Hawaii setting sights on Pac-12 (seriously?)

Saying Pac-12 membership is an achievable goal, University of Hawaii officials will ask 78 major stakeholders today to put their money behind the athletic department's ambitious dreams.

Athletic director Ben Jay told the Board of Regents Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics on Thursday that he will lay out his "Game Plan" to elevate the department's future at today's invitation-only downtown luncheon.

"The pitch we are going to make is, I feel, Manoa has now done its part taking a step forward (for athletics) and now we are asking the community and government," Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple told regents.

According to a fund-raising plan presented to the regents, UH seeks to raise $7.1 million in donations for the current fiscal year and $44.4 million over the next five years.

The department has averaged $6.2 million annually in donations over the past five years and wants to raise its annual budget from $32 million to $40 million within five years.

"We have pretty high hopes," Apple told the regents, saying, "I want to be playing Stanford, USC and Berkeley all the time so that we are thought of in the same vein."

Apple said, "I'd like to give (Jay) three years to build this public commitment and at the end of three years, if we can follow the plan that Ben has laid out, I'll also say this: particularly with the outreach we have been making to China and Asia that, I believe, if we get this kind of commitment, that we will be in a position, because of our academics, because of then our new stances in athletics, that we could be considered for admission to the Pac-12, the Pac-whatever, the Pac-16 at that point. That is certainly a goal. It is not going to be easy and not everyone agrees that we can do it, but I think it is where we need to go."

In materials presented to the board, Jay said, "This community is going to be called to action like never before. We will rely upon our community — all who call themselves avid supporters of Hawaii athletics — to decide with their financial resources the quality and level of competitive success they want from this athletic program."

[maybe they should try first for a winning football program]

the upset 30 years later

Chaminade’s Tony Randolph and Virginia’s Ralph Sampson sat court-side last month at Lahaina Civic Center, laughing and joking and having a great time watching Chaminade play the Giant Killer role again as the Division 2 Silverswords beat D-I powerhouse Texas in the Maui Invitational.

Randolph and Sampson are good friends these days, nearly 30 years since they battled head-to-head in the game often dubbed “The Biggest College Sports Upset of All Time.”

It was Dec. 23, 1982, when tiny Chaminade stunned No. 1-ranked and unbeaten Virginia at what was then called the HIC (now the Blaisdell) in Honolulu.

“What do I remember? I remember losing,” Sampson tells a national television interviewer, laughing. “They played well. You have to give them credit.”

“We had beaten crosstown rival Hawaii (a couple of games prior to the Virginia upset),” Randolph says. “That gave us confidence.”

Randolph, at 6-foot-7, and Sampson, at an imposing 7-foot-4, are both native Virginians and had played together many times in what Randolph called “street ball” back in their hometown. “I knew I could play him,” he says. “I just had to be quick and shoot from the outside. Sometimes you have those games when you feel like it’s going to be your night. The rim was like an ocean, and everything was falling in.”

Randolph scored 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting in Chaminade’s 77-72 victory for the ages. “The game has a life of its own,” he says now. “People still talk about it. They never forget.”

Over the years, Randolph says he has heard from people as far away as New Zealand, Germany, Japan and many small towns around the United States.

After playing some pro ball overseas and spending 21 years working with troubled youths in the Hawaii Family Court system in Honolulu, Randolph has a new home at Saint Francis School in Manoa. He’s in his second year as the dean of discipline there, and also assistant boys varsity basketball coach.

“The kids here are wonderful. It’s such a good place,” he says. “The job enables me to work with kids, which I love. There are some good athletes here, and we were successful last year (winning the ILH D-2 championship). This year, we’ve already beaten some D-I teams, so we’re excited.”

Time rarely goes by when someone doesn’t again bring up Ralph Sampson or The Upset.

“They come up and say ‘How did you guys do it?’” he says. “It’s so important to so many people. There’s a movie in the process about the game – it’s affected so many lives.”

The Upset is a part of Tony Randolph, and so are the Islands.

“I came to Hawaii, fell in love with it, met my wife here and we’ve lived here the rest of our lives. I feel truly blessed and humbled to have been a part of it.”

