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Post by willy on Mar 27, 2017 8:17:55 GMT -6
Bad News Barnes was as good as anyone in both leagues but he was horrible as a teammate and was unreliable. I remember when he came out of Providence with little Ernie DeGregorio. Drug usage was pretty bad, as bad as today in some instances. I saw that special as well Masked Man. To have all that ability wasted was such a shame. I'm a big Boston Celtic fan and it broke my heart when Len Bias drilled out due to drugs. He was going to be the perfect player to augment Bird, Parish and McHale. Good shooter and rebounder, all down the tubes because of drugs. And he was a number one pick that got wasted, hurt the celtics for a long time.
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Post by willy on Mar 27, 2017 9:11:53 GMT -6
I have my degree from ISU, drove back and forth after Nam. My old friend Ted Schmitz was defensive co-ordinator for them for ten years. The head coach was Jerry Hart and his assistants were mostly all from the same college and were mates together at EIU, where I went before Nam. What a crew! Well Ted introduced me to most of the coaches at ISU, one of which was Gene Smithson and he was a real character. He new that I had played at Eastern and told me to use Horton whenever and just go ask for equipment. Used to go in and shoot with Bubbles Hawkins. Tough player and was killed in San Francisco where he was playing in the pros. One of my best friends and teammate here in Streator for 30 years is Harry Park. He played at ISU when Doug Collins was there and got run out of the program when Will Robinson got the job. Harry used to double date with Collins and is still his friend after all these years. I watched Larry Bird put the hammer down on ISU for 46 when he was a sophomore. In that time frame, ISU could play with a lot of teams but nobody wanted to play them. Smithson told me that he wanted to play Marquette, but the stipulation was that McGuire had to scout ISU personally 3 times and would only then play ISU on a neutral court. That was never going to happen.
You mentioned Centenary, who had Robert Parrish. The coach for them was Larry Little. He started out coaching over in Pontiac at Winston Churchill JC. He left there and went to Centenary who was then put on probation for his four years there for recruiting violations. He then went to Hawaii, who immediately went on probation. One of his ball players was a transfer from IVCC, Hollis Vickery of LaSalle. Hollis was a real good player. Small world isn't it? Before I left Streator for the Army we had a local team and we played all over this area. We used to go over and play Larry's JC team.
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Post by willy on Mar 27, 2017 12:45:52 GMT -6
Yeah, I remember Powell. His son (also Roger) played for Illinois when they played N. Carolina for the NCAA championship. The refs really hosed the Illini that night.
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Post by dumdave on Mar 27, 2017 14:22:12 GMT -6
The biggest pickings that the Dallas ABA team lured from the NBA was a former mvp, Cliff Hagan and Cincy Powell. They left Dallas to become the San Antonio Spurs.
The Miami Floridians had several former U of I players. One was a very tall center and the other was named..Freeman.?
I thought that the Bullets and Pistons played an exhibition game in the then brand new Pops Dale gym.
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Post by willy on Mar 27, 2017 16:01:24 GMT -6
That would have been Donnie Freeman out of Illinois. He was one good player, not frail but to lean to play in the NBA, but could he play. Best player I saw here in Streator was a guy that played for Knox college and went to work here at Owens. His name is Bud McRoberts and the best. Some will say he couldn't be that good to end up in Streator. He was 6'5" and 205 and had arms like Jodie Harrison, could pick a quarter off the floor without bending down. Well Bud got drafted by the Royals. They had the Big O, Jack Twyman, Adrian Smith, Wes Unseld. Good team and the coach told Bud to go home and put on weight. Nobody around here could hold a candle to him and he played with the Ottawa Falstaffs. They had Dave Downey, Coleman Caroline, Bill Small, Don Schook (7'0) and they played in a league like the Peoria Caterpillars and Denver Truckers. Well, Bud's nephew is Josh McRoberts who left Duke early and is playing in the pros right now........Don't know Dave if that game happened cause I was gone for about 10 years. What's fun is to do a search and look up all the old players, you'll be surprised how many good ones that played in the ABA, but they just didn't have the money to keep it going.
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Post by dumdave on Mar 28, 2017 20:34:29 GMT -6
In 1975, he appeared in the first sketch on the first Saturday Night Live show.
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Post by dumdave on Mar 30, 2017 16:33:05 GMT -6
John Belushi. At one time he was on the top tv show..SNL. Was in the top movie..Animal House. Top musical album..Blues Brothers
He just COULD NOT STAY OFF DOPE. Even with a body guard. Sometimes, he would walk into a stranger's house and go to sleep.
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Post by dumdave on Mar 30, 2017 22:57:14 GMT -6
John Belushi. At one time he was on the top tv show..SNL. Was in the top movie..Animal House. Top musical album..Blues Brothers He just COULD NOT STAY OFF DOPE. Even with a body guard. Sometimes, he would walk into a stranger's house and go to sleep. A huge talent. Another fat dead Comedian that died at a young age....Chris Farley, John Candy... It's a shame that we have lost so many talented people who could not PUT IT DOWN. But as was a bartender/manager of night clubs...musicians are a different breed. Thank goodness it was only weed and booze for the guys in the band's I had to deal with.
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Post by dumdave on Mar 31, 2017 13:28:11 GMT -6
Pretty cool Dave, what kind of bands did you deal with mostly? I know Austin is a great music city, home to Willie and Asleep at the Wheel....the TV show Austin City Limits. It was all Mexican music. MY wife's relatives owned a private Mexican Night Club in Dallas. On week nights I ran the place. They made most of their money on the weekends. Our costumers were suit and fancy dress couples. The owners made very good money. (The stories I could tell.)
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Post by dumdave on Apr 1, 2017 13:01:46 GMT -6
Sounds pretty cool Dave...a job that isn't totally WORK.... We did live in Austin for six months. Both of us attending The University of Texas. Mom working on undergraduate studies and me in Grad School. We both had work/study jobs. Armadillo World Headquarters was where the great music was at there. But we were too poor to party. Yet we were very happy. I tried to get a state government job. It didn't work out so we went back to Dallas where the jobs were.
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Post by dumdave on Apr 5, 2017 13:30:33 GMT -6
I'll toss out Volkswagen or Renault.
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Post by cmon on Apr 8, 2017 7:45:27 GMT -6
Memphis Belle.
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Post by dumdave on Apr 11, 2017 19:46:15 GMT -6
This guy was the only person to:
Led MLB in triples.
Play in the world series.
Played in a Super bowl.
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Post by cmon on Apr 11, 2017 20:41:09 GMT -6
Deion Sanders is the only one I can think of.
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Post by dumdave on Apr 11, 2017 23:16:06 GMT -6
Deion Sanders is the only one I can think of. Yes Sir!
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