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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > May
May 2009
Looking for sports figures at Woodland Cemetery
I was walking at Woodland Cemetery when, not far from the front gate in Section 201, I saw the modest tombstone of Jack Lee Clark.
Beneath his name was a specially-encased photograph showing a fresh-faced guy wearing a dark jacket with a boutonniere in the lapel. A stock car was engraved at the top of the marker and from the dates of his life I realized he was just 26 when he died in 1964.
I wondered what his story was and searched back issues of the Journal Herald and Dayton Daily News. One headline read: “Jack Clark Killed in Stock Car Race.” The other story began: “ROSSBURG — Another dream of someday racing in the 500 at Indianapolis came to a violent, sudden end here yesterday…”
Clark, a former Roosevelt High student, was killed when the red and white 1956 Ford he was driving in a semi-late model race at Eldora rolled in Turn One. He left a wife and two young daughters.
I go to Woodland a lot to walk my dog, Leo, and take in the spectacle. It’s my favorite spot in Dayton — 200 acres of magnificent trees, hills, flowers, birds and a fascinating assortment of grave markers, several of which stand as totems to the colorful tales buried beneath.
I usually park near the grave of legendary Dayton Flyers basketball coach Tom Blackburn. Then this winter I happened upon the marker for Marquerite “Maggie” Doane, who turned out to be a women’s sports pioneer before her dramatic death at age 22.
That’s when — whether recalling my own interviews of former athletes before they died, scouring back issues of newspapers from Dayton to the New York Times or perusing David B. Kingman’s book “The Shrines of Woodland” — I began to look for a few more sports graves to give me some interesting stopping points in my Woodland circuits.
I found some — Harlem Globetrotter Al Tucker Sr. and his son, Al. Jr., a college All American and NBA vet; sprint car champ Johnny Shackleford; world cycling champ and auto racer Earl Kiser; Olympic silver medal winner and Dunbar coach Dave Albritton — and they are the subject of my column that’s in today’s newspaper and here on our web sports page.
But I am sure there are more sports people buried at Woodland, so I’ll keep looking.
TweetLoving the dog piling days at Wright State.
It’s all about the dog piling, Rob Cooper said.
As he prepared his Wright State baseball team for tonight’s NCAA Tournament regional opener against Texas Christian in Fort Worth, the Raiders head coach talked about both the success some of WSU’s marquee athletic programs are now experiencing and especially the experience his baseball guys are getting this weekend.
“Just 64 Division I teams still are playing baseball and we’re one of them, so right there alone that’s a neat deal,” Cooper said. “When you have a group of guys who put in as much time and energy as these guys and they come together and commit to something, you want to see them celebrate. You want to see them get rewarded.
“I know what it’s like to go to the Tournament. I know what it’s like to dog pile, so when you get a chance to see your players do it, well, it’s something no one can ever take from them. Something those guys will never forget.”
To the uninitiated, joyous players dog pile — dive on top of each other somewhere near the pitcher’s mound until they are stacked up like some kind of sub sandwich with all the overflowing trimmings — after the final out of a big victory.
Cooper has a collage of pictures on the wall of his Nischwitz Stadium office and dressing quarters and one photo shows the 2006 team dog-piling after it won the Horizon League tournament to advance to the NCAA Tournament. This year’s squad has now repeated that feat.
“I can remember my first time at the University of Miami when we went to the College World Series,” Cooper said. “We beat Florida and and here’s a great story for you.
“They used to have a tradition at Miami where — when it was a championship game to go to the College World Series — a lot of guys would go to the souvenir stand before hand and buy the World Series shirt and put it on under their jersey. Then after the final out was made, they’d rip off their jersey and they had that shirt on.
“Well, Alex Cora was playing third base for us.” he smilingly said of the former Hurricanes star and current New York Mets infielder who is now in his 12 Major League season. “Our game was about to start and we couldn’t find Alex.
“Jim Morris, the head coach, was stressed out: ‘Where’s Alex? Where is he?’ And all of a sudden, here he comes, running in from the souvenir stand with his shirt. And Jim is yelling at him: ‘What are you doing?’
“And Alex goes, ‘Just relax, we got this thing.’ He basically was telling the head coach to ‘be quiet and sit down.’ And sure enough, we went out and won. I remember the guys taking a victory lap around the stadium and dog piling and stuff like that. The first one always is the best one, but it never gets old.”
This is Cooper’s seventh trip to the NCAA Tournament. He went as a Miami player and twice made it to the College World Series with the Hurricanes. As an assistant coach, he made the Tournament again when he was at Tulane and then at Oral Roberts.
This is the second time he’s taken the Raiders to the Tournament since he took over as head coach five seasons ago.
“There are some neat things going on athletically here,” he said of Wright State. “Whether it’s Brad Brownell winning 20 (basketball) games for the third straight year and going to the NCAA Tournament or Mike Larabee going to the tournament (softball has made the NCAA Tournament two of the past three seasons and this year won 34 games, second best in school history)…or now our success, it’s great for the university and it’s just great for the city of Dayton.”
TweetThe fairy tale of Wright State’s season
In his 17 years as a college assistant and head coach, six of his teams have made the NCAA Tournament. In his five seasons at Wright State, 34 of his players have won All League honors and nine have signed pro contracts.
Yet, for all that talent that has played for Rob Cooper over the years, the Wright State coach said no one eclipses Kory Twede.
“I couldn’t be prouder of any player than I am of him,” Cooper said. “As coaches we always talk to our guys about overcoming challenges.
“Whether it’s a scout telling them they’re not good enough or it’s me as a head coach saying it or it’s them putting a mental block in front of themselves, we always tell them to hang in there and keep fighting and they can make it.
“Well, he did just that.”
And he did it, Cooper said, in almost fairy tale fashion.
A year ago the Wright state coaches figured Twede — a junior college transfer who had ended up a little-used, back-up infielder — to be a bust and suggested he might want to transfer to someplace else to play this season.
Instead, Twede is now the hottest hitter on the Wright State team and, as Cooper put it, “THE reason we’re in the NCAA Tournament.”
The Raiders — winners of the Horizon League Tournament — play 14th-ranked Texas Christian Friday night, May 29, in Fort Worth. And while he’s glad all of his players are getting this opportunity. Cooper said he’s especially happy for Twede:
“This kid really deserves to go to a regional, get a championship ring and finally get some recognition. Deep down he knew he was this good and once he let himself show it, everybody else is seeing it, too.”
TweetCOLUMN: Twede proves he’s a keeper
As it turns out, Rob Cooper did make a mistake — just not the one he thought he’d made.
Last spring the Wright State baseball coach called back-up infielder Kory Twede into his office for an end-of-the-season review and promptly delivered a withering assessment.
“I told him, ‘Kory, I love ya’ and you’re gonna have your scholarship here, but if you want to play a lot, you’re probably going to need to transfer,’” Cooper admitted. “Basically I was saying, ‘Look man, you’re not gonna play next year.’”
A couple of days later, Twede said he got a call from Raiders’ assistant coach Greg Lovelady who delivered the same news.
Cooper and his staff figured they had rolled the dice on Twede and come up snake eyes.
Before last season they needed a shortstop and, it being late to recruit someone, they called around and heard about a kid playing for Big Bend Community College in central Washington.
Big Bend’s season was over by then, so Cooper flew out, watched Twede take batting practice and field ground balls and from that — and other’s recommendations — offered a scholarship.
But once at Wright State, Twede struggled, other players passed him by and he had a forgettable season. He played in about half the games, started only three, hit .250 and admits, by the end, “I didn’t feel like I belonged.”
Still, the pack-your-bags suggestion stunned him and he told Cooper he needed time to think.
“My first thought was, ‘Do I even want to try to come back?’” he said. “It was an emotional time. I prayed and I especially talked to my dad. He’s everything in the world to me.”
Kory said when he was just eight months old his parents split up and his dad has raised him as a single parent ever since:
“He did it all — instant milk, changing diapers, PTA meetings. Right from the start, he told me he was gonna love me for two parents and through thick and thin, he did just that. Now we talk or text message every single day. He’s my best friend. One day he’ll be the best man in my wedding. He’s just a special guy.”
When he is home, he plays the drums and his dad plays rhythm guitar and sings in a little band they have. They go camping. They confide in each other.
“At a very young age my dad taught me about goals and dreams and the necessary steps you gotta take to get them,” Twede said.. “He taught me about having a positive attitude and working through hardships in life.”
Coming out of high school in Kent, Wash. — where he was captain of his baseball team — Twede said he was recruited by only one junior college and it wasn’t Big Bend: “I had to go through an open tryout for them.”
After two successful junior college seasons, he had only one NCAA Division I school — Wright State — show real interest.