Yes, 30 years later – and forever – Chaminade has still beaten Virginia. The Giant Killers live on.

Ken Norton

Ken Norton, who had three memorable fights with Muhammad Ali, breaking Ali’s jaw in winning their first bout, then losing twice, and who went on to become the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, died Wednesday in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nev. He was 70.

His death was confirmed by his son Ken Jr., an assistant coach with the Seattle Seahawks of the N.F.L. and a pro linebacker for 13 seasons, The Associated Press said. Norton had been in poor health for several years after sustaining a series of strokes, The A.P. reported.

Norton defeated Ali on a 12-round split decision in 1973 to capture the North American Boxing Federation heavyweight title. Norton was an exceptionally muscular 6 feet 2 inches and 220 pounds, but he was a decided underdog in the first Ali fight.

“Ali thought it would be an easy fight,” Norton’s former manager, Gene Kilroy, was quoted by The A.P. as saying. “But Norton was unorthodox. Instead of jabbing from above like most fighters, he would put his hand down and jab up at Ali.”

Kilroy said that after the fight, Norton visited Ali at the hospital where he was getting his broken jaw wired, and Ali told him he never wanted to fight him again.

But the second bout in their trilogy came six months later, when Ali rallied to win a narrow split decision. In their final bout, Ali retained his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association titles when he defeated Norton on a decision that was unanimous but booed by many in the crowd of more than 30,000 at Yankee Stadium in September 1976.

Kenneth Howard Norton was born Aug. 9, 1943, in Jacksonville, Ill., and starred in high school football, basketball and track. He attended Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University) on a football scholarship but was hampered by a shoulder injury in his first two seasons and enlisted in the Marine Corps. Norton started boxing while he was in the Marines, compiling an amateur record of 24-2 and winning the All-Marine Heavyweight Championship three times.

He turned pro in 1967 and won 16 straight bouts before being knocked out by Jose Luis Garcia. Soon afterward, he read Napoleon Hill’s motivational book “Think and Grow Rich.”

“I must have read that book 100 times while in training, and I became a stronger person for it,” the Web site BoxRec.com quoted him as saying. He said he believed in the book’s philosophy that a person could do the unexpected if he put his mind to it.

“So I train for my fights mentally as well as physically,” he said. “One thing I do is only watch films of the fights in which I’ve done well or in which my opponent has done poorly.”        

Norton fought the undefeated George Foreman for the W.B.C. and W.B.A. heavyweight championships in 1974 and was knocked out in the second round. He stopped Jerry Quarry in five rounds in 1975 to regain the N.A.B.F. crown. In his next fight, Norton avenged his 1970 loss to Garcia with a fifth-round knockout.   

In 1977, Norton knocked out the previously unbeaten Duane Bobick in the first round and defeated Jimmy Young in a 15-round split decision in a W.B.C. title elimination series. He became the mandatory challenger for the winner of the coming fight between Ali and Leon Spinks. Spinks defeated Ali for the championship but shunned Norton for his first defense in favor of a rematch with Ali. The W.B.C. stripped Spinks of the title and awarded it to Norton.

Norton made his first defense of the W.B.C. title in 1978 against Larry Holmes and lost by a 15-round split decision in one of boxing’s most exciting fights.

After retiring for a time, Norton returned in 1980 and defeated the previously unbeaten Tex Cobb on a decision. The next year, Gerry Cooney, ranked No. 1 by the W.B.A. and the W.B.C., knocked Norton out in the first round in what became his final fight.

Norton won 42 fights (33 by knockout), lost seven times and fought one draw.

Tim Tebow, wanted

Earlier this week, the owner of the Russian football team, the Moscow Black Storm, offered Tim Tebow $1 million to appear in two games later this month.

“I talked with him personally and he wanted to go,” owner Mikhail Zaltsman told Russia Beyond The Headlines. “[His agents are] thinking of using him as a motivational speaker. They don't want him to play football.”

And that, we figured, was that.

Nope, at least not according to ITAR-TASS. Here's the headline from a story dated Sept. 18, 2013, 7:49 pm local time: "Tim Tebow may sign contract with Russian football team."

Here we go.

