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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 25, 1981)
Portland Observar Juna 26. 1981 Paga 9 NOTICE Sports Talk By Ron Sykes Sports Editor On June 9, 1981 Indiana's Isiah Thomas waited anxiously for the NBA draft. This, however, was not the first draft for the budding super- star. This story from Ira Berkow is certainly worth sharing. How Isiah Thomas Escaped the bad guys o f the Ghetto: it was D ra ft Day in the ghetto. That’ s what everyone there called it. On a few days each year, chieftians of the notorious Vice Lords street gang appeared at certain homes on the West Side o f Chicago to take recruits. On this summer night in 1966, 25 Vice Lord Chiefs stopped in front of the home o f Mary Thomas. She had nine children, seven o f them boys, ranging from Lord Henry, 15 years o ld , to Isaiah, 5. The Thomases lived on the first floor of a tw o-story red brick building on Congress Street, facing the Eishenhower Expressway. my porch!” she said, “ Or I ’ ll blow you cross the Expressway.” He stepped back, and slowly he and his gang disappeared into the night. Isaiah Thomas never joined a gang, and was protected from the ravages o f street life...the dope, the drinking, the stealing, the k illin g s ...b y his m other and his brothers, even those who eventually succumbed to the streets. Two o f his brothers became herion addicts, one was a pim p, a couple w ould be jailed and one became Vice Lords Chief. Isaiah, though, was the baby o f the family, and its hope. He became an honor student in grade school and high school, an All-Am erican basketball player in high school and college, and, as a 6 ’ 1 inch point guard, lead Indiana University to the N C A A cham pionship last March. One o f the L o rd ’ s rang the bell. Mary Thomas, wearing glasses, an swered the door. She saw behind him the rest o f his gang, all wearing gold tarns and black capes and some lead guns on their waist bands that glittered under the street lamps. “ We want your boys,” the gang leader to ld her. “ They can’ t walk around here and not be in no gang.” She looked him in the eye. “ There’s only one gang around here, and that’ s the Thomas gang,” she said “ and 1 lead that.” “ I f you don’ t bring those boys out, we’ ll get’ em in the streets,” he said. She shut the door. The gang members waited. She walked through the living room where the rest o f the fa m ily sat. Isiah, frightened, watched her go into the bedroom and return with a sawed- o ff shotgun. She opened the front door. She pointed the gun at the caped figure before her. “ Get o ff A fte r only a few weeks out o f high school, he was a stand out on the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal in the 1979 Pan Am erican Games, and was a starter on the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team. Isiah Thomas, a 19-year old sophomore and B student majoring in forensics, with an eye toward law school, passed up his last two years o f college basketball to declare his eligibility for the NBA draft. He had wrestled with his decision all season. “ D on’ t do i t , ” said Bobby Knight, the Indiana basketball coach. “ You can s till im prove in basketball. You could be w orth m ore.” “ W hat’ s left fo r you to prove in college?” asked his brother Gregory. “ Son,” said Mary Thomas, "D o what makes you happy.” “ I know I ’ m a role model for a lot of people back in the ghetto,” said Thomas, "n o t too many o f us get the chance to get out, to go to college. I f I get out what effect w ould that have on them? And I said I wanted to be a lawyer and one day return there and help the people. They need it. I ’ ve seen kids who stole a pair o f pants and they get a five-year prison sentence. L ite ra lly , because there was no adequate legal help for them. “ I ’ ll get my law degree. I know I can only play basketball fo r a few years. Then you’ ve got the rest o f your life ahead o f you. And I have to think o f my fam ily. My mother worked hard all her life and for not much money. My father left when 1 was 3 years old, and my mom had to keep us together by herself. She worked in the com m unity center, she worked in the church, she did whatever she could. She’s got a job w ith the Housing A u th o rity in Chicago now, and she shouldn’ t be working. Her eyes are bad, and her heart’ s not good. I ’ d like her to quit.” By the tim e Thomas was in the fourth grade, he was a star on the eighth-grade team at Our Lady o f Sorrows. His mother and brothers watched him closely. Mary Thomas made sure that he went straight home from school, and did not dwindle in the streets. “ If I did,” he said, “ My mother would kick my butt.” From the time he was in grade school, his brothers lectured him. The seven of them sat in a bedroom and closed the door so