Sports Poets Society

NBA legends Bob Lanier, Will Robinson, Earl Lloyd and Dave Bing pose for a picture during half time of the game between the Detroit Pistons and the Orlando Magic in Game two of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2003 NBA Playoffs at The Palace of Auburn Hills on April 23, 2003 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The Pistons won 89-77. https://vault.si.com/vault/2001/11/19/this-bird-dog-still-hunts-detroit-pistons-scout-will-robinson-90-thinks-hes-way-too-young-to-retire NOVEMBER 19, 2001 MARTY BURNS ORIGINAL LAYOUT At an age when many of his contemporaries are pushing up daisies , Will Robinson is still beating the bushes . " Indianapolis, Toledo, East Lansing ," the spry 90-year-old says with a chuckle, listing his next scouting itinerary for the Detroit Pistons. "Looks like it's going to be a light week." Hopscotching the country in search of college talent might leave another nonagenarian lost in space, but not Will Robinson. Every few days he packs his ...

WILLIAM J. ROBINSON CLASS 1937 INDUCTION 1981 SPORT(S) Football, Baseball, Basketball, Gymnastics Publication: CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL Published: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Page: 1B Byline: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Will Robinson, a West Virginia State alumnus and the first black basketball coach at a Division I school , died Monday. He was 96. Robinson was the Detroit Pistons scout who discovered Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman. Born in Wadesboro, N.C., Robinson quarterbacked the Steubenville (Ohio) High football team and finished second in the state high school golf tournament despite not being allowed to play the course at the same time as whites. He won 15 letters in four sports at West Virginia State, where he graduated in 1937. Robinson was inducted into the Institute school's Sports Hall of Fame in 1981. Robinson died at a Detroit hospital, Pistons spokesman Matt Dobek said. Robinson had been sick for 15 months and in a nursing home for more than a year, Dobek added...

https://www.thedp.com/article/2013/12/qa-with-former-penn-head-basketball-coach-jack-mccloskey By Seamus Powers 12/02/13 8:44 pm With former Penn basketball coach Jack McCloskey at the helm, the Quakers went 87-53 in Ivy competition and won the school’s first Philadelphia Big 5 Championship in 1963 . McCloskey left Penn with an overall record of 146-105. Jack McCloskey coached Penn basketball during the dawn of the Big 5, from 1956 to 1966. In his 10 seasons coaching the Quakers, McCloskey went 146-105 overall and 87-53 in Ivy League play . McCloskey later coached the Portland Trail Blazers from 1972-74 and was on Jerry West’s Los Angeles Lakers coaching staff in the late 1970s. He is most well-known for his role as the general manager of the Detroit Pistons during the “Bad Boys” era, in which the team won two NBA titles. He has his own banner hanging in the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Daily Pennsylvanian : First off, can you talk about your undergraduate experience at Penn? Is there ...

Jack McCloskey (center) with Penn  standout  players  Jeff Neuman and Stan Pawlak. (Penn Athletics) https://ivyhoopsonline.com/2017/06/04/jack-mccloskey-former-penn-coach-and-player-dies-at-91/ June 4, 2017 - by Mike Tony Jack McCloskey, who led Penn to an Ivy League championship as a coach in 1966 and led the Detroit Pistons to NBA titles in 1989 and 1990 as a general manager, died Thursday at 91 in Savannah, Ga., per the New York Times , due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. The son of a coal miner and a native of Mahanoy City, Pa., McCloskey lettered at Penn in 1943-44 and then served in the Navy at Okinawa during World War II. He became head coach at Penn in 1956 , posting a 146-105 overall record, including 87-53 against Ivy League competition. He led Penn to its first ever Ancient Eight title in 1966. The 1965-66 Quakers were denied a NCAA Tournament berth when then-athletic director Jerry Ford refused to comply with a new NCAA rule calling for student-at...

