Paul Snyder obit

Paul Snyder, Buffalo businessman and former Buffalo Braves owner, dies at 94

 

He was not on the list.

Paul Snyder was a businessman through and through — an entrepreneur whose impact could be seen across Western New York, from the food industry and amusement parks to downtown Buffalo and professional sports.

Snyder co-founded Freezer Queen, a frozen-food packaging company, in the 1950s. He later purchased property that would become Darien Lake, transforming it into a campground and amusement park before selling it in the 1980s. Snyder died Monday at the age of 94.

His influence also extended into downtown Buffalo. Snyder played a key role in bringing the Hyatt Regency to the city.

Former Sabres partner Larry Quinn recalled meeting Snyder after Hyatt representatives asked him to find a local developer who could take on the project.

"No question that it is. I mean, Hyatt had been worried about the strength of local developers," Quinn said. "They asked me to go out and find somebody. I didn't know Paul, but somebody had recommended him."

Quinn said the two met over breakfast at the old Howard Johnson's on North End Delaware Avenue. Snyder agreed to take on the project.

"Paul was one of those giants," Quinn said. "There was nothing that was too big for him, nothing that he had to wait on. He was a guy that would grab something quickly and do it."

Snyder was also an accomplished athlete.

He owned the Buffalo Braves, Buffalo's last NBA franchise, during the 1970s. The team featured stars including Moses Malone, Bob McAdoo and Randy Smith, a Buffalo-area favorite.

Quinn remembered Snyder as someone who wasn't afraid to think big.

"He didn't go about it in a shy way. He went for it," Quinn said. "I think just ultimately Buffalo wasn't big enough to support two professional sports teams in the winter in one arena. Back then there was no suite revenue. There was not a lot of television money in the NBA back then. Probably would work today, but back then it didn't have those sources of outside income."

Snyder sold the Braves in 1978.

For Quinn, Snyder's lasting legacy is defined not simply by the businesses and teams he owned, but by his willingness to pursue ambitious ideas.

"As somebody that did things and had great courage and great vision," Quinn said. "And I think if you think of those three qualities, we need a lot more of that."

Snyder may be best known in Buffalo for his ownership of the former Buffalo Braves pro basketball franchise for most of its existence. The team entered the National Basketball Association in 1970 as an expansion team. In very short time its original owners, a hedge fund group from New York City, ran into problems and the league assumed control of the franchise. Snyder, who had recently sold off his ownership of Freezer Queen, stepped in and bought the Braves.

Pete Weber, now the play-by-play voice for the National Hockey League's Nashville Predators, worked in Buffalo radio sports for many years, first arriving at the former WEBR in 1976. He remembers Snyder as a fiery owner.

“I mean, how many times did he threaten to move the team or to totally get rid of some of his better players, such as Bob McAdoo," Weber recalled. "I'll never forget the press conference he had talking about Bob McAdoo's agent and what he was concerned with, and he just blatantly said, 'Well, I told his agent to just go to hell.' And next thing we know, John Gianelli is no longer a New York Knick. He's a Buffalo Brave. The trade was made.” The Braves, though popular, struggled to secure prime game dates and times while sharing Memorial Auditorium with the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres and local college basketball. The Braves were third in the pecking order, behind the Sabres and Canisius College. Snyder blamed Canisius for much of his scheduling woes, but Weber suggests that's not fair.

"I think it's a misunderstanding of the facts when people think that he was burned by Canisius," he said. "Canisius had, I think, eight dates on the weekends, which left many more on the calendar that the Buffalo Braves could have had. So I believe that, and I'm not trying to paint Paul Snyder as a total black hat in this story, but I think he has done a little bit of what we know now from politicians trying to paint a pretty picture about his ownership, his time with the Buffalo Braves."

Snyder sold the team to John Y. Brown in 1978. Brown, in turn, agreed to an odd exchange of franchises with Ira Lewin, who owned the Boston Celtics. Brown took over the Celtics, while Lewin assumed control of the Braves. But Lewin then relocated the team to San Diego, where they were renamed the Clippers. The team later moved again to become the current Los Angeles Clippers.

Don Nelson - # 362

Celtics legend Don Nelson passes away at 86

Boston Celtics legend and iconic head coach Don Nelson has passed away at the age of 86, his family announced on Sunday. 

He was number 361 on the list.

On Sunday, it was announced that Boston Celtics icon Don Nelson had passed away. He was 86 years old.

Nelson's family has since released a statement, per NBA insider Marc Stein.

“On Sunday morning our beloved husband, dad, grandfather and great-grandfather Don Nelson peacefully went to be with the Lord, surrounded by his loving family. Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories,” said the family, per Stein's account on X, formerly Twitter.

Nelson played for the Celtics from 1965-1976, winning five NBA titles with the franchise and having his number 19 jersey retired by the team, now hanging in the TD Garden rafters.

Nelson went on to have an illustrious career as a head coach in the NBA after his retirement, coaching the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks, and Golden State Warriors.

For 12 years, he held the NBA all-time record for most wins by a head coach with 1,333, passing Lenny Wilkens in 2010 before being surpassed by Gregg Popovich in 2022. He was then inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.

Nelson began his playing career as a standout at Iowa before being drafted in the third round of the 1962 NBA Draft by the Chicago Zyphers. A small forward, he made a huge impact on the Celtics' dynastic success during the 1960s and 70s and was the rare elite player to go on to have just as successful a coaching career.

It remains to be seen what tributes the Celtics will have in store for the legend.

After an All-American career at the University of Iowa, Nelson won five NBA championships playing with the Boston Celtics, with his number 19 retired by the franchise in 1978.

His unique brand of basketball is often referred to as "Nellie Ball". A coaching innovator, Nelson is credited with, among other things, pioneering the concept of the point forward, a tactic which is frequently employed by teams at every level today. He was named one of the Top 10 coaches in NBA history.

Donald Arvid Nelson was born on May 15, 1940, in Muskegon, Michigan, to Arvid and Agnes Nelson. Nelson grew up with his family and two sisters on his grandfather's rural Illinois farm near Sherrard, Illinois. He first learned basketball shooting in the chicken yard where a spokeless bicycle wheel was nailed to the shed to make a basket. Nelson attended a one-room, six-grade, seven-student school. When his family lost the farm, the Nelsons moved to nearby Rock Island, Illinois, while Don was in middle school. His father Arvid eventually worked at the Rock Island Arsenal.

Nelson attended Rock Island High School, in Rock Island, one of the Quad Cities. The Nelsons lived in downtown Rock Island on 19th street and Don would walk to school, stopping to shoot baskets at several different locations along the way. Nelson would go to the YMCA after practice and shoot more.

Graduating in 1958, Nelson led the Rocks to a 47–7 record in his last two years under coach Bob Riley. He had 39 points and 20 rebounds against Moline High School and 30 points and 29 rebounds against No. 1-ranked Ottawa High School. As a junior, Nelson averaged 12.6 points as Rock Island finished 25–3. As a senior, Nelson averaged 20.2 points, leading the Rocks to a 22–4 record in 1957–58.

After his senior year in high school, Nelson wasn't heavily recruited. His father did not see a future for Don in basketball and wanted him to become a watch repairman. University of Iowa Coach Sharm Scheuerman, who had graduated from Rock Island in 1952, recruited Nelson, who ultimately chose the Hawkeyes over Wheaton College and Nelson's hometown Augustana College.

In the era when NCAA freshman weren't allowed to play varsity, Nelson was joined on the Iowa campus by future Hall of Famer Connie Hawkins in 1960. However, after playing for the freshman Iowa team in 1960–1961, Hawkins was embroiled in the 1961 college basketball gambling scandal and left Iowa. Hawkins was never charged with a crime and was later reinstated by the NBA, who had banned him.

In Nelson's years at Iowa, the Big Ten conference was full of future NBA players. Among others, Ohio State had future Hall of Fame players in John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas, along with Larry Siegfried. Indiana had a future Hall of Fame inductee in Walt Bellamy, while Purdue had future NBA All-Star Terry Dischinger.

As a rookie, Nelson averaged 17 minutes, playing alongside Walt Bellamy (27.9 points), Terry Dischinger (25.5 points), Si Green and Charlie Hardnett. Zephyrs Coach Jack McMahon was replaced by player Slick Leonard halfway through the season as Chicago finished 25–55. The Chicago Zephyrs moved to become the Baltimore Bullets after the season. Nelson played for the Zephyrs for one season averaging 6.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 17 minutes. Nelson was then acquired by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1963.

On September 6, 1963, Nelson was claimed on waivers by the Los Angeles Lakers from the Chicago Zephyrs. He played in 80 games in the 1963–64 season, but just 39 in the following season under coach Fred Schaus.

