Don Haskins, RIP
One of the true heroes of college basketball and all of sports, for that matter, Don Haskins, the “Bear,” passed away at 78. Former Texas Tech/Indiana coach Bob Knight said, “The word unique does not begin to describe Don Haskins. There is no one who has ever coached that I respected and admired more than Don Haskins. I’ve had no better friend that I enjoyed more than Don Haskins.”
Some of you who are casual fans will have nonetheless seen the Haskins story in the 2006 film “Glory Road,” which chronicled Haskins’ improbable 1966 season when he guided what was then known as Texas Western (now UTEP) to the national title against Kentucky.
It was no ordinary win…for Haskins was the first to start five blacks, and he did it against all-white, heavily favored Kentucky and coach Adolph Rupp.
“He took a school that had no reason to be a basketball giant and made it into one,” Knight said.
Haskins said afterwards he wasn’t trying to make a statement, instead he was merely starting his five best players.
“That wasn’t the first time I’d started five blacks,” he told the Washington Post in 1991, “and I really didn’t think it was all that unusual. What made it so is that Rupp had an all-white team and didn’t make a secret of how he felt about it.”
Afterwards, Haskins was the source of innumerable death threats and tons of hate mail.
Coaching legend Eddie Sutton said “When they won the national championship against the University of Kentucky, that changed college basketball.”
The 1966 Texas Western squad had finished the regular season 23-1 and was ranked third heading into the NCAA tournament. After defeating Oklahoma City in the first round, they beat Cincinnati by two in overtime, Kansas in double overtime, and Utah in the semifinals. Then Haskins’ squad defeated Kentucky 72-65.
[For the record the five Texas Western starters were Bobby Joe Hill, David Lattin, Willie Worsley, Harry Flournoy and Orsten Artis.]
Haskins retired in 1999 after 38 seasons at UTEP with a record of 719-353, seven WAC championships, and 14 NCAA tournament appearances.
–Lance Armstrong is returning to cycling next year and will attempt to win his 8th Tour de France, even though he’ll turn 37 on Sept. 18. In a piece for Vanity Fair magazine, Armstrong said “Look at the Olympics. You have a swimmer like Dara Torres. Even in the 50-meter [freestyle] event, the 41-year-old mother proved you can do it. The woman who won the marathon [the Romanian] was 38. Older athletes are performing very well. Ask serious sports physiologists and they’ll tell you age is a wives’ tale.”
Armstrong is going to promote cancer research during his quest to climb back to the top. No steroids jokes yet, sports fans. Lance has vowed to submit to rigorous testing, adding, “We’re going to be completely transparent and open with the press,” he said.
–There are reports Brett Favre bought a house in the same town as the headquarters of StocksandNews. The other day I told you how, because of the Jets new training facility nearby, the players and coaches were going to do their best to prop up our high-end real estate market. While I don’t expect to see Favre walking around town because he’s busy during the season (and during the off-season he’ll be back home down south), it would be pretty funny to see him once. “Hi, Mr. Favre. I was really ticked the Jets picked you up.”
–Poor Billy Wagner. As was the case with Mets outfielder Ryan Church and his concussions this season, team physicians initially misdiagnosed Wagner and said he could recover from his arm issues before year end and still pitch in the stretch drive. But now we learn he is undergoing Tommy John surgery and will be out all of 2009, this after just two days ago he threw off a mound. Wagner, now 37, will still earn about $10 million next season on the last year of a 4-year contract.
Somehow, despite losing our closer, the Mets are hanging in there and remain in first place. [Johnny Mac’s attempts to perfect his knuckler at age 50-something have proven unsuccessful.]
–So the other day I noted that at the FedEx Cup event in St. Louis last weekend, Camilo Villegas finally won his first PGA Tour title. But the story was Vijay Singh, who pretty much clinched the $10 million FedEx Cup payoff with his tie for 44th after winning the first two events, and now just needing to play all four rounds at the Tour Championship, following the Ryder Cup. However, as the AP noted:
“But the surly Singh didn’t seem terribly grateful (at the conclusion of Sunday’s tournament).
“In a move that took some shine off the tour’s new prize, Singh refused to speak to NBC Sports and walked briskly past a group of other media after finishing his round.”
Villegas isn’t much better and the Singh deal gives me an excuse to bring up a piece from the Sept. 5 issue of GolfWorld by Jaime Diaz, which reads in part:
“As good as the British Open, PGA Championship and yes, the FedEx Cup Playoffs have been, the absence of Tiger Woods has left a void. But in terms of the game’s long-term health, Woods’ enforced sabbatical couldn’t have come at a better time.