He’d always done enough to keep his baseball dream alive — his dad reminded him of that after the Cooper meeting — and so he said he told the WSU coaches he was staying for his senior season:
“I said ‘What you’ve seen so far isn’t the way I play. I’m going to prove you wrong and, if nothing else, I’ll be a good leader on the bench.’”
Whether it was missing his dad back in Washington, his girlfriend, Lindsey Freeman, who lives in Alabama or just losing confidence on the field — probably a little of each said his dad, Shane Twede — Kory had to regroup.
“l’d lost track of what baseball meant to me,” he said.
Following the old absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder bromide, he stayed away from baseball during the summer, working with a lawn maintenance crew in Alabama, then for his dad in Washington.
When he returned to Wright State in the fall, he was a different player. “He had one of the best fall seasons I’ve ever seen a guy have,” Cooper said. “He carried himself differently. He had more confidence.”
And when he struggled again early this spring, Kory was able to right himself — especially after his dad made a quick trip here — and ended up having “just a great season” Cooper said.
Playing right field, he has appeared in 56 games this season, started 52 and is hitting .332. The guy who had no home runs last year is now second on the team with eight.
In the Horizon League Tournament, he led the Raiders with 12 hits in 22 at bats — including two doubles and two home runs — for a team-best .545 batting average and a .909 slugging percentage.
And with two outs in the ninth inning of the title game Sunday, May 24 — and a berth in the NCAA Tournament on the line — Twede delivered the game-tying RBI against the University of Illinois-Chicago. WSU won in 12 innings — he was named the MVP of the tournament — and now the Raiders play 14th-ranked Texas Christian Friday night in Fort Worth.
“He is THE reason we’re in the NCAA Tournament and I couldn’t be prouder of him,” Cooper said. “There’s nothing I like better than a player who overcomes challenges. Deep down he knew he was good enough to play and once he let himself show it, everybody else could see it, too. I love it when guys prove me wrong.
“I kid around now and say. ‘Man, he showed me just how good of a coach I am. I suggested he leave — that he wasn’t gonna play — and instead he’s the MVP of the Tournament.”
And so, compared to last year, how’s this season winding down between he and his coach?
“He’s giving me lots of hugs these days,” Twede laughed. “Lots of hugs.”
TweetKellen Winslow to Miami vice — the city that continues to amaze
MIAMI — Over the years in Miami — living and working there through the 1970s and 1980s and visiting almost every year since — I’ve seen some things that surprised me.
Back when Miami vice was often a way of life — not just a TV show — two luxury sports cars collided in an intersection right near my house.
Before the cops got there, both drivers pulled themselves from their battered cars and ran…away.
One car was stolen, the other was packed with kilos of cocaine.
In the sports world, two you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it moments come to mind. I covered the NFL game now dubbed The Epic in Miami. It was an 1982 AFC Divisional Play-Off game between San Diego and the Dolphins in the steamy Orange Bowl and it’s considered one of the greatest games in NFL history.
The show that Kellen Winslow — now the Central State athletics director, but then the Chargers’ tight end — put on that day wasn’t just surprising. It was unbelievable.
Although he endured a pinched nerve. dehydration, debilitating cramps and a gashed lip that needed to be stitched up, he carried the Chargers to the 41-38 overtime victory by catching 13 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown and blocking Uwe von Schamann’s winning field goal attempt with four seconds left in regulation.
The photo of him with a towel draped over his head, being helped off the field after the game by two teammates is an enduring image of the NFL.
I was covering the Miami Hurricanes game with Boston College in 1984 — in fact I standing right at the edge of the end zone — when a scrambling Doug Flutie heaved a Hail Mary pass from close to mid-field with time running out and somehow BC’s Gerard Phelan gathered in the ball against three Miami defenders to give the Eagles a stunning 47-45 victory.
And yet, what my wife and I saw at the Fontainebleau Hotel this weekend still surprised me.
It turned supermodel Cheryl Tiegs into a wall flower. Popular actor Matt Damon became little more than an afterthought and even 6-foot-10 NBA star Alonzo Mourning was dwarfed.
It became some of the fodder for the story I wrote that appears both in today’s newspaper and elsewhere on this web page.
It’s about boxing’s future and the past coming together Friday night at the fabled Miami Beach Hotel. And with legends Roberto Duran and Jake LaMotta in the crowd and four trumpeted Cuban defectors — led by two-time Olympic gold medal winner Guillermo Rigondeaux — up in the ring, the fight crowd showered its affection on nothing else.
TweetCOLUMN: “Night of Legends” Creates a Stir
MIAMI — It was a pretty unbelievable scene.
At one ringside table in the Fontainebleau Hotel ballroom sat Alonzo Mourning, one of the most celebrated figures in Miami sports history.
The 16-year NBA veteran and seven-time All-Star played most of his career with the Miami Heat and helped them win an NBA title. Less than two months ago, he became the first Heat player ever to have his number retired and now his charitable foundation is huge in South Florida.
Yet Friday night, May 23, he sat there in his wine-colored shirt and fancy straw fedora and was all but ignored by the crowd.
Two tables away, supermodel Cheryl Tiegs — whose face has graced the covers of magazines like Vogue, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Time and three Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues — wasn’t creating much of a stir either.
And it wasn’t much different for Matt Damon or Kourtney Kardashian at their ringside perches.
This evening was billed “The Night of Legends” but none of the above qualified. Not with this crowd. Not up against the two aging guys sitting at the table between Mourning or Tiegs.
The Fontainebleau — that glitzy Miami Beach hotel where Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley Jackie Gleason Sammy Davis Jr. and Bob Hope once were regulars and movies like Goldfinger and Scarface were shot — reopened six months ago after a $1 billion renovation.
Friday night it hosted an ESPN televised fight show that not only featured four trumpeted Cuban boxers who had recently defected — including two-time Olympic gold medal winner Guillermo Rigondeaux — but also honored Roberto Duran and Jake LaMotta.
DURAN STEALS SHOW
Never mind that Duran, now just a few weeks shy of 58, looks, as someone noted, more like Buddy Hackett than the steaming, petulant Hands of Stone, who knocked out 70 men in 119 fights and won world titles at four different weights.
He was THE center of attention Friday.
And the cowboy-hatted LaMotta — now 87 and far from his Raging Bull Days — held nearly as much sway. He and Duran are boxing Hall of Famers and with this crowd, they were gods.
All night long people streamed to their table seeking photos and autographs and especially a snippet of conversation. Duran especially obliged.
Some 32 years ago here at the Fontainebleau — when he was the coal-haired prince of machismo — I saw him retain his lightweight title with a 13th-round knock-out of Vilomar Fernandez. After that I covered several of his fights in Miami, Las Vegas, even Cleveland.
I’ve listened to him regale late-night tippers at at Caesars Palace lounge with outrageous stories about his pet lion. I’ve seen him take the stage in a Miami nightclub and play the bongo drums with the band and, of course, I know the story about the time an opponent’s irate mom jumped into the ring and tried to clobber him with her stiletto heels. She got kayoed, too.
Duran did things on his terms — and though they sometimes had an edge to them — he became one of my favorite fight personalties.
Friday night he sat with Frankie Otero, whose family fled Cuba for Miami when Fidel Castro came to power. He became a top ten lightweight himself in the early 1970s and was local favorite here.
The Fontainebleau always was a magnet for fighters. Beau Jack — the lightweight champ of the 1940s who headlined Madison Square Garden a record 21 times — shined shoes here after his career.
“Don’t have no pity on me,” he once told me. “I’ve been the champion of the world — been to the top of the mountain — and I met a lot of nice people along the way. I’ve worked hard all my life and I’m doing honest work now.”
Levi Forte — known as The Battling Bellman — still totes bags at the Fontainebleau . He’s worked at the hotel 45 years and he boxed more than 30 of them. He was Muhammad Ali’s sparring partner, fought George Chuvalo twice , Floyd Patterson once and — in 1969 — he became the first man to go 10 rounds with George Foreman, who gave him four broken ribs.
Forte came to Friday night’s show to see the four Cuban fighters, three of whom were making their pro debuts. All had impressive amateur careers and even more enthralling stories of flight from Cuba.
NO TURNING BACK
Rigondeaux had disappeared from the Cuban national team with fellow boxer Erislandy Lara, a welterweight world champ, at the 2007 Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Two weeks later, Brazilian police picked them up and the fighters then said they hadn’t planned to defect and wanted to return home.
A German promoter — who said he signed them to five-year contract during their disappearance — claimed the only reason they agree to return was because Cuban authorities were threatening their families.
Once back in Cuba, the pair felt the wrath of Fidel Castro himself who wrote in an essay for Granma, the regime’s propaganda paper:
“They have reached a point of no return as members of a Cuban boxing team. An athlete who abandons his team is like a soldier who abandons his fellow troops in the middle of combat.”
The two were no longer permitted to fight and soon after Lara escaped again, this time on a speedboat to Mexico.