After his career ended, Nelson's son Donnie remembers the family sitting in a Maid Rite restaurant in Moline, Illinois, and Don saying he had three choices: sell cars, become an NBA referee, or accept an assistant's job under Milwaukee coach Larry Costello. They voted 5–0 for the Milwaukee job, which paid $25,000.

Nelson began his coaching career as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1976. After a 3–15 start to the season, Larry Costello resigned and Nelson was named Head Coach. A year later he became General Manager of the Bucks and soon began to show what would later become his signature style of wheeling and dealing players. Nelson made his first trade in 1977 by sending Swen Nater to the Buffalo Braves and turned the draft pick he received into Marques Johnson, who had a solid career with the Bucks. On November 25, 1977, the day after Thanksgiving, Nelson managed the greatest fourth-quarter comeback in NBA history. With Milwaukee down twenty-nine points to Atlanta, on the road, and with only 8:43 remaining, the Bucks went on a 35–4 run to win 117–115 in regulation. At the time, there was no three-point field goal.

In 1980, he sent off an underachieving Kent Benson to the Detroit Pistons for Bob Lanier. Perhaps his most publicized deal came before the 1984–85 season when he dealt Johnson, Junior Bridgeman, Harvey Catchings, and cash to the San Diego Clippers for Terry Cummings, Craig Hodges, and Ricky Pierce. And, in 1986, he would deal Alton Lister to the Seattle SuperSonics for Jack Sikma.

Taking over a Bucks team in the aftermath of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's departure to Los Angeles, Nelson was able to improve their win total by 14 games in his first full season as head coach, and established the team as a legitimate championship contender by 1980. It was in Milwaukee where Nelson became known for his unorthodox, innovative basketball philosophy. He pioneered the concept of the point forward – a tactic wherein small forwards are used to direct the offense. In Nelson's tenure with the Bucks, he used 6–5 small forward Paul Pressey for the role. This enabled Nelson to field shooting guards Sidney Moncrief and Craig Hodges or Ricky Pierce at the same time without worrying about who would run the offense. In his offensive half-court sets, he would also put a center who wasn't a threat on offense, like Lister or Randy Breuer, at mid-court instead of near the basket to keep a shot-blocking center like the Utah Jazz's Mark Eaton away from the basket to make him less of a threat on defense.

This system, known as "Nellie Ball", created a lot of mismatches and enabled Nelson to lead the Bucks to seven straight Central Division championships with over 50 wins in each of those seasons. He earned NBA Coach of the Year honors in 1983 and 1985. For seven straight years, finishing no worse than second best in the Eastern Conference, the Bucks ended up being eliminated in the playoffs by either the Larry Bird-led Boston Celtics or the Julius Erving-led Philadelphia 76ers. After the 1986–87 season, which included some controversy and distraction before Game 4 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Boston Celtics where Nelson told the local sports media that he didn't expect to be back once the season concluded due to a rift with Bucks owner Herb Kohl, Nelson resigned as head coach of the Bucks. In 11 seasons, Nelson had a 540–344 (.611) record with Milwaukee.

In 1986 former Bucks owner, Jim Fitzgerald, purchased the Golden State Warriors. Nelson did part-time work as a color analyst for NBA games on TBS during the 1987–88 season. During the season he was contacted by the Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, and New York Knicks with offers to coach their teams. Nelson decided to go with Golden State, in large part due to his relationship with Fitzgerald, at first buying a minority stake in the team before being named head coach and vice president after one season away from the NBA.

 

In Golden State, he instilled a "run-and-gun" style of offense. Again using an unconventional lineup which featured three guards (Mitch Richmond, Tim Hardaway and Sarunas Marciulionis) and two forwards (Chris Mullin and the 6'8" Rod Higgins at center), he coached the Warriors to a 23-game turnaround of their previous season and back into the playoffs with his lineup popularly known as Run TMC, for Tim, Mitch and Chris. All three were later elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after their careers. Nelson was named NBA Coach of the Year a third time after the 1991–92 season.

Nelson continued to retool the team, drafting All-Star Latrell Sprewell in 1992. Nelson traded the Warriors' number 3 pick Penny Hardaway to the Orlando Magic for their number one overall pick Chris Webber during the 1993 NBA draft. Despite Webber averaging 17.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game and winning the 1994 NBA Rookie of the Year Award, he found himself at odds with Nelson's preference to play him at center rather than power forward. Frequently clashing with one another, Webber threatened to use the out-clause in his contract if he wasn't traded. Nelson reportedly offered to resign rather than let the team trade away their young star, but nonetheless Webber was dealt to the Washington Bullets on November 7, 1994, for Tom Gugliotta and three future 1st round draft picks (1996, 1998 and 2000).

 

Nelson resigned as head coach of the Warriors on February 13, 1995. He made the playoffs with Golden State in four of his six seasons there. Subsequently, the Warriors did not qualify for the playoffs for the next 12 seasons, until he returned to the team in 2006.

In 1994, Nelson coached the Team USA national basketball team at the 1994 FIBA World Championship in Toronto, and led them to the gold medal. The team was marketed as "Dream Team II".

 

Coached by Nelson, along with assistants Don Chaney, Pete Gillen, and Rick Majerus, Team USA had a roster of Derrick Coleman, Joe Dumars, Tim Hardaway (injured), Kevin Johnson, Larry Johnson, Shawn Kemp, Dan Majerle, Reggie Miller, Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O'Neal, Mark Price, Steve Smith, Isiah Thomas (injured), and Dominique Wilkins.

 

USA went 8–0, defeating Spain 115–100, China 132–77, and Brazil 105–82. In the final round, the U.S. team defeated Australia 130–74, Puerto Rico 134–83, Russia 111–94, and Greece 97–58. In the gold medal game, Team USA defeated Russia 137–91.

Nelson was named head coach and general manager of the Dallas Mavericks in 1997. He was coming to a team that had been dormant through the 1990s and a permanent fixture in the NBA lottery. In 1998, his first full off-season in charge, Nelson worked out draft day deals with the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns, essentially trading the draft rights of Robert Traylor and Pat Garrity for Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, whom he wanted to pair with the Mavericks rising star Michael Finley.

 

The trio of Nash, Finley and Nowitzki became the foundation for the Mavericks dramatic turnaround, as Nelson coached the Mavericks to four consecutive 50-win seasons. The height of their success was a 60-win season in 2002–03, when they reached the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. An injury to Nowitzki in game 3 that kept him out for the rest of the series doomed the Mavericks as they lost in six games.

 

Lacking an interior presence to combat low-post players such as Shaquille O'Neal, Nelson introduced the "Hack-a-Shaq" defense to the NBA while in Dallas. In the 2004 off-season, Steve Nash was offered a max contract by the Phoenix Suns; despite Nelson's insistence on matching the offer, Mark Cuban declined and Nash accepted Phoenix's offer. Nash won consecutive MVPs with the Suns the following two seasons.

 

On March 19, 2005, Nelson stepped down as Dallas' head coach, naming Avery Johnson as his successor. Nelson retained his job as Dallas' GM until after the season, when he named his son, assistant GM Donnie Nelson, as his replacement as GM. The Mavericks reached the NBA Finals the following season, though they would lose to the Miami Heat in six games.

On August 29, 2006, Nelson returned to the Golden State Warriors for a second stint as head coach. Chris Mullin, a favorite of Nelson's from his first stint as Warriors head coach, was the team's general manager. Nelson's style of coaching favored the play of Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Matt Barnes, Jason Richardson, and Andris Biedriņš. Midway through the season, Mullin (at behest of Nelson) orchestrated a trade with the Pacers to obtain Al Harrington and Stephen Jackson.

 

The new lineup thrived under Nelson; Davis, Biedriņš and Jackson saw an increase in scoring and efficiency, Barnes went from a virtual unknown to a solid rotation contributor and Ellis was named the NBA's Most Improved Player after averaging 16.5 points per game, a substantial increase from his average of 6.8 points per game the prior season. The Warriors closed out the season on a 16–5 run and just managed to qualify for the 2007 playoffs.

 

Nelson faced his former team, the Dallas Mavericks, in the first round of the playoffs. The Mavs had the NBA's best record, and were a pick to win the NBA championship that year. In one of the biggest upsets in NBA playoff history, Nelson coached the 8th-seeded Warriors to series victory over the top-seeded Mavericks in six games. It was numerically the largest upset in the history of the NBA playoffs, with the 67–15 Mavericks' regular-season win–loss record 25 games better than the 42–40 Warriors'. The Warriors went on to lose to the Utah Jazz in the second round. Nelson became the only coach in NBA history to steer three teams to a first round series victory while being seeded either 7th or 8th, having previously coached the Warriors to first-round upsets of the Jazz in 1989 and the Spurs in 1991 as the 7th seed.