that their mother and two sisters would not hear the horror stories that they told o f the streets. They would take him for a walking tour and point out the dangers. “ They told me about the mistakes they had made, so that 1 wouldn’ t have to make them,” said Thomas. Lord Henry, for one, had been an A ll-C ity basketball player at St. P hillips. People in the neigh borhood contend that he was the best basketball player in the family. He still holds the Catholic League’ s single season scoring record. But he had problems w ith discipline and grades and was throw n out o f school. He went into the streets, and became a junkie. Isaiah could see for himself the tortures his brother went through and the suffering it caused his mother. A t St. Joseph's High in West chester, a predom inately white school in a Chicago suburb, Thomas endeavored to learn text book English. A t one point his brother Gregory, was confused. Isaiah recalls his brother saying: “ You done fo rg o t to talk like a nigger. Better not come around here like no sissy w hite b o y .” But the brothers, like Isaiah, understood the im portance o f good English, and the handle it could provide in helping to escape the ghetto, a dream they shared. “ W hat I was doing," said Isaiah, "was becoming fluent in two languages.” At Indiana he made A ll-B ig Ten as a freshman, and on March 30th, he scored 23 points to lead his team to a crushing 63-50 win over North Carolina, and was named MVP. As soon as the game ended, Indiana fans rushed to the court. One o f them was a Black woman in a red suit jacket w ith a button on her lapel. The button read. “ Isaiah Thomas M om , Mrs. M ary Thom as.” Near the center o f the court they embraced. She was crying and it looked as i f Isaiah was holding back tears. “ Thanks mom, thanks for every thing you’ ve gone through for me. I hope 1 can do something for you.” “ You’ ve done enough, honey,” she said. N ote: Excerpted from the S.F. Chronicle. Beaver: Publisher, sportsman Grassroot News, N.W. For those who were in Portland during the late 50s and early 60s, the word Beaver generates a special memory, especially, if the Beaver is Fitzgerald Beaver. Mr. Beaver first established him self in Portland as a D.J. “ I had a D.J. program featuring R&B and branched out into Gospel and Jazz. I came up in the Era o f Payola; when Disc Jockeys were a celebrity and 1 was among the first D J’ s in P o rtla n d ,” he recalled. His radio show was called the Eager Beaver Show and he was among the first to bring Black program m ing into a commercial format. “ I would have remote programs at dances and gas stations and fill up the whole lot. It was real tough get ting in to radio because there just wasn’ t any Black radio. First, I went to a radio station and asked if there were any jobs as announcers opened. They told me they didn’ t have a spot fo r someone w ith my brough. Finally, I decided to go out and get some sponsors. When I got some sponsors which represented some money, I didn’t go back to the program D irector. I went to the owner and said, 'L o ok, 1 got some sponsors, some mJney to put in the station,’ and he said ‘ When do you want to start?’ Later, I got into T.V. and put Gospel on the air with a show called ‘ Gospel T ra in .’ The response was good but there weren’t enough people to help. Those few Black people who stood beside me lust w asn't enough but it was create a need for that service, you enough for me to learn Radio, T.V., give it to the people and you’ll make and public relations. So when 1 left Portland and came to Seattle, it was • money." Beaver’ s experience exceeded tar easy for me to click right into the beyond the newspaper office onto business. Doing the same thing in the g o lf course. Recently, he was Seattle paid o ff but doing the same elected Area Vic-President o f the thing in Portland, didn’ t.” he said. Western States G olf Association by Other Beaver ventures included: the Leisure Hour G olf Club o f Port Selling beer, records, in addition to land and the First State o f Seattle. owning a V ariety Show on old “ Everybody got to have something U nion Avenue. “ I got a good to believe in. G olf is my outlet. I like education in P o rtla n d ,” Beaver to be com petitive. I ’ m not one o f added with a smile. “ I left Portland the top, top golfers, but I like to win and came to Seattle w ith a jo b in so I try real hard. I'v e prom oted m ind. 1 was to manage the firs t golf in the Northwest and hope the Black radio station in Seattle. In this ranks in the WSGA w ill swell. It's position I would call on Black ad something good and clean and l will vertisers and they would complain make it pay o ff,” he predicted. about the lack of a Black newspaper Fitzgerald Beaver's work and, the in the area. I had never been in a doors he has