Since this is sports confession day, my worst experience happened in basketball. We played St. Francis HS in 1966 at LaCanada. I was a sophomore guard and my defensive assignment was to man-up on their star junior guard Mike Newlin, who was 6'4" and who later played 11 seasons in the NBA, including 10 with the Houston Rockets. On that night, he broke the all-time California record for the most points in a single game: 67. What's most remarkable is that there was no three-point play in those days and it was illegal to dunk. We could have placed a folding chair out there and the chair couldn't have done worse than I did. Their players laughed through that whole game and we didn't get revenge until the following year when we pulled one of the greatest upsets in California history, beating them by five at home. My small contribution in that one was to hold Newlin under 50...
I remember Mike Newlin. I would have laid long odds that Jim would shut him down. A little bit of me died when I read your account.
Mike Newlin was a very popular player when he was here in Houston. Was one of the all-time great NBA free throw shooters, along with Calvin Murphy and Rick Barry. JO'Co did you use all your fouls on Newlin?
Culver <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> That didn't work out so well for Lou the season he went to Culver with the team. I don't like the idea. <E>:?</E></r>
ND <r>Freshmen got jersey numbers today. Guess we can officially count them as part of the team now huh? No, better wait until they step on the field for the first game....still plenty of time to transfer. <E</E></r>
re: Newlin He was not as popular around here as he was in Houston. I was assigned to guard him, because he had already been in two fist fights with our other guard, Bobby Mimmack, the previous two years. Mimmack, who later became a sports writer up in NoCal, was only 5'9" and was coming out on the losing end of these encounters. So the decision was made to sacrifice the stupid sophomore to the basketball Gods. I suppose it made sense to my coach. After all, I was a football player and kind of a tough kid. Maybe I could slow him down a tad. Unfortunately for this theory, Mike Newlin was also a High School All-American football player and an even tougher kid. He kicked my arse AND he scored a bazillion points...
I wonder how Newlin ended up at Utah. I assume since he went to a Catholic HS in the 60's that he was Catholic and most of the kids at Utah are mormon, how he ended up there, at that time Utah was sort of a backwater place compare to the Pac10 schools I would have thought he'd have ended up at.
re: Utah You're asking ME how Newlin ended up at Utah? Ok......my theory is that he was stupid and his mother didn't raise him right. I was surprised that he was accepted anywhere west of the Slobovian Army. He was a punk and not a very bright one as I recall... re: Utah Actually, the University of Utah is NOT a haven for Mormons, who flock to BYU and Utah State. Utah has always been culturally more of a west coast school than the other two. BTW, I learned that from Mormon missionaries who came to my house. Those kids are always eager to talk sports...
:idea: BTW, the most interesting character on that St. Francis team wasn't one of their players. The most interesting was their head coach: Carl Boldt. He had been a starting player on one of the most famous college teams of all-time: the University of San Francisco in the 1950's. The other starters included players like Bill Russell and K.C. Jones. They won two NCAA titles and set the all-time record for consecutive wins. He also won a gold medal in the Olympic Games and he was the first coach to outfit his teams in foreign made tennis shoes. His St. Francis teams wore Adidas shoes that were imported from Germany... Our head coach was a 26 year-old clown who thought he was special. He was from Pennsylvania and he was always telling us how superior everything (especially basketball) was back there, compared to the "rubes and pussies" who played here in California. At the league meeting before the season, he told all the other coaches in the league that he would win the league title easily. It was his first coaching job. Before that game where Newlin set the record, Boldt walked over to our bench, stuck his finger in our coach's face and said, "OK genius, I'm going to score 100 points on you." He almost succeeded. In the 4th quarter, our coach had us go into a four-corner stall to run out the clock against ourselves to prevent Boldt's prediction from coming true. That's right. We stalled the clock in a game that we were losing badly. It was my most humiliating experience in sports and obviously it still bothers me nearly half a century later... Postscript: Our coach was fired at the end of the season and returned to Pennsylvania where he was, presumably, happier... Carl Boldt later became the head coach at Damien, where he was very successful. He eventually left coaching and made a lot of money in the coffee business. I believe he's still alive and lives in Arcadia.
Getting close to locking this topic as we move on to Fall Camp, and I'll start a new topic. Looks like they are done or close to done. Not bad, I'm not unhappy. I'd have rather had a grass field, but this looks good.
:idea: Even the high schools around here have gone to this artificial turf. It saves them a fortune on their water bills and maintenance costs...
Jim, the high schools also can use the fields 365 days a year. Here in the midwest, it's an added advantage due to the 4-season weather.
:idea: You're right, and they also have 20 years to raise funds to replace the field, which is not expensive when compared with water and the upkeep of natural grass...
Well clearly our field was awful in recent years and something had to be done. Green Bay has grass, but I guess it's pretty expense system. Northwestern has grass and gets awards for it's field. I know Michigan tried grass but they have problems that they couldn't overcome and they really had no choice. Not sure why Ohio State went to turf, I assume it had to do with the cost of maintaining a grass field. Here in Houston, our Pro stadium has natural grass. It's a box system, with a complete second field always on hand not far away so they can replace sections as needed. But still we have problems with the turf. Minute Maid has natural turf and it seems to be very good. Are there any MLB clubs left who play on turf instead of grass? At one time a lot of teams went to turf, esp those in multi-use stadiums.