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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1972)
A -4 P ortlan d /O b ast v s t Thutaday, J*». 2 7 , 1972 Odd* and and* of sport* Curt Flood tolls it ’The Way It Is’ C urt Flood had been with the St. l.ouls Cardinals (or 12 years, and was making $90,000 when lie was traded to Phila delphia In October |9t>9. Flay e r trades a r e commonplace. An unusual aspect of this one was tits refusal to accept it. M ore than usual. Flow! is a black m a n , and thus a black man became the firs t to re b e l- and to carry tliat te be 11 Ion to court. ‘THE WAY IT IS' Curt Flood’ s autobiography, shows what made him the kind of man who stood up to challenge tlie sanctity of organized ba set« 11 an d its employment policies. ’ THE WAY IT IS’, by C u r t F lo o d with Richard C a rter, w a s published by Trklent Press e a rlie r this year. C u r t Flood’ s s t o r y la broader than baseball, lie re calls hla childhood with great sensitivity and s e lf-a w a re ness. Horn In Houston, Texas In 1938, tlie last of six children. Flood grew up In a "conven tionally squalkl" West Oak land ghetto. It wasn’ t until hla middle teens that lie dis covered that some folks buy new Christmas tiees every year. Tlie Flood fam ily's two dollar tree, lacqueied ami hung upskledown from a cellar rafter " to preset ve the sap’ ’ o f t e n survived three or (out Yules before It was without n e e d l e s . As a child. Curt showed talent buth as an artist and as an athlete. When lie was about six or seven tiedis- covered lie could outrun any kid on the block. A year or two later he lound he could catch and thiow a ball as ex pertly as boys twice his age. ” 1 was precociously talented and mightily Impressed," w in es Flood. He was lucky to 1« coaclied tiy George Powlea, a white man who later became famous for having developed a phenomenal number of out standing athletes, m o s t of them black. During his teens.Curt Flood tiegan to suspect lie could nuke a living from baseball In 1956 he accepted an offer of $4,1X10 to spend the season in the Cin cinnati organization. His two y e a r s in th e faun leagues placed him in his first life anil death snuggle against the ile- structlveness of racism . In 1957 he was ti aded to tlie C ar- dInals. By 1967, his flatting average of .355 w a s f o u r t h highest in the league. He was on th e National League a ll- star team thiee tunes ami won th e Golden Glove award f o r Holding every year fiom I9t>3 to I9t>9. Hasetiall hasn’t lieen tlie on ly influence in Flood’ s l i f e . Friendship has teen a potent force in his giowth as a per son. Flood unabashedly de s c r i b e s the lo v e-a t-fu st- sight relationship that he de veloped w it h a white couple, M arian and johnny Jorgensen, who b e c a m e his d e a r e s t friends - his s e c o n d fam ily. For hts ability to see whites as human beings of vai table worth rather than as stereo types, Flood cred it* his ie la - tlonshlps with the Jorgensens, aixl w it h his boyhood coach, George Powlea. Gt ambling College, one of tlie nation’ s small college football powers and a lead ing producer of professional athletes, w ill meet tlie Univer sity of Hawaii, in Honolulu November 4, 1972 ... Hank Aaron la due to receive tlie highest award of the Atlanta Chapter of the Baseball W ri te r* of America ... Elijah Pitts, an 11-year-veteran of tlie National League ami the Gieen Bay Packer*’ all-tim e leading scorer, w ill be a coach foi the Wisconsin team. Look for le tte r athletic teams at six institutions founded by tie A m erlcanM ls- alonary Association following tie C iv il W ar. It may sur prise, you, but tie United Church Board for Homeland M inistries, an a im of New England Congi egatlonallsm, w ill blue print support for D illard University, New Orleans, l a.,; Fisk Univer sity, Nashville, lenn.; la lla - deg.i College, Talladega, Ala. anl I ougaloo Soutlern C hris tian College, Tougaloo, M iss. THE SP(iK IS BEA I E lijah P itts, who w ill join Bill (Baby) Hay as a lull tin e scout for tie Green Bay Pac- keis, who now lives in Brown D eer, a subui b of Milwaukee, was the club's 13th round d ia l! choice in I960 aftei playing for C .D , lle m y , now PH Director of tie southwes tern Athletic Confei ence. Henry was then head coach at Philander smith College under U r . Lafajette H u r ts , in alumnus of C lai k College, who was to become a bishop of tie CME Church and chan- celloi of C lark College. I first met Pitts when I visited L ittle Rock, Arkansas foi tie athletic banquet, and his rise to stardom IntheNFI is a Horatio AIgei anl Frank M e rn w e ll success story. In his ID seasons with tie Pack ers, Pitts scored 29 touch downs, and 210 |xilnt while ■ushing foi 1,565 yards and catching 107 paases fur 1,162 points. His ca ieer waa intei tupted with Gieen Bay when he tore an Achilles tendon In tie eighth game of tie year. Paul " B e a r " Bryant of the University of Alabama and Harold "Tubby" Raymond of l i e University of Delaware have leen selected for coach of tie year awards by tie American Football Coaches Association. Bryant, whose Crimson I xle was undefeated in regu lar season play but (ell to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, was named coach of tie year In tie large college division. It was tie second time Bryant has leen selected by the AFCA for tie honor. Raymond, in his sixth year at Delaware, won tie small college award. The winners were announced by W illiam D. M u rray, exec utive d necto r of tie AFCA following the pre m ange Bowl balloting by m oie than 1,700 of tie association’ s member*. Bryant, tie