Nelson married Joy Wolfgram at the Oakland Coliseum in June 1991.[62] Nelson and his wife have a total of six children from prior marriages.[62][63] He has a daughter born out of wedlock and put up for adoption, whom he did not know about for 29 years, who first reached out to him in 1997, not wanting anything in return. She now lives in Maui near Nelson and his wife.

 

He had fifteen grandchildren as of 2012.

 

Nelson's son Donnie Nelson was the general manager of the Dallas Mavericks. Donnie was Don's assistant coach with the Mavericks when Don won his 1,000th NBA game. Donnie moved from coaching to become the president of basketball operations for the Mavericks in 2002 while his father was still coaching Dallas. Donnie Nelson was an assistant coach for Lithuania in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics.

 

Nelson calls Dirk Nowitzki his "German son". Nelson coached Nowitzki for his first six NBA seasons in Dallas. "In my second game ever in the NBA -- obviously I wasn't a defensive presence -- he wanted me out there in the game but he didn't have anybody for me to guard," recalled the 7'0" Nowitzki. "So he let me guard [5-foot-3] Muggsy Bogues for a couple possessions. He said, 'Just stand there in the paint and wave at him. He doesn't want to shoot.'

 

Career history

Playing

1962–1963      Chicago Zephyrs

1963–1965      Los Angeles Lakers

1965–1976      Boston Celtics

Coaching

1976    Milwaukee Bucks (assistant)

1976–1988      Milwaukee Bucks

1988–1995      Golden State Warriors

1995–1996      New York Knicks

1997–2005      Dallas Mavericks

2006–2010      Golden State Warriors

Career highlights

As player:

5× NBA champion (1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1976)

No. 19 retired by Boston Celtics

Third-team All-American – AP, NABC, UPI (1962)

As coach:

 

3× NBA Coach of the Year (1983, 1985, 1992)

2× NBA All-Star Game head coach (1992, 2002)

Top 10 Coaches in NBA History

Top 15 Coaches in NBA History

Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award (2025)

Career playing statistics

Points  10,898 (10.3 ppg)

Rebounds        5,192 (4.9 rpg)

Assists 1,526 (1.4 apg)

Gene Bess obit

Legendary Heartland basketball coach passes away

 

He was not on the list.

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (KFVS) - A legendary Heartland basketball coach has passed away.

According to his son Brian, Gene Bess passed away early on Friday morning, June 19.

Brian Bess said in his Facebook post that arrangements would be shared at a later time.

Gene Bess was inducted into the National Junior College Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2024.

He retired in 2020.

His coaching career consisted of 17 NJCAA national tournament appearances with two national championship titles.

Bess is a two-time National Coach of the Year, 19-time Missouri Community College Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, 23-time Regional Coach of the Year and the first college basketball coach at any level to reach 1,000 wins.

Bess, a native of Oak Ridge, Missouri, coached 12 years at Lesterville High School, Anniston High School, and Oran High School, recording 250 wins.

Bess went to Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, in 1970, where he spent one season as an assistant coach before taking over head coaching reigns in 1971. His career win-loss record is 1,300-416 (.757 winning percentage), making him the all-time winningest college basketball coach at any level. He won two national junior college basketball titles, in 1979 and 1992, and was the first college coach to reach 1,000 and 1,200 wins. Bess coached NBA player Latrell Sprewell at Three Rivers. Bess announced his retirement from coaching in May 2020 after suffering from health problems in his final years on the bench.

Bess was inducted into the Poplar Bluff Sports Hall of Fame in 1983, the Missouri Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1988, the NJCAA Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. In February 2023, Three Rivers Community College unveiled a Gene Bess statue in front of its homecourt, the Libla Family Sports Complex

Stacey King obit

Bulls champion, broadcaster Stacey King cause of death revealed

 He was not on the list.

Chicago Bulls broadcaster and championship-winning forward Stacey King died June 7 as a result of a fall in his home, as reported by David Kaplan of ESPN Chicago.

King, 59, was a member of the Bulls’ broadcasting team as a color analyst for more than two decades following his eight-year NBA career.

A first team All-American at Oklahoma and a member of three championship teams (1991-93) in Chicago, King first joined the Bulls when he was chosen sixth overall in the 1989 NBA Draft.

After playing five seasons for the Bulls, King finished his NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat. He averaged 6.4 points and 3.3 rebounds in 16.9 minutes across 438 regular season games in his career.

King coached in the CBA after his NBA playing career before joining the Bulls’ broadcast team. He became a popular analyst on Bulls television broadcasts.

“Stacey King was a cherished member of the Bulls family and one of the truly unique personalities in our organization’s history,” Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “His connection to Chicago, the Bulls and our fans spanned more than three decades – first as a player and later as the unmistakable voice that helped bring Bulls basketball into the homes of generations of fans. We will miss him deeply and remember the joy, energy, humor, candor and passion he brought to our organization, our broadcasts and our fans every day.

“Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.”

At Oklahoma, King was a consensus All-America first team in 1988-89 as a senior, when he led the nation in rebounds. He was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team as a junior in 1988.

Within years, King was an integral part of a Bulls dynasty that rattled off three consecutive championships.

King is survived by his four sons, Erick, Garrett, Brandon and Mason.

He played as a center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and won three consecutive championships with the Chicago Bulls from 1991 to 1993. He played college basketball for the Oklahoma Sooners, earning national player of the year honors in 1989. After retiring as a player, King was the color commentator for the Bulls on their television broadcasts beginning in the 2006–07 season until his death in 2026.

King was born on January 29, 1967, in Lawton, Oklahoma, and attended Lawton High School. He played college basketball at the University of Oklahoma from 1985 to 1989 under "legendary" head coach Billy Tubbs. He was already considered an All-Star during his rookie year, but did not attend the game due to suffering first-and second-degree burns from a car accident in El Reno during the summer.

After the conclusion of his sophomore year, in which the Sooners lost to Iowa in the 1987 NCAA tournament, King contemplated transferring from Oklahoma. He was frustrated with his limited minutes during the close game, but was convinced on the flight back home by academic advisor Rick Pryor, Tubbs, and later his parents to stay. He worked with a construction team at Remington Park during the summer, but was convinced to focus more on his basketball career for his next season.

During the 1987–88 season, King was recognized as "a star on a star-studded team." He averaged 22.3 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game, and set a second for the most blocked shots in the Big Eight Conference with 103. King led the Sooners to the 1988 NCAA championship game, their first appearance in 41 years. He recorded 17 points, seven rebounds and two blocks during the game which Oklahoma ultimately lost to Kansas. He was named the MVP of the tournament and pledged to remain at Oklahoma and finish his degree. The Sooners' 1988–89 season saw King average 26.0 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks on 52.3% shooting, leading the Big Eight in points and blocks per game. He earned the Big Eight Player of the Year award, a first team All-American selection, and The Sporting News Player of the Year award. He ranks sixth in Sooners history in total points (2,008) and eighth in total rebounds (825).

After a standout college career at Oklahoma, King was projected to be a top pick in the 1989 NBA draft, particularly for teams in need of power forwards. He was passed on by the Sacramento Kings for the first overall pick, and ended up being selected by the Chicago Bulls with the sixth overall pick. In his rookie season, King played all 82 games for the Bulls, averaging 8.9 points and 4.7 rebounds in 21.7 minutes and being the team's lead rebounder in six games. He scored a career-high 24 points along with five rebounds, three blocks and three steals in a 122–97 win over the Washington Bullets on March 20, 1990. In the playoffs, he averaged 17 points and 5 rebounds in his two starts in place for Scottie Pippen in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Philadelphia 76ers. He ended the season earning a selection on the NBA All-Rookie Second Team.

Compared to his rookie year, King's sophomore season was a relative disappointment, with his averages decreasing to 5.5 points and 2.7 rebounds in 15.8 minutes. The season was filled with several off-court incidents, such as a family illness which restricted King from participating in practices and led to him starting the season overweight, his public discontent with the amount of minutes he was receiving, and eventually a walkout from practice near the end of the season, which led to a one-game suspension, further reduced playing time and a game in which he was booed at home. Regardless, King recalled playing well in place for Bill Cartwright for several weeks, and the team eventually won the 1991 NBA Finals for their first championship title.

Jack Maloney of CBS Sports wrote that King "never lived up to the hype from his stellar college career or became a full-time starter with the Bulls". NBA writer Sam Smith regarded him as a miscast on a Bulls roster already with forwards Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen. King himself recalled being initially unhappy with his status as a role player but went on to accept his position for the sake of winning. He played a role for the Bulls as a rotational bench player during the Michael Jordan-led dynasty of the 1990s, winning three NBA championships in 1991, 1992 and 1993. .He notably contributed to Chicago's 15-point, fourth quarter comeback in Game 6 of the 1992 Finals to claim the championship.

