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http://www.thechai1ottepost.com
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Section
tlPlie Cl^arlotte ^oiEtt
SPORTS
THURSDAY OCTOBER 13, 2005
Business 8C
C. Jemal
Horton
OK to
call out
middling
Panthers
It’s going on two decades
since Charlotte became a
major-league sports city
Oh, don’t get me wrong;
Charlotte’s always had a big-
league mind-set. And we’ve
had our share of national
sports celebrities live and
work here. I mean, is there a
more accomplished sports fig
ure than “Nature Boy” Ric
Flair? What about all those
millionaire race-car drivers?
Charlotte was big time in
the Carolinas a long time ago.
Unfortunately though, peo
ple living in, say, the
Midwest, still mistook us for
Charleston,
S.C., and
Charlottesville,
Va.
This country
didn’t start
showing us any
major-league
love until 1988,
when the
Charlotte
Hornets joined
the NBA. And thii^ height
ened in 1995, when the
Carolina Panthers entered
the NFL. After all, those were
supposed to be REAL main
stream spoils celebrities.
Perhaps that’s why the pro
fessional athletes around
here have been treated so ...
well... kindly Tbo many peo
ple here still feel fortunate to
have mainstream sports
celebrities walking around
town.
I^pically folks in this
region - including the media
— don’t hassle pro sports
stars too much for giving
below-average peiformances
on the field of play Sports
stars here only truly get
taken to task when they mess
up OFF the field of play (see:
Carruth, Rae).
It’s time for fans here to
make a change.
It’s time to stop babying
your sports stars and
demand more of them when
they mess up.
I’m not saying to treat your
athletes like pariahs. But you
do deserve to look at them
with a more critical eye when
they continually perform
below their capabilities • and
it seems the Panthers fall
into that category far too fie-
quently lately
Charlotte, you’ve had a
Super Bowl appearance.
You’ve won NBA playoff
series. You’ve hosted the NBA
All-Star Game.
You’ve earned the right to
be ornery
I know: It’s not as if you’ve
always been cherubs or some
thing. It wasn’t all that long
ago that you stopped going to
NBA games and helped boot
one big-league sports fi'an-
chise the heck outta dodge -
even though it was this city’s
first big-league sports fi*an-
Please see IT’S/3C
Pioneer Bowl moving to Charlotte
Kerry
By Herbert L. White
herb .white(& thecharlottepost £'om
Charlotte will hcet a Division 11 postseason
football game in December.
The Pioneer Bowl will be played Dec. 3 at
Memorial Stadium after officials fix)m the
SIAC and CIAA decided to move the game
fix)m Mobile, Ala., due to damage caused by
Hunicane Katrina. The game will be tele
vised live on ESPN Classic.
“Regi’ettably we have had to move the
Pioneer Bowl from Mobile,” CIAA
Commissioner Leon Kerry said. “However, we
are excited about the prospects of the Pioneer
Bowl in Charlotte. Other locations were con
sidered, however, with the 2006 CIAA tourna
ment coming to Charlotte, we already know
the Queen C)ity is one of America’s great
sports cities.”
The Pioneer Bowl was played in Mobile for
the first time last year to positive fan feed-
bads, but concerns over travd to storm-Ham-
aged Alabama forced organizers to look at
other options. The game will move back to
Mobile in 2006.
“This isn’t somethii^ we planned,” said
Jeflfi^y McLeod, the CTAA’s football champi
onship coordinator. “Mobile wasn’t hit as hard
DAVIDSON COLLEGE
Davidson receiver Ryan Hubbard has gone over the 100-yard mark in three games this season. He
had a career-high 172 yards and three scores against Austin Peay Saturday.
Catching on
Davidson’s Hubbard emerges as big play threat
By Herbert L. White
herb .white& thecharlottepost eom
DAVIDSON - When Ryan
Hubbard has the football, good
things happen for Davidson’s
W^dcats.
Hubbard, a sophomore receiv
er, has thiee 100-yard receiving
games this season, including a
career-best 172 yards and three
touchdowns on five catches in a
44-6 rout of Austin Peay
Saturday The former Charlotte
Christian standout had touch
downs of 55, 79 and 27 yards to
earn Pioneer
Football League
receiver of the
week honors.
