| Los Angeles, May 14, 1999 Vol. 11, No.2 Dear Reader: The United States Olympic Committee has successfully deflected media criticism of its role in the recent Olympic scandals by moving expeditiously to investigate itself and propose reforms. For this the committee deserves credit. Still, we could not help but be struck by a statistic buried in the middle of the Mitchell Commission report on the Salt Lake City scandal. The USOC, in 1989, selected Salt Lake as the U.S. entry in the competition to host the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games. Following that selection, as the report notes, "the USOC had the authority to exercise control over the activities of the Salt Lake City bid and organizing committees." The Salt Lake City Olympic Bid Committee, between June 1991 and June 1995, held 23 meetings. The USOC exercised its oversight responsibility by sending a representative to only one of those 23 meetings.
Billy don't be a hero . . . Turn on cable television lately and it seems you can't miss the infomercial for Billy Blanks' Tae-Bo Workout. Tae-Bo, a clever combination of aerobics, boxing and taekwando, is the latest fitness fad for the fit and flabby. With a score of celebrities testifying to the transforming powers of Blanks' patented workout, sales of the Tae-Bo instructional videos have exploded with revenue estimated as high as $100 million. Blanks' infomercial co-host is 1988 Olympic swimming medalist Dara Torres. In the first version of the infomercial, Torres appeared on camera accompanied by a graphic of the Olympic rings. Blanks, who jealously guards the intellectual property of Tae-Bo, even going so far as to include an "Illegal Use of Tae-Bo Name Reporting Form" on the official Tae-Bo Web site, appears to have been a bit lax when it came to using the Olympic rings. Seems that Tae-Bo used the Olympic rings without license or permission. Chester Wheeler at the United States Olympic Committee, which owns rights to Olympic symbols in this country, told SportsLetter that the Tae-Bo folks were informed and willingly removed the rings from the infomercial. Of course, this isn't the only alleged unauthorized use of intellectual property by Tae-Bo. Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard has sued the Tae-Bo tapes marketer for using his name without permission. Add Billy . . . In a recent Los Angeles Times article (March 3, 1999) Blanks touts Tae-Bo as "the exercise of the new millennium," claiming that "people are looking for the truth." Perhaps Blanks should set himself free with the truth about himself. Blanks' bio on the Tae-Bo Web site claims that he was the "captain of the 1980 Olympic karate team." That would be impossible since karate never has been an Olympic sport. Blanks also claims to have been the 1984 Massachusetts and Tri-State Golden Gloves champion. Bill Hoar, the tournament director of the New England Golden Gloves, told SportsLetter that he can find no record of Blanks winning a Golden Gloves crown. A recent Boston Globe article by Will McDonough came to the same conclusion. Several people whom SportsLetter contacted spoke well of Blanks, but seemed puzzled at the exaggeration of his already impressive accomplishments.
And Michael Buffer will be the announcer . . . The USA Federation of Pankration will hold its "Olympic Congress and Convention" on June 4-6, 1999, to plan the "reentry" of the sport into the Olympic Games. Pankration, as an ancient Greek Olympic sport, resembled something like a fight-to-the-finish brawl complete with biting, eye-gouging and groin attacks. In recent years pankration has been revived and rules have been established in attempts to convince Olympic officials that it is a sport. Even though purists claim that "modern sport pankration pales in comparison to its predecessor," the modern sport does allow full-contact techniques including punches, strikes, kicks, grappling, strangulation holds, continuous fighting and limited rules. John Townsley, of the USA Federation of Pankration, describes it as "much like the Ultimate Fighting Challenge." Advocates claim to be seeking inclusion into the 2004 Athens Games with the support of the Greek Ministry of Sports. Their strategy is to sidestep the Olympic Charter and convince the International Olympic Committee to include pankration not as a new sport, but as a "reentry" into the Olympic Games. Of course, that would be a reentry after a nearly two-thousand year absence. The sport has never been part of the modern Olympic Games.
Every year boxing statistician Bob Yalen compiles information on world championship professional fights, and every year we recycle them in SportsLetter. So here we go with the 1998 numbers. The WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO, and WBU sanctioned a total of 174 title bouts. That averages out to a "world" championship battle every 2.1 days. As usual, the United States hosted the highest number of title fights (71), followed by England (16), Germany (15), Italy (13) and Japan (11). A majority of bouts (97) failed to go the distance. The greatest number of stoppages occurred in the second, fifth and ninth rounds. No fight was stopped in the twelfth and final round. The 135-pound weight class had the most championship contests with 14. The heavyweights had the fewest with six.
