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FORMER BLAZER LLOYD NEAL
CARVES OUT SECOND CAREER
BY SlIZETTE WASHINGTON AND
M ichael L eighton
It’s easy to define Lloyd Neal
as an athlete. After all, the
former Portland Trail Blazer
was one of the NBA’s all-time
best. His number 36 jersey
hangs
from
M em o rial
Coliseum, the first Trail Blazer
to have his number retired.
But Neal no longer is employed
in sports. He has carved out a suc
cessful career in Portland at the
Internal Revenue Service.
Seven years o f playing profes
sional ball gave Neal great stature
in the community, but it took aca
demic performance in school and
ambition in life to find a career that
would carry him into his later years.
Neal, 43, now looks down the
road to a second retirem ent after he
completes 20 plus years with the
federal agency.
A nd he p ractices w hat he
preaches about hard work paying
o ff in life.
“ Effort and preparation will
make you succeed or fail,” he ex
plains.
W hen talking to youth, he
stresses schools and capitalizing on
opportunities, striving for produc-
Former Trail Blazer Lloyd Neal
is employed with the Internal
Revenue Service in Portland.
tivity and versatility without losing
sight o f your goals.
He said being marketable, train-
able and getting his education are
w hat got him where he is today.
As a successful college player
and college draft choice in 1972, he
almost d id n ’t join the Blazers be
cause he was discouraged by the
salary they wanted to pay him. At
that time the team was struggling.
But N eal a sse sse d the o ffe r
and d e c id e d to try it. H e ’s a big
b e lie v e r in c a rry in g th in g s o u t to
th e en d and e n jo y in g the fin
ish ed p ro d u c t.
“ 1 didn’t want to go through the
rest o f life wondering if I could play
in the NBA or couldn’t,” he said.
Neal found it easy to get job
interviews after retiring from the
Blazers in 1979, but difficult to get
hired. He was 27 at the time.
His first jo b offer was at First
National Bank o f Oregon But he
did not accept the position because
it required him to travel and the
salary was not acceptable.
He returned to the classroom at
Tennessee State University and ob
tained his bachelor degree, gradu
ating with health and physical edu
cation as a m ajor and m athematics
as a minor
Neal began w orking for the
IRS in 1982. H e’s an excellentpub-
lic relations spokesperson for the
agency, holding a position as an
adviser in a special procedure unit.
Neal divorced in 1987. He has
two daughters, N ikkina, 20 and
Janelle, 16.
He enjoys golf, which he has
been playing for the last three years,
and he likes to cook for others. One
o f his favorite pastimes is w atching
classic western movies on his video
cassette recorder. His favorite film
is the three-hour epic “O nce Upon
A Tim e In The West.
He also is involved in helping
charities.
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Ladies AAU Basketball Team 1994
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^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ S s S ^ C h a m n i o n s ^ r o m ^ f ^ o F l i g h t : Michelle Johnson (44), Erin Kate Barton
(55) Shaquala Williams (#4), Sabrina Scott (#22), Hilary Reser (#32), Lindsey Yamasaki ^ 2^ ’ L' ^ sy
Estep (#10), Natalie Jacksha (#14), Nikki Ferchland (#15), Cher! Sorenson (#21), Christine Wi bo
Lee Pitts, a water safety instructor,
lesson video.
T
Now he has put his lessons on
videotape.
Pitts, a highly-decorated and
national ly-recognized certi fied sw im
instructor and scuba diver, is writer,
director and producer o f the aw ard
winning instructional video Waters:
Beginner’sSwim LessonsFor Adults
and Children with Lee Pitts.
“ It's part o f my dream to edu
cate all people, especially African-
American, on swimming and water
safety and hopefully decrease our
couldn't swim. But I also heard blacks
tell me this too. But I tell you that
over my 20 years o f teaching sw im
ming, I have taught hundreds o f
people o f all races and ages. To this
day, l have not observed any cred
ible evidence that one race is supe
rior to another in learning to swim.
Pitts said the tw o prim ary ingre
dients in the leam -to-sw im recipe
are the patience and the desire. Keep
in mind that there is no microwave
speed method o f learning to swim,
he said.
The video is for ages five and
above, runs 50 minutes with 15 swim
lessons and can be ordered by send-
ingacheck orm oney order for $21.95
to Lee Pitts, PO Box 2662, Fort
Myers, FL 33902-2662 or call (813)
936-7979.
STRIKE RALL BOXING
Due to the Major League base
ball player strike, ESPN will re
place its program m ing for the na
tional pastime with boxing.