Rigondeaux finally fled in February — leaving a wife and two kids — with two other boxers Yudel Johnson and Yordanis Despaigne, both former Olympians.
The three won their debuts Friday and Lara upped his pro record to 6-0.
Meanwhile the Cuban national team is feeling the effects of so many defections in recent years. For the first time since 1968 — not counting the two Games it boycotted — Cuba failed to win a boxing gold medal at the Beijing Olympics last summer.
Four Cuban fighters who left the island have won pro titles and many think the 28-year-old Rigondeaux is the best of the lot.
“I have won more than 400 amateur fights so I consider myself more of a professional,” Rigondeaux said as the crowd celebrated his three-round TKO victory with unfurled Cuban flags and the chant “Coo-ba… Coo-ba… Coo-ba.”
And had he looked out into the clamoring masses just then, he would have spotted one very tall man in a fedora pointing a cell phone in his direction.
Alonzo Mourning wanted to capture this moment with a photo of his own.
TweetRemembering Jay Haverstick
Like a lot of people right now, I’m saddened beyond belief to hear of Jay Haverstick’s death. He’s as good of a man as I’ve ever met. He was my friend.
My wife and I live just a couple of blocks away from his Oregon District restaurant and have spent lots of evenings there, enjoying the food and the wine and, especially, him. I’m going to miss his compassion and the way he used to try to get a rise out of my wife, whom he loved to tease. Mostly, I’ll miss that mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
We’d sit together and dish on the comings and goings of Dayton — he loved the city — and we’d talk about his captivating photographs that adorned the south wall of the restaurant and filled his calendars every year. We’d talk about our family and his family. He was especially proud of his daughter Amy coming back home and taking over the business.
We made sure to spend every Christmas Eve at Jay’s. We’d bring him a present, he’d give us a couple of those special calendars, one for us, one for my aging mom.
He and his wife, Idy, and his daughter made us feel like family. I know a lot of people felt the same way about him.
And yet the most special thing he did came not on Christmas Eve, but Christmas Day.
That’s when Jay would serve a free meal to the needy in Dayton. Initially, he was approached by Vickie Evans, who worked at NCR and used to make soup and ladle it out to homeless people at Cooper Park.
Eventually, she talked to Jay — their families knew each other — and the Christmas Day meal at the restaurant became an annual affair.
Jay did a lot of the cooking and would offer the folks who showed up ham, chicken and all the traditional staples that go with a Christmas feast.
His waiters and waitresses served the people and some of his staff would make cookies for the children who came.
When you’d try to pat Jay on the back for this, he always said he was honored to do it. It was his way of giving back to the community. He said he loved to see so many people smile.
Today, so many people are in tears.
- Related article: Jay’s Restaurant owner dies
- Condolences: Share your memories of Jay Haverstick
- Photos: Jay Haverstick through the years
- Blog: A look back at Jay’s Restaurant’s 30 year anniversary
Flying high with Brian Gregory and Jon Gruden
I owe one to Brian Gregory now.
My wife and I were going through security at Dayton International Airport the other morning and there was a glut of bags on the conveyor belt going through the X-ray machine. One of my bags came through and they wanted to check it. And I joined them as soon as I could find my shoes and especially my belt so I didn’t have to keep holding my pants up.
Once I was dressed again and had gotten my bag back, my wife and I grabbed a coffee to go and were beginning our dash for the plane when a security guard I know called out my name and waved my computer in the air.
In the helter-skelter cattle call through security, I had forgotten it. Luckily, a dozen or so people behind me had been Gregory and his wife, Yvette.
We were both to be on the same flight to Charlotte. The Dayton Flyers hoops coach was headed to the A-10 meetings on Florida’s West Coast and I was headed to Miami.
Gregory let the security folks know the computer was mine and, just as they handed it to me, he walked up and smiled:
“There are some days I wish that computer of yours would stay lost.”
We both laughed.
During the season, there were a couple of times he wasn’t smiling over something I wrote. And I understand that. That’s the nature of most coach-sportswriter relationships. And sometimes he’s had a legitimate beef. Other times I thought he overreacted.
But as coaches go, Gregory is pretty easy to deal with.
And that brings me to another coach from UD.
Jon Gruden — the one-time Dayton Flyers back-up quarterback who went on to coach Tampa Bay to the 2003 Super Bowl title in his very first season with the Bucs — was just announced as Tony Kornheiser’s replacement on Monday Night Football.
Kornheiser is deathly afraid of flying and after three years of bus rides, trains and some white-knuckle flights, he saw the 2009 NFL schedule and thought it was too much to take.
Gruden — who surprisingly was fired from his Bucs job in January — was still available. After all, if you believe Central State athletics director Kellen Winslow on this one, Gruden — after a bit of thought — turned down the open CSU football job when it was offered. Sounds like Extreme Fantasy Football to me.
Anyway, Gruden will join Mike Tirico and Ron Jaworski when MNF starts its 40th season this fall. On the big stage I think he’ll be entertaining, energetic and insightful. And as long as they keep a finger on the five-second delay button and delete his expletives, he’ll charm the audience.
And it’s certainly good for UD. Gruden has always carried his Flyers football heritage for all to see and he has publicly sung the praises of Mike Kelly for years.
But I also know guys who dealt with him on a daily basis, especially some in the media, often had a prickly relationship with him. He was not easy to get along with and wasn’t especially open or friendly.
This is a different dynamic ,though, and I think he’ll be a breath of air in the booth. And I think halfway through the season his imagine will be so polished he’ll be everyone’s top candidate for an NFL job.
No John Madden here. I think this will be a one-and-done trip to TV Land and Gruden will be back on the sidelines. I don’t know what kind of out he has in his contract — he refused to talk about it at his MNF press conference — but he might bolt before the end of the season if the right job would open.
As for Kornheiser’s aversion to flying, the other day I was beginning to agree with him.
My wife & I and the Gregorys were supposed to be on a US Air flight — operated by PSA Airlines — to Charlotte. First thing you noticed was no plane at the end of the jetway. And then an hour past flight time, still no plane.
Then PSA announced its computers weren’t working and there would be no flights until that was fixed. And when would that be? They had no clue.
People began to panic. Connections were going to be missed. Some people were being told they couldn’t get a flight out of Dayton until a day later.
With the help of a great lady down at the US Air counter, we got a flight out of Columbus. Of course it meant retrieving our checked bags, getting the car back out of parking, driving to Columbus and going through the whole security process again. But at least I was eating seafood and having fun that night down in Little Havana with my friends.
I don’t know what happened to the Gregorys. I saw them in the line waiting to find a flight. We waved to each other, Gregory called out for us to “have fun” and I told him thanks.
Because of him, I had a computer to write this.
TweetCOLUMN: Monk Meineke tells a story of scandal, murder and UD basketball
It was 55 years ago, but Don “Monk” Meineke remembers every suffocating, surreal detail of that January night in 1954 as if it were yesterday.
After heralded basketball careers at Wilbur Wright High and the University of Dayton, the 6-foot-7 Meineke was playing for the NBA’s Fort Wayne Pistons and living with two teammates — Mel Hutchins and rookie Jack Molinas — in a bachelor-pad apartment on Monroe Street.
“It’s a Saturday evening — about 6:30 — and our coach (Paul Birch) knocks on the door and tells us Zollner (Pistons owner Fred Zollner) wants to talk to all of us about our travel arrangements to the All Star game the next week,” Meineke said.
Although he had been the NBA’s Rookie of the Year the season previous, Meineke hadn’t made this All Star team, so he told Birch he was going to a movie.
“He said. ‘No, I want you to come, too,’” recalled Meineke, who ended up riding with Birch and talking about their under-performing club that had been picked to win the eight-team NBA.
“We got to Zollner’s mansion and the maid lets us in to a room where (Zollner) stood in front of a big Henry VIII chair,” Meineke said. “He wore white silk pajamas and had a long silver cigarette holder. He didn’t say a word, just went over, threw a log on the fire, turned down the lights and finally goes: ‘Okay Guys, we know you’re dumping games. Come clean.”
“On cue, the FBI, the detectives from Fort Wayne and the NBA president walk in.”
They first went to Molinas, their prime target and, to this day, likely the greatest fixer of basketball games in hoops history.
After Molinas was arrested and led out in cuffs, the authorities turned to Meineke.
“They put me in the back seat of a car with an FBI guy next to me, took me to a little interrogation room at the jail and then took turns just pushing me.
“Finally, the guy looks at me and says. ‘Don, we wire-tapped your phone, your house, your car and every road game you played. We want the truth.’
“My career was on the line and my heart was dropping….”
Meineke’s voice suddenly wavered a bit as he rehashed the scene the other day. This was, he said, the first time he’d ever discussed the incident in a sit-down, one-on-one interview.