According to the English translation of the story, Dmitry Popkov, the president of the Black Storm, told ITAR-TASS that the team is "not 100 percent sure whether Tim [will] visit Russia. Negotiations are still underway. First we offered him a certain amount, then this amount increased. It will be clear after September 20 whether Tebow will come here. Our owner is in talks with managers and agents of this player. The funds have already been transferred -- the ball is in Tim Tebow's court now."

We have no idea what to make of this, but the Black Storm sound serious about acquiring Tebow and winning the American Football Championship of Russia, which takes place on Sept. 28.

There's no way this happens, right? Tebow has reportedly turned down offers from other professional leagues much closer to home and it's not like he'll have trouble finding work in a life outside football.

Except ... if you're into conspiracy theories (or just want something to distract you from your mind-numbing job, if only for a few minutes), there's this headline from an ITAR-TASS story dated Sept. 18, 2013, 2:36 pm local time -- some five hours before the story we linked to above: "Tim Tebow signs contract with Russian football team."

Oddly, the news was buried in the fourth paragraph: "The contract has been signed for just two games. The offered sum is pretty impressive," Popkov said before adding that the current Black Storm players are “pleasantly shocked. Even our adversaries are thrilled about Tebow visiting Russia. Everyone expects these two games to be very festive.”

Popkov had us going right up till the moment he referred to Tebow as the Michael Jordan of American Football. We can only assume something was lost in translation.

[well maybe Michael Jordan, the baseball player..]

***

OK, maybe not Jordan, but Johnny Unitas..

***

So what gives? It's not as if Tebow is hurting for cash; being selected in the first round in 2010 allowed him to sign a deal worth over $11 million, including $8.7 million guaranteed.

What Tebow and his camp need to understand is an NFL future may still be in the cards. Obviously, this isn't happening right away, but crazier things happen in the NFL. Tebow went unclaimed on waivers after being released, but injuries occur and Tebow could end up in the league again as a backup at the very least.

***

Tebow to Jacksonville?  Why the heck not?

***

Well, if not Russia or Jacksonville, how about the LA Kiss?

Judy Mosley

Judy Mosley-McAfee, the most decorated player to wear a University of Hawaii women's basketball uniform, died Monday after a three-year battle with cancer. She was 45.

Mosley-McAfee (just Mosley in her UH career from 1986-90), was a two-time District VII All-American and UH Circle of Honor inductee who led the Rainbow Wahine in career scoring (2,479 points), scoring average (21.7 ppg) and rebounding (1,441) among her dozen program records. She is the only player in UH hoops history -- men's or women's -- to eclipse 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, and only player ever to lead the team in scoring and rebounding four straight years.

Mosley-McAfee, a 6-1 forward who hailed from La Puente (Calif.) High School, still owns the UH record for points in a game with 46 at Pacific on Feb. 20, 1989.

She was part of UH NCAA tournament teams under Vince Goo in 1989 (20-10) and 1990 (26-4) out of the Big West Conference.

"This is a sad day for the University of Hawaii ohana," the former coach Goo said in a UH release. "Judy Mosley was the most dominating basketball player -- male or female -- that ever played for UH. No one has come close to equaling her record in scoring and rebounding. She was a great student who graduated in four years and was someone who was very proud to be a Rainbow Wahine. Judy was an All-American in every sense of the word and we have lost one of the school's all-time greats."

Current UH head coach Laura Beeman said her team would play in memory of Mosley in the upcoming season.

"To have somebody who set such a wonderful example for all student-athletes taken from us much too early adds to the gravity of the loss," Beeman said.

Mosley-McAfee earned UH's Jack Bonham award for the school's most prestigious women's athlete in 1990, the same year she was Big West Co-MVP, carried the team to its first NCAA women's tournament victory at Montana, and won gold at the World University Games.

As a junior, she averaged a still-school record of 26.7 points per game.

She played in European leagues for seven years after her UH career, when was taken sixth by the Sacramento Monarchs in the WNBA's 1997 "Elite" draft. Mosley played 12 WNBA games that year and would play internationally for two more years through 1999. To date she is one of two UH alumnae to play in the WNBA.