On February 24, 1994, just before the season's trade deadline, the Bulls sent King to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Australian-born center Luc Longley and a second-round draft pick. Smith wrote that "Minnesota was where NBA careers went to die, and Stacey's did." His first season with Minnesota was one of his best statistically, with him averaging 11.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. However, he did not reflect fondly on his tenure with the Timberwolves, which the Chicago Tribune described as "a maddening season and a half". He signed with the Miami Heat in October 1994. Issues with injuries led to him appearing in only 15 games and 2.5 points and 1.5 rebounds during the 1995–96 season.

Afterwards, King signed with the Grand Rapids Hoops of the Continental Basketball Association, and later the CBA's Sioux Falls Skyforce, where his health and availability improved. In the 1996–97 season, King signed 10-day contracts with the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics but was not able to secure a permanent role on either team as they were prioritizing younger talents.

 Spurred by his friends in the CBA, King became an assistant coach for the Rockford Lightning in their 2000–01 season. On January 15, 2001, he was promoted to head coach after the resignation of Bob Salmi, who had led the team to a 4–11 record by that point in the season. By the end of the month, King had led the Lightning to a 6–2 record. Returning for the 2001–02 season, King led the Lightning to the CBA Finals, where they lost 116–109 to the Dakota Wizards. After leaving the Lightning, he later coached his former team, the Skyforce.

Retiring from coaching in order to spend more time with his children, King began his commentary career in 2004 with Comcast SportsNet as a studio analyst for pre-game and post-game shows for the Chicago Bulls. He was a game analyst during the 2006 NBA Playoffs, and became a regular season game broadcaster for the Bulls for the 2006–07 season. In 2008, he became the lead color commentator along with Neil Funk. King continued in that role when Adam Amin replaced Funk in 2020, until the channel's closure in 2024. King then transitioned to Chicago Sports Network and retained his role as lead color commentator along with Amin.

King’s popularity as an announcer has been attributed to his enthusiastic style and use of catchphrases and nicknames. His best known catchphrase during his broadcasting career was "Gimme the Hot Sauce". Some examples of nicknames he has given to players include "the Windy City Assassin" referring to Derrick Rose, "Red Velvet" for Kevin Huerter and "Lil Buzi Vert" for Matas Buzelis. He has also received attention for his calls of highlight plays by Rose during Rose’s time with the Chicago Bulls.

Personal information

Born    January 29, 1967

Lawton, Oklahoma, U.S.

Died    June 7, 2026 (aged 59)

River Forest, Illinois, U.S.

Listed height   6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)

Listed weight  230 lb (104 kg)

Career information

High school     Lawton (Lawton, Oklahoma)

College            Oklahoma (1985–1989)

NBA draft        1989: 1st round, 6th overall pick

Drafted by       Chicago Bulls

Playing career 1989–1999

Position           Power forward / center

Number           34, 21, 33

Career history

Playing

1989–1994      Chicago Bulls

1994–1995      Minnesota Timberwolves

1995–1996      Miami Heat

1996–1997      Grand Rapids Hoops

1997    Sioux Falls Skyforce

1997    Boston Celtics

1997    Dallas Mavericks

1997–1998      Antalya Büyükşehir Belediyesi

1998    Sioux Falls Skyforce

1998–1999      Atenas de Córdoba

Coaching

2001–2002      Rockford Lightning

2002–2003      Sioux Falls Skyforce

Career highlights

3× NBA champion (1991–1993)

NBA All-Rookie Second Team (1990)

Sporting News Player of the Year (1989)

Consensus first-team All-American (1989)

Big Eight Player of the Year (1989)

First-team All-Big Eight (1989)

No. 33 honored by Oklahoma Sooners

Career NBA statistics

Points  2,819 (6.4 ppg)

Rebounds        1,460 (3.3 rpg)

Blocks 210 (0.5 bpg)

David J. Halberstam obit

Sports broadcaster, author David J. Halberstam dies

 

He was not on the list.

Sports broadcaster and author David J. Halberstam passed away Tuesday after a year long battle with brain cancer. Halberstam spent almost fifty years in some version of sports, including as play-by-play announcer for St. John’s basketball from 1982-1992 and the Heat from 1992–1998. Halberstam also spent years in sales and broadcast management, including as EVP & GM of Westwood One Sports from 2002-2008. He wrote two books: 1998’s “Sports on New York Radio: A Play-by-Play History,” on radio sports history, and 2016’s “Sports Media and Sponsorship Sales: Developing New Accounts, on advertising sales. Halberstam launched sportsbroadcastjournal.com in 2018 (Sports Broadcast Journal).

Halberstam wrote a number of op-eds for SBJ over the years:

It’s more than a numbers game behind the mic

Greatest ever on the air? Here’s one take.

Creativity can help radio play-by-play grow into its second century

Opportunities in sports business begin with communication

Halberstam’s over-50-year career in sports media spanned several roles, including play-by-play announcer for St. John’s Red Storm basketball from 1982 to 1992, and the radio voice of the Miami Heat from 1992 to 1998. An unfortunate on-air comment ultimately led to his parting ways with the franchise.

Halberstam (not to be confused with the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of the same name) transitioned into sales and broadcast management, including a stint as general manager at Westwood One Sports between 2002 and 2008. He also formed the Madison Square Garden Radio Network.

Halberstam returned to the booth as play-by-play voice of the Nova Southeastern University Sharks men’s basketball team between 2011 and 2019.

In 2018, he launched Sports Broadcast Journal, a publication dedicated to covering the sports broadcasting industry. He also wrote two books: “Sports on New York Radio: A Play-by-Play History” and “Sports Media and Sponsorship Sales: Developing New Accounts.” Halberstam also continued to write columns and broadcasting criticism up until last year.

As news of Halberstam’s passing spread across social media, tributes poured in from colleagues, peers, and others in the sports media world.

The post Tributes pour in for sports broadcaster and author David J. Halberstam, dead at 74 appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Rick Adelman obit

Hall of Famer Rick Adelman, who won more than 1,000 games and took 2 teams to NBA Finals, dies at 79

 He was not on the list.

Rick Adelman, a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee who played for seven NBA seasons before becoming one of the game’s all-time winningest coaches, has died, the National Basketball Coaches Association announced Monday.

Adelman, the father of Denver Nuggets coach David Adelman, was 79. The cause of his death was not immediately announced.

“The Denver Nuggets were extremely saddened to learn of the passing of Hall of Fame Head Coach Rick Adelman,” the Nuggets said Monday night. “Our thoughts are with head coach David Adelman, the entire Adelman family and the many friends and loved ones that were lucky enough to know Rick.”

Rick Adelman won 1,042 games as an NBA coach, 10th-most in league history. Only four other coaches — Pat Riley, Gregg Popovich, Jerry Sloan and George Karl — coached more games and had a better winning percentage than Adelman, who took the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA Finals twice and also was head coach in Sacramento, Houston, Minnesota and Golden State.

“Adelman will be remembered not only as a coach and a player, but also as a mentor to so many in the basketball community,” read a statement from the coaches’ association, which honored Adelman with its Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.

“Rick Adelman’s NBA coaching career has been highlighted by innovation, integrity and excellence,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said when the NBCA presented that award three years ago. “His teams always played to their strengths, and Rick always found subtle ways to reinvent NBA basketball to help his players thrive. His quiet, unassuming nature belies his impact as one of the great NBA coaches of all time.”

Adelman also played in the NBA from 1969 through 1975 as a point guard for five different teams — but found his calling as a coach.

The Kings, in paying tribute, said Adelman “will be remembered for the way he inspired those around him — with humility, integrity, kindness, and an unwavering belief in the power of teamwork.”

Adelman’s path to the NBA, as a coach, was unintentional.

He thought he would become a high school coach, though his lack of experience was a deterrent. He then started his coaching career at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon.

“We had great success there,” Adelman said in his Hall of Fame enshrinement speech. “The one thing I did not realize is Jack Ramsey was following my team.”

Ramsey was coaching the Portland Trail Blazers, and invited Adelman to interview when a position opened on his staff. Adelman worked under Ramsey for three seasons and Mike Schuler for 2 1/2 more, then took over as interim coach with 35 games left in the 1988-89 season.

“We had a team that was ready to win,” Adelman said in 2021.

Blazers owner Paul Allen told Adelman he could coach the 1989-90 season. The rest is history. Portland won 59 games that season with Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey and Buck Williams leading the way, getting to the NBA Finals and falling to Detroit.

Adelman was off and running. He took the Blazers back to the NBA Finals two years later, falling then to Chicago. After his Portland era, Adelman coached two years at Golden State and then went to Sacramento — where he had eight winning seasons in an eight-year stint, with players like Vlade Divac, Peja Stojaković, Mike Bibby, Chris Webber, Jason Williams, Bobby Jackson and current Kings coach Doug Christie. And in those Sacramento years, Adelman was widely credited for running some types of offenses that the league had never seen.