On Monday, May 18, he plans to stand up in front of his old buddies at the Agonis Club and tell them the truth.
HE WAS BORN BENT
"This story makes Pete Rose look like a choir boy," Meineke said quietly. "In my view — especially for all the lives it ruined — it's bigger than 1919 World Series fix, bigger than Art Schlichter, Maurice Clarett, Michael Vick. It's one of the worst stories in the history of sports.
“It involves fixing and dumping high and colleges games and NBA betting. It involves over 200 players and referees on the payroll. It involves University of Dayton basketball. It’s about the mafia, pornography, prison and murder.”
At the center of it is Molinas, who coupled his New York moxie and smooth basketball skills with a genius IQ and a larcenous heart.
Or, as sportswriter Neil Isaacs, once put it, Jack Molinas was “born bent.”
Meineke agreed: “When he was 12 years old, he bet $8 on the Yankees. In high school (Stuyvesant), he threw the championship game for something like $800. In college (Columbia University) he dumped games for $10,000, then bet them and made more.”
Charley Rosen, who wrote the 2001 book entitled “The Wizard of Odds: How Jack Molinas Almost Destroyed the Game of Basketball,” — a work that also skewers Meineke — summed it up:
“To Molinas, playing a rigged ball game was more exhilarating. than playing it straight. Was it time to kick a pass out of bounds or get called for a three seconds violation? Or should he go on a scoring binge …Molinas loved the idea of playing so many secret games at the same time.”
The Pistons made him the fourth overall pick in the 1953 NBA draft, gave him a $9,600 contract with a $500 bonus — both big back then — and, until he blossomed , made him Meineke’s back-up.
Along with Hutchins, the three unmarried players shared their $75-a-month place and often hosted parties that included guys from the other teams. “Jack was a lot of fun,” Meineke said. “He spoke four languages, was a gourmet cook and he always was looking for action.
“He’d see two drips of water on the window pane and bet you which rolled down first.
“I remember one night after we played the Lakers, he said, ‘Monk, I bet you a steak next game I score 25 points. He didn’t say 24 or 26, he said 25. I was starting in front of him, so I said sure, then forgot about it.
“But sure enough, with two minutes left, he’s on the foul line and gives me that big, toothy grin and makes one shot, then the next And by God that was 25 points and I had to buy a steak.”
But the seemingly harmless hustling took a far more serious turn, Meineke claims, when Molinas later asked both he and Hutchins if they wanted to “make $200 to $300 extra” every time they played.
INTERROGATED BY FBI
“They had me in that interrogation room for a couple of hours,” Meineke said. “I remember going to the bathroom and splashing water on my face. I wanted to keep my senses. And then they’d come with the questions again:
“Did you bet on any NBA games?”…”No.”
“Did you know Jack Molinas was betting?”…”Yes.”
“Did he ask you if you wanted yo bet?”… “Yes.”
“What did you tell him?”… “No, it’s not right.”
Although Meineke was released, he was sent to New York with the the team’s three All Star players because he was told the Manhattan district attorney wanted to talk to him.
In his book Rosen surmised: “The implications were unmistakable. Zollner and Birch had turned up evidence that (Larry) Foust, (Andy) Phillip, Hutchins and Meineke were tainted by the same scandal that besmirched Molinas.”
Meineke disputes that assertion and said once he was in New York, no authorities ever talked to him.
Molinas, though, was permanently barred from the NBA and after that Meineke said he heard just twice from him:
“When we were in New York, he’d call me to leave him tickets. I told him I couldn’t, but I said, ‘You’re my friend. I can meet you after the game.’ So we’d designate a corner — say like 48th and Broadway — and he’d pick me up in a big limo. He’d have a college kid driving and he be back with some beautiful girl that looked like Ava Gardner and we’d go to the 21 Club.”
Meineke played one more season with Fort Wayne and another with Rochester before retiring for a year and then coming back in 1957 for a final season with the Cincinnati Royals.
In all he played 343 NBA games before returning to Dayton. Six weeks ago — at a very-fit looking 79 years of age — he finally retired from the security business he ran.
After his banishment, Molinas played several years in the Eastern League, got a law degree and began showing up at college campuses, Meineke said, buying players “with money and girls.”
He also was said to have drugged a boxer before a match, fixed a shocking device to a race horse and, Meineke said, got a guy from Con Ed to alter the power to a gambling house so the clock slowed just enough that he could bet races that had just ended.
Between 1957 and 1961, Rosen said Molinas — who was tied to mobsters Vincent “The Chin” Gigante and Tommy “Ryan” Eboli — had his hooks into at least 27 college programs, including St. Johns, UConn, Alabama, St. Joseph’s, Bowling Green, NC State, Seton Hall, LaSalle and NYU. At least 67 games were found to have been fixed. and some 37 players were arrested.
“He ruined a lot more lives than that,” Meineke said. “I bet at one time he had 200 players, referees and bookies on his payroll.”
Among the casualties was Dayton Flyers freshman sensation Roger Brown, who — along with Connie Hawkins, another New York City schoolboy sensation — had been befriended by Molinas.
During Labor Day weekend in 1960, Brown was driving Molinas’ Pontiac convertible around New York City when he was in a fender bende. That led to problems that eventually would get him forced out at UD and banned for several years from the NBA. In the process, UD was put on NCAA sanctions for flying him to New York for his hearing and some other minor infractions.
Molinas was arrested again in 1963, spent five years in prison and then moved to Hollywood, where he trafficked pornography and lived with a 19-year-old porn star.
In 1974, after his business partner Bernard Gusoff was beaten to death, he collected on the $500,000 life insurance policy. Finally, a year later, he was shot dead in the backyard of his Hollywood Hills home. Many speculated a mob hit.
ON THE DEFENSE
Molinas was said to be the inspiration of Burt Reynolds’ movie “The Longest Yard.” And some 10 years ago, Meineke got a letter saying Spike Lee was interested in a Molinas film.
He heard no more about that, nor did he talk to Rosen, who ended up using a transcript of telephone interview with Meineke done 33 years ago by the late New York sportswriter Phil Berger.
“I’d say maybe 85 percent of the book is on the money,” Meineke said. “Some of it though was just Jack trying to cover his rear end and that (ticked) me off.”
In Rosen’s book, Molinas claimed Meineke also bet games and later called him with inside information. Rosen also quoted Hall of Fame player George Yardley, who said that the league quietly forced a few of the players suspected of “doing bususiness” with gamblers into retirement.
Meineke scoffs at that: “After I retired, I returned to play a full season with the Royals. If the league had concerns they wouldn’t have allowed me to return.”
As for Monday’s speech — he’ll be introduced by Don Donoher — Meineke said, “I feel like I’m going into the finals of the NCAA Tournament. I’m excited and a little nervous, but that’s the way it was with any big game. You always want to do your best.”
Unless, of course, you were Jack Molinas.
TweetCOLUMN: Toughman at Neon Movies
No sooner had Doug Paul begun taking film classes at Wright State than his dad — Dr. Douglas Paul — began giving him ideas.
“Every week he was like, ‘I’ve got a great idea for a movie for you,” Doug laughed. “One week it was this antique shop and where everything came from.”
Another time he suggested Doug follow his grandfather, a Marine fighter pilot who had battled cancer and now was flying again after some 30 years. Then there was the idea about a hermit who only left his house to go to the doctor.
As Doug was searching for a subject for the thesis film he and fellow WSU student Rocky Smith would collaborate on, Dr. Paul suggested the Toughman Contest and the January 2005 show at Hara Arena where Steve Burress, a 27-year old father of two from Martins Ferry, died from brain injuries suffered in a bout.
The trauma chief at Good Samaritan Hospital, Dr. Paul tried to save Burress. Since then he’s become a vocal critic of Toughman.
Doug and Rocky — who four years ago teamed up on a documentary about the Springboro High football team — first debated doing the Toughman story, then its tenor. They decided to present all sides of the debate.
Both know sports. Doug was a standout soccer player at Northmont High a decade ago and is now one of school’s soccer coaches. Rocky played football at Springboro, was a WSU cheerleader and now coaches tumbling, stunts and cheerleading in the area.
When he was nine years old, Rocky — who recently graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Motion Picture Production from WSU — took the family camera and made his first film.
“It was my version of the Jurassic Park movie with my little toys,” he grinned. “I’ve been filming little stories ever since.”
As for Doug, the foray into film came much later:
“Out of high school, it took me a couple of years to find myself. I went to Ohio University, then Ohio State. At OSU, I bought a video camera and started filming stuff just for fun. When I got into film school here, it took just a couple of quarters to realize this is where I was supposed to be.”
To make this documentary — entitled “Toughman ” — they talked to Burress’ family and friends, Josh Snow, the opponent in that fateful bout, Steve Coppler, the president of The Original Toughman Contest, Dr. Paul and me because I had written several stories on Burress and Toughman.
