The uncrowned champions: Fair Park baseball, 1960

     Let's start with the point of this piece: The 1960 Fair Park High School baseball team got robbed ... got screwed ... got  a raw deal.

     Yes, it's been 60 years and to review it now might be pointless. Not going to change history to write about it, but it's worth not forgetting.
      One of the greatest examples of bad sportsmanship at the high school level we ever encountered.
       Actually, it was "before my time" -- I never saw a high school athletic event until the next year -- but for history buffs of North Louisiana and state athletics who learned of this, and or those who remember it, it still resonates.  
     It was an "infamous" incident in Louisiana sports history. 
     Fair Park High School in Shreveport is no more, the facility at 3222 Greenwood Road -- right across the street from the Louisiana state Fairgrounds -- now serves as a middle school.
  The glorious Fair Park history, fall 1928 to spring 2017 (so 90 school years), remains. So many great alumni, so many great athletes and teams, state championships in football (1952), basketball (1963, 2006), boys track and field (1980) and -- especially -- in baseball (1957, 1963, 1965, 1970).
     But not 1960 baseball. Those Indians were -- and are --  the uncrowned state champions.
      They were "eliminated" in the state semifinals. But only because they chose not to play out a terribly unfair situation; they chose not to give in to their opponents' petulant (and misguided) demands or their juvenile behavior.
      The opponent was Istrouma of Baton Rouge, the best-known school for athletics in Louisiana for years.
      Istrouma: A football dynasty (eight state championships in a 13-year period, 1950-62, 8-0 in title games); perennial contender (but never state champ) in track and field; and -- note -- state finalist in baseball five times in eight years (1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964).
      But champion only once ... 1960. Should not have been.
      Two umpires called off what looked like a certain Fair Park victory in Game 3, the deciding game, of the best-of-three semifinal series with Istrouma. Fair Park was ahead 5-0 after three innings when darkness hit, and the umps stopped the game before it became "official."
      The umps -- their names were Shelly Carpenter and Perry Wiggins -- robbed Fair Park. 
      But so did the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and its commissioner, T.H. "Muddy" Waters. 
      Game 3 never should have been started that day (Wednesday, May 11). That was so clear afterward. But not that day. 
     By the time Game 2 ended, it was 5:20 p.m. Starting Game 3 was the umpires' fateful decision. That, and not putting a stop to Istrouma's obvious tactics and even declaring a forfeit. By the rule book, they could have. 
     Then, the next day, Waters and the LHSAA executive committee refused Fair Park's protest and they refused to punish Istrouma. In fact, they sided with Istrouma's demand that Game 3 would be played at Istrouma.
    Fair Park asked for the replay to be at a neutral site, suggesting Alexandria. Istrouma and the LHSAA practically laughed that off.
      Waters would not intervene. No, he not only backed Istrouma and the umpires, he also blamed Fair Park and he blamed the media for shabby reporting (gee, how original).
      He took the chicken-spit way out.        As our old friend Jerry Byrd Sr. would have said: GUTLESS.
      (In fact, Jerry did write basically that, as did three other Shreveport sportswriters of the day. And from points south -- Alexandria, Lake Charles and even Baton Rouge -- there was agreement that this whole thing stunk.
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      In the best-of-three semifinals series -- 2-of-3 was the  format for each round of the Louisiana top-class baseball playoff format from 1954 to '67 -- Istrouma won a coin toss and chose to be host for Game 2 and a potential Game 3. 

