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1B
CIjarlottE
SPORTS
THURSDAY, APRiL 17, 1997
Former Olympic standout
takes over as NCCU QB
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
The Warren Bell era has started at N.C. Central.
Bell, a former Olympic High standout, completed 13 of 22 passes for
130 yards in Central’s Maroon-Gray intrasquad game. He’s projected
as the Eagles’ starter next season after backing up CIAA offensive
player of the year Brad McAdams as a freshman during Central’s 8-3
campaign.
‘Warren is the heir apparent to Brad McAdams,” Central coach
Larry Little said. “He possesses a good arm, is an outstanding scram
bler with the ability to make the first tackier miss and is a veiy smart
young man. I have a feeling he will be a great quarterback.”
Bell had a soUd freshman season, making the CIAA’s all-rookie team
after hitting 26 of 49 passes (53.1 percent) for 397 yards and a touch-
Davis pleased with new team
See EAGLES Page 3B
Rematch?
Forget it:
De La Hoya
By Tim Dahlberg
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS - Oscar De La
Hoya went down, he grew frus
trated and impatient, and he
lashed out with combinations
that hit nothing but air.
But he still came out of the
ring with some valuable expe
rience and with Pernell
Whitaker’s WBC welterweight
champion’s belt.
The 24-year-old De La Hoya,
in the toughest of his 24 pro
bouts, took a unanimous deci
sion over the 33-year-old
Whitaker in their title bout
Saturday night.
De La Hoya didn’t look par
ticularly good, but he looked
good enough to be favored, by
somewhat surprisingly large
margins by the judges, win
ning by four points on one card
and by six points each on' the
other two.
“You can never look good
against Pemell Whitaker,” De
La Hoya said. “A southpaw
fighter like him will make any
fighter look bad any day.”
Whitaker, who was able to
duck and weave away from
any dangerous De La Hoya
punches, also showed him
some tricks of the trade.
“This guy was smart, very
smart. He used his gloves to
sort of rub my eyes when he
had the chance,” said De La
Hoya, who took a standing
eight-count in the ninth round
after Whitaker hit him with a
See FIGHT Page 3B
Former Olympic High standout Warren Bell (17) finished
N.C. Central spring drills as the starting quarterback. He
was a CiAA all-rookie selection last seas on. He complet
ed 13 of 22 passes in the Maroon-Gray scrimmage.
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Johnson C. Smith lost its football
coach and 10 senior starters since
the 1996 season ended.
But Bill Davis isn’t too worried.
Davis, Smith’s new coach, is
pleased with what he’s seen since
taking over for Daryl McNeill two
weeks ago. The Golden Bulls, who
went 7-3 last season, have
impressed him in spring drills
leading up to today’s 4 p.m.
intrasquad game at the Bullpit.
Admission is free.
“I would consider it a good prac
tice session,” Davis said. “The
transition hasn’t been difficult at
Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 jersey is on display at the Smithsonian Inst tution.
Museum
exhibits
Robinson
By Paul Shepard
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The timing
was uncanny, the irony almost
too delicious to be true.
But when Smithsonian offi
cials unveiled an exhibit
Monday honoring baseball trail-
blazer Jackie Robinson at the
National Museum of American
History just one day after Tiger
Woods won the Masters golf
tournament, they offered a sim
ple explanation for their good
fortime.
‘We planned it that way,”
deadpanned exhibit curator
Ellen Roney Hughes to chuckles
from the audience.
Though the exhibition had
been planned for months, the
victory Sunday of Woods, the
first black person to win a major
golf tournament, provided a per
fect backdrop of the Robinson
tribute.
“I couldn’t help but think to
myself that I was watching
another Jackie when I was
watching golf yesterday,” said
Tbm Johnson, who pitched for
the Philadelphia Stars in 1940
and was one of five Negro
League players who attended
the tribute.
“It was absolutely fabulous
and showed that black people
moving forward is a continuing
process,” Johnson said. “It goes
step by step, and Tiger is the lat
est big step we’ve taken.”
The first big step, however,
came 50 years ago, when on
See ROBINSON on page 3B
Challenge met
PHOTO/WADE NASH
Garinger High quarterback Eric Hamilton and Baltimore Ravens
quarterback Vinny Testaverde won their respective divisions of
the Quarterback Challenge last week in Florida. Hamilton best
ed some of the nation’s top signal-callers in the national com
petition.