“He was a brilliant strategist and teacher of the game, and an even better person,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said.

Adelman had 210 players appear in at least one NBA game for him.

“He actually challenged me and poured into trusting me,” 20-year guard Kyle Lowry said Monday night. “That was important for me. He didn’t have to. He could have done everything else, he could have played other players, but he believed in me. ... He just trusted his players. He just wanted to win. And if it wasn’t for him, I don’t know what career I would have. It’s a sad day.”

Among Adelman’s accomplishments: He engineered a 22-game winning streak with Houston in 2008, a run that is the fourth-longest in NBA history.

“Coach Adelman guided the Rockets with professionalism, integrity, and a deep commitment to the game,” the Rockets said in a release. “His role in leading the team during the 22-game winning streak in 2008 remains one of the most remarkable achievements in franchise history and will always be remembered by Rockets fans.”

The Blazers noted that not only did Adelman lead the team to the finals twice, but he was a player on the inaugural Portland team in 1970.

“Rick was one of the most influential figures in franchise history,” the Blazers said.

Adelman was born in Lynwood, California, the son of Gladys (née Olsen) and Leonard Joseph "L. J." Adelman, who were from North Dakota and worked as teachers and farmers.[4] Adelman began his basketball career in high school at Pius X High School in Downey, California, then matriculated to collegiate stardom at Loyola University of Los Angeles, now known as Loyola Marymount University.[5] In the 1968 NBA draft, he was selected by the San Diego Rockets (now the Houston Rockets) in the 7th round. He played two seasons in San Diego before being taken by the expansion Trail Blazers in the 1970 expansion draft; he then played three seasons in Portland. He also played for the Chicago Bulls, New Orleans (now Utah) Jazz, and the Kansas City/Omaha (now Sacramento) Kings. He ended his playing career in 1975.

Adelman was hired by the Sacramento Kings in 1998. Under Adelman's guidance, the Kings were one of the most successful teams in the Western Conference, qualifying for the playoffs every year of his tenure there: their first consecutive playoff appearances since 1979-1981.

During the Kings' 2000 playoff run, they met Phil Jackson's Los Angeles Lakers. Adelman questioned Jackson's motivational techniques when it was learned that Jackson compared Adelman to Adolf Hitler. In 2002, the Kings made a serious run for the NBA Finals. After clinching the first seed in the competitive Western Conference, the Kings blazed through the opening two rounds but lost to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, in one of the most controversial NBA playoff series of all time.

Despite his relative success in playoff appearances, Adelman did not get along with the Maloof brothers. In 2006, Adelman (in the final year of his contract) led the Kings to the playoffs. Despite the team struggling early in the regular season, the Kings rebounded and qualified for the playoffs as the #8 seed. Although competitive, they were defeated in six games by the defending champion San Antonio Spurs. Adelman's contract with the Kings expired at the end of the 2005–2006 season. On May 9, it was reported by the Sacramento Bee that his contract would not be renewed.

The Kings did not reach the playoffs again until 2023, nearly 17 years later. Adelman remains the only coach in the Sacramento era to reach the playoffs more than once during his tenure with the team.

The Houston Rockets brought in Adelman as their new head coach five days after the dismissal of Jeff Van Gundy on May 18, 2007. Van Gundy had taken the Rockets to three playoff appearances in four years with no series victories. In his first season as head coach, Adelman guided the Rockets to a 22-game winning streak from January through March 2008, the third-longest winning streak in NBA history. However, they lost in the first round of the playoffs again, this time in six games.

In the 2008-09 season, the Rockets finished fifth in the West with a 53–29 record. They entered the playoffs without their star shooting guard, Tracy McGrady, due to an injury. Despite this loss, the Rockets defeated the Portland Trail Blazers in six games to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals for the first time since 1997. Although they would lose the series to the Los Angeles Lakers, they proved their resilience by taking the series to seven games despite the loss of star center Yao Ming in Game 3.

Adelman won his 800th career game, 13th among coaches in NBA history, on March 24, 2008, against the Sacramento Kings. On April 18, 2011, the Houston Chronicle reported that the Rockets would not give Adelman a new contract; Adelman and the team parted ways after four seasons and two playoff appearances.

Adelman's eldest daughter, Kathy Adelman-Naro, is a high school basketball coach in Portland. His eldest son, R.J., was a lawyer who held various team front office roles in the NBA before he died in an auto-pedestrian accident in 2018, aged 44. Another son, David Adelman, is the head coach of the Denver Nuggets.

 

Career history

Playing

1968–1970      San Diego Rockets

1970–1973      Portland Trail Blazers

1973–1974      Chicago Bulls

1974–1975      New Orleans Jazz

1975    Kansas City-Omaha Kings

Coaching

1977–1983      Chemeketa CC

1983–1989      Portland Trail Blazers (assistant)

1989–1994      Portland Trail Blazers

1995–1997      Golden State Warriors

1999–2006      Sacramento Kings

2007–2011      Houston Rockets

2011–2014      Minnesota Timberwolves

Career highlights

As player:

WCC Player of the Year (1968)

2× First-team All-WCC (1967, 1968)

As coach:

 

3× NBA All-Star Game head coach (1991, 2001, 2003)

Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award (2023)

Cleo Littleton obit

Wichita State legend Cleo Littleton, scoring king and trailblazer, dies at 93

 

He was not on the list.

Every summer, when Wichita State’s basketball legends returned to town, there was one appointment they tried not to miss.

It was not in Koch Arena. Not at a banquet where old box scores were pulled from memory and retold until the stories grew larger than life.

It was at Cleo Littleton’s house in east Wichita.

Aubrey Sherrod would be there. Cheese Johnson would be there. Xavier McDaniel and Antoine Carr and other former Shockers greats would make their way there, too, drawn to the man whose name had been hanging above them long before they ever pulled on a WSU jersey.

They came to visit one of the greatest players in program history. They stayed to talk about almost anything but basketball.

“I looked forward to every summer when we would get a chance to just sit and talk with him,” Sherrod said. “We had a lot of good old-time talks about life.”

Littleton, the trailblazing Wichita State legend who became the program’s career scoring leader, the first Black basketball star in WSU and Missouri Valley Conference history and a cornerstone figure in the Shockers’ rise to national relevance, died Sunday at age 93, according to his son, Barry Littleton.

“My father, the legendary Shocker Cleo Littleton, joined my beloved mother last night,” Barry Littleton wrote in a social-media post Monday. “He fought extremely hard the last 4 years, especially the last 3 months. Today I feel very broken.”

The news landed heavily across generations of Shocker basketball.

To some, Littleton was the No. 13 jersey in the rafters at Koch Arena, one of only four numbers retired by the program. To others, he was the name still sitting atop WSU’s career scoring list with 2,164 points, a record made more impressive by the era in which he played — before the 3-point line, before expanded schedules and before modern players had as many games to chase history.

To the men who came after him, he was something even more meaningful.

“Cleo paved the way for us to come to Wichita State,” Johnson said.

Littleton played for the Shockers from 1951 to 1955, when the school was still known as the University of Wichita and home games were played at the downtown Forum. The WU Field House — soon nicknamed the Roundhouse — did not open until December 1955, after Littleton had already completed one of the most consequential careers in school history.

He was 6-foot-3, graceful, quick and durable. He was coached by Ralph Miller at Wichita East, then followed Miller to WU, where he became the foundation of the Shockers’ first real climb into college basketball prominence.

Littleton averaged at least 18 points in all four of his seasons. He still owns the WSU freshman scoring record at 18.5 points per game. He led the Shockers to a 27-4 record in the 1953-54 season and the program’s first postseason appearance in the NIT. He remains the only men’s basketball player in Valley history to be named first-team all-conference four times.

He also played in 184 consecutive games without missing one from his sophomore year at Wichita East through his senior season at WU, a stretch that included helping lead East to the 1951 Class AA state championship over Newton.

He was drafted by the Fort Wayne Pistons in 1955, but Littleton stayed in Wichita to play for the Vickers AAU team and begin a career that would take him into banking, oil and construction.

Those numbers made him a legend.

What he endured made him a pioneer.

In 1951, Littleton became the first Black basketball player to play in road games in the Missouri Valley Conference. It was a distinction that came with pain. Other programs either refused to recruit Black athletes or sharply limited how many they would allow on their rosters. On road trips, Littleton could not stay in the same hotel as his teammates. WU would make arrangements for him to stay with a Black family in the city where the Shockers were playing. When the team ate together, even in Wichita, restaurants sometimes seated the Shockers in the back because Littleton was with them.

He absorbed vicious verbal abuse on the road. He carried the weight of being first in an era when first often meant alone.