       It was a rematch of the two tribes of Indians (same nicknames/mascots) and a logistical repeat of 1957 when Game 1 -- with Fair Park as host -- was played at Shreveport's main baseball facility (Texas League Park in '57, SPAR Stadium in '60).
       In both cases, visiting Istrouma won Game 1 -- 2-0 in '57, 7-5 in '60 (Fair Park fell behind 7-1, then scored four in the seventh inning).
       In '57, Fair Park won Games 2 and 3 in Baton Rouge, 8-3 and 14-4 for its first state baseball title. Its head coach, Milford Andrews, was in his first year at the school; he was still the FP coach in '60.
      The Istrouma coach was Tommy Bell. He was the real villain here.
      He had been a football and baseball star at Istrouma and Southeastern Louisiana College in the early 1950s and would return to coach in both sports at both alma maters. But he gained a reputation -- not a good one -- with many people on one May day in 1960.       
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      What was most controversial was that when Istrouma felt it was going to lose Game 3, it went into repeated stalling tactics, as directed by Coach Bell.
      The attempt was to delay the game as often as could be, stretching it to the point where darkness would force the game to be called. 
       So twice Istrouma changed pitchers after a pitcher had made only one pitch. Each change required six warmup pitches.
        Then an Istrouma pitcher, taking plenty of time between pitches, resorted to trying to walk a Fair Park batter on purpose, just to stretch out the inning. When the FP batter swung at a wild pitch, the Istrouma pitcher hit him with the next pitch, obviously with intent.
      So the next two FP batters struck out as quickly as they could, and FP returned to the field for a fourth inning that didn't happen. 
      But it was getting late, and getting dark, and the umps said "enough."
     But there were other factors. Rain delayed Game 2's start for about 20 minutes and then it went 10 innings. Fair Park won it 5-4 as its pitcher, left-hander Sammy LaDatto, held Istrouma to two hits (singles by future major-league third baseman Dalton Jones).
       Then, as the Istrouma pitcher was given 10 minutes to warm up for Game 3 (LaDatto stayed on the mound for FP and just needed to loosen up), Andrews and FP officials pleaded with the umps and Istrouma people to have the game played the next day. Denied.
      LaDatto again shut down Istrouma's offense, and he hit a two-run homer in the second to give FP all the runs it needed. But after it got to be a 5-0 game, time -- and daylight -- ran out. With a stalling assist from Istrouma.
      No lights at the field, so no chance to end the game that day.
       The Fair Parkers were peeved, getting nowhere with the umps and the Istrouma people, and having been harassed by Istrouma fans. Andrews decided to take his team home by bus, and Fair Park school officials filed a formal protest to the LHSAA.
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      Waters and the executive committee decided that they could not -- and would not -- overrule the umpires' game decisions. 
      Baseball rules then were that, without five innings played or 4 1/2 (with Fair Park batting as the home team), the game would not be official and would need to be replayed from the start. No "suspension" allowed.
      No neutral site. And no Game 3.
      Fair Park's viewpoint was that it had made one trip to Baton Rouge, and would not return. Certainly not to face more potential harassment -- and trouble -- at Istrouma.
      And, so, the 1960 FP Indians were pulled out of the playoffs; it was declared a forfeit. FP took the "moral" victory over the unethical Istrouma choice.
      Waters, in a subsequent letter to newspapers explaining his decisions, said he felt BOTH teams were guilty of stalling and that there had been no LHSAA rules violations in this case, so he could not interfere with the umpires' calls.
      More controversy followed the next week. DeLaSalle (New Orleans) wanted to play its home game(s) with Istrouma in the championship series at night.
      Again, Istrouma refused. Again, Waters took Istrouma's side. No night games allowed ... unless by mutual consent.
      Then Istrouma won the state championship in a three-game series, losing 2-1 in New Orleans and then winning Games 2 and 3, 7-3 and 6-2, in Baton Rouge.
     Cheese champions, The Shreveport Times sports editor/lead columnist Jack Fiser would call them. 