They also followed “Bam Bam” Blake Groh, a former Northmont wrestler, as he fought in the Toughman competition at Hara.
They ended up with a compelling 30-minute documentary — two years in the making — that’s part of WSU’s Big Lens Festival debuted Friday night and plays again tonight at the Neon Movies during the FilmDayton Festival.
“After our test screenings people really were debating the issues, so I feel the film is working,” Rocky said.
But the audience that most concerns them is the Burress family, who plan to catch Sunday’s show, and everybody from Dr. Paul to Snow and Groh, who were to be there Friday night.
“Blake’s been calling the past few weeks,” Doug said the other day. “He’s anxious to see the film, but he wonders how he comes off.”
Groh — like anyone else who sees it — won’t be disappointed.
TweetUD’s Wabler, Deloitte’s Bentley head downtown arena team
Tim Wabler, the University of Dayton director of athletics, and Ed Bentley, the managing partner of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, have agreed to co-chair the task force that will decide the feasibility of a multi-purpose arena and recreation center for downtown Dayton.
The pair will meet for the first time Friday morning with Downtown Dayton Partnership officials and Dr. Michael Ervin, the retired physician and businessman, who is sort of the Wizard of Oz of redevelopment plans for Dayton’s urban core. By June, they will add other members to their task force.
“Tim and Ed bring great credibility to the task force,” said Ervin who co-chairs the Greater Downtown Dayton Plan. “Tom knows all about operations and Ed is head of one of the largest accounting firms and has the financial background.
“We’re trying to approach this the same way we approached minor league baseball and the Dayton Dragons. We’re going to look at the arena idea systematically, objectively and unemotionally to see if it is financially feasible. And if it is, then where would be the best spot for it.”
Wabler said he is looking forward to the challenge:
“I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this. It enables me to be involved in the community and I think it’s great for the University of Dayton to be connected like this. Whatever (personnel) resources I can draw on from UD, I will. We want to help as much as we can.
“From my perspective, if it’s financially sound, this is something that would be good for the city and good for all of us.”
Initial proposals had the downtown arena’s capacity at 5,000 to 5,500. UD Arena is just over twice that size. Wabler said he sees no conflict between the two facilities: “To the contrary, I think they would complement each other.”
Ervin reached out to Wabler because he’s worked with him before. When Wabler was the assistant AD to Ted Kissell, Ervin was on the UD Board of Trustees and served as Chairman of the Athletics Committee.
Bentley was on the committee that brought baseball to Dayton and he’s treasurer of the Downtown Dayton Partnership. That’s where he knows Ervin from and says of him: “Mike’s a strong supporter of Dayton and I like being around people like that.”
One plan initially proposed by Costa Papista, the owner of the financially-strapped and, at least, temporarily-mothballed Dayton Bomber hockey team, suggested an arena and recreation center — which would include two sheets of skating ice — be built on the site of Dave Hall Plaza downtown and connect to the Crowne Plaza Hotel and, by the existing skyway, to the Dayton Convention Center.
A pro hockey team would have been just one tenant, playing 40 games a year and using the practice ice. The main bent of the project was to have a dawn-to-midnight recreation facility for youth hockey, high school and college teams, adult leagues, figure skating and open skating, as well as a mid-sized concert hall and additional display space for the Convention Center.
Ervin said the city is also now drawing on the expertise of Montgomery County officials, who had looked at putting up an events center at the new Austin Pike exit off Interstate 75 just south of the city.
“They’re one of our partners in evaluating this now and are sharing their information with due diligence,” Ervin said.
Ervin said the ever-evolving plan for downtown Dayton’s reinvigoration is getting a variety of suggestions — from adding affordable downtown housing “for thousands” of people to turning the city into one of the Midwest’s premier outdoor recreation centers.
That could include everything from making the city a bike-friendly destination to adding skateboard parks and using the rivers and dams for white-water rafting.
It’s all about drawing people — and the vibrancy that comes with them — downtown and that plays to Bentley’s instincts.
“I’m an optimist by trait — we’ve got enough pessimists out there already,” he said. “It’s like I’ve told my kids. If you don’t try out for the team, you’ve got no chance of making it. And even if you fail, the worst that happens is that you’re back where you started. So why not go for it?”
TweetMiami Cuts Ties with Anderson, now a “Division II steal”
Mark Anderson, the two-time junior college All American at Sinclair Community College, has been given his official release from Miami University and now is being recruited “by pretty much everyone” — as Tartan Pride coach Jeff Price puts it — at the NCAA Division II level.
“This is a Division II steal,” Price said of the 6-foot-7 forward out of Dunbar High, who had been the two-time Ohio Community College Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
At present, Division II national champion Findlay is recruiting Anderson, as is Ashland University, West Virginia State, Central State, Fairmont State ( W. Va.) the University of Indianapolis, the University of Charleston (W. Va.) and the NAIA’s Georgetown College in Kentucky.
My bet is Anderson ends up at the University of Charleston.
Price wouldn’t speculate, but said he believes Anderson will make his decision in the next week to 10 days.
Anderson had committed to the RedHawks last year, but fell short in the classroom this year and will not be academically eligible to transfer to Miami.
I think he had some people in his ear — but not in his best interests — who told him not to worry so much about his studies this season, that advancing to Division I basketball was a “gimme.” Some of these same hangers on helped derail him coming out of high school and he spent a year mostly out of school.
When we sat down and talked during the season, Anderson — who is a good kid, extremely talented on the court and a little naive away from it — seemed to have his sights set more on the NBA than Miami, which was a real mistake. He had a golden opportunity — a chance to get a degree from a good school while being mentored by a gem of a coach in Charlie Coles — there for the taking.
It didn’t help that he wasn’t around Miami that much this past season. He often was playing games the same nights the RedHawks were. And he didn’t have a car, so making the 50-mile trip to Oxford from Dayton was difficult for him to make most of the time.
It’s not like some of those UD recruits — Juwan Staten and Matt Kavanaugh this past season and. before them, current Flyers Josh Benson and Chris Wright — who were fixtures at Dayton games as they waited to join the team. They weren’t just in the stands at games, they were always in the dressing room afterward.
When you’re around something a lot and make friendships and feel the excitement of the program, it becomes more real. And you become more committed.
Price said he had a heartfelt talk with Anderson recently about his options:
“I said, ‘I could spend the next 45 minutes scolding you on what’s happened, but that’s water under the bridge. We can’t change it, but we can get ready for what’s next.
” ‘I know you are disappointed, but I’m proud of you now that you’ve hit a road block, you haven’t quit. And remember there were a lot of naysayers way before this who said you’d never get this far. You proved them wrong once and now you can do it again. And you’ve still got a great opportunity to get an education and continue playing basketball.’
“He’s back on track with us now and I think he’ll turn this into something positive.”
In the meantime, Sinclair freshman guard Kevin Vest from Carroll High is exploring his options and deciding whether he wants to jump to a four-year school. He could possibly be a role player at some Division I schools or an impact player at D-II. He has visited Ashland, Fairmont State and Indianapolis. He also could return to Sinclair for his sophomore season.
The Tartan Pride’s sophomore point guard Jonathan Tate is headed to Lake Erie University and walk-on Grant Shellabarger out of Franklin Monroe High, is going to West Virginia Tech.
In the next couple of weeks, Price likely will sign a pair of 6-foot-10, 280-pound players from Kentucky. Yet, even with all that added beef, it will be difficult to find someone to carry the kind of weight Anderson did on the court.
He led the nation’s junior college players in scoring as a freshman with 25.6 points per game and was fifth in the nation as a sophomore, averaging 24.8 p.p.g.
TweetJack Kemp and Mike Tyson — CSU’s Odd Couple
When I heard Jack Kemp died a little over a week ago, I thought back to a surreal situation he was involved in here 20 years ago.
The once great pro football quarterback was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the first President George Bush when he showed up in 1989 at Central State University, accompanied by heavyweight champ Mike Tyson and shock-haired fight promoter Don King.
In a move CSU probably wishes it could take a mulligan on, the school awarded Tyson an Honorary Doctorate in Human Letters as King and Kemp — and much of the CSU student body and faculty — looked on. And that’s when Tyson looked out from the stage at the big crowd and offered his memorable line:
“I wasn’t sure what kind of doctor I was, but looking at all the lovely sisters here, I think I’ll be a doctor of gynecology.”
The crack brought hoots of delight from many of the students, but elicited disgust from some faculty members, a few who walked out. Kemp just shook his head and when I mentioned it to him later, it was obvious he was more than embarrassed — he was angry.
There were a lot of things I liked about Jack Kemp — his integrity, his perseverance and especially the way he treated his black teammates and black folks in general.
The latter stood out that day at Central State.
