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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1978)
Portland Observer The Portland Trailblaaera by defeating Denver 93 91 at home Friday night clinched the beat record in the NB A thus assuring them the home court advantage in all play off series. Portland, playing sloppily and Denver following suit, finally capped a brilliant season despite losing eleven of their last fourteen games. Now it appears that the hadlv needed momentum has finally returned. W ith all hands healthy the Blazers would seem to have a good shot at repeating as W orld Champions. But. realistically one has to believe that forward Bobby Gross will not play again, effectively this season. Gross will be sorely missed, especially if it should come down to a Philadelphia- Portland final again. In this series Bobby Graus is so vital because his perpetual motion se e m s to take it's toll on the much heralded D r. J. Bill Walton has missed 22 games this year and is still trying to prove that he's durable enough to stand the 82 games the pros play without sustaining a serious injury. W alton, of course, only plays w hen he thinks he should play, and never plays with pain. Now. it has been said all year that Bill should be the NBA most valuable player this year, and he just might be selected. But when you select an M V P for the Trailblazers...then Lionel Hollins is the one. Hollins. “T rain ”, "The Man,” “The glue.” w hatever you call him has been the hub of the Blazer attack. He's led the team in minutes played (2.741). He's averaged 15.9 points while leading the team in both assists and steals. And when it comes to making the dutch shot...nobody, I mean nobody does it better. So when the voting is done for M VP cast one for the “Train." The defense minded Oakland Stompers gave the Portland Timbers too much room Saturday night allowing Archie Roboostoff to score 30:58 into the game as Portland shutout Oakland 1-0 in their North American Soccer League opener, Roboostoff scored the game winning goal after taking a cross from W illy Anderson on the right side. Roboostoff s initial kick was rejected as Oakland goalie Stop Messing made a sliding save but f J e d to control the ball which rebounded sons. Look for the Lakers to come on strong during the play offs. They've had a lot of new faces this year and are now begin ning to jell. However, the lack of a bonafide strong forward will keep them from going all the way. Laker Coach Jerry West often complains about his hack court, and has repeatedly said that the general position was his weakest point. Not so. The Lakers biggest problem is at forward and it's there that they fail to match up with the Blazers. Nuggets, Sixer's, etc. Seattle vs. Lakers, my pick L A in two straight. Somes and Lakers were two of the hottest teams in the NB A down the stretch. The saying is that the cream, oops Kareem always rises to the top and Jahbar will do just that in the play-offs. It's nice to see Portland getting so much ink now-a-days. and good to see them being compared with other great NBA teams of the past. Now the big eastern cities are finally realizing that there's something in Ore gon other than rain. Bill Walton, Maurice Lucas and Lionel Hollins are rapidly becoming household names. I t has been said that the Portland team plays good team ball and that they didn't have a genuine superstar. W ell, if those three just mentioned aren't superstars then... who is? ^3^ She’s pregnant. She’s deserted. She needs help. She should call Prep Scores 221-0598 Birthright tree co n fid e n tia l co u n selin g for pregnant g irls Mayer B u ild in g s ! 1130 S W M orrison In the second half the Timbers kept the crowd of 10,554 alive with continued attacks on goal but the efforts proved fruitless. Timbers Roboostoff and Best kept the pressure applied from the forward posi tions with repeated shots on goal, in cluding a cross from midfielder Stew art Scullion to Best that sent both Best and Messing to the turf. Portland outshot the Stompers 30 to 11. Late in the game Oakland's offense showed itself briefly. W ith little more than four minutes to piay OSMands Sam Rosenthal almost tied it but Tim ber Brian Gant was there to safely head it away. Oakland's lack of pressure in the first half wasn't part of the game plan accord ing to Stomper coach M irko Stojanovich. "We made them look more offensive in the first half. For no reason the defense moved back in the first half and gave them a lot of space. In the second we began attacking a little more," Stojano vich concluded. The Stompers played without the services of two forwards. Andy McCul loch from England and West German Charlie Moroskc, while Portland is three men short of filling their roster. The next Tim ber home game is Satur day. April 15th against the San Diego Sockers. Benson 7, Marshall 4 Madison 10, Cleveland 4 Grant 7. Franklin 6 Central Catholic 8, Jesuit 0 Boy* Track Madison 92’/t, Grant 52*/> Cleveland 83. Lincoln 59 Jackson 99. Wilson 44 Benson 111. Washington 32, Roosevelt 30 G irl* Track Grant 82, Madison 45 Lincoln 77, Cleveland 50 Jackson 68. Wilson 60 Monroe 53, Roosevelt 48. Washington 40 g FRED’S PLACE Presents ? I I TALKING BOOK g 2 « 2 51J and Johnson a t 51.9. Madison made it four straight with a 92*/« to 52*/i win over Grant. Jackie Jackson led the G n a t girls to an 82-45 win over Madison as she led in the 100-yard dash, the 220 and anchored the winn ing relay team. Grambling public relations director retires G R A M B L IN G - Collie J. Nicholson, whose promotion ability lifted a small, southern Black college and its athletic teams from total obscurity to interna tional fame and respect, announced his retirem ent from Grambling State U n iver sity. Nicholson is leaving his post as public relations director at the university after 31 years, his service at Grambling inter rupted only one tim e for one year in 1957 to take a fling at public relations work in California. A native of W innfield, Louisiana, N i cholson first came to Grambling as a student in 1942 and was a self-described “good field, no-hit" second baseman on the baseball team. He was a Marine combat correspondent photographer d ur ing W orld W ar I I , serving much of