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     Istrouma's stars were Dalton Jones, who signed out of high school with the Boston Red Sox and in four years reached the majors (a nine-year MLB career, six in Boston, three with the Detroit Tigers); and two pitchers, Teddy Payne and Jack Vaughn.
     Payne, a lefty, had an 11-0 record and was selected as the Player of the Year" on the All-State team. BUT he was the Istrouma pitcher who intentionally hit the Fair Park batter in the "stall" segment.
      Vaughn, a bulky right-hander, was his conference's outstanding pitcher in the mid-1960s at Southeastern Louisiana. In his senior season, Tommy Bell was his SLU coach.
     But Bell lasted only two years on the SLU staff. He subsequently returned to high school coaching in Baton Rouge, then went to prison -- financial transgressions -- and, after his release, died at a fairly young age.
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     No guarantee that Fair Park would have beaten DeLaSalle in a title series. But Istrouma did, so let's just make an assumption. 
     It was a talented Fair Park team; many of the kids were involved in at least two sports, many played in college, a couple in the pros. 
     Pitching was deep. LaDatto, although his record (5-3)  was deceiving, was selected for the All-State team just as he signed a pro contract (with the Cleveland Indians). Two other pitchers, Charlie Johnson (7-0) and Dean Bounds, would go on to be all-conference college pitchers; Calvin Carroll also pitched in college.
     The only sophomore starter, Phil Johnson, would go on to be a two-time All-State catcher and LSU's starting center in football on teams that won Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl games.
      The entire infield -- first baseman Charlie "Sam" Wilkinson, second baseman Jimmy Keeth, shortstop Paul Labenne, third baseman Paul Solice -- made All-City. So did outfielder Richard Groves.
      Solice was a two-time All-State choice and played two years of pro ball (Baltimore Orioles' system). 
      Labenne, a three-sport star at Fair Park, was a standout football and baseball player at Louisiana Tech. 
      Wilkinson -- "Sam" or "The Chief" -- also made All-State and played some college ball (Centenary). He was involved in pro baseball (Houston Astros' visiting clubhouse manager), then was the longtime trainer/equipment man at Louisiana Tech University. (Personal note: He was the nephew of our decade-long neighbors, and forever friends, in Sunset Acres.) 
       Outfielder Thomas Mitchell was a two-sport starter and went into coaching, as did a reserve outfielder and future coach of the 1970 state-champion Fair Park baseball team, Doug Robinson.
      Another outfielder starter, Buddy Worthington, was the older brother of a future Fair Park basketball-baseball state championship player (and All-State, all-college conference shortstop) David Worthington. 
      Even the team's manager-statistician, Frank "Spike" Bright, was a star. A junior in the spring of 1960, as a senior a year and a day later, he won Louisiana's Class AAA mile-run state championship. (He was our role model; we were both three-sports manager-statisticians, school newspaper and yearbook sports editors. I succeeded him as Louisiana Tech's football statistician. But no track mile run for me, thank you.) 
      Andrews was selected as the state's "Coach of the Year." He stayed at Fair Park for one more year. 
      All the honors were small consolation. These Indians' final record was 22-5. It could have, should have, been 25-5.
      What Istrouma did was bush-league. To blame Fair Park for any wrongdoing was ridiculous. 
       For Muddy Waters and the LHSAA committee to even consider what Istrouma claimed was a misjustice. Sure, Waters denied "being scared" of Istrouma principal Elton "Little Fuzzy" Brown, but he sure as heck sided with him (facts be damned, or twisted).
      To blame just the umpires, that was a copout. Weak. What's fair matters. What's not fair smells.
      Even after only 60 years. Still gripes me.
      Fair Park's uncrowned state champion, yes. A lesson in morality and sportsmanship -- or unsportsmanship -- to be recalled. A team, and a controversy, not to be forgotten.
      (Parts 2 and 3: Newspaper coverage) ... 
https://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2020/04/fair-park-faithful-and-shreveport.html