“What is incredible to me is that he stayed strong and committed to what he believed in,” Sherrod said. “You learn about the conditions and some of the things he had to overcome and that had such a big impact for myself being an African-American.”

Littleton had followed another WU trailblazer, football great Linwood Sexton, who had arrived seven years earlier and offered him advice. Then Littleton set the stage for Dave Stallworth, the next towering figure in Shocker basketball history. Stallworth would help carry Wichita to even greater heights in the 1960s, but those close to the program understand the baton had first passed through Littleton’s hands.

“That’s why I will always put Cleo and Dave above guys like myself, Antoine and Cliff,” McDaniel said. “You have to remember the things that they had to endure. We didn’t have to experience all of those things that they did. I stayed in nice hotels. I could go eat in restaurants. It is remarkable how many points Cleo was able to score during an era when black people weren’t always accepted.”

Littleton’s barrier-breaking did not end on the road.

After graduating, he and his wife, Eloise, saved enough money to buy a plot of land in north Wichita, then an all-white area. There were protests about the Littletons moving there. One neighbor came over to try to talk him out of building.

Littleton built anyway.

And somehow, through all of it, those who knew him say bitterness never hardened him.

He stayed even-keeled. Jovial. Gentle. Easy to be around. A man who valued relationships. A man who could have filled every conversation with his own accomplishments and instead chose to lift up everyone else.

“He would never talk about his playing days,” Sherrod said. “He always wanted to talk about and praise the present. But we would always try to make sure we acknowledged his greatness, both for the university and in the community.”

Johnson said the same.

“He had so much wisdom and knowledge,” Johnson said. “That’s how you learn. You learn from history. I’m going to miss him.”

For later Shocker stars, Littleton was not a distant name in a record book. He remained a presence around the program. In his younger years, he regularly attended games. Even later in life, he tried to make it back to the Roundhouse when he could.

The stars of the 1980s remembered him being around after games, offering encouragement rather than critique. He was not the kind of former great who reminded current players how much better the game used to be or how he would have handled them in his prime.

He did not need to tell them how good he had been.

The record book did that.

McDaniel spent his senior season chasing Littleton’s scoring record. He averaged 27.2 points, earned All-American honors and became one of the most dominant players in the country. Around campus, he would sometimes see Littleton’s daughter, who worked for WSU, and joke that he was coming for her father’s record.

He nearly got there.

McDaniel finished with 2,152 career points — 12 short of Littleton.

With time, McDaniel has come to see it differently. Chasing Littleton, he said, helped push him to greatness. Falling short allowed the record to remain with someone he believes deserved to keep it.

“A lot of times we didn’t even talk basketball,” McDaniel said. “We just talked about life. Those were some incredible conversations.”

McDaniel said he believes WSU should find a way to honor Littleton this season.

“I think the team should wear a patch in his honor,” McDaniel said. “Cleo was a true legend and a real ambassador for the school and represented Wichita State very well. They really should honor him like that.”

Longtime journalist Bob Lutz, who covered the Shockers for decades for The Eagle and has long studied the program’s history, said Littleton can be difficult for modern fans to fully appreciate because so few people remain who saw him play.

“A lot of Shocker fans are probably aware of the name Cleo Littleton, but there’s not many around who actually saw him play and the impact he had on the program,” Lutz said. “I think you can point to that era as the beginning of Shocker basketball.”

Lutz said he has often ranked Littleton among the top-5 Shockers ever, typically behind Stallworth, McDaniel and Carr. But the more he thinks about Littleton’s production, the era, the barriers and the accounts from those who did see him, the more he wonders if even that has not been high enough.

“I’ve probably underrated Cleo forever,” Lutz said. “Boy, I feel like I didn’t give him his due and that’s probably been the case for everyone. Because we didn’t see him play and we saw those other guys play, so maybe we sold Cleo a little bit short.”

Littleton was a charter inductee into the Wichita State Sports Hall of Fame in 1979 and later became a member of the MVC Hall of Fame. The Kansas Sports Hall of Fame recognized him as the cornerstone of Wichita State’s first move into national basketball relevance.

But to Bob Powers, Littleton’s greatness was never confined to points, banners or Hall of Fame plaques.

Powers played for the Shockers from 1964-66, saw Stallworth up close and has spent much of his life working to preserve the legacy of former WSU athletes through the Lettermen’s Club. He revered Stallworth. He revered Littleton, too.

There were times when Littleton would stop by Powers’ office, sit down and have coffee. The conversations could drift anywhere. What Powers remembers most is the feeling of being around him.

“Personality-wise, he was an awful lot like Dave Stallworth,” Powers said. “He was a very kind and gentle man.”

That is the part that stayed with so many people Monday.

Littleton had every reason to be bitter. He had endured the loneliness of road trips without his teammates, the cruelty of opposing crowds, the humiliation of being treated differently in hotels and restaurants, the racism that followed him from the basketball floor to the neighborhood where he wanted to build a home.

He endured so much hate.

All he ever seemed to give back was love.

“It’s truly unbelievable that he was that good of a man,” Powers said. “From all of my years, spending time with Cleo was always a time in my life where I just enjoyed being with somebody. I’m going to miss him. I’m going to miss him a lot.”

He was drafted by the NBA Fort Wayne Pistons in 1955, but on the advice of coach Ralph Miller, he opted to stay in Wichita, playing with the Vickers AAU team, and beginning his business career. In 1987, he started his own construction company, Litco Inc., which he still managed as of 2000. He was named the 2004 Small Business Administration's (SBA) Graduate of the Year

George Bork obit

George Bork, legendary NIU football and basketball player, dies at 84

 He was not on the list.

DEKALB, Ill. (WREX) — Northern Illinois University Athletics Hall of Famer George Bork has died at the age of 84, NIU Athletics announced Thursday.

Bork was a two-sport standout at NIU and the first Huskie inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He was the first quarterback in NCAA history to throw for more than 3,000 yards.

In his senior season in 1963, Bork threw for 3,077 yards and 32 touchdowns while leading NIU to a perfect 10-0 season, a Mineral Water Bowl victory and the College Division national championship.

During his four-year football career between 1960-63, Bork completed 577 passes for 6,782 yards and 60 touchdowns.

Several NIU passing records are still in Bork's name, including career completion percentage at 64 percent and single-season touchdown passes with 32 in 1963. He also holds single-game records for completions with 43 on Nov. 9, 1963 against Central Michigan and touchdowns with seven on Sept. 14, 1963 against Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Huskie Stadium, which went under construction just after the historic 1963 season, earned the nickname "The House the Bork Built." Bork went on to play in the Canadian Football League for the Montreal Alouettes from 1964-67.

Beyond football, Bork also starred on the basketball court for the Huskies, scoring 1,114 points in three seasons. He earned team MVP honors as well as First Team All-IIAC and IIAC Player of the Year recognition.

Bork was named to NIU's All-Century Team in both football and basketball. He was inducted into the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1983, his football jersey number 11 was retired in 1996 and he became the first Huskie enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.

Information regarding a celebration of life for Bork will be announced later.

The 6–1, 185 pound Bork rewrote the Northern Illinois University football record book with some help from end Hugh Rohrschneider during his junior and senior years at the DeKalb school. In 1962, Bork broke 14 college passing records ranging from yardage gained to best completion percentage. The following year, he bettered 10 of his records, tied one and set nine more for a total of 20. He also set a record of 244 pass completions during the 1963 NIU season.

Bork was the first college quarterback at any level to throw for 3,000 yards in one season. Bork first played football at Arlington High School, where he was an all-conference selection. Offered a basketball scholarship to Michigan, the athlete turned it down because he wanted to play football.

He played in 1964 to 1967 with the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League, while with the Alouettes he worked as a gym teacher at Sir Winston Churchill High School in Ville St-Laurent he then signed with the Chicago Owls of the Continental Football League in 1968.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.

Herb Wilkinson obit

Herb Wilkinson Has Died

 

He was not on the list.

Herbert Wells Wilkinson (December 13, 1923 – May 19, 2026) was an American college basketball player who won the 1944 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament as a freshman while playing for Utah, then transferred to Iowa as a sophomore and became a three-time All-American.

Wilkinson was born in Hurricane, Utah and raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He grew up playing basketball but his home also had a high jump pit, and consequently Wilkinson became an excellent high jumper[4] (he got so good, in fact, that he placed fourth at the 1945 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships.) He attended East High School in Salt Lake City, and when Wilkinson was a sophomore he only stood 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m). By the time he enrolled in college, however, he had grown to 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), which more suited his ability to play basketball at the next level.

Wilkinson matriculated at the University of Utah in the fall of 1943. He had stopped growing at 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) but still possessed the dribbling and shooting abilities he had honed as a smaller high school player. As a very tall guard for that era, he helped lead the Redskins (now known as the Utes) to the NCAA tournament.