“Golf without Woods underscores how decadent the PGA Tour has become – and by extension, how fragile. In a tanking economy in which leisure time is evaporating, what was thought to be a momentary bobble is looking more like a bursting bubble. With corporate America and TV networks worriedly wondering if they overvalued the product, that dreaded euphemism ‘market adjustment’ is in the air.
“If it comes, it would please the irascibly romantic Dan Jenkins, who dryly notes that what ails the game is ‘nothing a good Depression wouldn’t cure.’ But downturn or not, it’s still the right moment for the tour to take stock.
“First, some truths. Nowhere is it written that pro golf can or should be as popular as football, baseball and basketball. Despite the Tigermania-fueled aspirations of the late 1990s, pro golf remains niche entertainment. It’s not a great live spectator sport – slow, with mostly unsatisfying viewing areas. It’s not a great television sport – even with tape-delayed editing, it lacks action. Golf remains a great participation sport (perhaps the best ever invented), and by and large those who like to watch are those who like to play. True superstars such as Woods can carry the game beyond the traditional demographic, but we are seeing what happens when Atlas shrugs. Or limps.
“Golf’s best, while squeaky clean when collectively compared to other pro athletes, are also as a group less colorful. This is one of golf’s dilemmas. As an insular game that requires huge focus and self-involvement to play well, many of its most consumed players tend to project impenetrable public personas, following the example of Ben Hogan, Nick Faldo and yes, Woods….
“The PGA Tour has gotten so black-out drunk with money it has largely forgotten the achievements of Arnold Palmer. Palmer’s warmth and accessibility single-handedly thawed the Ice Age of Hogan and set golf on a treasure trail. Jack Nicklaus did his best to follow the example to further enrich the rewards, and soon the financial urgency was gone. During the last 25 years, it has been my observation that the world’s best players generally have grown less attuned to the fans, sponsors and media.
“All the talking without sufficiently giving back didn’t seem to matter for a long time, but now it does. As CEOs reassess where to spend their money, purses actually could be headed down for the first time in decades (following TV ratings). The tour’s veterans may sense it’s time to go back to the Way of Palmer, but the young guys know only a one-way street.
“Camilo Villegas is a good example. Much has come the 26-year-old’s way because of his looks, his body, his clothes and his game. But the native of Colombia has never been expansive with the media, so it was a welcome change when after his third-round 63 at Boston, he thoughtfully reflected on subjects ranging from his struggle as an A-student at Florida to speak English, to his fitness regime. But then, casually but with a hint of impatience, he said, ‘If you guys let me go, I’ll go get another workout in.’ It’s a sentence the PGA Tour doesn’t need.
“It does need Phil Mickelson signing autographs, Padraig Harrington opening the book on his recipe for winning majors. Geoff Ogilvy offering astute analysis, Paul Goydos being droll and Rocco Mediate being Rocco.
“Of course, so many things in golf begin and end with Woods. A fiercely private man, he often has stated the part of his golf life he will miss least will be his required interaction with the media. It has always been enough that he simply brings his game, but perhaps not anymore. By his example, Woods has done much to set the considerable distance that now exists between the pros and the people, one that players who don’t have a hundredth of his public burden have exploited.
“Much is asked of Woods, a lot of it unfair. But it would be good if during his break he resolved in the second half of his career to be more like Palmer.”
–NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup, the final 10-race sprint for the championship, filled out its eligible field last weekend in Richmond.
Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth
[Hilarious article in the current Rolling Stone on Stewart. Must reading for NASCAR fans.]
–Howard Stern is auctioning off a 22-year-old beauty’s virginity. A San Diego woman going by the name of Natalie Dylan, “for safety reasons,” said she doesn’t have any problem doing this in order to pay her college tuition, according to the New York Daily News. “We live in a capitalist society,” she told the paper. “Why shouldn’t I be allowed to capitalize on my virginity?”
I’d mention more, but I don’t want to lose my International Web Site Association license. For now, discuss amongst yourselves.
Canberra, Australia – “A large shark entangled itself in a surfer’s leg rope in Australia and began towing him and his board out to sea, the surfer said on Tuesday. John Morgan, 51, compared his terrifying 50-meter ride off a local beach to being towed by a jet ski.
“He said he was about 300 meters from shore and paddling out when the three-meter shark [good gawd!] swelled up from underneath him on Sunday afternoon.
“ ‘It freaked me out,’ Mr. Morgan said. ‘It bumped my leg rope and next thing it tangled itself in the leg rope and started charging out to sea with me in tow.’