https://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2020/04/fair-park-faithful-and-shreveport_2.html

Paul Labenne, 1960

Fair Park faithful and the Shreveport writers were outraged (2)

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March 22, 1960, The Shreveport Times (mostly T.H. "Muddy" Waters' letter ...)

Fair Park faithful and the Shreveport writers were outraged (1)

     There was extensive coverage, and much debate, over the Louisiana Class AAA Fair Park-Istrouma baseball semifinal series controversy of 1960.
     Shreveport writers were outraged. What a surprise.
     They felt Fair Park -- which chose to forfeit the decisive Game 3 and the series, thus a chance at the state championship the next week -- 
got a bad deal and made the right call.
     Included here, and in another take, are stories and columns written then (hope you can read them; you might have to "zoom" your view).
     Articles are by The Shreveport Times prep writer Bill Baker (who covered the games), Times assistant sports editor/columnist Jim Dawson, Fiser, and our man Byrd, the Shreveport Journal prep writer.
      There also is a letter written to the Journal sports pages by Stanley R. Tiner, the 1960 Fair Park senior class president and Louisiana 4-H Club president, future newspaper columnist/editorial writer and longtime editor (starting at the Shreveport Journal for a decade-plus).
     And, there were columns by Alexandria Town Talk sports editor Bill Carter and Lake Charles American Press sports editor Truman Stacey. 
      Even Fair Park Pow Pow ((school newspaper) sports editor Frank "Spike" Bright blasted Waters and the LHSAA; the Pow Pow faculty advisor had to tone down his rhetoric.
      We'll give you some highlight segments. But most telling was this viewpoint from Baton Rouge State-Times sports writer Mike Cook, as published in a Shreveport Journal story (key sentence: "In my opinion, Istrouma was 100 percent wrong ..."
      More than anything, Cook's comments -- he was a partial Baton Rouge guy -- should have convinced Muddy Waters and LHSAA executive committee members that what Istrouma was claiming was a crock.