Top Rank, Inc., which over
the last 14 years has produced the
longest running boxing series in
television history, will m ake a
pinch-hit appearance to help tans
forget that other sport.
A five-fightboutcardw illtake
place on Sunday, Septem ber 4. at the
Grand Olympic Auditorium, and will
be televised live on ESPN at 9 p.m.
ET/6 p m. PT.
W ith the p u rc h a se o f a fight
tic k e t. T op R ank and S eidm an
P ro d u c tio n s w ill giv e aw ay free
b o x in g m e m o r a b ilia , su ch as
p o ste rs, p ro g ra m s, c a le n d a rs and
b o x in g cards.
Ironically, one ofthe hottest hit-
ters in boxing— NABF flyweight
cham p Danny (kid D ynam ite)
Rom ero— will bat cleanup and
look to score another impressive
hit. Romero (18-0, 16 KOs), from
Albuquerque, defends his crown
a g a in s t M a ro o s P a c h e c o o f
Mexico. Romero won the title ear
lier this year by a second-round
knockout over Brian Lonon at the
Grand Olym pic A uditorium.
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(#13), Kim Gainey (#34)
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TOM ÄNSBERRY IN TRAINING FOR OLYMPIC GAMES
P
ortlan d
D istan ce
R unner F ourth at
Goodwill Games
The Home Depot, A m erica’s
largest home improvement retailer,
is helping Tom Ansberry, the Port
land Distance runner w ho -laced
fourth at the Goodwill Games, start a
career in business while training tor
this sport.
A n sb e rry , w ho w as h ire d by
th e A t l a n t a - b a s e d c o m p a n y
th ro u g h the U nited S tates O ly m
pic C o m m itte e ’s O ly m p ic Job
O p p o rtu n itie s P rogram (O JO P ),
w orks in the h ard w are d e p a rt
m ent at The H om e D epot lo cated
at 14800 S. W. S e q u o ia P a rk
w ay, in T ig ard , O re.
Ansberry was fourth in the
10,000-meter run July 24 at the Good
will Games, with a time o f 28:40.74-
-the best showing by aU .S. athlete in
the event. The 30-year-old U niver
sity o f Arizona graduate was fifth in
the 1992U.S. Olympic Trials for the
Barcelona Olympic Games.
When he is not training or w ork
ing part-time at The Home Depot,
Ansberry is pursuing a career in hy
drology or other water resource-re
lated opportunities.
OJOP is designed to provide
athletes with a degree o f financial
security, an opportunity to progress
toward a productive career, and the
necessary time off for training and
competitions. The program, co-spon
sored by Ernst & Young, the leading
integrated professional services firm,
and The Olsten Corporation, a leader
in the staffing service industry, is
primarily aimed at athletes in their
20s and 30s who have the potential
to participate or who have partici
pated in the Olympic Games.
The majority o f the athletes
placed in the program are college
graduates who have been unable to
obtain continuing em ploym ent in
their degree held because o f their
training and com petition require
ments.
“The Olympic Job Opportuni
ties Program has become a vital sup
port program for our Olympic ath
letes and an attractive opportunity
for organizations to participate in the
Olympic Movement " USOC Presi
dent Dr. LeRoy T. Walker said. "It
allows athletes the opportunity to
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continue their competitive careers
while furthering their professional
experience, and it provides em ploy
ers with hard-working, dedicated,
goal-oriented employees.
“ It is incredibly difficult for an
athlete to train for the ultimate in
athletics com petition—the Olympic
G am es-b ecau se o f financial and
time constraints. Through OJOP,
corporate America has answ ered the
call o f our elite athletes,” W alker
added. "The Home Depot is repre
sentative ofcom paniesm akinga tan
gible contribution to the Olympic
M ovem ent and our O lym pians.’
“Organizations participating in
the Olympic Job Opportunities Pro
gram are making the impossible come
true: allowing athletes to reach the
u ltim a te d re a m --T h e O lym pic
Gam es—and furthering their chosen
p ro fe s s io n a l c a r e e rs s im u lta
neously,” W alker added.
Ansberry was am ong the first
group ofO lym pic veteransand hope
fuls hired by The Home Depot under
OJOP. The company expects to be
one o f the largest OJOP employers
by the 1996 Olympic Games, with
60 athletes in the program.
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CAVS CROWNED ‘94 PRO-AM CHAMPIONS
high d ro w n in g ra te s,” says the
Talladega College graduate. National
drowning rates show that black males
drown at twice the rate o f white
males, and Pitts says h e 's out to
change that.