https://nypost.com/2009/05/10/bad-boys-leader-had-heart-of-gold/ By  Peter Vecsey  - May 10, 2009 6:19am SEVERAL weeks after Chuck Daly was diagnosed with stage-four pancreatic cancer on Feb. 9, Jack McCloskey, Don Casey, Bob Weinhauer and Bob Staak — whose coaching careers were knotted at the high school/college level in the Philadelphia/New Jersey area — arrived in Jupiter, Fla., to see their friend for what they knew would be the last time. Daly’s Hall of Fame fantasy-come-true journey began on the sidelines at Punxsutawney (Pa.) High School, where he spent eight seasons before Vic Bubas hired him at Duke. Bucky Waters, who played for McCloskey at Collingswood (N.J.) High School and already was a Blue Devil assistant, recommended Daly. When Waters became West Virginia’s head coach and Tom Carmody took over Rhode Island, Daly recommended Hubie Brown , who’d made a local name for himself at St. Mary’s (Elizabeth, N.J.) before advancing to William & Mary as an assistant. ...

https://www.nba.com/news/ben-wallace-hall-of-fame-profile HALL OF FAME: CLASS OF 2021 Ben Wallace went from undrafted to Hall of Fame Ben Wallace was a legendary defender and rebounder who becomes the first undrafted NBA player to reach the Hall of Fame. by Steve Aschburner Ben Wallace won four Defensive Player of the Year awards during his 16-season NBA career. Cases can be made for other NBA drafts as the league’s best ever – the 1984 (Michael Jordan) and 2003 (LeBron James) editions spring immediately to mind. But a documentary that premiered on NBA TV in April and has been in regular rotation since makes an awfully persuasive argument for the talent that rushed through the doors on June 26, 1996. Allen Iverson. Marcus Camby. Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Stephon Marbury. Ray Allen. Antoine Walker. Those were the first six picks , helping to seed young franchises in Toronto and Vancouver and revive some sputtering ones in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Minnesota and Boston . But wait, there were...

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-01-19-8803230712-story.html By Bob Sakamoto Chicago Tribune • January 19, 1988 The National Basketball Association handed down penalties for participants in the fight that marred the Bulls` 115-99 victory over Detroit Saturday night at the Stadium. Detroit power forward Rick Mahorn was fined $5,000 and suspended for the Pistons` game Monday at Denver. Bulls power forward Charles Oakley was fined $2,000 and coach Doug Collins $1,500. In addition, Bulls Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant and Granville Waiters and Pistons John Salley and Vinnie Johnson were each fined $500 for leaving the bench. The brawl in the third quarter was ignited by Mahorn grabbing Michael Jordan around the waist and throwing him to the court. Oakley immediately went after Mahorn. Their skirmish drifted into the Bulls` bench, where Collins put a headlock on Mahorn. Mahorn flung Collins into the press table and when Collins rejoined the fray, Mahorn punched him. Mahorn and ...

«Io a Davide Boifava devo tutto»     - Luciano Bracchi di CHRISTIAN GIORDANO © in esclusiva per RAINBOW SPORTS BOOKS © Per quarant'anni (alla lettera) braccio destro di Davide Boifava, Luciano Bracchi su e giù di bici è stato, e ha fatto, un po' di tutto: aspirante corridore (Inoxpran), meccanico (Carrera) e poi su su fino a diventare responsabile di produzione (Podium).  Se è vero, come è vero, che -  parole sue -  «a Boifava deve tutto», è vero anche che pure Boifava deve molto a lui.  L'Uomo Invisibile eppure, dietro le quinte, sempre presente.  Soprattutto quando il Boss era in tutt'altre faccende affaccendato.  Bracchi, per tutti Lucianino, lo incontro  quasi casualmente,  in sede Podium, in una delle mille "buche" che Boifava mi ha dato.  Sarebbero passati altri cinque mesi prima di beccare il Gran Capo in persona, e allora intanto valeva portarsi avanti col lavoro chiacchierando amabilmente con il suo s...