Jack Fiser column, The Shreveport Times, May 22, 1960

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      Bill Baker (game story, May 13): After it became evident that the Shreveport team had the second game well in hand, Istrouma coach Tommy Bell ordered his team to pull every stalling tactic in the book. ... 
     (Later in the story) ... Istrouma's fantastic stalling tactics.
      Stanley Tiner (Journal letter, May 13): Istrouma High School's supposed diamond romping powerhouse and "Muddy" Waters, big chief of the Louisiana High School Athletic Assn., have combined forces to form a mass of unfairness and sporting lowness that leaves the darkest blotch in the history of the Pelican State.
     "... Jack Benny has trouble getting laughs that the affair deserves and truly this deserves many laughs for it makes one big joke out of baseball.
     "Istrouma High School and Commissioner Waters can be proud of their feat of misjustice because no one else will be."
      Baker (May 14, taking the lead column spot given him for a day by Fiser): "The writer ... would like to commend Fair Park for its decision and its high principles in not resuming the playoffs  under the conditions set forth by ... T.H. "Muddy" Waters and Istrouma High School. 
     ... Fair Park officials, coaches and players should certainly be congratulated on their stand. There is certainly a difference between "legality" and "morality." Istrouma stood on its "legal" rights while Fair Park chose the "moral" road.
      Jerry Byrd (May 16): When Istrouma turned a baseball playoff game into a comedy with the entire state as an audience, the athletic assn. officials and committtees join the procession of clowns and the so-called LHSAA sportsmanship code committee becomes another big joke.
       Ha ha.
       Bill Carter (May 18): Commissioner T. H. Waters is being unfairly criticized because he ruled against the protest by Fair Park. But he had no choice. He couldn't overrule the umpires' decision. ...
      Istrouma, long one of the state's most respected athletic teams, can't be too proud of its victory. It was a cheap one. But the umpires are actually to blame.
      When there is a home team, there is always a chance of an umpire not having the courage to do his duty when it means ruling against the host.
     From "Muddy" Waters' letter (critical of media coverage): There is an amazing failure to dig deeply enough to learn the facts behind a case. By presenting half-truths and by cleverly wording (cq) opinions, the writer can make the implications sound any way he wants them to and the damage done to the high school athletic program, in the eyes of the general public, is inestimable, since most readers do not often weigh their opinions but take them at face value."    
     Carter again (May 21): If everybody had taken their time to check the rules, or even contact the commissioner, none of this would have been necessary.
      From this corner, it looks like the only real guilty parties were the umpires who allowed the farce between Istrouma and Fair Park.
      Jack Fiser (May 22, a segment titled "The Aroma of Cheese"): The lingering bad taste from the whole mess results from State High School Commissioner Muddy Waters' apparent inclination to get all his data from the Istrouma side, and to let an important championship be decided by  thread-bare technicalities rather than toss in a mixture of common sense, as a commissioner is supposed to do in controversial matters.
     "... The impression lingers that Waters was too eager to accept the versions of the row furnished by Istrouma officials and Baton Rouge umpires, and not eager enough to make sure justice was done.
     Waters, he concluded, was "accessory to a cheese championship."  

Shreveport Journal story, May 13, 1960

Shreveport Journal, (Stan Tiner letter), May 14, 1960

Bill Baker column,, The Shreveport Times, May 14, 1960

Jerry Byrd column, Shreveport Journal, May 16, 1960

Bill Carter column, Alexandria Town Talk, May 18, 1960

"Fame" for Lee Arthur Smith, the big country kid

     To begin -- and paraphrasing John Denver's great song -- thank God for this country boy.
     Do not have a personal connection to Lee Arthur Smith, except one face-to-face interview in 1975 and one phone interview in 1987. Have not talked to him otherwise.
     But we are so proud of and so happy for the big country boy from Castor, Louisiana -- or next-door Jamestown, if you want to extend his home territory.