helped pry open has newspaper office, but I decided if had a ripple effect on journalism in this is what they want, I ’ ll do my the N orthw est. Every Black best to give it to them .” In 1963, newspaper in the Pacific Northwest Beaver started The Seattle Facts, has received a bit o f help from later expanding to Tacoma, Beaver. George Page (KBOO-FM ) Washington. (The Tacoma Facts) found him to be his biggest in When asked if he perceived any fluence. Beaver is also the father of changes in the newspaper business, Lanita Duke, Director o f Grassroot Beaver indicated that there hasn’ t News, N.W. been any m ajor changes except in the attitude o f the people he represents. “ In the early 60s, we started the social revolution and we changed from Negro in to being Black. One o f the toughest transac tions I had to make was to keep from being an Uncle Tom and not being too radical at the same time. You see, a newspaper has to make money to survive and I was in business like I ’ m in business now. You find a need for that service, you Ask about our new Budget Service * c The»© price» do not include Blue Jean» D enim » or Silk ] # dresses plain »3.50 and up. Friday • 8 6 p m. OPEN SATURDAY 9 A M . to 1:00P.M. „ irFS ? / p R llX --’ • LO W - PORTLAND CLEANING WORKS f t 3954 N. W illiam s 282 8361 Albina M in lateral A lliance Family Day and N ig h t Cara Program w ill hold its 11th An niversary Banquet at W estm in ster Church on Friday. June 26th at 6:30 p.m. The Church is at 1624 N.E. Hancock. Speaker for the event is Derrick Bell. Dean of the Univer sity of Oregon Schoo! of Law- Dr. Bell has been a teacher and an attorney in the field of civil rights. GRAND OPENING FREEMONT FOOD Er RECORDS Delicious Soul Food Open 2:30 P.M. Until.. 1329 N.E. Fremont Portland. Oregon 284 2528 Board. s se*FO O ° 287-1221 1815 NE Broadway - Portland V? ■c Open: Mon. - Sat. 10a.m .-7p.m . Sun. - Noon - 5 p.m. ma FRESH FISH DAILY “4 •J* 3 1 FRESH SEAFOOD DAILY SPECIALS THIS WEEK REX SOLE...................................... $2.39/lb (Reg. $2.®°/lb) FRESH CHINOOK ........................ 85.“ /lb (Reg. $6 %/lb) PRAWNS 40-50 Lb.................... 8 6 .*/lb (Reg. $7.95/lb) FraahBufial^var^uasdo^n^Thuradai^aolnnln^e^^4^^lacyou^rdaiMaarlj^ WHO SAYSYOU CAN T MANAGE A HOME AND...A PROFESSION TOO? Unique part time jobs with the Internal Revenue Service providing tax assistance to the public by phone. Limited, irregular hours primarily Dec. through Apr. $5.27 per hour. Paid training class begins Oct. 1. Earliest applicants will receive first consideration. Two years contact experience or college required plus passing a written test. Test is given every Wednesday morning from June 10 through July 29. Obtain application forms for CONTACT REPRESENTATIVE TEST from the Federal Job Inform ation Center, 1220 S .W . Third A ve ., Portland, OR 97204. Phone:221-3141. Internal Revenue Service is an Equal Opportunity Employer Turkey Roast \ - • W ./i r r” • I Boneless Armour Golden Star Young Butter Basted-Frozen 3 to 7 lbs. |L „ C i 79 Kraft American & Swiss SLICED CHEESE Bluebird Brand “ Heat & Eat” Fillet C V OO BREADED SOLE & PERCH ’ 1 Fresh Fillet $ V 39 BLACK COD .„’ £ < I .9 9 Fresh SCALLOPS ,b O Fitzgerald Beaver RENTALS Top Sirloin (REMCO) 2 bdrm, 1 bath, separate dining rm, yard, 1 car garage, w-d hook up, »250 NET per month. Steak 1 bdrm, 1 bath, carpet, drapes garden style apartment, laundry facilities coin op available, facili ties, rec. room. $195 NET per month. Slacks, pants »1.75. sportcoat »2 00. sweaters »1.75 and up. suits - 2 piece »3 75, men and ladies suits, 3 piece vested »4.75, men and ladies, coats long and plain »5 00. coetsjigh tw eig h t. Topper »4 50. H ours M o n d a y School Board member H erb Cawthorne w ill lead a march from W ashington/M onroe High School to Adams High School at noon Sunday to protest the potentia l closure o f Adams H igh School. W ashington/M onroe has already been closed. A community potluck w ill follow the march. Purpose o f the march is to raise funds to file a d is c rim i nation suit against the School U.S.D.A. Choice All homes located in the North/ Northeast area. lb. Wo ■ w CROSS RIB U.S.D.A. Choice Boneless Beef ROAST Fresh BREASTS lb. MJ* FRYRR Oregon THIGHS lb. *1 ’’ Grown DRUMSTICKS lb. $1 ’’ PARTS SE 20th b D IVISIO N SE 72nd b FLAVEL NE 15th b FREMONT W BURNSIDE at 21«t SAN RAFAEL 1910 NE 122nd REMCO PROPERTIES 297 5675 Real Estate Mgmt. T R k i Xfl ■ ■ A Boneless Beef 5 bdrm, 1 ’A baths, 2 story, com pletely REFURBISHED, huge close in spacious. »350 NET per month. 2 bdrm, 1 bath, hdwd floors, close-in, newly painted, »250 NET per month. $9 Foresl Grove 2329 PACIFIC Oreyon City 878 AAOl A ll A Candy 1051 SW lal LLOVD CENTER t*410 SE D IV IS IO N SE POWF l l NE M th b 0 L IS A N HILLSBORO X O S E O A K 3D E .W jE L L i y
