Sports Poets Society

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-02-22-sp-139-story.html BY MIKE DOWNEY LOS ANGELES TIMES - FEB. 22, 1989 12 AM PT Now that they finally are playing on the same side, working for the same cause--that being: dethroning the Lakers--allow me to tell you something about Isiah Thomas and Mark Aguirre , an odd couple who either could create a dreamy double date for the Detroit Pistons or turn out to be a match made in hell. I watched them play high school ball, college ball, watched them make the Olympic squad that never made Moscow. I saw them go 1-2 in the 1981 National Basketball Assn. draft, then go out and buy matching Mercedeses. I watched them be voted co-rookies of the month their first month in the league. The three of us had a midnight supper once at a Dallas hotel, when they were NBA newcomers and Detroit was in town. Things were going so well for both that Thomas turned to Aguirre and asked: “What should we do next?” “Co-MVPs in the NBA,” Mark said. Isiah winced, thou...

https://deadspin.com/mark-aguirre-was-never-going-to-fail-1793156512 This feature originally appeared in the March 31, 1981 edition of Inside Sports . It appears here with the author ’s permission. By John Schulian Published March 16, 2017 Image: Sam Woolley. Photo: AP . It was some big boat, all right—a ’79 Lincoln Continental, long as a city block, blue with a white top and enough chrome to make it look like a rolling mirror . When it steamed out of Chicago’s West Side last year, there wasn’t anybody on the cracked sidewalks who didn’t figure a heavy-duty gangster was lurking inside. But, no, it was just Mark Aguirre driving over to play a little basketball at DePaul University. Naturally, people started wondering what kind of budgetary provisions the good Vincentian fathers had made for the All-American whose jump shot told the nation about their gritty, little El-stop campus. Aguirre tried to explain that the Continental was his mother’s, that his family was better off than the pu...

https://depaulbluedemons.com/news/2013/9/30/DePaul_Legend_Aguirre_Inducted_into_Chicagoland_Sports_Hall_of_Fame Sept. 30, 2013 CICERO, Ill. - Mark Aguirre's storybook life took an unusual twist the summer before his senior year at Westinghouse High School. One of the most sought-after basketball players in the country made his way from the West Side to a tiny town called Three Lakes in Wisconsin for a summer basketball camp run by legendary DePaul coach Ray Meyer. "One day, I heard about a bunch of kids tearing up a cabin," said Aguirre, the greatest player in DePaul history who was recently inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame. "This elderly gentleman came into my cabin and said he was looking for Mark Aguirre. He said: 'I heard you were part of the group that tore up the cabin.' "He pulled me out of my cabin and said I was on garbage detail for the rest of the camp session . I was one of the top high school basketball players in the countr...

Mark Aguirre and coach Ray Meyer teamed to pro­duce some  of the great­est sea­sons in DePaul Blue Demons his­tory. | SUN-TIMES STEVE GREEN­BERG @ SLGreen­berg CHICAGO SUN-TIMES - 16 dic 2016 Mark Aguirre doesn’t of­ten find him­self lost in thought about the buck­ets he got in bunches with the Dal­las Mav­er­icks or the cham­pi­onships he won late in his ca­reer with the Detroit Pis­tons. NBA life was good — damn good — to Aguirre for about a decade and a half in the 1980s and early ’ 90s. Yet, in some ways, it never could top the ex­pe­ri­ences he’d had as a light­ning rod of Chicago basket­ball. At West­ing­house, Aguirre was a Pub­lic League cham­pion and a McDon­ald’s All- Amer­i­can. At DePaul, he led a charge to the 1979 Fi­nal Four and be­came the na­tional player of the year and, even­tu­ally, a No. 1 over­all draft pick. It’s not un­usual for Aguirre, now 57, to close his eyes and be­come trans­ported nearly 40 years back in time. “That’s when bas­ket­ball was, for me, a...

https://depauliaonline.com/6892/sports/depaul-legend-mark-aguirre-among-the-greats/ Matthew Paras , Editor in Chief  The Depaulia | September 21, 2013 DePaul legend Mark Aguirre experienced a lot throughout his basketball career. During his three seasons at DePaul, the Blue Demons were the best they have ever been . Aguirre led the team to its only Final Four appearance in 1979 and won the James Naismith Award in 1980 as the nation’s best player. Aguirre was a star, averaging 24.5 points per game. His college success eventually followed him to the NBA. In 1981, the Dallas Mavericks selected Aguirre as the first pick in the draft and he played for them for eight seasons. When he was traded to the Pistons in 1988, Aguirre played a key role with the Detroit team. His spark off the bench helped the Pistons to two championships. Now, Aguirre has earned yet another accomplishment in his illustrious basketball journey. Aguirre was inducted to the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame Wednesday...