“Mr. Morgan said he clung to the board until the shark suddenly freed itself and disappeared. The rope was not damaged and remained attached to the board and his ankle.”
–Yikes. Can’t say I’m into Ultimate Fighting but I see where a former champ, Evan Tanner, was found dead near Palo Verde, Calif., on Monday. He was 37.
According to a report, Tanner headed into the desert on a journey to “cleanse” himself. His manager said such trips were taken by Tanner a number of times over the years.
One problem. His motorcycle evidently ran out of gas, so he was forced to start walking in 115- to 118-degree heat and was miles away from his camp. Tanner had earlier posted a message on his Web site that said he was “going out into the desert to hunt for lost treasure. I’m going on a pilgrimage of sorts, a journey to solitude, to do some thinking, and to pay my respects to the great mysteries.”
Too bad he didn’t think to fill up the ol’ gas tank prior to taking off.
–Army coach Stan Brock, following his team’s pitiful loss to New Hampshire, 28-10, said “I’m embarrassed. I’m ashamed. Not that we lost to New Hampshire, because they are a good football team, but the way we did it. In the second half when things started going bad, I think there’s some guys (who) quit. I’m ashamed. I apologize to the United States Military Corps of Cadets (and) anybody who really watched that game.”
–USC is favored by 10 to defeat Ohio State on Saturday night. I’ll say the final score is USC 34 OSU 9, even with Buckeyes back Beanie Wells returning from injury.
–Bulgaria’s women’s ice hockey team, in a European Olympic pre-qualifying tournament, lost to Slovakia 82-0. I’ll give you some time for this to sink in………….you might need a little more ………..OK. But, the International Ice Hockey Federation said this is not a record for a women’s event. Thailand lost to South Korea 92-0 in 1998.
Slovakia outshot Bulgaria 139-0, averaging a goal every 44 seconds. Earlier, Bulgaria had lost 30-1 to Croatia and 41-0 to Italy. I wonder what my old friend Tony in Sofia thinks about this. Come in, Tony. [Tony’s the one who filled me in on the football/soccer gambling scene in Bulgaria when I was there a few years ago.]
–Since it occurred on Monday evening, I just have to note for the archives that Roger Federer won his 5th consecutive U.S. Open title and 13th major overall, placing him one behind Pete Sampras.
In defeating Andy Murray, it was Federer’s 5th different opponent in the Open finals, the others being Leyton Hewitt (2004), Andre Agassi (05), Andy Roddick (06), and Novak Djokovic (07).
–The last surviving member of the St. Louis Browns’ 1944 World Series team (the franchise’s only pennant), Don Gutteridge, died at the age of 96. Gutteridge also played with the St. Louis Cardinals’ Gashouse Gang teams of the 1930s and hit .256 with 1,075 hits over his 12 seasons.
As for the lowly Browns, the prime reason they went to the Series in 1944 was because they had 18 players who were 4-F during the height of World War II. And as Richard Goldstein notes in the New York Times, “The wartime Browns also had their share of hard drinkers and carousers.”
“ ‘You went out there every day and you didn’t know if your roommate was going to be there,’ The St. Louis Post-Dispatch quoted Gutteridge as telling a gathering of the St. Louis Browns Fan Club long afterwards. ‘He might be in the service. He might be in jail.’”
Gutteridge once told Sports Illustrated that the Browns, who called Sportsman’s Park home, often played before a handful of fans. “Sometimes the players outnumbered the fans,” he said. “Some days I knew everybody in the ballpark on a first-name basis. You could have fired a shotgun into the stands and not hit anyone.”
Well, that pricked my curiosity so I went to baseballreference.com, where you can get attendance figures for each team and year, and yes, indeed, the Browns drew miserably. Like in 1942, when 255,000 showed up [the Mets and Yankees draw 150,000 for most weekend series these days], or 1943, when only 214,000 bought tickets…or less than 3,000 a game. At least in their World Series year, 1944, the Browns drew a whopping 508,000, or about 6,500 per game. [Though back in those days of the 154-game schedule they also played a lot of doubleheaders, so 6,500 is generous.] Then again you all saw the pictures from that Marlins game the other day, when about 600 were in the stands.
–Speaking of low attendance and poor play, the Pittsburgh Pirates clinched a 16th-consecutive losing season, thus tying the 1933-48 Philadelphia Phillies for the longest such stretch of futility, which also exceeds that of any NHL, NBA or NFL team.
But there really is no comparison between the 1993-2008 Pirates and the 1933-48 Phillies. The Pirates are far superior. For example, the Bucs have lost 100 games in only one year during the streak, 2001, when they were 62-100.