     Lee Smith's election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, many believe, is long overdue. If they had let me have the only vote, it would have happened years ago.
     But as of Sunday, it is reality, and we had two immediate reactions:
     (1) Love it. He is one of our favorites, he "belongs" to North Louisiana.
     (2) Wonder what Jerome Holtzman would have thought today?
     (Many baseball fans, and almost every baseball writer, know the name Jerome Holtzman. There is a personal story here, centered on Lee Smith. Read on.)
     The tall and then-lanky baseball and basketball star from Castor High School I interviewed for a Sunday sports story in The Shreveport Times (April 20, 1975) grew into an imposing, thick hard-throwing right-handed pitcher -- one of the top relievers/closers in baseball history.
     The Times and Shreveport Journal were always his home-area newspapers, even after he left for fame in Chicago, Boston, St. Louis and other major-league stops. 
     And the personal connection: That part of Bienville Parish is familiar to us. My wife, Beatrice, grew up in Jamestown -- where Lee was born and, in young adulthood, resided in a huge new home.
     Little did I know when I made the visit to Castor in 1975 how connected to that area I soon would be, how many visits to Jamestown were headed. Nor did we know where Lee Smith was headed.
     In The Times story in 1975, a "pullout" quote from Lee read: "I like playing basketball ... more than baseball. But if I get a good enough offer in baseball, I'll sign."      
     Seven weeks after the story ran, Lee Arthur was picked in the second round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Chicago Cubs, the 28th pick overall. The Cubs scout who recommended him -- and soon signed him -- was a baseball legend, Buck O'Neil.
     But he did not give up basketball. The next couple of times I saw him was when he was a member of the Northwestern State University basketball team playing against Centenary (he played some as a reserve 6-foot-5 forward) in the 1976-77 season.
     Saw him again in 1978 and '79 when he came to SPAR Stadium in Shreveport as a pitcher (a starting pitcher, incidentally) for the visiting Midland Cubs (Texas League).
     By 1980, his sixth pro season, Lee made it to the majors.
     For 18 consecutive seasons (16 full seasons), he pitched in the big leagues. So that was 1,022 regular-season games -- only six starts (five in 1982, none thereafter) -- and four postseason games (two with the Cubs in 1984, two with the Red Sox in 1988).
     When he retired -- at age 40 in 1998, after 12 minor-league games -- he was the alltime leader in MLB saves (478). 
      He since has been surpassed, by Mariano Rivera (652) and Trevor Hoffman (601). But, gosh, that's pretty nice company.
      Which is why members of the "Today's Game" Hall of Fame committee selected Lee for the Hall (along with White Sox/Orioles designated hitter Harold Baines, a "marginal" choice in our view).    
      And what's fitting is that next July 21 in Cooperstown, Lee Arthur Smith will be inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame on the same day as Mariano.
     Although he wound up pitching for eight major-league teams, it is with the Cubs that Lee is most associated. So we borrow from the bleedcubbieblue.com web site: 
     "Lee Smith was a dominant Cubs closer from 1980 until he was traded away after the 1987 season, including three 30-save seasons and being the closer on the Cubs' 1984 
National League East championship team."
     Which bring us to the Jerome Holtzman part of this story.
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     One December day in 1987, for about five minutes, it was me vs. Jerome Holtzman debating the merits of relief pitcher Lee Arthur Smith.
     He was one of America's greatest sportswriters, baseball writers. Me? A nobody from Shreveport covering major-league baseball winter meetings [for The Times] at the Dallas Anatole.
     It was the only MLB winter meetings I ever covered; Mr. Holtzman probably covered more than 50, and everything important in the sport for that long.
     It was the day Lee Smith was traded from the Chicago Cubs to the Boston Red Sox. Mr. Holtzman was delighted; I was aghast at his delight.
     We were both in the room when the trade was announced. Dammit, I didn't like his reaction, and he came to realize that. As if it mattered, or he cared one little bit.  
     Please don't disparage the big kid from Castor.
     Jerome Holtzman, for five-plus decades, covered the Cubs and White Sox, usually for a half-season each, and here -- from Wikipedia -- is how highly regarded he was:
     "His influence and viewpoints made him something of a legend among newspapermen. Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard, who was sports editor of the [Chicago] Sun-Times for part of Holtzman's career, called him 'the dean of American baseball writers,' and went on to say, 'He never smiled, but he had the keys to Cooperstown. No major leaguer ever got into the Hall of Fame if Holtzman didn't want him there. He had tremendous sources. He was writing about the possibility of a baseball players union and a baseball players strike long before anyone else.' "
     OK, but by December 1987, Mr. Holtzman was not at all a Lee Smith fan. And I was.
      Holtzman never forgave Lee for a large failure in the 1984 National League Championship Series and, what's more, a difficult 1987 season.
      In the 1984 NL Championship Series, the Cubs -- with a 2-1 games lead in the best-of-five series, and one victory from breaking the 1945 curse -- lost Game 4 to San Diego  when Lee gave up a walkoff home run to Steve Garvey. The Padres then won Game 5 and went to the World Series.  
     From bleedcubbieblue.com again:     
     Smith had a rough year in his final year with the Cubs in 1987, with 12 blown saves and at times was booed off the mound. At the end of that season, it was felt that the Cubs needed to move on from him and he was traded to the Red Sox for Al Nipper and Calvin Schiraldi, one of the worst deals in recent Cubs history. Smith would go on to post six more 30-save seasons and three of more than 40, although he pitched in just one more postseason ..." 
     Mr. Holtzman's negative views on Lee, as I remember it, had to do with Lee's blown saves, ballooning weight and sore knees -- items referenced in my column from the '87 winter meetings.
     But when new Cubs director of baseball operations Jim Frey was asked about that, he praised Lee, even after he had traded him (at Lee's request, incidentally).
     "Wait, I've been one of his biggest defenders when some others in Chicago weren't," Frey is quoted in my column. "He almost never refuses the ball, he gets up and throws every day, he can work several days in a row, he's reliable, and he's not an old man. This guy is a horse, and he's been a horse.
     "We know we're giving up one of the premier stoppers. ..."
     My column includes numerous quotes from Lee. I do not remember this, but obviously I talked to him by phone that day. He made it clear that he was ready for a change of scenery from Chicago, and he was upbeat -- as he always was.        
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      Here is an irony to Jerome Holtzman's view of Lee Smith then: One of Holtzman's greatest contributions to baseball is that he was the creator of the save statistic. He came up with that in 1959, and it was adopted as an official statistic beginning in the 1969 season, the first official new stats category since the RBI (run batted in) in 1920.
     So, maybe Lee Smith owes Mr. Holtzman thanks, no matter what the man thought in 1987.
     And when he retired from newspapers in 1999, Mr. Holtzman was named official history of Major League Baseball, a position he held until his death (stroke) in mid-July 2008.
     But, gosh, I wish he had been easier on Lee that December day in 1987.
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      After Lee's playing career, he was a minor-league pitching instructor for a long while, including the San Francisco Giants' chain, which put him in Shreveport to work with the Captains during the 1990s.
      So the accompanying photo was taken at Fair Grounds Field. 
       It was fitting because Shreveport was the "big city" for the country boy from Castor (and Jamestown).  
       And now we can say that we were fans of this Baseball Hall of Famer for decades.
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       Posted this on Facebook today, repeating it here ...
       Many, many stories written about Lee Smith over the years. This is the best story -- July 1987, Shreveport Journal, by Teddy Allen and John James Marshall, a first-place national award-winning story, a great read.
      http://www.designatedwriters.com/classic/lee-arthur-smith/?fbclid=IwAR0AyNyoevMRfex29ojdGrgi5Isys0duqi4ssv0NgIeGklZSZlbm9Ur6Lk8
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What's in a nickname: Tech's Blond Bomber