fourth winning- est coach in the history of collegiate football, has a c a r- tCOKl ' 10 a ms, t>7 losses and lb ties, which in cludes h l* 14 year reign at Alabama where he lias a 119- 28-8 m ark. Raymond’ s 1971 Blue Ileus weie tie top rated small col lege team in tie nation. Delaw are’ s record Included louith sti sight NCAA Eastern Regional College division title . At Delaware, Raymond has coached his teams to 14 wins ui b2 games, thiee Middle Atlantic Sonfeience champ ionships anl a fouith straight Lambert Cup symbolic of out standing achievement among maldle sizedeisteincolleges. Notes Elgin Baylor was elected to tlie United Savings Helms Hall Majoi League Basketball Hall of Fame, becoming the 27th player *o honoied, all of whom played in the NBA. Bay lo r, star forwaid from 1958- 1971 with the M lnneapollaLa kers aixl the Los Angeles La kers, retired as the third- leading all -tlrneN B A scorer. Hal G reer of the Philadel phia 76era passed Dolph Schayes on January 8 to be come the all-tim e NBA leader in jieisonal foul*. G reer com mitted one against Phoenix to pass Schayes, who had 3,667. Of a more positive nature. Greet is just 12 games behind Schayes, tlie a ll-tim e leadei in regular season games playal with 1,059. Body and Fondor R epair M o tt r e a s o n a b le sh o p in to w n Carlos 2 8 7 -8 5 2 9 2 6 0 9 N . V an c o u ver Ave P o r tla n d , O r e . J The New York B’nai B 'rlth Sports l.udge will honor Eddie Gottlieb and Dave DeBuss- chere January 22 at the Roose velt Hotel. Both w ill be cited foi then outstanding achieve ments on ami off the court. The omaha (Nebr.) Spot t- caslei s A ssociutlon w ill honor Bob lloozei as Its 1971 "Sportsman of the Year” , lloozei letired .lltei the 1970- 7 1 season, completing I I seasons in tlie NBA, the final year with the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks. Past re cipients of the award are Hob Devaney (1970); Gordie Howe (I9o9); stan pahsen (1908): Bob Gibson (I9o7); md Mike 1-oid (I9 6 0 ). Too I.are to Classify M a tu re b a bysitter, to come to oui home, thiee month old- - days - part tune, can pick up, start Febiuary 15. 281-7725. LAND - - 10 ACRES View -o n Paving Agi iculture 1/2 m ile from Leew ay, on Parrot! Mt . • City» $18,500, $1,500 down, 7%tet ms W ill divxle into thiee parcels C all Vancouvei, 200 693-4324 We are ” rhe only newspaper in the whole wide world that really cares about people.” We care about Portland! Total involvement in community affairs has resulted in complete ad vertiser confidence and reader accep tance of The Portland O bserver. FIRST . . . in paid circulation FIRST . . . in local news FIRST . . . in lo c a l p ic tu r e s FIRST . . . in women’s news FIRST . . . in local sports news Condor*’ Geoi ge Cai ter (35) pulls in a rebound during tlie se cond quarte* as Rocket»’ L a rry Brown(left) and Frank Card (2U) move into tlie play. I he Condoi s won, 118 - 116. FIRST . . . in local school news Comment on sports Jack Nlcklaus sinks a long putt on ti« par - 3 / 15th hole at Cypress Point during the opening round of the 31st Bing Crosby Pro - Am Golf Tournament. Nlcklaus birdied tlie hole and ended up the day with a 66 for the lead in the tournament. Unique form topped with a grimacing snarl prepareM Ike Estep In the wake of an oncoming tennis ball. W ASHING!UN, D .(’ .-Look ing back on the 1971 football season, the standout feature of the year was tlie awesome domination of (lie national scene by Nebraska, seldom has one team shown so clearly it was the national colleglaie champion. th ere were two showdowns foi theComhuskei a. The first was tlie toughest - Oklahoma. In most othei years Oklahoma wuukl have teen the national champion, but Bob Devaney’ a big, tough team was too much even for this outstanding squad in 1971. The second show down, a letdown at Its turnout for fans expecting a close game, was agtlnst Alabama in tie Orange Bowl. Nebraska’ s players were both big and fast. Alabama’ s team was outclassed, and A la- bama’ s sm aller players couldn't work any wishbone magic against the big Corn- huskei s, w ho Just ran over them. Colorado was a power and Penn State, ui the East, might have leen the lest eleven east of the M ississippi, even though they lost by a good margin to Tennessee. If the Lions w eren't, they came close, be hind Alabama and lennessee. Nebraska promises to be tough again next year. This is, one might say, tlie Nebras ka cycle. Texas enjoyed such a reign In recent years. Notre Dame has pioduced several. During World W ar 11 It was A rm y, undet Red Blaik. Okla homa utxler Bud Wilkinson once dominated the scene. Right now, the Cornhuskers are Imminently supreme. The PORTLAND OBSERVER Heavyweight champ Joe F ra zie r weighs in at 215-1/2; a little heavy, tut still good enough to beat Terry Daniela. You can Mail subscribe now and save Money! Sell it! The g r e a t e r P o rtla n d A r e a 's Bost Best community news paper Please send my subscription right away Name........................................ B ill Stanflll, M iam i Dolphin defensive end, took lim e out to feed the mascots who stayed In the pool at the M iam i team's motel during their final week of practice. The lu c k y Fins were no match for the C ow boy Spui s. T h e C o w b o y s beat the Dol phins 25 - 6. with a P-O Person-to-Person Want Ad Call 283-2487 Address.................................. City............................. Black Hawks’ Danuls Hull (10) pushes his way past, New York’ s Rod Selling (16) controlling puck during second period action, th e Black H.wks and the Rangers tied 5 - 5 . Zip.................................