‘T just catch the
ball when they
throw it to me,”
said Hubbard,
who has 18 catch
es for 449 yards
(122.1 per game) and five scores.
Hubbard
“AH the wideouts are doing well.
They’re the people who puU the
safety across the field so I can
get open. It’s all our yards.”
Hubbard and senior Jake Rice
give Davidson (3-3, 1-0) the
PFL’s top receiving tandem,
with both averaging more than
20 yards per catch. Rice was a
proven commodity, but
Hubbard is far ahead of last sea
son, where he totaled 180 yards
See DAVIDSON’S/2C
(as other areas neai* the Gulf Coast), but it
has some issues and we had to make tliat
decision in the interest of the people who'd
have to travel there.”
The Pioneer Bowl is the only NCAA-ceiii-
fied bowl game involving historically,black
college conferences. The first Pioneer Bowl
game was-played in 1997 in Atlanta when
Kaitucky State beat Livingstone 30-28. Last
year in Mobile, Shaw beat Ttiskegee 30-28,
ending the CIAA’s three-game losing streak to
the SIAC.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to show-
See CHARLOTTE/2C
CB Lucas
lives up to
shutdown
reputation
By Jenna Fryer
niEASSOClMTD PRESS
If the Carolina Panthers had any chance
at beating Arizona, someone had to find a
way to stop receiver Larry Rtzgerald.
Ken Lucas volunteered.
Carolina’s comerhack went to the coach
ing staff before halftime and asked to
replace Chris Gamble as Fitzgerald’s,
defender. Fitzgerald torched
Carolina’s secondary in the
first half — he had six catches
for 106 yards and a touch
down — and it was clear
Gamble couldn’t get the job
done.
The Panthers made the
switch, pulling Gamble and
moving Lucas in a pivotal
mid-game actjustment that
rallied them to a 24-20 victory over the
Cardinals.,Lucas held Fitzgerald to thi’ee
catches for 30 yards m the second half
The fi^ agent addition also created a pair
of interceptions and recovered a fumble to
set up a score.
“He’s been everything we expected,” coach
John Fox said Monday
Carolina’s first mistake of the game was
allowing Gamble to cover Fitzgerald.
Gamble injured his ankle during a light
Wednesday practice and sat out the rest of
the week. Although he said he could play
See LUCAS2C
n
Lucas
PHOTO/CURTB WILSON
Carolina Panthers comerback Ken Lucas
(23) has played up to his billing as a shut
down defender.
For Bulls’ McNeill, third time around hasn’t been charming
Johnson C. Smith
football coach
Daryl McNeill (right)
and quarterback
Cariton Richardson
are struggling
through a 0-7 sea
son. The Golden
Bulls have lost a
school-record 20
games in a row
going into
Saturday's game at
Fayetteviile State.
It’s hard to compete with your reputation.
Johnson C. Smith football coach Daryl
McNeOl is battling his during the (jk>lden Bulls’
0-7 train wreck of a season.
Smith, loser of 20 straight
games and counting, isn’t very
good. And McNeill, who was
brought to campus for the second
time to clean up the mess, knows
it. What’s refi^hing is that he’ll
tell you itll require players better
than the ones he inherited fixnn
former coach Tim Harkness.
After loss No. 19 to Livingstone,
Herbert
L. White
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
McNeill said “scmie of those kids they recruited
are not the caliber of athletic kid that I want.
Great people, but not the caliber of athlete we
need to win football games in the (7IAA.”
Preadi, brother.
McN^, who was 10-10 in his previous two-
year stint at Smith, knows his way aioimd a
rebuilding project. He went 3-7 his first season,
followed by a 7-3 campaign that included repu
tation-cementing wins over I-AA S.C. State and
\\^nston-Salem State that old-timers still won’t
forget. The second time around has been more
difficult, to put it mildly
Yes, Smith’s liefense plays with fire and vigor.
But the Bulls are stuck with the CTAA’s most
impotent offense. It’s like owning a hoopty: You
know it’s goir^ to break down, yet you pray it
won’t put you down too often. The Bulls are an
offensive version of a Yugo.
No cttie has been able to blow the Bulls out, an
accomplishment last year’s 0-10 crew didn’t get
Rease see McNEILLy2C
oi