With Masters win, Tiger
Woods becomes more than an
African American champion
By Paul Newberiy
THE ASSOCIATED PRE SS
AUGUSTA, Georgia - As Isaac Lee gazed out on the rolling,
green hills of Augusta National ”'-olf Club, he couldn’t help but
wonder if the old place will ever be U; ; same again.
The Masters has a black champion - and the mostly black work
ers who occupy the lower end of the club’s social hierarchy have a
new hero, 'Tiger Woods.
“In the employee dining room, it was 'Tiger this and 'Tiger that,”
said Lee, a 25-year-old waiter at the exclusive club, which has a
checkered racial history. “He is our black hope.”
Augusta National had an all-white membership during most of
its history, and no blacks played at the club until Lee Elder made
the Masters field in 1975. The first black member joined after the
furor a few years ago over racially exclusive clubs, and there
reportedly are only two black members now.
Most blacks at Augusta National can be found in service jobs -
caddies, waiters, trash collectors.
“It’s not as bad as it used to be, but everybody around here
knows their place,” said Lee, bedecked in a gold jacket, black
pants and bow tie. “It’s a good job. As long as they don’t show it
(racism) too blatantly, it’s OK.”
Lee took a brief respite from his dut es as a waiter Sunday,
strolling out to a spot beneath the mammoth live oak that shades
the veranda of the clubhouse. He wanted to watch a black man tee
off as the leader in the final round of the Masters.
When Woods claimed the green jacket a few hours later, the first
black champion of a major tournament, an entire group of black
See WOODS on page 3B
Tiger Woods’win in the Masters
golf tournament propelled him
onto the national sports con
science.
all.”
It helps that McNeill, Davis’ pro
tege, used his old boss’ system in
bringing the Bulls their first win
ning record in 14 years. Although
there are major losses on both
sides of the ball, the holdovers
have worked hard to build on last
year’s success.
“I like our kids’ attitude,” Davis
said. “They get out there and hus
tle. Even if they don’t have the
greatest talent, they give you
everything they have.”
Davis has some rebuilding to do,
especially on defense. Six starters,
including three defensive backs,
are graduating from the unit that
See JCSU Page 3B
Iverson
makes his
move
By Ken Berger
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CLEVELAND - He was a
blur, as usual. Allen Iverson
was running here and there,
flipping in no-look shots high
off the glass, turning around
and heaving a jumper, mea
suring and releasing and
swishing another 3-pointer.
The treat to the eyes kept
changing, but the message
was the same each time: Mine.
The Rookie of the Year Award
is mine.
“Everybody’s talking about
the Rookie of the Year Award
going to somebody else,”
Iverson said, after his remark
able 50-point performance in
Philadelphia’s 125-118 loss to
the Cleveland Cavaliers
Saturday night. “I feel it’s
mine. Even before these last
four games, I felt that way.”
A whirlwind week of domi
nant scoring started with 44
points in Michael Jordan’s
building and ended with 50 in
Cleveland, the city where
Jordan once scored his career
high of 69.
In becoming the only rookie
to score at least 40 points in
four straight games, Iverson
made his case for Rookie of the
Year, an honor that once
appeared out of his reach.
Why? Supposedly because
Iverson talks too much, is not
respectful, needs to be taught
a lesson about humility in this
league.
Iverson apparently decided
to teach his doubters a lesson
last week.
“There are other great rook
ies,” he said. “But when you
talk about the No. 1 rookie in
the league, I think I’m that.”
With 44 points against the
Bulls, 40 against Atlanta, 44
against Milwaukee and 50
against Cleveland, Iverson
broke Wilt Chamberlain’s
rookie record of three straight
40-point games. Chamberlain
had three sets of 40-40-40 per
formances in the 1959-60 sea
son.
Before this sensational week,
it was thought that Iverson’s
reputation would cost him the
rookie award. Perhaps some
one nicer, like Kerry Kittles of
New Jersey, or someone stead
ier, like Shareef Abdur-Rahim
of Vancouver, would be more
deserving.
The Cavaliers, who almost
had a 23-point lead and playoff
hopes obliterated by this 21-
year-old, did not sign on with
that theory.
When Cleveland coach Mike
Fratello yelled at Bob Sura for
failing to stop Iverson, Sura
fired back, “He’s going right by
me! What do you want me to
do?”
In February at the NBA’s
50th All-Star game in
Cleveland, Iverson was cast as
the cocky ringleader of the
league’s new band of trouble-
See IVERSON on page 3B