The Arkansas Razorbacks men's basketball team, who had originally qualified for the NCAA tournament, was victimized by an auto accident. Prior to the tournament, two of Arkansas' starters were injured when their station wagon broke down after returning from a scrimmage in Fort Smith, Arkansas. While attempting to fix a flat tire, Deno Nichols and Ben Jones were injured when another car rammed into the back of the station wagon. Both players were injured and the severity of the accident caused Arkansas to withdraw from the upcoming NCAA tournament. In need of a replacement, the NCAA committee turned to Utah, despite the fact that the Redskins had four losses and had just lost their first-round game in the NIT tournament. Utah had one player, Lyman Condie, a medical student, who quit the team to midway through the season to pursue medical school. Additionally, all of Utah's players were raised within 30 miles of the Utah campus. These players included Arnie Ferrin, Fred Sheffield, and Wat Misaka who was of Japanese descent.

Utah defeated Missouri in the opening round, 45–35, and then defeated Iowa State, 40–31, in the Final Four (back then, only eight teams qualified for the tournament). In the NCAA Championship game, Utah and Dartmouth played one another evenly. The game went into overtime, and Utah prevailed 42–40 for the school's first (and still only) men's national basketball championship. Wilkinson scored seven points in the game, including the game's winning basket in the extra period with five seconds remaining. Standing at the top of the key, he received a pass from Bob Lewis and then shot. The ball bounced off the front of the rim and dropped into the net, securing Utah the national championship.

Herb Wilkinson transferred to the University of Iowa after one season at Utah. He wanted to be a dentist, but Utah did not have a dental school. Clay, his older brother, was discovered playing basketball at a Cedar Rapids YMCA by Iowa coach "Pops" Harrison and told Harrison that he would play for Iowa if he could bring his younger brother to play. The next day, Harrison saw Herb's picture on the front page of the newspaper with his teammates lifting him on their shoulders for having made the championship-winning shot. He called Clay and asked, "Is that your little brother?" When Clay said yes, Harrison responded, "Hell, bring him along."

The Wilkinson brothers' first season at Iowa was in 1944–45. They joined incoming freshman star Murray Wier and three solid sophomores—Dick Ives, Jack Spencer and Dave Danner—in what would be a Big Ten Conference-winning season. The Hawkeyes finished 17–1 overall (11–1 in conference play) and their only loss came to Illinois by one point. Herb averaged 9.6 points per game (ppg) while Clay, a junior, averaged 11.5 ppg as the team's starting center. Despite Clay's slightly better numbers, Herb was honored as a consensus Second Team All-American along with fellow sophomore teammate Ives. It was Herb's ball-handling, leadership, and ability to score long-range shots that would deflate opponents' morale that played a large part in his selection. That year's team was also the first in school history to win an outright Big Ten championship.

Over the next two seasons, Wilkinson's junior and senior seasons, the Hawkeyes finished with 14–4 (8–4) and 12–7 (5–7) records, respectively. Herb said, "We were good enough to win the Big Ten title all three years. It's kind of sickening that we didn't. But Clay had to have an operation—he'd fallen on his tailbone one year—and Danner had some back problems. Still, we were good enough to win the championship more than just that first year." He averaged 8.3 ppg and 9.3 ppg those years, and although he was not a consensus selection, Wilkinson earned his second and third consecutive Helms Foundation All-American honors.

When Herb Wilkinson's college basketball career ended after the 1946–47 season, he had become Iowa's only three-time First Team All-Big Ten and three-time All-American honoree in addition to having won a national championship as a freshman while at Utah. He finished his Iowa career with 489 points in 53 games. He scored a career-high 22 points against Indiana on February 22, 1947. Wilkinson would later be named to the University of Iowa All-Century Team.

For the first year after graduation, Wilkinson was studying in an anesthesiology program, deciding to forgo a professional basketball career. Then, the Minneapolis Lakers of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) made him such a good offer that he decided to give it a shot. Being a very religious and devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he agreed to play on the condition that he had Sundays off. Wilkinson said:

"One Sunday I wasn't there and the owner asked where I was. The coach said he doesn't play on Sundays, and the owner sent me a note saying I had to play on Sundays or he would release me. I'm not sure he was serious, but I quit basketball and went off on a mission for two years."

After his mission for two years in the United Kingdom, Wilkinson finished his schooling and became a dentist instead. Wilkinson chalked up his personal success in life to his national championship season with Utah as a freshman. "Anything like that gives you more confidence to do other things in life," he says. "You think, Gee, if we won the NCAAs and weren't expected to, we could probably do a lot of other things we didn't think we could do."

Wilkinson was also an accomplished masters athlete, competing at track and field competitions beginning at age 77.

Wilkinson died at his home in Cedar Hills, Utah, on May 19, 2026, at the age of 102.

Carey Scurry obit

Former Jazz, Knicks Forward Dies at 63

A Brooklyn native who spent four seasons in the NBA and many more abroad, died according to his brother, also a former professional basketball player

 He was not on the list.

Carey Scurry, who played four seasons in the NBA for the Utah Jazz and New York Knicks, died May 18.

The news of Scurry's death was relayed in a Facebook post by his brother, Moses, himself a former college and professional basketball player. Carey Scurry was 63.

A second-round pick by the Jazz in the 1985 NBA draft, Scurry went on to play three seasons in Salt Lake City. His NBA career ended after he played four games for the Knicks in 1988.

Scurry continued playing professionally for many years in the Continental Basketball Association, a North American minor league, as well as in Europe and South America. He was forced into retirement by injuries sustained in an automobile accident in Barcelona.

Scurry helped Long Island reach the NCAA Division I men's tournament for only the second time ever in 1984. He remains the school's most recent alumnus to be drafted into the NBA, and its second-most recent alum to play in the league.

The Jazz were an ascendant team when they drafted Scurry. They had taken point guard John Stockton in the first round of the 1984 NBA Draft and Karl Malone in the first round in 1985. The two would become pillars of the Jazz's Western Conference powerhouse teams in the 1990s.

Scurry — still the Ducks' all-time leading rebounder and shot blocker — figured to anchor Utah's frontcourt for years. He averaged 15 minutes off the bench in a career-high 78 games as a rookie in 1985-86.

The following season, Scurry started the only five games of his NBA career under head coach Frank Layden. He finished the 1986-87 season with a career-high 5.0 points per game and 2.9 rebounds per game in just under 11 minutes.

Scurry played only 33 games for the Jazz in 1987-88, a season in which he is better remembered for fighting with teammate Mel Turpin outside a Houston hotel.

In January 1988, Scurry was waived by Utah after questioning his lack of playing time. That led to a 10-day contract with the Knicks, and a four-game stint in which Scurry scored two points for his hometown team.

Scurry played professionally in Spain, Brazil, and Chile before returning home to New York after his playing career ended. In 2024 he authored a memoir, "A Hoopster's Journey," that chronicled his on-court travails and struggles with substance abuse and other vices off the court.

A two-time Northeast Conference Player of the Year, Scurry was chosen to the NEC's 25th anniversary team in 2006.

 

Career history

1985–1988      Utah Jazz

1988    New York Knicks

1988–1989      Olympiacos

1989–1990      Rapid City Thrillers

1990    Granollers

1992    GEPU San Luis

1992–1993      ASA Sceaux

1993    Damme BAC

1995    UDE Temuco

1996    Ferro Carril Oeste

1996–1997      Colo-Colo

Career highlights

2× NEC Player of the Year (1984, 1985)

Donald Gibb obit

Donald Gibb Dies: ‘Revenge Of The Nerds’ Actor Was 71

 He was not on the list.

Donald Gibb, best known for playing the “Ogre” in the Revenge of the Nerds franchise, has died. He was 71.

The actor’s son, Travis, shared with TMZ that his father had died on Tuesday evening “due to health complications.”

Travis said that his dad died in his Texas home and “was surrounded by family who loved him deeply.”

The outlet reports that Gibb had ongoing health issues that led to his death, with the family asking fans “for prayers and privacy during this difficult time,” noting that their father “will be deeply missed and forever remembered.”

Gibb was famously known for playing the lovable brute Frederick Aloysius “Ogre” Palowaski in the 1984 comedy film directed by Jeff Kanew. He would reprise his role in 1987’s Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise. Gibb would later reprise his role in the TV film sequel of the franchise in 1994’s Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love.

Other films in which Gibb was credited included Meatballs Part II (1984), Jocks (1986), They Still Call Me Bruce (1987), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), Bloodsport (1988), Missing Pieces (1992), Magic Kid 2 (1994), Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite (1996), U.S. Marshals (1998), Durango Kids (1999), The Biggest Fan (2002), and Hancock (2008), ton name a few.