Mosley-McAfee is survived by her husband Marvin McAfee and her four children. Services are pending.

Jim Hackleman

When the Honolulu Star-Bulletin went shopping for a new sports editor in the mid-1960s, columnist Jim Becker telephoned an acquaintance at the Associated Press sports desk in New York for recommendation of a suitable candidate.

"Do you know a bright youngster who might want to come out here and be sports editor?" Becker asked Jim Hackleman.

The 40-year-old Hackleman barked, " ‘bright youngster, hell, I'll take it!'" Becker recalled.

He got the job, and for more than 20 years, Hackleman was a brash, eclectic and colorful figure on the Hawaii sports scene.

Hackleman died last Tuesday in Grover Beach, Calif., at 86, according to family.

He served as sports editor of the Bulletin, where he also wrote a popular column, "Hack Stand," and later worked in radio, television and public relations in Honolulu.

Hackleman did sports on radio with Hal "Aku" Lewis, was a weekend sports anchor on KHON and co-hosted "Sports Page" on KHET with Don Robbs. He provided color of UH baseball radio broadcasts from 1977 to 1981, often doing the Sunday Crossword Puzzle during play, and worked for the Hawaii Islanders and Communications Pacific.

He had a raspy voice hardly made for broadcasting but was respected for his knowledge, attention to detail and calling it as he saw it.

"Never," recalls Robbs, "did you have to wonder about how Hack felt about something. He always told you."

Son John recalls, "He could be gruff and grumpy, which is why they called him, ‘Sunny Jim' sometimes, but he was a great father and grandfather."

Hackleman attended West Point, where he boxed; served in the Army and graduated from Columbia University.

Once, while working on a report about skydiving for "Sports Page" Hackleman decided on the spur of the moment to jump, too. "He was already long in the tooth, in his 60s, hadn't done it since his Army days but still went up and did it," Robbs said.

John, who runs an MMA training center known as "The Pit" in Arroyo Grande, Calif., said, "until the last couple of years, he was working out right alongside some of my fighters. Chuck Liddell, the other guys, they loved him."

He is survived by John; a daughter, Susan; and five grandchildren.

Mayweather defeats Alvarez

LAS VEGAS >> Canelo Alvarez proved nothing more than easy money for Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Mayweather turned one of the richest fights ever into just another $41.5 million payday Saturday, dominating Alvarez from the opening bell and winning a majority decision in a masterful performance that left no doubt who is the best fighter of his era.

Fighting off his shortest layoff in years, Mayweather was sharp, efficient and sometimes brutal in dismantling an unbeaten fighter who was bigger and was supposed to punch harder. He frustrated Alvarez early, pounded him with big right hands in the middle rounds, and made him look just like he said he would -- like any other opponent.

Mayweather was favored 117-111 and 116-112 on two ringside scorecards while a third inexplicably had the fight 114-114. The Associated Press scored it 119-109 for Mayweather.

Mayweather remained unbeaten in 45 fights and added another piece of the junior middleweight title to his collection in a fight that was fought at a 152-pound limit. Alvarez weighed in at that weight, but was an unofficial 165 pounds when he got into the ring while Mayweather, who weighed in at 1501/2 pounds, was an even 150.

The extra weight did Alvarez no good and the punching power that brought him 30 knockouts in 43 fights wasn't a help either. The Mexican star was seldom able to land a solid punch, with most of his punches either missing or glancing off Mayweather.

"No doubt he's a great fighter, a very intelligent fighter," said Alvarez, who fell to 42-1-1. "There was no solution for him."

Mayweather said he actually had to put on weight during the day to even get close to what he weighed the day before.

"When I woke up this morning, I was 146 pounds, so I had to call my chef and get something in my system," he said.

Mayweather's speed was the difference all night as he was able to land straight rights and left jabs, then get out of the way before Alvarez was able to respond. But while Mayweather used great defense, he wasn't afraid to attack often and at different angles, finding Alvarez with punches he couldn't anticipate.

top 10 pro wrestler quotes

Here's some from the list.

Hey yo.

Oh, yeah!

Can you smell...

And that's the bottom line...

