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m ®«oi httpV/www.thecharl ottepost.com 1C W\)t Cljarlotte SPORTS THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2004 ^ Black College Sports/4C PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON Johnson C. Smith guard Ben Chasten shoots over Winston-Salem State’s Jay Maynard in the Golden Bulls’ 62-61 win at Charlotte Coliseum. Bulls missing as much as they’re hitting By Herbert L. White herb, white @ thei horloiteposi. c ’oni Johnson C. Smith hoped to turn its season around at the Legacy Classic. But that may take a while yet. The Golden Bulls pulled to .500 with a 62-61 comeback upset of CIAA West rival Winston-Salem State at Charlotte Coliseum, then stumbled to a 76-51 loss at St. Augustine’s Tuesday. For Smith,, which has won two straight, taking down the Rams was supposed to be the win that jump-started an inconsistent sea son. “It certainly can help,” Smith coach Steve Joyner said. ‘We look at the Legacy Classic as a (preliminary) to the CIAA tourna ment and we gauge a lot of things off this. We take great pride in it and it’s a great event.” Please see JCSU/2C No Serena, no problem for Venus at Australian Open Joyner Venus Williams By John Pye THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MELBOURNE, Australia - Venus Williams misses her kid sister at the Australian Open. The hotel room is quiet, and the phone doesn’t ring. The rest of the women’s field doesn’t exactly share the sentiment. Serena Williams, the defending champion, skipped the year’s first major tournament to recover fi'om knee surgery, clearing the way for others. Venus Williams could be the one to take advantage. Please see NO SISTER/3C Agencies unite against doping By Jerome Pugmire THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PARIS — The IOC and UNESCO signed an agreement Monday aimed at unifying the global fight against doping. IOC president Jacques Rogge was at the U.N. group’s headquarters for the opening session of a weeklong meeting to review the preliminary draft of the International Convention against Doping. “Combatting doping is more than a matter of ethics, it’s a matter of public health,” Rogge told delegates from the bodys 190 member states. ‘Twelve percent of the world are involved in sport or sports clubs. Athletes have died and will con tinue to die if nothing is done. “If this continues, mothers wUl stop sending Please see IOC/2C NEAR-ZERO TO HEROES ERA PHOTO/MATT CAMPBELL Carolina Panthers Greg Favors (left) and Ricky Manning celebrate after the Panthers beat Philadelphia 14-3 In the NFC championship game Sunday In Philadelphia. Next up Is AFC cham pion New England in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Panthers’ turnaround one win away from complete By Jenna Fryer THE ASSOCIATED PRESS His house and lawn were covered in toilet paper and con gratulatory banners when Carolina coach John Fox returned home from the NFC championship game early Monday morning. The drive home from the sta dium took longer than usual because of the extra time it took to push through the thou sands of fans who turned out to greet the Panthers following their 14-3 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. Two years after the lowest point in Carolina history, Fox and the Panthers are headed to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise his tory. “We’ve got great fans and they were out at the airport and all along our trail to the stadium, and there were a number of people to greet us here at the stadi um,” Fox said. “I had all kinds of things on my house and Fox everybody was really excited.” That’s because the Panthers’ turnaround has been nothing short of amazing. A young franchise that had long been troubled by off-field problems, Carolina hit bottom on Jan. 6, 2002. The New England Patriots came to town for the regular season finale and humiliated the Panthers 38-6. The game capped Carolina’s 1-15 season and was played in front of a half-empty stadium. Of the franchise-low 21,070 in attendance, over half were Please see PANTHERS/2C Panthers stake claim at top of chain C. Jemal Horton They are fifth no more. It wasn’t all that long ago that the Carolina Panthers ranked last in love from sports fans in the Carolinas. But a dream of a football sea son, which is culminating with a trip to Super Bowl XXXVm in Houston next week, has changed all of that. The Panthers are the top sports team in the Carolinas, hands down. They’ve come a long way since that 1-15 season of two years ago. They’ve come a long way since they were at the back of the line when it came to sports allegiances in these parts. ‘Tve always believed when you win, (fans) come,” Panthers coach John Fox told reporters during his weekly press conference. And that’s why Panthers jer seys are being scooped up with the efficiency of The Fat Boys in a buffet line. That’s why people in other states and countries - people who haven’t lived in this area for years - are sticking their chests out and reminding neighbors, “That’s my team, you know.” And that’s why this resilient football team suddenly has become the face of a city and a region that has exemplified resilience for so long. You don’t think that’s an accomplishment? Here’s a reminder of what the Panthers have overcome in their ascension from NFL/Carolinas backbumer to toast of the NFL/Carolinas: • All the great college basket ball in North Carolina, what with Duke and the University of North Carolina making Final Fours with the regulari ty of Metamucil, used to be first in people’s hearts and Please see PRO/2C Carolina, Pats put team first By Steve Wilstein THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Even ardent football fans would have trouble naming more than five players between the two Super Bowl teams. Which makes several points about the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers, as weU as about the NFL and America’s biggest day for drinking beer and munching chips. First, superstars are over rated when it comes to win ning. Teamwork and coach ing matter more. Look up and down the ros ters of the Patriots and Panthers and there is not a player about whom anyone would say with any certain ty: He is a future Hail of Famer. Each team has plenty of talent. Some players, like Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and comerback TV Law and Panthers’ defensive linemen Julius Peppers and Kris Jenkins, already are among the best in the league and may develop into some of the game’s greats. What these teams lack in luminaries at the moment, they make up for in harmo ny and execution. They are brilliantly coached, gritty enough to win close games, and careful not to make a lot of dumb mistakes. Indianapolis had co-MVP Peyton Manning and Philadelphia had Donovan McNabb, but in the confer ence championship games Simday both star quarter backs were neutralized by rugged defenses and the stone hands of their receivers. The Patriots and Panthers performed as finely meshed teams, without a lot of clash ing egos. In that sense, they have something in common with the winners of the World Series the past two years, the unheralded Florida Marlins and Anaheim Angels, who top pled star-studded teams and won over a lot of fans on the way to the championship. Second, the NFL has changed after more than a decade of salary caps and free agency. It took a while for most teams to figure out how to finagle contracts to stay under the cap, but by the end of the ‘90s the changes were producing an endless game of musical chairs, with players going from one city to another. A few legitimate super- stars might sign long-term contracts and stay put, but hardly any team could build consistently on its success and develop a core that would gain national atten tion. No longer would there be mini-dynasties, as there were with the Dallas Cowboys, the San Francisco 49ers and the Washington Redskins in the ‘80s and ‘90s, or with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami Dolphins in the ‘70s. Those teams had players of nation al renown and defensive or offensive lines with their own nicknames. They stayed together long enough to build an identity. Going beyond parity, the NFL succeeded in creating a league where anonymity trumped stardom. Truly, nobody was bigger than the Please see NO-NAMES/3C
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