The Phillies, on the other hand, had seven 100-loss seasons during their stretch, including the worst run in the history of professional sports, 1938-42. Following are the Phillies’ records plus the attendance for each year.
–Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who has been out all season with an injury, sounded off on a Boston radio station on the topic of New York fan reaction following the injury to New England quarterback Tom Brady.
“The euphoria in New York is palpable. The Yankees suck this year and they are bitter and mad and making excuses over that. Now they got Tom going down so New York’s excited. It’s unfortunate, but when you crawl to the top of the pile you will have people trying to knock you down.”
“Schilling apparently forgot there are two baseball teams in New York – and the Mets are in first place. And another New York team, the Giants, beat Brady and the Patriots in last year’s Super Bowl.
“But why let the facts get in the way of a perfectly good rant?”
–Speaking of Brady, as Scott Boeck of USA Today noted, sometimes injuries to the starting quarterback aren’t all bad.
Like in 1980, when Oakland’s Dan Pastorini went down, only to be replaced by Jim Plunkett, who then led the Raiders to victory in the Super Bowl.
Or 1992, when Green Bay’s Don Majkowski went down, to be replaced by Brett Favre who commenced his extraordinary run.
Or 1999, when St. Louis QB Trent Green was hurt, but replacement Kurt Warner then propelled the Rams to victory in the Super Bowl.
Or 2001, when New England lost Drew Bledsoe and Tom Brady stepped up, guiding the Pats to victory in the Super Bowl.
–The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency hired 100 goats to nibble at weeds on a steep slope. The goats are being rented for $3,000, while hiring workmen would have cost $7,500. The problem is the goats aren’t seeing any of the money and Cesar Chavez is making waves about unionizing them so they can get benefits due the herd, as well as better living conditions.
–So I’m reading this piece in U.S. News on the movie rating system, and how smoking is going to be a factor in movie descriptions from here on, according to Dan Glickman, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, and it turns out that MPAA raters “grade about 900 movies a year.” As in, is this a permanent job? Doesn’t it have to be? You work 250 days, viewing 3-4 movies. That’s a full-time job. There are worse ways to spend your day, I guess.
–You don’t have to worry about me going to any more Rock Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. The only super popular act on this year’s prospect list is Bon Jovi. You have artists like the Pet Shop Boys, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Nick Cave, Red Hot Chili Peppers (O.K.)…and…Chic, Donna Summer, and the Beastie Boys, plus perennial fan favorites ignored by the critics and super a-hole executives like Jann Wenner…Rush, the Moody Blues and Chicago.
How the heck can Chicago not be in there?!
Top 3 songs for the week 9/13/80: #1 “Upside Down” (Diana Ross) #2 “All Out Of Love” (Air Supply) #3 “Emotional Rescue” (The Rolling Stones)…and…#4 “Fame” (Irene Cara) #5 “Sailing” (Christopher Cross) #6 “Give Me The Night” (George Benson) #7 “Late In The Evening” (Paul Simon) #8 “Lookin’ For Love” (Johnny Lee) #9 “Another One Bites The Dust” (Queen) #10 “Drivin’ My Life Away” (Eddie Rabbit …ya know, Eddie did some great stuff)
–Are you into Western film music? Then check out “The Wild West: The Essential Western Film Music Collection.” In preparation for a coming trip to the Black Hills, I picked up the four-disc set that includes the best song ever, the title theme to “The Big Country,” as well as the second best, the theme to “The Magnificent Seven” [think Marlboro Man], and other tunes such as that from “How The West Was Won.” Speaking of this last one, this week a new enhanced DVD/Blu-Ray has been released that should be good. [At least I hope so…just ordered it myself.]
College Football Quiz Answer: Top five schools winning percentage for the period 1953-2007.*
1. Ohio State…460-140-13, .7610
2. Oklahoma…473-153-11, .7504
3. Nebraska…475-166-7, .7384
4. Penn State…458-164-5, .7344
5. Michigan…444-162-12, .7282
6. Texas, .7098
7. Alabama, .7074
8. Southern California, .7008
9. Auburn, .6912
10. Tennessee, .6901
*From the great book “College Football Encyclopedia” by Bob Boyles and Paul Guido. [Now co-branded through USA Today.] If you are a fan of the sport, you must get this one. Simply the best sports reference book of any kind, period. It’s also huge, which makes it a handy weapon against intruders.
Next Bar Chat, Sunday….from the Jersey Shore….some bar at the Jersey Shore, that is.
