25 Years Ago in Bonac Sports 04.19.12
April 2, 1987
The Bridgehampton High School boys basketball team, the League VII and Suffolk Class D champion, was treated Tuesday night by MADRE, a women’s Central American aid organization, to an evening at Madison Square Garden, where the players saw the Knicks defeat the Celtics, the defending N.B.A. champions, 128-120.
. . . In other Killer Bee news, the team’s senior point guard, Troy Bowe, as expected, received the Suffolk Coaches Association’s player of the year award at a banquet on March 25.
. . . Concerning another matter, the 3-point shot from the 19-foot-9-inch radius, John Niles, the Bees’ coach, said, “Definitely we’ll be seeing it next season in high school boys basketball. . . . I didn’t like it at first, but now I think it will open the game up. It puts the little man back in the game.”
Asked if he had any players who could hit from the 19-9 range, Niles replied, “Bobby Hopson can hit that shot, and my son [Joe], and Kyle Jones. In time we’ll have three guards who can fire away from that range, and they’ll have to be marked, so that will open up the middle.”
April 9, 1987
It appears the men’s slow-pitch softball league will lose two teams this year, which will probably enable the six teams in each division to play each other three times, as used to be the case, in addition to playing one crossover game.
I have to say that I, a well-brought-up female, enjoyed the Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvin Hagler fight greatly.
“Why don’t more women go to the fights?” I asked at work the next day.
“Because most women are not that stupid,” came one immediate reply, which threatened to crush any newfound enthusiasm I might have had.
But later in the day, as numerous devoted sports lovers asked me for details of the fight, and even looked at me enviously, my good humor and sense of self-worth were restored. — Lisa Bialkin.
April 16, 1987
Katie Browngardt, the Pierson High School girls basketball team’s standout senior forward, has been named to Newsday’s all-Long Island team for the second year in a row. Browngardt will attend Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., next fall, on a full athletic scholarship.
April 23, 1987
Eric Kaufman, who became this year the first East Hampton High School wrestler ever to win a county championship, was named at a recent dinner in Smithtown as the recipient of the County Wrestling Coaches Association’s scholar-athlete award. In addition, East Hampton’s coach, Jim Stewart, was named by the Association as sportsman of the year.
Kaufman, who will attend Cornell University in the fall, finished his high school wrestling career with a 102-12-1 record, and has a 92.3 average.
April 30, 1987
Spring in the local running world got off to a bracing start Sunday as 60 enthusiasts turned out for the semi-annual 3.4-mile Dock race in Montauk, though for some competitors it was disconcerting that the race director, George Watson, showed up on time.
“Every time before, George is never on time, so we get used to that,” said one of the top two veterans, Tony Venesina. “We arrive a little late, but we don’t worry — George, he’s never on time. But this time, bang, at 12 o’clock, he says, ‘Ready, get set, go.’ ”
Howard Wood, the former East Hampton High School basketball star who now plays professionally in Valencia, Spain, and Clarence (Foots) Walker, a Southampton High School graduate who played 10 years in the N.B.A. with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New Jersey Nets, were among 25 players named recently to Newsday’s Silver Anniversary all-Long Island team.
Wood’s bio noted that the 1977 E.H.H.S. graduate was a two-time member of Newsday’s all-Long Island team, and had led East Hampton to a 22-1 record and the A division championship of the Capitol Conference in the 1977 state regional. “He combined quickness, size, accurate shooting, and remarkable passing ability for a big man.” At the University of Tennessee, Wood scored 1,20l points in four seasons, after which he played one season with the Utah Jazz in the N.B.A. He is in his third year as a professional in Spain.”