Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Tommy Kono

Two-time gold medalist Tommy Kono, who overcame asthma as a young child to set 26 world records in weightlifting, died today in Honolulu, according to a family member. He was 85.

Born in Sacramento, Calif., Kono moved to Hawaii in the 1970s after putting together an incredible career that included a gold medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, at 149 pounds. He then won another gold medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics at 182 pounds and captured a silver medal at the Olympics Games in Rome at 165 pounds.

Kono is the only Olympic weightlifter in history to have set world records in four different weight classes: lightweight (149 pounds), middleweight (165), light-heavyweight (182 lb) and middle-heavyweight (198). He was named to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame on July 6, 1990 in Minneapolis, Minn., and the International Weightlifting Hall of Fame in 1994 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Kono was named the top weightlifter of all-time by the official magazine of the International Weightlifting Federation.

“He is in my opinion the greatest weightlifter of all-time,” former Olympic weightlifter Pete George told the Honolulu Advertiser in 2003. George also won a gold medal at the 1952 Olympics and a silver in 1956. “He would always go where the competition was the toughest. Some of us went where we thought we’d get a medal.”

In addition to Olympic success, Kono won six world championships in events that included the clean and jerk, clean and press, and snatch. Kono was the head coach of the United States’ Olympic weightlifting team in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

He was also a successful bodybuilder, winning the Iron Man Mr. World title in 1954.

***

Kono did not live in Aiea and train at the Nuuanu YMCA until after he’d won his first of two Olympic gold medals, in Helsinki, Finland, in 1952. So sometimes people question why Hawaii lays claim to him as one of its favorite sons and finest athletes.

The answer is Kono fit in while standing out. He immediately took to Hawaii and its culture upon his arrival to work in the office of a friend, Dr. Richard Yu, when he wasn’t training.

“He was already famous, but he didn’t make high maka maka. That’s why people in Hawaii embraced him. He didn’t come over acting like a big shot,” said Gus Rethwisch, a power lifter, actor, event promoter and University of Hawaii baseball player who lived here for 12 years and knew Kono well. “When I met him in 1973 he was humble but still a tremendous presence.”

Kono had retired from weightlifting nine years prior, but remained active as a coach and doing anything to help anyone interested in power lifting or bodybuilding (sometimes people forget the man who was voted the top Olympic weightlifter of all-time in 1998 also won four Mr. World and Mr. Universe titles from 1954 to 1961).

He and his wife, Florence, were raising their family in Aiea. “He didn’t want to go back to California because he was more accepted here,” his daughter, Joann Sumida, said.

Kono said it himself in a 2009 Star-Bulletin story:

“At competitions I’d be introduced as the ‘Hawaiian, Tommy Kono,’ and I never corrected them,” Kono said. “I looked like I came from Wahiawa. I blended right in from the start.

“On the mainland I was an Olympic and world champ but never got the publicity like I got here. … Being adopted by Hawaii is really something, and interestingly, of my 26 world records, 21 were in foreign countries and five in Hawaii. Nothing in the continental U.S. It’s why I felt more that I was always representing Hawaii than the U.S.”

ILH-OIA football (re)union proposed

[5/4/16] The Interscholastic League of Honolulu voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the proposed union of its football teams with the Oahu Interscholastic Association for the coming season, according to two trusted Honolulu Star-Advertiser sources close to the league.

Under the proposal, a 10-team Open “power” division would be formed by three ILH schools and seven OIA schools, with the top six in the nine-game regular season moving on to that division’s state tournament.

With ILH approval, the proposal moves on to the OIA for a vote. It is not known when or where that vote will take place.

***

[4/26/16] A new era in Oahu high school football could be on the horizon.

If a new proposal continues to gain steam, a union of the Oahu Interscholastic Association and the Interscholastic League of Honolulu could be here faster than you can say “high-speed rail.”

Fans have been clamoring for a competitive reorganization for years, and this plan — for football only — is getting traction behind the scenes.

According to trusted Honolulu Star-Advertiser sources, ILH principals will vote May 3 whether to approve the restructuring. That is the first of three big hurdles. If it passes there, votes by OIA principals and then by the Hawaii High School Athletic Association would follow. Sources say the plan has support among key decision-makers within the OIA and overwhelming overall support from the ILH and HHSAA.

Sources said the realignment plan, which would reunite public and private schools in the regular season for the first time since their split after the 1969 season, was developed by former HHSAA Executive Director Keith Amemiya, OIA Executive Director Ray Fujino, ILH Executive Director Blane Gaison and ILH assistant Georges Gilbert.

The three-year pilot project — presently called the OIA-ILH Football Alliance — would be reviewed annually and calls for an Open Division of 10 teams playing a nine-game regular-season schedule. There would also be a 10-team Division I and a nine-team Division II.