     So, in case you were wondering 50 years later about the best of Terry Bradshaw's nicknames ...
     My old buddy, O.K. "Buddy" Davis, was wondering Saturday when he sent this text: "Can u give me background on when you, Paul Manasseh came up with the Blond Bomber nickname?
     "Can't recall my input, either," he added.
     So because it was yesterday -- well, 1968, actually -- this required a little research. Hello, microfilm on newspapers.com.
     It is not exactly what we have thought for decades.
     We always have given the credit to Paul Manasseh, the veteran sports publicist from Shreveport who that fall was the sports information director at Louisiana Tech University. 
     He had one student assistant (me, a senior at Tech) and one regular office visitor who helped us in SID work, Ruston Daily Leader sports editor Buddy Davis, a recent Tech graduate.

In 1967 and 1968, Terry Bradshaw still
had hair on top of his head, and it was
very blond ... so "The Blond Bomber."

     Bradshaw, everyone at Tech knew, was a huge talent, but going into that season had never started a college game. He did not have a nickname, as we remember it.  
      But soon his talent blossomed, and he was on his way to being the best quarter back in college football -- at any level (Tech was an NCAA Division II team, but Terry could have played for any "major"). Proof: In January 1970, he was the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. You likely know the rest.
     Oh, the nickname ...
     Manasseh -- wise media person, personable, guiding force for many budding sportswriters/broadcasters as, after nine months at Tech, he moved on to 14 years as SID at LSU -- loved Bradshaw's talent (heck, all of us at Tech did). Began writing and talking about it soon after he took the Tech job in July.
     Shortly into the season -- which began with Bradshaw, in his first start, starring in a victory against a "major," Mississippi State (albeit a weak one -- 0-8-2 -- that year), Manasseh tagged Terry with two nicknames: (1) "The Rifleman" and (2) "The Blond Bomber."
     Those references were made in releases sent out from the Tech SID office.
     For years -- and I noted this in an April 14, 2012, blog piece on Bradshaw -- Manasseh, Buddy and I have received credit for those nicknames. Thanks, but it ain't exactly so.
     Because Buddy and I have kidded each other for more than 50 years, I replied to his text Saturday by saying, "Think Manasseh came up with it and you took the credit." 
     Buddy's comeback: "We all did (football emoji) (smiley face)."
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     Now the real kicker: Don't believe Manasseh was the originator, either. He adopted it, and adapted it.
     It was not original. Actually, it was a takeoff on "The Brown Bomber," longtime heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis in the 1940s.
      Looked this up: "Blond Bomber" was used -- several times -- by pro wrestlers, and by a body builder (Dave Draper) earlier in the 1960s, and there was a 1954 TV show, Adventures of the Falcon, with an episode titled "The Blond Bomber."
     And reading about a book a couple of years ago about Texas' football legends, we noted that Bobby Layne -- the 1940s University of Texas and then 1950s Detroit Lions' great quarterback -- was nicknamed, yes, "The Blond Bomber."
     In Louisiana, though, the first blond bomber reference -- note, it was lower case -- we could find in 1968 for Bradshaw was by sports editor/columnist Bill Carter of the Alexandria Town Talk in a Sept. 27 story (the week after the Mississippi State game). He had not used it in a column effusively touting Bradshaw's promise eight days earlier.
     So here is what I think happened (feel free to correct us, if you have a better version):
     Manasseh was very good friends with Carter, and saw his blond bomber reference in the Alexandria paper. Paul picked up on it for Tech releases, and changed it a bit: He upper-cased it.  
     Ah, from then on, Tech's Blond Bomber. It caught on.
     Buddy loved it, I loved it, and we began using it ... a lot ... for years and years.
     So did all the Louisiana sportswriters; it become commonplace. For instance, we found references in columns in the next month by The Shreveport Times' Larry Powell, Jim McLain and Bill McIntyre.
     McLain, in fact, doubled up, starting his post Tech-Northwestern State column -- the one after the Bradshaw-to-Ken Liberto, 82-yard winning TD pass with 13 seconds remaining -- by calling Terry "The Rifleman" and later "The Blond Bomber."
     (McLain, too, first used "The White Knight" nickname for Joe Ferguson -- like Bradshaw a star QB at Woodlawn High -- in 1967 because great offensive-line protection allowed Ferguson's white jersey, when his team wore white, to remain spotless through games.)
     "The Rifleman" nickname was a natural because of the very popular 1960s television series.Terry had the "rifle" right arm and he much resembled Chuck Connors, the 6-foot-6 baseball major leaguer-turned-actor who starred as Lucas McCain, with his ever-present, often-used rifle.
     "Blond Bomber," too, was a natural. Terry then still had hair growing on top of his head -- first a crewcut, then a little longer and combed over -- and that hair was more white than blond. Plus, he could throw long passes on target -- bombs -- as well as anyone we've seen.
     (By the way, we have seen it written often as Blonde Bomber. No, not for Terry. We are not grammar experts, but our understanding is that blond is masculine and blonde is feminine. So there.)
     In time, Bradshaw would become the Pittsburgh Steelers' "Blond Bomber." But I don't remember hearing him ever talk about nicknames. 
     To him, that was never as important as winning football games -- and he was very good at that, and nearly as good as he has been in his show business/football analyst career. 
     Outspoken, yes. Crazy, goofy, funny ... certainly. He has played those roles well. Also, a helluva lot smarter than we all realized. 
     Criticize him if you want, but that doesn't play well with me. He has represented Shreveport-Bossier and Louisiana Tech well through the years.
     Does not matter who gets credit for the nickname. It worked, and it remains a cherished part of a football legend. We were there for its genesis.
      Terry Bradshaw, The Blond Bomber. (How many times have we written that?)   
   

           
         

         

Getting the names right (well, not always)

     When I hear or see the phrase "mistakes were made," if it pertains to journalism, I think of two names: John David Crowe and Charles McDaniels. 
     Make note of them. There's a catch. Get to it in a moment. 
     When I read a story or a book -- especially in the sports realm -- and I see a name that is misspelled or a fact that is obviously wrong, it reminds me that accuracy counts ... a lot.
     Personally, there have been some big misses, some big -- pardon the language -- dumbass moments. Easy to remember.
     Pointed out in a previous blog how once upon a time, I mixed up the names of coaches at the same school (Taylor for Turner at one, Sardisco for Cicero at another). Hey, it happens. 
     I recently saw segments in a couple of books that pertained to two of Woodlawn High School's greatest athletes, Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Parish, which prompted this blog piece. 
     Saw some fact errors -- plenty, in fact, especially on names in a book published on Terry this year (I had several written and phone exchanges with the writer). Bugs me. 

Drop headline and top of the game story from the
1953 Byrd-Springhill game which Bill McIntyre of
The Shreveport Times considered the best high
school football game he covered. But "Crowe"
is incorrect.