Because swimming could be
come an avenue o f escape, slave
ow ners often tried to ensure that
blacks never learned to swim. And
when corpses o f drowned escapees
were retrieved and displayed, blacks
became convinced they should stay
away from the "unfriendly waters.
"T hey developed a paranoia
which led to the myth that blacks
w ere inherently non-sw im m ers,
states Pitts, who has authored 25
published articles' on swimming and
water safety. “Sure, all my life l had
heard white people tell me that blacks
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SWIM TEACHER PRODUCES VIDEO
o his many students,
he is known as General
Lee. Although Lee Pitts,
33, never com m anded any
army, he has taught hundreds
of adults and children to swim
over his long distinguished
teaching career.
E*
Top Prospects Pro-
Am Summer Classic com
pleted its second year o f
summer play crowning a
new cham pion, led by
Portland’s own Cleveland
Cavalier, Terrell Brandon.
The talented Cavs, who are
complimented by former
O re g o n sta rs A n to in e
Stoudamire and big Eric
Dunn, a slow start in this
year’s Pro-Am Sum m er
Classic and finished the
season on a 9-0 win streak
after a 2-3 record. The defending
champion Lakers, led by the Port
land Trailblazers Jerome K ersey’s
27 and NBA veteran Ricky L ee’s 26
points, didn’t go down without a
fight. In fact, Kersey and Lakers led
most o f the game but down the stretch
it was B randon's 40 along with
Antoine Stoudam ire's 27 points that
guided the Cavs to victory. The Cavs
won it’s first Pro-Am championship
defeating the Lakers 69-62. Con-
gratu lat ions to the Cav ’ s Terrel I Bran
don, Eric Dunn. Antoine Stoudamire,
Tim Pittman, Aaron Bell, Charles
Green, and Anthony Butler for a
championship well-deserved.
This year's talent laden eight
team Pro-Am Summer Classic again
entertained a number o f young and
old basketball fans in the com m u
nity. Prior to last w eek’s cham pion
ship game, the C av’s Terrell Bran
don scored 64 points in the Cavs
final regular season game, setting a
new Pro-Am Summer classic scor
ing record and securing back-to-back
scoring titles with a 36.2 points per
game average!
The Pro-Am Sum m er Classic
provides an outlet for local profes
sionals and top amateur players to
practice and enhance their skills in
the off season. It also provides an
opportunity for inner-city youth, who
might not be able to afford the high
cost o f a professional game, to learn
first hand from the pro 's at no cost.
To further enhance com petition, the
league became N CA A -sanctioned
this year to allow several top stu
dent-athletes to participate and im
prove their skills. This year’s league
featured top local collegians such as
University o f Portland’s 1st Team
All-W est Coast Conference player
Canaan Chatman, M ontana State’s
Nico Harrison. O regon’s vastly im
pro v ed O rla n d o W illiam s, and
A rizona’s Final four floor general
and
A ll-A m e ric a n
D am on
Stoudamire, also finished 2nd on
this year’s Pro-Am Sum m er Classic
scoring chart with a 31.5 points per
game average! Profes
sionals who played this
year included, Portland
T r a ilb la z e r ’s
C lif f
R o b in so n ,
Je ro m e
Kersey, Jam es “H olly
w ood” R obinson, and
Mark Bryant. Cleveland
Cavalier, and Pro-Am
Sum m er Classic Two-
time scoring champion
Terrell Brandon, as well
as form er Trailblazer’s
Kevin D uckw orth and
Darnell Valentine.
Top Prospects w ishes the best
o f luck to the professionals and col
legians who com peted in this year s
Pro-Am Sum m erClassic. We would
also like to express special thanks to
the Salvation Army and league co
sp o n so rs T ed P e te rso n , M id-K
Beauty Supplies, and Selby Bridge
for their contributions to this year’s
Pro-Am Sum m erC lassic.
Hats o ff to Top Prospects Pro-
Am Sum m er C lassic's Executive
Director Tim Pittman, and Execu
tive Advisor Keith Jackson for an
other entertaining sum m er! Stay
tuned...next year get’s even better
YEAR IN R E V IE W
• 1994 Summer Classic Champi
ons Cavs 11-3
• 1994 League M V P ; T e rre ll
Brandon
• 1994ScoringChampion; Terrell
Brandon 36.2 ppg *64 (H )
• 1994 Collegian of the Year
Damen Stoudamire 31.5 ppg 43
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• Pro-Am SummerClassic Record
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