his time with a M arine reconnaissance unit in the South Pacific. Nicholson returned to Grambling by happenstance after the war. He was enroute to school in Wisconsin and stopped by Grambling to visit President R .W .E . Jones, who retired last year after 51 j—ars at Grambling, 41 of those years as top administrator. Jones assumed Nicholson was back at Grambling to resume his studies and as Nicholson put it, “Prez had always treated me like a son, so how could I tell him I was enroute to enroll at some other school." So he w ent to a dormitory, unpacked his meager belongings - and stayed. Nicholson handled some sports publi city as a student and joined the college’s public relations staff upon graduation in 1948. Nicholson’s first tool to gain national prominence for Grambling came in the form of a big, burly fullback named Paul (Tank) Younger, who was to become in 1949 the first player from a Black college in the professional ranks. Younger went on to fame with the Loa Angeles Rams, earning all-pro distinction as both an offensive running back and defensive linebacker. There followed a long parade of Gramb ling athletic stars to the professional ranks, now numbering more than 150. Other earlier ones included W illie Davis of l ii i Green Bay Packers, Buck Bucha nan and Ernie Ladd of the Kansas City Chiefs in football, and Bob Hopkins of the Syracuse Nationals and W illis Reed of the New York Knicks in basketball. The late Stone Johnson, an Olympic sprinter, also helped propel Grambling into the national spotlight. Grambling’s marching band appeared at halftime for an American Football League playoff game in 1964 and that set off a continuing parade of appearances around the nation and on national televi sion for that fast stepping, gyrating musi cal unit. Nicholson steered the Grambling foot ball team into an appearance in Yankee Stadium in New York City in 1968, a series with Morgan State that earned national network coverage by ABC in 1971. The image building for the rural institution in Lousiana continued with an appearance and victory over Sacramento State 34-7 in the Pasadena Bowl in Cali fornia, culminating the 1968 campaign. Capitalizing on success, Nicholson soon had national sponsors for a nationwide highlight show of Grambling's football games and immediately the school be came known as “The Black Notre Dame” and “The Pride of Black People E ve ry where." The highlight show" was shown at varying times around the nation Satur day night and Sunday mornings. Dw ind ling attendance at services on Sundays caused many preachers at Black churches in the country to shift the hours of worship to accommodate the Grambling football highlight show. A t various times, national radio hookups have also carried the Grambling games. Nicholson's next move, working closely with this noted coach, Eddie Robinson, was to practically vacate the antiquated and dilapidated home stadium and hit the road with a globetrotting football team. Big crowds, many times capacity, follow ed the team into the Astrodome in Houston, the Superdome in New Orleans, the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, as well as to other stadiums in such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago, Kansas City, Cleveland, D etroit, Washington, Nash ville, and Pittsburgh, N ext on Nicholson's agenda for Gramb ling was overseas travel. The band appeared at a presidential inauguration in Liberia representing the United States while the football team played a series of games with the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and ventured on to Japan to play the first collegiate regularly sche duled game there. Despite presently being on a first name basis with television network presidents, heads of advertising agencies and cor porations, plus practically all of the sports editors in the nation, Nicholson well remembers the days of a segregated society and a segregated press. Grambling's first national attention had to come through the country's net work of Black newspapers and he still pays tribute to w riters on those news papers who first gave Grambling a “break.” W hile the team now travels by airline charter, Nicholson vividly recalls less comfortable trips. For instance, in 1946 the team left Grambling on a Tuesday to play Morgan State in Baltimore. In those days of segregation, rest stops, res taurants and hotels were not readily available for Black teams. The squad's bus made stops at Tuskegee Institute In Alabama, West Virginia State, and Fayetteville State in North Carolina enroute to play before less than 2,000 fans and lose by 46-7. A fte r the lop-sided loss, Nicholson recalls the trip back was even longer, with the team arriving home the follow ing Tuesday. As a student publicist then, Nicholson rode in the back of the bus, using football helmets for a seat. Nicholson says he is not leaving be- 1 « 4 cause there are no longer any goals to accomplish at Grambling. He still plans to be in the promotion area, starting a public relations firm in Shreveport in conjunction with Lousiana State Repre sentative Alphonse Jackson. And never one to dilly-dally, Nicholson says, “I may be retirin g but I ’ll be in my office in Shreveport Saturday morning ready for business." THE BLUE PENGUIN Emporium 'Grand Opening Sale Afro Statues Dried Feather Plants Vases Big and Small W a ll Plaques 25% Off W ith This Coupon back to Roboostoff for the score. Portland was on the attack throughout the first half with several near misses. A t one point Tim ber midfielder John Bain booted a hard straight shot from 25 yards out that rebounded off the goal support. Clyde Best fielded the rebound and sent a shot on goal just wide to the rig h t Page 5 Portlsnd has definitely established their supremacy over the Lakers boating them nine straight times over two sea Timbers stomp Oakland by Richard O T o o le Thursday, April 13. 1978 Offer Expires A p ril 30th 11:00 to 7:00 Tue - Sat. Closed Sun.-Mon. 281-8489 1601 N.E. Killingsw orth ■ t o t o t o H B t o i 2 5 % O ff W ith T h is C o u p o n e e to to from Tacoma JOE'S PLACE SEE SPORTS O N GIANT SCREEN T V. FRED’S PLACE 2511 N.E. Union Ave. 284-3155 The Friendly Tavern ? J Ok nߣE S tR V F O H E M 1 Mil N F Alberta 288-8768 I 1
