World Series Victory
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•City of
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Volume XXXX.
Number 42
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Wednesday • November 3. 2010
Two Eras; Two Legends
‘The Enforcer’
Maurice Lucas
remembered
Maurice Lucas, the fierce power forward
known as "The Enforcer" who helped lead
the Portland Trail Blazers to the 1977 NBA
title, is being remembered after his death
Sunday from bladder cancer. He was 58.
Lucas, who in later years was an assistant
coach with the Blazers, died at his home in
Portland with family members at his side, the
team said.
Lucas joined Portland in the 1976 ABA
dispersal draft and averaged a team-high
20.2 points and grabbbed 11.2 rebounds per
game in the 1976-77 championship season.
His No. 20 was retired by the Blazers in 1988.
At public appearances, fans often greeted
Lucas with cries of "Luuuuuuke!" His com­
petitive demeanor on the court was in con­
trast to his gentle nature off it.
"We have lost a champion of a m an," Trail
Blazers coach Nate McMillan said in a state-
Maurice Lucas was a five-time NBA All-Star who helped lead the Blazers to the
NBA Championship in 1977.
ment. "Maurice was a great man and a great
friend. He battled his illness like the warrior
he was on the basketball court."
Lucas served as an assistant coach with
the Blazers for six seasons, but last year he
left the team to undergo surgery before suf­
fering a setback last November. He did not
return to coaching this season.
The former Marquette player averaged
14.4 points and 8.8 rebounds in 12 NBA
Negro Leagues
all-star made
Portland home
by
B enjamin H ill
Artie Wilson, a legend of the Negro Ameri­
can and Pacific Coast Leagues, including the
Portland Beavers, died Sunday in Portland
where he was a longtime resident. Wilson
was 90.
Wilson's long and winding professional
baseball career spanned the better part of
two decades and was peppered throughout
with notable accomplishments. He is consid­
ered the last baseball player to hit .400 in a
premier professional league, having accom­
plished the feat as a member of the 1948
Birmingham Black Barons. The fleet-footed
Wilson hit .402 that season, reaching base at
a prodigious clip while also serving as a
mentor to 17-year-old Willie Mays
"He was one of the guys that made sure I
Artie Wilson was considered one of the greatest players in baseball history. He
died Sunday at his Portland home at the age of 90.
didn't get in any trouble," Mays told The
Oregonian. "I owe a lot of debt to him."
Wilson was a native of Birmingham, and
1948 was his fifth and final season as a
member of the hometown Black Barons. The
slap-hitting shortstop went to the Pacific
Coast League's Oakland Oaks in 1949, in the
process becoming the club's first full-time
black player. He led the PCL with a .349
average, teaming up with future Yankees
legend Billy Martin to form one of the circuit's
best double-play combinations. The two
became fast friends, on and off the field.
"When I got [to Oakland!, they said they
seasons with Portland, New Jersey, New
York, Phoenix, the Los Angeles Lakers and
Seattle. In two seasons in the ABA with St.
Louis and Kentucky, he averaged 15.2 points
and 10.8 rebounds.
He was a five-time All-Star.
Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen also praised
Lucas in a statement released late Sunday
night.
"Maurice Lucas was an amazing man and
I count myself lucky to have known him. We
all — players, coaches, the owner and the
fans — were made better by having Maurice
a part of our team, whether playing on the
championship team or, most recently as an
assistant coach.
"He was one of the greatest Blazers ever."
Prior to last season, an interview with
Lucas was posted on the Trail Blazers' offi­
cial website, covering topics including his
health, his work with center Greg Oden and
the team's 40th anniversary.
"The one thing that I’m finding is an
issue for me is learning patience, being
patient with m yself. I'm trying to under-
continued
on page 4
didn't have a room for me," Wilson told
MiLB.com's Kevin Czerwinski in 2007. "But
Billy Martin stepped up and said that he's got
a roommate - I'm his roommate. I got to know
Billy quite well, and there were no problems
anywhere after that."
Baseball's unspoken but rigidly enforced
segregationist policies denied Wilson the
opportunity to compete in the Majors for
many years, but he finally got the chance in
1951 (at the age of 30). He opened the season
with the New York Giants, but he accumu­
lated just 22 at-bats before being demoted in
May. Ironically, the player who took his
place on the roster was none other than his
former teammate Willie Mays.
. Undaunted, Wilson returned to the PCL
and continued to put up stellar numbers
while suiting up for the Oaks, San Diego
Padres, Seattle Rainiers and Portland Bea­
vers. This was prior to MLB's westward
expansion, when the PCL was often referred
to as a "third Major League."
"[The PCLJ was tough," recalled Wilson
in 2007. "We had guys who couldn’t hit .250
continued
on page 4