While Tyson’s concerns on this trip appeared mostly carnal — he was here, especially in Dayton the night before, to flirt and fornicate and King was always the consummate con man, Kemp actually seemed to listen to and care about the students he talked to that day in Wilberforce.
That didn’t surprise me.
From his days as an All-Star quarterback in the old American Football League — playing for the Los Angeles Chargers and the Buffalo Bills, whom he twice led to AFL titles — he showed a real respect for his black teammates.
He was especially appreciative of the black linemen who protected him.
He was the founder and president of the AFL Players Association and in 1965 he supported a boycott of the league’s All Star game in New Orleans by black players who were banned from nightclubs, cabs and certain restaurants in the city. His influence helped get the game moved to Houston.
Coming out of high school, he was snubbed by major colleges because he was small. He ended up at Occidental, had a good career and was a late draft pick of the Detroit Lions, who cut him. After a very brief stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he tried to latch on with the New York Giants and Canadian Football League Calgary Stampeders. Both teams cut him.
He finally caught on in the AFL and ended up the league’s No. 1 quarterback in several career passing categories. Politics followed He was a Republican congressman for 18 years — he believed in sharp tax cuts to promote economic growth — was Secretary of HUD and in 1996 he was Bob Dole’s running mate in their failed bid for the presidency.
Since his death, one famous Kemp quote has been revived and I love it.
In 1970, when someone asked him why in the world he thought his football experience qualified him for Congress, he threw a verbal touchdown:
“Pro football gave me a good sense of perspective to enter politics. I’d already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded and hung in effigy.”
TweetCOLUMN: Dee Haster — Motown name, Miami Valley fame
Her dad had rough-housed with her three older sisters when they were little, but when she was born — the baby of the family — he decided things would be different.
“I was going to be the family’s ‘little girl’,” she said with a laugh.
“But that didn’t happen. I was never in the Brownies. I was a Cub Scout. At least, until my pinewood derby car beat the boys and they kicked me out.”
She played Little League baseball, raced go-karts and while two of her older sisters took up the piano and the other played saxophone, she gravitated to the drums.
“I always was the tomboy,” she smiled. “And my dad — he ended up calling me Joe.”
Some things certainly have changed in the 50-some years since, and yet a lot have not.
She did end up with a more feminine nickname and you can see it at the Stebbins High gymnasium where they recently christened the “Dee Hastler Court”.
And while there’s still plenty of tomboy in her — before sitting and reminiscing the other day, she’d been out working on the Indians’ sports fields with her jeep-like John Deere Gator — Hastler’s also a loving mother and doting grandmother.
And yet this Mother’s Day weekend, she spent more than 24 hours straight — from midday Friday, May 8, through the night and into Saturday afternoon — at the Stebbins track as director of the school’s Relay for Life, a 33-team celebration and fund raiser for the American Cancer Society. Last year the event raised $55,000.
A pioneer in women’s sports in the Miami Valley, Hastler was a standout athlete herself at Stebbins in the 1960s and has spent the past 39 1/2 years either as the Indians girls basketball coach or the school’s athletics director.
Now 62, she’s scheduled to retire June 30th. But until then there’s no slowing down.
The other day was another 14-hour marathon of coaching interviews, a Central Buckeye Conference meeting, patrolling the school cafeteria on lunch duty and working on sports fields
And had the Gator broken down, she could have fixed it, too.
“Racing go-karts, I learned a little about engines,” she laughed. “The guys here used to take bets to see if I could get the (machinery) started, but a couple of coaches who knew me always warned ‘em: ‘Don’t ever bet against, Dee.’”
MAKING A NAME FOR HERSELF
If you were putting her story to music — and didn’t need a drum solo — the song might be “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” the R & B hit Diana Ross covered and took to No. 1 in 1970
It’s apropos because Dee Hastler’s was born Diana Ross.
“Yeah, but I can’t sing a lick,” she laughed. And when her sister couldn’t say Diana and started calling her Dee Dee, the name stuck.
By high school, Dee Dee Ross was making quite a name for herself through sports, although times were different.
“I’d love to be reborn now,” she said. “We didn’t have fancy uniforms, our own locker rooms or any athletic scholarships for girls.”
She played basketball at Bowling Green and after graduating in December, 1969, was hired immediately as a phys ed teacher at Spinning Hills Middle School. She started the girls’ athletic programs there, began coaching at Stebbins — had two district title teams — and in 1982 became one of the area’s first women ADs.
She had married her high school sweetheart, Russell Hastler, in 1970 and over the next 11 years had a daughter, Heather, then a son, Derrick.
“I can remember bringing my daughter to games and when the JV was playing, we’d sit together somewhere and color,” Dee said.
When Derrick was born with a cleft lip and palate, he required several surgeries his first couple of years.
“She’d come to the hospital after practice, sleep in the room, shower and go to school the next day,” Derrick said.
Ron Coleman, now an assistant principal at Stebbins, but formerly the Indians basketball coach, chorused what many say:
“She is the most well-rounded sports person I’ve been around in my 35 years at this. She’s the epitome of what a coach and an administrator can be. And she was great with her own kids.”
Dee smiles at such praise, but made an admission:
“My mom was the head cook here at Stebbins when I was in school and she was really good. And my three older sisters are wonderful cooks. But my kids grew up on whatever Betty Crocker had in a box. When crock pots and microwaves came along, they thought they were in heaven.”
When they were small, if the kids weren’t at Stebbins events — Derrick eventually became the football team’s water boy — they’d wait up at home for their mom after her games and practices.
“Their dad already had given them their baths and had their jammies on them, so I could come in and read them a bedtime story or just cuddle them until they fell asleep,” Dee said.
Heather — now a school teacher at Brantwood Elementary, while Derrick teaches at Tay’s Valley High south of Columbus — said: “Even with all her time at school, Mom made our lives seem just like all the other kids.”
And then she started laughing: “Well…I do remember one time she got kicked out of a game and they had to let her back in the gym just to come get me.”
OLD SCHOOL, BUT GOOD SCHOOL
Except for a nearly-deflated football commemorating a big game in 1986 and a book entitled “Slap Hitting 101”, Hastler’s office is without most of its old sports props. She’s taken a lot home already.
“I’ve been involved with this school my whole life and while my mind and heart are still here, my body’s wearing out,” she said quietly. “It’s time to give someone younger a chance. But I’m a Type A personality, so I know I’ll have some adjustments to make.”
Derrick laughed: “I worry about Dad. She’s got a list of things for him to do.”
Russell had a stroke a few years ago and it effected his eyesight. He’s house-bound so Dee will help him, baby-sit Heather’s four-year -old son Jacob, and stay involved in several Stebbins’ projects.
“She’s old school, but she’s good school,” said Coleman. “She truly loves Stebbins and the kids here.”
As for her legacy, she didn’t mention the games she won or how she built up the Stebbins sports programs:
“What always made me feel great was to see a kid smile. They might not have been the best athlete, but to see them make their first basket, make a steal or get hit — to see that look on their face — that’s what brought me back every day. That’s what it’s about — getting someone to be a little more than they were the day before.”
Sort of like going from the family’s “little girl” to a pioneer of women’s sports.
TweetBilly Staten: “Time for someone to step in” with Juwan
Even before he gets to Oak Hill Academy, Juwan Staten’s basketball will take him on a whirlwind national tour.
The junior point guard who led Thurgood Marshall High to the Division II state title game six weeks ago and is verbally committed to go to the University of Dayton in 2010 will spend the summer at some of the most elite, invitation-only basketball camps in the country.
He’s been chosen to take part in the Deron Williams Skills Academy at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Sponsored by Nike, it’s for the top point guards in the nation.
LeBron James also invited him to his Nike-sponsored skills camp in Akron in July. That’s for the top 80 high school players from the nation. Staten also will take part in the NBA’s Top 100 Prospects camp at the University of Virginia in June.
And then there’s his national travel almost every weekend with his All-Ohio Red AAU team.
As for Oak Hill, its an elite basketball program embedded in a tiny Baptist-affiliated school that’s located in an unincorporated crossroads — called Mouth of Wilson, Va. — in the Appalachian Mountains just above the North Carolina state line.
It couldn’t be much different than Dayton and Thurgood Marshall High.
Oak Hill has around 100 students and two barnstorming basketball teams that travel more than most colleges. Last year the Warriors played 42 games, finishing 41-1 after losing the so-called Nike-hyped national title game to Findlay Prep, another hoops factory out of Nevada.
Staten will be seeing a steady diet of folks from basketball’s college programs — places like Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas — who are regulars at Oak Hill games.
And no wonder. Over the past 25 years, the school has sent over 150 players to NCAA Division I schools and nearly three dozen to the NBA.
First round draft picks Carmelo Anthony Rajon Rondo, Rod Strickland, Josh Smith, Marcus Williams, William Avery, Jerry Stackhouse and Cory Alexander all played there.