To be the man..

drafting positions for fantasy football

Over on CBS Sports (watched on Roku), I notice the fantasy football drafts are top heavy in running backs.

That's largely due to how they have the starters setup: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, Flex (which could be a RB, WR, TE), DEF, K.

To me that's totally unrealistic (not that fantasy football is realistic...).  Most people would use the Flex for a RB which would mean they would have three RBs in the starting lineup.  When's the last time you saw an NFL team with three RBs in the starting lineup?  This ain't the Oklahoma wishbone folks.

The most common setup I see in the NFL would have QB, RB, WR, WR, TE, Flex where flex is either a WR or a blocking back.  But the blocking back rarely touches the ball, so the most common lineup would be QB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE.

In my league, I used to have QB, RB, WR, WR, flex (RB or WR), TE.  Which still skewed it in favor of the RB.  The last season I went to QB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, flex (RB or WR).  Which kind of evened it out more since most teams would have 2 RB and 3 WR.  (This season I changed one of the WR spots to a second flex which could be WR or TE.)

Anyway, with so many running backs in "standard" leagues, drafts go nuts in running backs.  One guy had like 8 running backs on his roster.  Which I find kind of dumb, not because it's a dumb strategy for their league, but it's so unrealistic.  When's the last time an NFL team had so many RBs on their roster?

[Yeah I know fantasy football is not real, but...]  Defense also has totally unrealistic importance for fantasy football.  Even more so than RB.

Anyway, with my scoring system and position setup, I wonder which are actually the most important and least important positions.

My thinking would be to look at the fantasy points scored last season and compare the top starter to the bottom starter at each position.  And the position with the most difference between the top and bottom would be the starter.  We have a ten team league, so let's compare the top QB with the 10th rated QB.  For RBs, it would be the top RB and the 20th rated RB.  For WR, it would be the 30th rated WR.  For TE, K, DEF: 10.

QB:  Drew Brees (343), Andrew Luck (219), difference 124
RB: Adrian Peterson (295), Benjarvus Green-Ellis (138), difference 157
WR: Calvin Johnson (211), Brandon Lloyd (114), difference 97
TE: Jimmy Graham (144), Brandon Myers (97), difference 47
DEF: Seattle (316), San Diego (217), difference 99
K: Stephen Gostkowski (153), Dan Bailey 124, difference 29

So indeed in my league, RB is still the most "important" position, followed by QB, DEF, WR, TE, K.  (I weigh the defense in my league more heavily than in standard scoring leagues, so it's actually one of the more important "positions" in my league.)

How about the best player in the league?  Here I compare the top player in the league with the second best player in the league.  This would show how much better the top player is compared to the next best.

QB: Tom Brady 330, difference 13
RB: Doug Martin 247, difference 48
WR: Brandon Marshall 210, difference 1
TE: Rob Gronkowski 138, difference 6
DEF: Chicago 291, difference 25
K: Lawrence Tynes 145, difference 8

So again RB was at the top, followed by DEF, QB, K, TE, WR

Then again, what do I know?  I finished 8th in the league last season. And that's my own league with my own rules! 8)

Tommy Morrison

Former WBO heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison died in an Omaha, Neb., hospital late Sunday night. He was 44.

Morrison's longtime promoter, Tony Holden, said Morrison died at 11:50 p.m. with his wife, Trisha, beside him.

Morrison tested positive for HIV in 1996 before a fight with Arthur Weathers, effectively ending his boxing career. In the years that followed, he denied having HIV and also challenged the existence of the virus.

Trisha Morrison, who married Morrison in 2011, picked up that fight, and in a recent interview with ESPN.com insisted that Morrison had Guillain-Barre Syndrome, not HIV.

In 1993, Morrison beat George Foreman to win the World Boxing Organization heavyweight title. He lost to Lennox Lewis in 1995.

He also gained fame for his role in the 1990 movie "Rocky V," in which he portrayed "Tommy Gunn," a rookie boxer who is trained by Rocky Balboa, portrayed by star Sylvester Stallone. Morrison, as Gunn, goes on to win the heavyweight title in the movie and then later fights and loses to his mentor.

Morrison was born in Arkansas and grew up in Oklahoma.