     But then ... let's go back to the top, to those names -- Crowe and McDaniels. 
     They are wrong; they are misspelled. 
     People from Springhill -- and most old North Louisiana football fans -- will recognize them instantly. They are two of the greatest running backs ever from the old Springhill High School, the Lumberjacks.
     (The school now is called  North Webster High -- a consolidation of kids from Springhill, and the disbanded Shongaloo, Sarepta and Cotton Valley high schools. They even changed school colors and team nicknames. What's worse, it's the Knights ... even though North Louisiana already had some Knights.)
      OK, back to Crow and McDaniel. Those are the correct spellings. 
      The late John David Crow, a legend -- who went on to Texas A&M (and the Heisman Trophy) and the NFL and a terrific coaching/administrative career.
      Charles McDaniel, the legendary "Quick Six" who went on to an outstanding four-year career at Louisiana Tech and was an NFL Draft pick. 
      Here is the catch (and I have known this for years, but because of my first newspaper allegiance, I am just now publishing this fact, admitting it): Throughout their years at Springhill High, The Shreveport Times sports department never spelled their last names correctly.
      It's true. 
      In 1952, when John David Crow as a junior led Springhill to its first state football championship, and again in his great 1953 senior season -- when he was among the nation's top college recruits -- he was always Crowe in The Times. 

 Class AAA All-State story, 1970: McDaniels is there.

      And in 1970, the first year many high schools and their football programs in North Louisiana were largely integrated, McDaniel emerged as a running back who was a threat to  break for a touchdown any time he touched the ball ... thus, a "quick six."
      But all season, he was McDaniels in The Times. You can look it up. I did because that's what I remembered and I wanted to verify it.
      I wrote a lot about him that season, including the state semifinals loss (to Hammond) at Springhill's stadium, located just a couple of first downs from the Arkansas/Louisiana state line.
      In fact, I'd like to take credit for the "Quick Six" nickname. However, that is a stretch.
      What happened was that in the Nov. 8 game story on Springhill's 27-0 victory against Jesuit-Shreveport at Captain Shreve Stadium (a rare Saturday night regular-season high school game), I wrote that future opponents should "beware of the Lumberjacks' "quick six" gang, halfbacks Charles McDaniels and James Harris. They can score on you, and it doesn't take long."
      So not Charles specifically.
      Apparently, the name caught on at Springhill High. Someone, some group -- maybe the cheerleaders -- liked it, and pinned on McDaniel alone. The next week, we heard there were "Quick Six" banners strung at the Lumberjacks' game.
      From then on, he was "Quick Six." He wore jersey No. 36 that season at Springhill, but at Louisiana Tech for four years, he -- appropriately -- wore No. 6.
     As a freshman, he broke the Tech  record for points in one season (104, 17 TDs and one PAT catch), broke it three years later, and scored 52 career TDs (some "quick sixes").
      A puzzling aspect of the misspelled names: In 1952, The Times' main prep sports writer was Bill McIntyre, who a decade later became sports editor/lead columnist and -- full disclosure -- was my first boss there. He was an excellent journalist and writer, but, well, he missed on John David Crow's name.
     In 1970, I was a guilty part on McDaniel(s). Did have company; the rest of the writers who covered Springhill that season also missed it.
     Even in the All-State stories, the names are spelled Crowe and McDaniels. In the late Jerry Byrd's book Football Country, where he lists All-State teams near the back, it's McDaniels in 1970. But he did have Crow in 1952 and 1953.
     Can't understand this: Apparently no one from Springhill ever called to correct matters, in 1952-53 or 1970.
     And, I'm thinking that the names were misspelled on the Springhill rosters that were provided to us, on preseason forms and in game programs. Plus, the coaches (Billy Baucum was head coach in 1952-53, Travis Farrar was in 1970) never said a word.
     How's that for an excuse?
     Anyway, when John David showed up at Texas A&M for the 1954 football season, he was Crow. When "Quick Six" came to Louisiana Tech in the fall of 1971, he was McDaniel. 
     So, on Crowe and McDaniels, mistakes were made. And, for every co-worker that I scolded, or yelled at, or hurled an object their way (plus some nice language), because they messed up a fact or a name (or a bunch of names), I apologize -- again.
     I was going to list the names and the newspapers, but I don't have enough space.
     There were mistakes/omissions, too, in the book Survivors: 62511, 70726 about my parents and my family, and I received corrections/clarifications that I posted on the book's Facebook page.
     Mistakes are made. Can't always hide from them.