And that caught Staten’s attention.
“I’m really excited, kind of ecstatic really,” Staten said. “When I was younger, I’d hear some of those names and it seemed like something so far fetched for me to be a part of. I honored to go there now.”
Staten — who committed to Oak Hill without ever visiting the school — said he knows three or four of the players currently there and Billy Staten, Juwan’s dad, said his son and several Warriors players text message each other regularly.
“Oak Hill is the epitome of a high school basketball program,” Billy said. “The benefits by far outweigh the negatives. This is situation that will impact him the rest of his life..”
And will that life still include the University of Dayton?
Juwan — as do his parents — insists he’s “100 percent committed to UD.” He said he’s going to Oak Hill to polish his game and be college ready when he puts on a Flyers uniform.
Billy Staten coached the Thurgood Marshall team a year ago when Cougars head coach John Ralph was on a season-long leave. When Ralph came back this past season, Staten — who had been an assistant coach before his interim duties — said he was not asked back on the staff.
Underneath all this there was some strain and that may have added into Juwan’s departure..
“I’ve taken Juwan as far as I can take him and it’s time for someone to step in and work with him until he goes to UD,” Billy said. “That can happen at Oak Hill.”
A lot of things can happen at Oak Hill.
TweetCOLUMN: Juwan Staten stuns local hoops world
His announcement has rocked the local basketball world and drawn a wide range of response - everything from congratulations to criticism to a spirited debate among University of Dayton fans about the soundness of his commitment to the Flyers.
Juwan Staten announced Wednesday, May 6, that he plans to transfer out of Thurgood Marshall High, who he just led to a Division II state runners-up finish, and play next season for Oak Hill Academy, the prep power that plays a coast-to-coast schedule and has sent many players on to top college programs and the NBA.
“It’s been bittersweet,” admitted the 16-year-old junior point guard. “I’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play with the premier team in the country and a lot of people are happy for me.
“The bitter has been feeling like I’m leaving some unfinished business and having some people tell me today that I’m being selfish.”
As for the verbal promise he made to join the Flyers in 2010, he said, “my commitment to UD is 100 percent.”
His mom, Cecilia Hill, who works at Marshall, agreed: “It’s rock solid. There’s absolutely no wavering. UD’s not just getting him, it’s getting an entire family.”
Staten said he’s not going to the Mouth of Wilson, Va. school - which has just 100 students and two heralded hoops teams - to “get my name out there and find a bigger school. I’m going because I can come back in a year with a game that’s college ready.”
His dad, Billy Staten, said Oak Hill “has nothing to do with UD. It’s not about exposure. After the nationals with his AAU team last year, he had the ACC, SEC, Big 10 and Big East all showing interest.
“But you go to a college that fits you. A lot of kids have been ruined going to big-name schools and then getting lost in the shuffle. You go where you feel most comfortable.”
And while it’s not often talked about, there was some discomfort for Staten at Marshall this season. A year ago, head coach John Ralph was on a season-long leave and Billy Staten was the interim head coach. When Ralph returned this past season. Staten said he was not asked to remain on staff.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a hard year,” Billy said.
Juwan has never said anything about it publicly and many Cougar fans figured with their team graduating only one player, the future looked bright.
UD feels the same, but some followers now wonder - with some other schools still recruiting Staten through second parties, - about his future.
“I’d also be lying to say he hasn’t sometimes wondered if he should have waited,” Billy said. “It’s like a guy who falls in love and gets married at 20, then sees all these pretty girls walking around and for a minute wonders if he should have gotten married at 25.”
Juwan laughed at that:
“Sure, sometimes I see how many college coaches come to our AAU games now and I think, ‘None of them are here to see me anymore.’
“But right after that, I think of all great things UD has done for me already and how much more will come and I don’t regret it at all. I love all the guys, the coaches and being able to get everything I want so close to home.”
That is, after first going so far away.
TweetStaten still ‘rock solid’ with UD
Juwan Staten plans to transfer out of Thurgood Marshall High later this month and play his final year of high school basketball at Oak Hill Academy, the national hoops powerhouse in Mouth of Wilson, Va., but his mother said his commitment to the University of Dayton remains “100 percent rock solid.”
Staten, the junior point guard who led Marshall to the Division II state championship game in March and was named the tournament’s MVP even though his team lost the title to Akron St. Vincent St. Mary, had made a verbal commitment to attend UD in 2010.
“He is definitely committed to UD,” Staten’s mother, Cecilia Hill, said Wednesday. “There is absolutely no wavering there. UD’s not just getting him, it’s getting an entire family.”
While she said the family hasn’t officially signed the papers to go to Oak Hill, the school has made an offer and she said “I think it’s a go.”
Joining Oak Hill would put Staten on a national stage. The team travels the nation playing games and is followed Pied Piper style by coaches from the top college programs in the nation.
Last month, Oak Hill — ranked No. 1 in the nation much of the season — lost the so-called national championship game to unbeaten Findlay Prep of Nevada, 74-66.
While just before the state tournament Staten admitted schools like West Virginia, Ohio State and Cincinnati were still recruiting him and that “nothing is set in stone” with UD, his actions have shown a real embrace of the Flyers program.
When he got his drivers license, the first place he drove to on his own was the UD campus, where the Flyers basketball team was practicing. When he walked in the door of the practice facility, several UD players flocked to him to find out how he’d done on his driver’s test.
He beamed as he told them he’d driven himself to UD.
When UD was out in Atlantic City for the Atlantic 10 tournament in early March, Staten’s Thurgood Marshall team played a tournament game at UD Arena. While there, he managed to slip into the UD dressing room and on the big chalkboard in the middle of the team’s quarters, he wrote “GO FLYERS …Juwan Staten was here.”
Scenes like that underscore his mom’s “rock solid” commitment claim to UD.
As for his final year at high school, it was obvious there were some bumpy times at Thurgood Marshall for Staten.
His sophomore year, his dad, Bill Staten, had coached the Cougars, while head coach John Ralph, was on a school-mandated. season long leave.
This season Ralph came back and the elder Staten — who had been involved in the program in years past — was no longer part of the coaching staff in any capacity.
When asked about it, Juwan was always very diplomatic and never said anything derogatory, but you could sense a strain.
I think from his side Ralph felt it, as well.
The other point in this transfer is that Staten will be playing with some of the best talent in the nation, something he already is familiar with by playing in AAU tournaments all across the country.
In the past 25 years, more than 150 Oak Hill players have gotten NCAA Division I scholarships and more than two dozen have gone on to the NBA.
The list of Oak Hill players who were first round picks in the NBA includes Carmelo Anthony, Rajon Rondo, Ron Mercer, Jerry Stackhouse, Josh Smith, Marcus Williams, Rod Strickland, Cory Alexander, Jeff McInnis and DeSagana Diop.
No Oak Hill player has ever gone to UD before and this could, at least, put the Flyers on the radar of future Oak Hill players in search of a school.
TweetJack Kemp’s visit to CSU with the “Gynecologist” wannabe
When I heard Jack Kemp died last Saturday evening, I thought back to a surreal situation he was involved in here 20 years ago.
The once great pro football quarterback was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the first President George Bush when he showed up in 1989 at Central State University, accompanied by heavyweight champ Mike Tyson and shock-haired fight promoter Don King.
In a move CSU probably wishes it could take a mulligan on, the school awarded Tyson an Honorary Doctorate in Human Letters as King and Kemp — and much of the CSU student body and faculty — looked on. And that’s when Tyson looked out from the stage at the big crowd and offered his memorable line:
“I wasn’t sure what kind of doctor I was, but looking at all the lovely sisters here, I think I’ll be a doctor of gynecology.”
The crack brought hoots of delight from many of the students, but elicited disgust from some faculty members, a few who walked out. Kemp just shook his head and when I mentioned it to him later, it was obvious he was more than embarrassed — he was angry.
There were a lot of things I liked about Jack Kemp — his integrity, his perseverance and especially the way he treated his black teammates and black folks in general.
The latter stood out that day at Central State.
While Tyson’s concerns on this trip appeared mostly carnal — he was here, especially in Dayton the night before, to flirt and fornicate and King was always the consummate con man, Kemp actually seemed to listen to and care about the students he talked to that day in Wilberforce.
That didn’t surprise me.
From his days as an All-Star quarterback in the old American Football League — playing for the Los Angeles Chargers and the Buffalo Bills, whom he twice led to AFL titles — he showed a real respect for his black teammates.
He was especially appreciative of the black linemen who protected him.
He was the founder and president of the AFL Players Association and in 1965 he supported a boycott of the league’s All Star game in New Orleans by black players who were banned from nightclubs, cabs and certain restaurants in the city. His influence helped get the game moved to Houston.
