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
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Delicious Soul Food
Open 2:30 P.M. Until..
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Portland. Oregon
284 2528
Board.
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Open: Mon. - Sat. 10a.m .-7p.m .
Sun. - Noon - 5 p.m.
ma
FRESH
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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 \
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W ./i
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Boneless
Armour Golden Star Young
Butter Basted-Frozen
3 to 7 lbs.
|L
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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
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Fitzgerald Beaver
RENTALS
Top Sirloin
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2 bdrm, 1 bath, separate dining
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Steak
1 bdrm, 1 bath, carpet, drapes
garden style apartment, laundry
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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.
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W BURNSIDE at 21«t
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