Several sports figures of yesteryear are mentioned in the course of the story. Fr. Fitzgibbon asks if his golfing attire makes him look like Sam Sneed. Ex-pug Jack Slade recalls a feisty nun in his Catholic school with "a right hand like Rocky Graziano." Jack also laments he "never could lick LaMotta," a reference to Jake LaMotta.
Fr. Fitzgibbon compares Eddie Slade to Irish tenor Dennis Day(1916-88), who was also a devout Roman Catholic and a radio and television star, most famous for The Jack Benny Program (1950).