IN THE OPEN Division, the ILH’s three prominent football programs — Saint Louis, Kamehameha and Punahou — would join seven top OIA football teams to be determined by that league. Sources believe six of the seven would be chosen based on on-field performance throughout the years — Kahuku, Mililani, Waianae, Kapolei, Farrington and Campbell. Several other schools would have the potential to be the seventh school, including Leilehua, Kailua and Kaiser.

One of the goals in expanding to a three-tier system is to eliminate or reduce the number of blowouts that result when perennial powers play side by side with teams that sporadically or never reach such heights. Last season, McKinley, which in a down year struggled to put enough players on the field, lost to eventual state champion Kahuku 78-0 and Waianae 90-0 in back-to-back weeks.

The aim is to create competitive balance by pairing similarly talented schools against each other every week, cutting down on routs and forfeits. If games are more competitive, the hope is fan interest will increase; one source said high-ranking officials from both leagues believe the football revenue would grow significantly because of the better matchups.

AFTER THE REGULAR season, the top six teams in the standings would move on to the Open Division state tournament, likely marking the first time more than one ILH team qualifies.

One of the concerns that stood in the way of past proposals of this sort was the issue of recruiting and transfers. Public school football players from the OIA sometimes opted to switch schools and receive a paid education at a private school in the ILH, leading to the rich getting richer on the football field and the public schools losing star players.

UNDER THE NEW format, if approved, transferring players would need to sit out two years before playing, a strict measure that would ensure in most cases that once a player enters a high school, he or she is not lured away to another one.

Another concern was the apportionment of gate receipts. Because the OIA has more schools (22) than the ILH (seven), an equitable system was never seriously considered and would have been difficult to hammer out. Now, whatever loss, if any, in gate revenue the OIA takes by forming this alliance would be regained through a $3 million ($1 million per year) donation from local business groups. The money would go to every Oahu public high school for their athletic departments (not just football). According to sources, Amemiya has numerous pledges toward that figure already. Sources also said that two former Hawaii high school football stars now in the NFL, Marcus Mariota of the Tennessee Titans and Manti Te’o of the San Diego Chargers, have pledged their support.

FOR SOME an OIA-ILH alliance would have the potential to restore some of the shine from the glory days of football, that pre-1970 period that is talked about by the old-timers with reverence, when the old Honolulu Stadium was filled with 25,000 spectators for rivalry games such as Roosevelt vs. Punahou and Farrington vs. Kamehameha. Prep football was king in those days, when Thanksgiving Day games were the season’s centerpiece.

Prep football was so big then that Farrington’s historic victory over Kameha­meha in 1965 was splashed across the front page of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin with a headline reading, “The Day the Govs Won It All.”
That story, written by Jim Becker, galvanized the Kalihi community and forged lifetime friendships. In fact, members of that team, including Stan Cadiente, Walter Rodrigues, Ambrose Costa, Jim Kalili and Tom Gushiken, would meet annually to celebrate that victory.

If this new proposal passes, some old rivalries could be renewed, and new ones would likely be formed.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Kobe finishes with 60

Kobe Bryant's 20th and final NBA season came to a close on Wednesday night. He finished it exactly as he spent most of it: remorselessly and gleefully gunning.

And everybody loved it, because it was perfect. It couldn't have been more perfect.

In his last game as a professional basketball player, Bryant fully embraced the Viking funeral that began when he announced on Nov. 29, 2015, that this would be his last ride. With Los Angeles Lakers fans, NBA legends, former teammates, Hollywood royalty, his wife and his children watching his every move, Kobe entertained us all one more time with a performance that seemed, even as it was unfolding, like the stuff of fiction.

He scored 60 points — the highest-scoring game in the NBA this season, topping Anthony Davis' 59; the sixth 60-point game of his career, second-most all-time behind fellow Laker great Wilt Chamberlain; and the most points ever by a player in his final NBA game (joining, of all people, Jordan Crawford and Eddie House!). He did so on 50 field-goal attempts, the most by any player in any one game dating back to the 1983-84 season, to lead the Lakers to a thrilling and unbelievable 101-96 win over the visiting Utah Jazz.

In yet another season full of losing that saw the Lakers finish with a franchise-worst 17-65 record, Kobe found a way to go out a winner ... and to go out a winner in the most precisely, 10-out-of-10 Kobe way humanly possible.

***

Kobe tribute

A farewell to Kobe

Golden State 73

The biggest story of the NBA's regular season has reached its resolution. It ends with the Golden State Warriors holding a 73-9 record, a new league record for wins in a single season.

The Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 125-104 at Oracle Arena on Wednesday to end the season on a four-game winning streak that puts them one win ahead of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls for the new mark. If the Warriors can repeat as champions, they will certainly be remembered as one of the greatest teams in NBA history and will be considered a budding dynasty.