Coming out of high school, he was snubbed by major colleges because he was small. He ended up at Occidental, had a good career and was a late draft pick of the Detroit Lions, who cut him. After a very brief stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he tried to latch on with the New York Giants and Canadian Football League Calgary Stampeders. Both teams cut him.
He finally caught on in the AFL and ended up the league’s No. 1 quarterback in several career passing categories. Politics followed He was a Republican congressman for 18 years — he believed in sharp tax cuts to promote economic growth — was Secretary of HUD and in 1996 he was Bob Dole’s running mate in their failed bid for the presidency.
Since his death, one famous Kemp quote has been revived and I love it.
In 1970, when someone asked him why in the world he thought his football experience qualified him for Congress, he threw a verbal touchdown:
“Pro football gave me a good sense of perspective to enter politics. I’d already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded and hung in effigy.”
TweetCoaches’ Poll: Gregory, Brownell
In a vote of the state’s coaches, the Dayton Flyers Brian Gregory finished seventh for the Ohio men’s college basketball coach of the year award.
Wright State’s Brad Brownell was tied for eighth with Central State’s Doug Lewis and Wilmington’s K.C. Hunt. Miami’s Charlie Coles and Cedarville’s Pat Estepp tied for 12th.
The landslide winner in the voting — which is conducted annually by The Columbus Dispatch — was Findlay’s Ron Niekamp, who just led the Oilers to a perfect 36-0 season and the NCAA Division II national title. In 24 seasons, Niekamp has won 550 games at Findlay. That averages out to about 23 victories per season.
Niekamp has strong ties to the Miami Valley area. He’s from St. Henry, where he and his brothers all played basketball. His brother Joe is the current Redskins basketball coach and brother Pat coaches at Fort Recovery.
Also, Capital coach Damon Goodwin, who finished sixth in the voting, has local ties. Originally from St. Marys, he played for the Dayton Flyers in the mid-1980s and is 29th among UD’s all-time career scorers with 1,191 points.
Thirty-one college coaches took part in the vote. First place votes were worth three points, second place two and third place was good for one point. Niekamp got 23 of the first place votes. Gregory, Xavier’s Sean Miller, Cleveland State’s Gary Waters and Akron’s Keith Dambrot each got two first place votes.
The Dispatch’s voting results:
— Ron Niekamp, Findlay, 72 points
— Sean Miller, Xavier, 30
— Gary Waters, Cleveland State, 28
— Keith Dambrot, Akron, 14
— Mike Moran, John Carroll, 13
— Damon Goodwin, Capital, 9
— Brian Gregory, Dayton, 8
— Brad Brownell, Wright State, 2
— K.C. Hunt, Wilmington, 2
— Doug Lewis, Central State, 2
— Louis Orr, Bowling Green, 2
— Charlie Coles, Miami, 1
— Pat Estepp, Cedarville, 1
TweetCOLUMN: Trotwood’s Will Henry — Born Fast
He always has been in a rush to get somewhere.
“He wasn’t supposed to be born until June, but in January already I went into premature labor while I was at work,” Lynette Henry was saying of her son, Will. “I didn’t realize what was happening until they got me into the hospital and told me that I’d lost my mucus plug. I had dilated and pretty much he was on the way out. He was coming.
“They were afraid I was going to lose him. Right away, I was put on bed rest at home — a tilted bed — and given a lot of medication while they tried to keep him off my cervix. And the whole month of April, I was hospitalized again until they finally took him with a C-section on May 5. He weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces, but the (umbilical) cord was wrapped around his neck four times when he was born.
“Considering all that, we know we are very blessed.”
Turns out, Lynette and her husband William still are. Their only child — who will be 17 in a couple of days — is healthy and gifted and, most of all, he’s still in a huge rush to get places.
The quiet, well-grounded track star of Trotwood Madison High, he’s already considered one of the best quarter-milers ever to come out of the Miami Valley. And he’s still a junior.
“I’d say he’s one of the top seven or eight,” Rams’ track coach Randy Waggoner was saying during the Don Mitchell Roosevelt Memorial Track Meet, Saturday, May 2, at Welcome Stadium.
Waggoner should know. He’s been a high school track coach at a few city schools for 41 years. In the early 1980s at Roth, he mentored Benny Hollis and Laron Brown, both state champions in the 400. Then at Dunbar came Chris Nelloms, who won the state crown in the 400 four straight years — from 1987 through 1990 — was the 1990 national high school track athlete of the year, then won four NCAA titles at Ohio State and was named the Buckeyes Athlete of the Year.
“Nelloms is in a category by himself,” Waggoner said, “but I’d put Will right in there with the others — Hollis and Brown, Earl Richardson, Bedford Clay (Patterson) Andrew Pierce (Yellow Springs) and Brandon Saine (Piqua).”
This track season, Henry has the 11th best time in the nation in the 400, running 47.38 seconds at the Volunteer Classic in Tennessee two weeks ago. That puts him one second behind the nation’s best time — 46.38 — by Reggie Wyatt, a La Sierra, Calif. senior.
Friday night at the rain-soaked Roosevelt, Henry anchored Trotwood’s winning 800-meter relay team. He convincingly won the 400 Saturday afternoon, running 48-flat into a strong headwind.
With a bit of a problem out of the blocks and on the turn, he finished third in the 200 at 22.06 seconds as Northmont’s Mark Mays capped a marquee day, winning the 200 to go with his 100 meter victory.
To close the meet, Henry anchored the 1600 meter relay team that had the best time in Ohio this season. Saturday, though, the Rams were edged out by Glenville, which had as huge advantage before Henry ever got the baton.
Although he had erased a 40-yard deficit to the Tarblooders at the Akron Indoor Championships in late March — the stunning feat is a YouTube hit entitled “The Come Back!!” — he couldn’t do it this time.
While his is effort did help Trotwood win the Roosevelt team title, Henry was momentarily down after the final relay and finished his leg with a solitary walk to the far side of the track at Welcome.
“It wasn’t our best day,” he said a few minutes later. “But everybody came out of it healthy and we did have some good moments, so you can’t get too down. After today, we all know there’s still some work to do.”
And Waggoner knows Henry will do it:
“The thing Will has going for him, he’s the hardest working kid I’ve ever had in all my years of coaching. This kid does everything I ask him to do…and more.”
It’s the same in the classroom, where he had a 3.5 grade point average last quarter.
“Since he was little, his school work has always come first,” Lynette said. “The school has one set of standards — I think it’s a 1.83 grade point average to be eligible — but we have our own requirements. In our minds, he’s capable of getting the 3.5s and 3.8s he’s been bringing home.”
When you couple Henry’s speed with his studies, you see why he’s drawing recruiting interest from some of the nation’s best track programs.
“Tennessee wants him in the worst way,” Waggoner said. “We ran there two weeks ago and their coaches were all over me. I couldn’t turn around without them wanting to talk about him.”
Henry said he’s narrowed his list of prospective schools to five or six, including Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Louisville and Baylor.
“For everything he put us through back when he was being born, it’s just the opposite now,” Lynette said. “He doesn’t give us any problems. He does the things he’s supposed to do….”
William was packing up his video camera in the Welcome Stadium stands when he heard that and he started to chuckle:
“Well, not quite. He doesn’t take out the trash.”
That got Lynette laughing and she chimed in: “Or clean his room. He could do a lot better with that.”
Like their son has said just a few minutes earlier down there on the track:
“There’s still some work to do.”
TweetThe Miami Valley’s best quarter-milers
He’s been involved in high school track for more than four decades and one thing has remained constant.
“I love the quarter-mile,” Trotwood Madison head coach Randy Waggoner said. “My theory is if you can ruin the quarter — run those 400 meters — you can run anything.”
And over the years Waggoner has tutored some of the Miami Valley’s best quarter-milers. In the early 1980s at Roth, he had Benny Hollis and Laron Brown, both state champions. Then at Dunbar came Chris Nelloms, who won the state crown in the 400 four straight years — from 1987 through 1990 — and was the 1990 national high school track athlete of the year.
“And the kid I’ve got now fits right into that group,” Waggoner said of Trotwood junior Will Henry, who won the 400 meters in convincing fashion Saturday afternoon at the Don Mitchell Roosevelt Memorial Track Meet, running a 48-flat into a strong Welcome Stadium headwind. This season, Henry has the 10th best time in the nation in the 400, running 47.38 seconds at the Volunteer Classic in Tennessee two weeks ago.
During a break in acrtion at the Roosevelt, Waggoner came up with a list of the best quarter-milers the Miami Valley has produced.
Nelloms — an Olympic-calbre talent who won four NCAA titles while at Ohio State before his career was derailed by prison — is at the very top of the list.
After that, in no particular order, Waggoner added Henry, Hollis and Brown, Earl Richardson, who was also from Dunbar, Patterson’s Bedford Clay, Andrew Pierce of Yellow Springs High and Piqua’s Brandon Saine.
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