In television, Gibb had guest-starring roles in Magnum, P.I. (1982), The A-Team (1983), Knight Rider (1984), The Facts of Life (1987), My Two Dads (1989), Night Court (1990), Sons and Daughters (1991), MacGyver (1991), Quantum Leap (1992), Cheers (1992), The X-Files (1993), Boy Meets World (1994), and Seinfeld (1995).

Gibb was a regular on the HBO sitcom 1st & Ten, which ran for six seasons. The actor shared credits with Delta Burke and O.J. Simpson throughout its 80-episode run.

Between 1993 and 1998, Gibb appeared in the ABC sitcom Step by Step. Other shows he appeared in included Unhappily Ever After (1996), Pacific Blue (1996), Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper (1997), Arli$$ (1999), Veronica’s Closet (2000), She Spies (2002), The Young and the Restless (2003), among others.

 Gibb was the spokesman for Chicago bar Trader Todd's, through which Gibb marketed "Ogre beer", named after his iconic character in Revenge of the Nerds.

Gibb was born in New York City. He was raised in California, Gibb attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. Upon graduation he went to the University of New Mexico on a basketball scholarship, where he joined Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He then transferred to the University of San Diego, where he played football on scholarship. Gibb played briefly for the San Diego Chargers before suffering an injury in an automobile accident.

Film

Year     Title     Role     Notes   Ref(s)

1980    Any Which Way You Can       Henchman       Uncredited      

1981    Stripes Bouncer           Uncredited      

1982    Conan the Barbarian   Osric's Guard  Uncredited      

1984    Revenge of the Nerds Frederick Aloysius "Ogre" Palowaski                       

Meatballs Part II         Mad Dog                    

1985    Lost in America           Ex-Convict                 

Transylvania 6-5000   Larry the Wolfman                 

1986    Jocks   Ripper Credited as Don Gibb

1987    They Still Call Me Bruce        The Executioner                     

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise    Fred "Ogre" Palowaski                      

Amazon Women on the Moon            Graceless Pirate                      

1988    Bloodsport       Ray Jackson               

1992    Missing Pieces            Hurrudnik                   

1993    Breakfast of Aliens     Darrell            

1994    Magic Kid 2    Luther  Credited as Don Gibb

1995    Broken Bars    Jake                

Savate  Cody Johnson Credited as Don Gibb

1996    Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite         Ray 'Tiny' Jackson                 

American Tigers          Dan Storm                  

1997    High Voltage   Bartender         Uncredited      

1998    U.S. Marshals  Michael Conroy          Credited as Don Gibb

1999    Durango Kids  Mountain Man Morris Credited as Don Gibb

2002    The Biggest Fan          Band Manager Credited as Don Gibb

2003    Grind   Scabby Security Guy  Credited as Don Gibb

2004    Lightning Bug Uncle Marvin  Credited as Don Gibb

2005    Window Theory          Judson            

2006    8 of Diamonds Big Mike         Credited as Don Gibb

2008    Hancock          Convict            Credited as Don Gibb

Television

Year     Title     Role     Notes   Ref(s)

1981    Nichols & Dymes                   Television film           

1982–1983      Magnum, P.I.   Condley Willard

Harms  2 Episodes      

1983    Alice    Moose 1 Episode: "Jolene and the Night Watchman" as Don Gibb  

Simon & Simon          Lebow's #2 henchman 1 Episode: "Grand Illusion" (Uncredited)      

Hardcastle and McCormick    Johnson           1 Episode: "The Crystal Duck"         

The A-Team    Hal Billings     1 Episode: "The Taxicab Wars"         

Just Our Luck             1 Episode: "No Holds Barred" as Don Gibb 

1984    Knight Rider   Gibbs   1 Episode: "Knight of the Chameleon" as Don Gibb

1984–1991      1st & Ten        Leslie 'Dr. Death' Krunchner  80 Episodes    

1985    Otherworld      Motoface         1 Episode: "Village of the Motorpigs"           

Benson            Big Luther       1 Episode: "Uncle Jack"        

Streets of Justice         Road Rodant   Television film; Credited as Don Gibb          

1987    U.S. Marshals: Waco & Rhinehart      Varela Leader  Television film           

The Facts of Life         Wendell           1 Episode: "The More the Marrier" as Don Gibb      

1989    227      Skullcrusher    1 Episode: "Flying Down to Leo's" as Don Gibb      

1989–1990      My Two Dads Chuck

Officer Eugene            2 Episodes      

1990    Hunter Stryber 1 Episode: "Unfinished Business" as Don Gibb        

Dear John        Frenchie          1 Episode: "John's Night Out" as Don Gibb  

Night Court     Terry Benoon  1 Episode: "Nobody Says Rat Fink Anymore" as Don Gibb

They Came from Outer Space            Mr. Geek         1 Episode: "Mr. Geek" as Don Gibb  

Doctor Doctor Sam     1 Episode: "Somewhere in the Berkshires"   

1991    Sons and Daughters    Slasher Martin 1 Episode: "The Thing"         

Amen  Cashmere        1 Episode: "The Wild Deak" as Don Gibb    

MacGyver       Herman the German    1 Episode: "Split Decision" as Don Gibb      

True Colors     Officer Johnson           1 Episode: "Seems Like Old Times" as Don Gibb    

1992    Quantum Leap Jeeters  1 Episode: "Roberto!" as Don Gibb  

Stand by Your Man     Scab    7 Episodes      

Cheers Tiny     1 Episode: "Teaching with the Enemy" as Don Gibb

1992–1993      Renegade        Hog Adams

Cletus Hog Adams      2 Episodes      

1993    Harry and the Hendersons      Valentine         2 Episodes as Don Gibb        

The X-Files     Kip      1 Episode: "Conduit" as Don Gibb    

Daddy Dearest Inmate #2        1 Episode: "American We"    

Hearts Afire     Ray      1 Episode: "The Stud Club" as Don Gibb     

1993–1994      Empty Nest     Jake

Biker #1          2 Episodes as Don Gibb        

1993–1998      Step by Step    Slasher / Moose          6 Episodes      

1994    Boy Meets World        Tony    1 Episode: "It's a Wonderful Night" as Don Gibb     

Midnight Runaround  Clyde   Television film; Credited as Don Gibb          

Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love       Ogre    Television film; Credited as Don Gibb          

Muddling Through      Bud     1 Episode: "It's a Date"          

1994–1996      Weird Science Biker Dude

Singing Guy

Rolph  3 Episodes      

1995    Seinfeld           Letter S in Devils Body Painter          1 Episode: "The Face Painter" (Uncredited)  

Misery Loves Company          Prussian Helmet Biker            1 Episode: "Uneasy Rider"    

Kirk     Biker   1 Episode: "Helloween"        

1996    Unhappily Ever After  Spike   1 Episode: "Meter Maid"       

Homeboys in Outer Space      Galdor 1 Episode: "Behold a Pale Planet, or What If God Was One of Us" as Don Gibb       

Pacific Blue    Barger 1 Episode: "Cranked Up" as Don Gibb         

1997    Sparks Fitch    1 Episode: "Self Defense"     

Hangin' with Mr. Cooper        Security Guard            1 Episode: "The Idol" as Don Gibb   

1998    Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction            Gunnar

Kind Trucker   2 Episodes      

1999    Arli$$  Jake's Father    1 Episode: "Taking One for the Team"          

2000    The Steve Harvey Show         Tiny     1 Episode: "Black Streak" as Don Gibb        

Secret Agent Man       Buff Bobby Barnett     1 Episode: "WhupSumAss"   

Early Edition   Odessa 'Stumpy' McNeil         1 Episode: "Mel Schwartz, Bounty Hunter" as Don Gibb    

Veronica's Closet         Spaz    1 Episode: "Veronica's Sleepover"    

2001    Black Scorpion            Smash Clone #1          1 Episode: "An Officer and a Prankster         

Philly   Mickey Horvath          1 Episode: "Truth or Consequence" (Uncredited)     

2002    She Spies         Scarface           1 Episode: "Daddy's Girl" as Don Gibb        

2003    The Young and the Restless    Worm  2 Episodes; Credited as Don Gibb     

2007    The Fantastic Two      Psycho Television mini-series

2011    Secret Mountain Fort Awesome          Additional Voices        1 Episode: "The 6th Disqustoid" (Voice Role)  

2016    Captain Kyle's Cosplay Spotlight                   1 Episode: "Pennywise"        

Video games

Year     Title     Role     Notes   Ref(s)

1995    What's My Story         Giant   Voice Role; Credited as Don Gibb    

1997    Zork: Grand Inquisitor            Floyd the Bouncer      Voice Role; Credited as Don Gibb    

2003    Alter Echo       Gherran           Voice Role; Credited as Don Gibb    

2010    Mafia II           Angry Prisoner            Voice Role      

2011    Rage                Voice Role