This final win concludes a thrilling regular season for Golden State in which they dominated the NBA landscape. They started the season with a record 24 victories in a row, continued a home winning streak that ended with an all-time high 54 straight at Oracle Arena, became the second team to win 70 games in one season and 65 games in consecutive seasons (and the only one to improve on a 65-win season), and avoided losing two straight games for the first time in league history. They also did it with a style that won fans all over the basketball world, thanks in large part to the dominance of presumptive back-to-back MVP Stephen Curry.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

2016 NFL transactions

4/14/16 - Titan's trade no. 1 pick to Rams
3/24/16 - Cleveland signs RG3
3/11/16 - Denver trades for Mark Sanchez from Philadelphia giving up a conditional seventh-round pick
3/9/16 - Brock Osweiler leaving Denver for Houston (and $72 million for four years)
3/8/16 - Calvin Johnson retires after nine seasons
3/6/16 - Peyton Manning retires

Thursday, April 07, 2016

Lord James Blears

[4/7/16]  Signature wrestling moves such as the Oxford leg strangle and Ferris wheel finish initially brought Lord James “Tally Ho” Blears to Hawaii, but it was a booming British-accented voice rich in character that made him a household name here for 60 years.

The charismatic Blears provided the colorful soundtrack for the heyday of pro wrestling in the state in the 1960s and ’70s and went on to become “the voice of surfing” and water sports for another 30 years.

His remarkable life, which ended last month at age 92, will be celebrated in a memorial service Saturday at 11 a.m. at Makaha Beach.

***

[3/8/16] James Blears, a legendary wrestling champion, local promoter and World War II survivor who was nearly killed by his Japanese captors, has died.

Blears died of natural causes Thursday night at Kuakini Medical Center, his son Clinton Blears said. He was 92.

“He lived a good life,” Clinton Blears said. “He always told jokes. He gave us the gift of being able to tell stories because he was a story- and a joke teller.”

Blears, a professional wrestler known as Lord “Tally-Ho” Blears, told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2001 that he would eat a can of peaches every March 29 in homage to his fellow captives who perished and to remind himself of the preciousness of life and resilience. He said he ate peaches because it was the first food sailors gave him after they plucked him from the Indian Ocean, following his escape from his Japanese captors in 1944.

Blears was a 21-year-old radio officer on a Dutch merchant ship that had been sunk by a Japanese submarine near the end of World War II. The Japanese brought aboard the survivors and were shooting or decapitating many on the foredeck. Blears said he escaped by kicking a Japanese officer and pulling his hand out of a rope, then jumping overboard.

In Hawaii, Blears was an announcer for multiple sporting competitions including the Waikiki Rough Water Swim and the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau big-wave surf contest. He was also a skilled waterman, surfer and canoe paddler. He is the father of former professional surfer Laura Blears.

***

Lord James "Tallyho" Blears 92, passed March 3rd. Born in the United Kingdom. 1923-2016.

WRESTLER/ WATER- MAN/SPORTS ANNOUNCER

Joined the Service and endured, survived WWII War Atrocities, then became a Professional Big Time Wrestler. Lord and his wife Lee retired and lived in Makaha where they enjoyed living amongst the wonderful people of The West Side of Oahu. Lord Tallyho Blears, will be missed. " ALOHA & TALLYHO! "

Lord is survived by daughters, Carol & Laura, son; Clinton, Grandsons; Dylan & Zach and Great Grand Daughter, Ka'imino'eau Gwenna-Leigh Ching.

A MEMORIAL SERVICE WILL BE HELD AT MAKAHA BEACH ON SATURDAY, APRIL 9TH, 2016 AT 11:00am. FRIENDS ARE INVITED TO CELEBRATE AND SHARE MEMORIES OF HIS LIFE. Info: Clinton 808 224-7321.

*** [4/6/16] Mufi remembers 50th State Wrestling (page 24)

Tuesday, April 05, 2016

Villanova wins NCAA Championship

HOUSTON (AP) -- One good shot deserved another.

Kris Jenkins of Villanova wasn't about to be outdone.

Jenkins overcame the shock of watching North Carolina's Marcus Paige hit a double-clutch 3 to tie it by spotting up behind the right side of the arc and draining a 3 of his own at the buzzer to lift Villanova to a 77-74 victory and the national championship Monday night.

What a shot! What a game!

Monday, April 04, 2016

Yao, Shaq, Iverson in Hall of Fame

Pound for pound, the best player of his era has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Allen Iverson also got in as well.

Shaquille O’Neal joined Yao Ming and Iverson in being named to the Hall of Fame on Monday. Iverson worked in stark contrast to both Shaq and Yao, a 6-foot (maybe) waterbug taking on all comers in the last NBA era to feature low post behemoths.

O’Neal won three titles while manning the paint as a Los Angeles Laker. Starting his career in Orlando, the center made it to the Finals in just his third year as a pro before moving on to California. He paired with Kobe Bryant to take Los Angeles to four Finals overall prior to being traded to Miami. Teaming with Dwyane Wade, O’Neal won a title in 2006. His time in Phoenix, Cleveland and Boston was less successful, but he did work on teams that made it deep into the playoffs before hanging things up in 2011.

Iverson’s career was a little more complicated.