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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1980)
» P«S* 10 Portland Obaarvar Fabruary 28. 1980 Sports Talk by Ron Sykes Sports editor Who is this John Stilw ell, and why is he saying all these horrible things about his Washington- Monroe basketball team? Well, the answer is John is a hard working coach who has turned a 5-18 team of last year into a 18-5 title winner this year. Fact is, John Stilwell has been the victim of one o f the crudest pieces o f journalism to be imposed on a young coach. Steve Brandon, w ritin g for the,Oregon Journal, made the fo llo w in g absurb statements; absurb and out of con text: "These guys would steal the money out o f my locker if it was unlocked. H alf o f them won't speak to me at times, opposing coaches can't scout us because halt the time we d on’ t know what we're run ning.” This article that appeared in Monday’ s sports page was about as sorry as one could expect in evaluating a coach and a program. But, what can you expect from a writer who probably saw one Bruin game and attended one practice. M r. Brandon has attempted to turn the Wash-Monroe team into a three ring circus. Journey goers Tuesday night, after reading this sorry article, turned out no doubt to see a cheap version of the Harlem Globetrotters. It is my belief that M r. Brandon should extend an apology to the Washington-Monroe Ians and team. Give credit where credit is due. This Bruin squad should be proud o f their effort this year and hopefully can recover from such an damaging article as written Monday. The 62nd Oregon A A A Boys High School Basketball tourney opened Tuesday night with a revised format that saw four P.I.L. teams competing instead of the two in the past. Washington-Monroe, Grant, Wilson and Jefferson all having made it to the final sixteen. Grant drew the toughest first round opponent in McMinnville the stale’ s number one ranked team. And Grant does have the talent to w in ...it’ s up to coach Tom Jones, however, to put the best team on the floor. He has all the pieces o f the puzzle and hopefully he’ ll get them together. So now Portland State University has joined the academic "cheating” that is seemingly snowballing throughout the major universities of the land. No one should condone such practices, but i t ’ s my belief that the investigations and fo rfe i tures should stop now. This has been a long going practice by college coaches whose jobs have depended on a winning season. When so much emphasis, right or wrong, is placed on win, win, w in, then one can easily see how and why coaches will shift the edges of the rules. I f all guilty schools are told to forfeit then what you ’ ll have is a bunch o f "no contest" games. In essence virtually all schools are guilty and how can you give back a forfeiture? What should be done is to forget the past and keep tighter reins on the future so that it will never revert to the past. And why is it that the Rams were able to run, pass and kick all the way to Anaheim and Pete Roz.elle won’ t allow Al Davis to do the same to Los Angeles? Oh, sure I know all the requirements, the talk o f anar chy and so on. But doesn’t it all boil down to what's sauce for the goose, is sauce lo t the gander? Davis is no dummy and he knows what all these negative votes are only to protect the Ram franchise who voluntarily left the LA coliseum and stil wants to maintain the qualities from the city o f Los Angeles. Kudos to Mayor Bradley o f L.A. fo r seeking another NFL team. Jeers to Pete Rozelle for his effort to block it. But, then, maybe Gov. Atiyeh should stop Georgia-Pacific from relocating in Atlanta. And shouldn’ t ex-champ Leon Spinks retire? That is fo rm a lly Leon, seemingly quit a long time ago. Whatever happened to that sleek, trim, gladiator that upended Muhammad A ll a few years ago? Well, it’ s reported that when Leon parties he parties hardy, and therein lies the story o f why he's so fat and out o f shape. The boxing game is definately on the rise. There’ s some promising young boxers on the horizon and ABC and CBS are doing a great job of promoting. Some to watch: Greg Page, heavyweight; Michael Dokes, heavyweight; Tommy Hearns, welterweight. Page earlier showed an abundance of talent. Had good speed, size, and boundless potential. But lost a lot of respect when he dodged the Cuban T eophilio Stevens. Page turned professional but to date has had no prominent fights. Dokes now ap pears to be ready to challenge for the title . Was very impressive against Jimmy Young. Tommy Hearns could give Sugar Ray a real test. Would beat Roberto Duran, as would Wilfredo Benitez. Bruins. 63-41 After a close three and one-half quarters the “ rag tag” Washington- Monroe Bruins downed number 7 ranked Ontario and sent the boys from Eastern Oregon into con solation play. The Bruins obviously shaky, star ted slowly, took bad shots, got ab solutely no help from the o f ficiating, but finally pulled it out on some nifty foul shooting by 6-2 for ward Keith Kelley. Kelley canned six straight to ice the Bruins win. A ll Metro center Goliath Yeggins had an o ff night offensively but was a tower o f strength on the boards, as usual. Goliath grabbed 16 boards and added 12 points. The key to the victory was speed. Donovan McGinnis was a greyhound on the floor and the impetus for the Bruin defense. Donovan had 6 key steals and was a real force from his guard spot. Andy Mott, Bruin's 6-2, forward could very well be the best sophomore in the State, came o ff coach John Stilwell's bench to score 12 points along w ith 10 strong rebounds. M o tt, too, was im pressive and should get better now that the opening day jitters are over. The Bruins made crucial mistakes down the stretch, took bad shots when they probably should have been sitting on the ball. B 52 ON THE RUNW AY. Keith Kelly hit crucial free throws in closing moments to ice underdog Wa- Mo over 19-1 Grants Pass. M AG GIE BRISTER, Jefferson Rally, watches in tently as Jefferson pulls ahead again. Central Catholic 56 Wilson 54 Central seemingly won from the free throw line. The disparity was eleven points. But the real difference was the in comparable play o f Byron Howell Central’ s 6-3, jumping jack. Howell was sim ply tremendous. Despite being double and triple teamed, the two tim e state sprint champion jumped and soared for 25 pis., 6 blocked shots and 7 boards. The only thing Wilson managed to do right is to contain Byron on the boards. This was often achieved by maneuvering the CC ace a step too deep underneath. W ilson’s defense was obviously geared in stopping Byron, but whenever the leaping CC center got his hands on the ball, he either maneuvered underneath for a lay-up or canned his jumper from the fif teen foot range. In this game Howell rose above his peer like the First National Bank Tower dominates the downtown skyline. Central Catholic hardly resembles the team that Jefferson demolished 52-39 in the th ird game o f the season. C entral was impressive Tuesday night. HASKINS HAS IT. Marshall Haskins, Jefferson guard, supplied scoring power which allowed Demos to roll past seventh rated Ontario 61 56. Haskins had 18 points to lead all scorers. SITS IN EXECUTIVE SUITES. @ Pacific Northwest Bell Carter names educator President Jimmy Carter this week announced his intention to nominate Thomas Kendall Minter, o f W ashington, D .C ., to be assistant secretary of education for elementary and secondary education, which is a new position. M inter, who is Black, has been deputy commissioner fo r elemen tary and secondary education at the United States Office o f Education since 1977. He was born June 28, 1924, in the Bronx, New York. He received a B.S. (1941) and M .A. (1950) from New York University’s School o f Education, an S.M.M. from Union Theological Seminary in 1955, and an ED.D. from Harvard Univer sity’s Graduate School of Education in 1971. From 1972 to 1975 M inter was superintendent for District Seven of the School District o f Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). From 1975 to 1977 he was superintendent o f the W ilm ington, Delwarc Public Schools. This is the position for which Superintendent Robert Blanchard was reported to be under consi deration. I Bell System Ye/low Pages A Yellow Pages ad reaches top executives and everyone else, right down the line. Its your efficiency expert in 96% of all homes and businesses, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. IT NEVER STOPS SELLING.
