25 Years Ago in Bonac Sports: 09.27.18

September 9, 1993

It was fitting that the winner of Monday’s Great Bonac 10K road race in Springs, Ed Stern of New York City, had recently come to the aid of the race director, Howard Lebwith, when Lebwith despaired of putting the race on.

Lebwith found his “angel” in the Stern Family Foundation, which enabled the Labor Day tradition to continue by underwriting the costs of the event. 

. . . In winning the 6.2-mile race in 33 minutes and 25 seconds, Stern, 28, defeated the defending champion, 37-year-old John Kenney of New York and Shelter Island. 

September 16, 1993

“Rare Air,” a book of intimate photographs and text chronicling Michael Jordan’s amazing day-to-day existence at the top of the sporting world and at the top of his game, will hit bookstores in November. The pages offer many facets of the Chicago Bulls superstar, looking at times like an African warrior, at others like a caring father, advertising image-man, sharp dresser, golfer, magnet of adoration, and competitor extraordinaire.

The publishers have Walter Iooss of Montauk to thank for that.

. . . Iooss said he was impressed and awed by the athlete he puts in the same category as Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali. “He’s a great guy, always moving, and he doesn’t eat. One day I said, ‘Michael I’m starving, how come you never eat?’ He said, ‘Did you ever see a fat bird? I eat enough to fly.’ ”

For the ever-traveling photographer with four books and untold numbers of photo credits, including those appearing each year in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, “Rare Air” was a personal as well as professional triumph. Proudly, he told how at the end Michael Jordan gave him high praise indeed: “I don’t care if this book is shit — I’ve had a good time.” — Russell Drumm

September 23, 1993

It was incredible, unbelievable, supercalifragilistic, all of that. Saturday’s league opener at Port Jefferson was the most lopsided East Hampton High School varsity football game in memory.

The Bonackers had to punt on their first possession, but it turned out to be the last Bonac punt of the day. Four hundred and thirty-one yards later — not including two 50-yard punt returns into the Royals’ end zone that were called back — East Hampton walked off the field a 68-0 victor.

. . . Oran Davis, Bonac’s second-string halfback, a Bridgehampton junior who had never played in a football game before, and Rob Balnis, also a junior, scored four touchdowns each that day, putting together yardage that has not been recorded here since Eddie Budd, Justin Winter, and Rich Cooney were in the backfield a decade ago.

September 30, 1993

“We got snakebit,” East Hampton High School’s field hockey coach, Ellen Cooper, said when asked why her charges lost 2-0 to Southampton.

Not that Southampton isn’t a very good team, but East Hampton was rated slightly higher going into the season. The game marked the first time the Mariners have beaten the Bonackers in five years, ending a 14-league-game Bonac winning streak. 

. . . “We played hard — it was a nice game,” Cooper said afterward, “but while we were good at getting the ball into the circle, we didn’t play smart once we did. . . . Most of the players on the forward line are great students, but we’ve got to be better students of the game.”