Among college mascots, few are as visible as the Fighting Leprechaun of the University of Notre Dame. Next football season the Fighting Irish's mascot will have a different look than in the past. The 1999-2000 varsity leprechaun will be Michael Brown, a sophomore from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Brown will be the first African-American to don the green as the Irish mascot.
The folks who run soccer in this country seem to have a thing for doubleheaders. Major League Soccer will hold its annual all-star game at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, on July 17. Rather than letting the MLS game succeed or fail on its own, the league hopes to generate fan interest by bringing in two pro teams from Mexico's First Division. The still-to-be-named Mexican teams will play a "Game Two" in the stadium on the same day. The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup is going down this road, too. WWC, whose slogan is, "This is my game. This is my future. Watch me play," has elected to share its moment in the sun with the MLS. Both WWC semifinal matches will be coupled with MLS games in New England and San Jose to create 4th of July doubleheaders. The MLS presence, according to WWC President Marla Messing, "adds extra excitement and entertainment to the festivities." We are not sure how much extra excitement the San Jose Clash will add. They currently rank seventh among the nine MLS teams in average home attendance. The Clash are drawing 11,220 per home game, 2,663 less than the league average of 13,883. Attendance figures have been a mixed bag for the MLS early in the season. The league-champion Chicago Fire drew more fans to their home opener (27,311) than did the Chicago White Sox, who pulled in 26,243 on Opening Day. And, D.C. United set a league regular-season attendance record of 35,167 on April 17 at RFK Stadium. On the other hand, MLS average home attendance has been about the same as last year. The Los Angeles Galaxy, who finished last season with a league-leading average of 21,784, have drawn an average of only 16,476 through the first three home games.
In our last issue, we reported that a Michigan university had reached the NCAA Division I men's hockey Frozen Four in 12 or the last 13 years. Michigan State upheld the tradition this year. The Spartans made it to the semifinals of the 1999 tournament before being eliminated by the University of New Hampshire.
Michigan schools also have produced more current NHL players than colleges and universities in any other state. Michigan State (12), Michigan (11), Lake Superior (5), Michigan Tech (3), Northern Michigan (3), Western Michigan (3) and Ferris State (1) have combined to produce 38 players on 1998-99 NHL rosters.
They shoot, they score . . . Speaking of perennial stories, it seems every year about this time SportsLetter touts the sweet shooting exploits of the Grinnell College men's basketball team. Once again the NCAA Division III squad from Iowa featured a high-octane offense. Grinnell led the nation in scoring this year, averaging 114 points per game, with a high of 146 against Dubuque College. In the Dubuque game, Grinnell made a remarkable total of 30 three-pointers. The team averaged 19.8 three-point field goals per game on the season. The Pioneers had the leading individual scorer for all three NCAA divisions in Jeff Clement who poured in 32.8 points an outing. Clement averaged 7.5 three-point field goals a game, and made 12 treys on four occasions. His single game high was 54 points, with five games of 46 points or more. Of course, they don't play defense. Of the top-10 highest scoring games in Division III last season, Grinnell played in eight. Despite the Pioneers high scoring, they also yielded 139 points or more four times to go 4-4 in those eight games.
Can you fit two on the TV tray? . . . Motorsports Editions has announced the sale of the "First-Ever Panoramic Plate Collection," a series of four 8 ½- by 6 ½-inch limited edition plates featuring Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and their two cars. This "premier collecting event" is yours for just 40 bucks a plate (OK, $39.95). "Reply today, and you may preview the premier issue featuring Dale Earnhardt in ‘The Mentor,' in your home for one full month, absolutely FREE!" Note that the Mentor "realistically captures his ‘intimidating' spirit." Jeff Gordon trembles.
Despite a thrilling game, television ratings for this year's NCAA Division I men's basketball championships declined from recent years. Ratings for the entire tournament were down seven percent from 1998 according to figures published in the NCAA News.Ratings for the women's tournament, however, increased. The 4.3 rating for the championship game between Purdue and Duke was the largest ever for a women's championship, and it was the second-highest rated college basketball game, for men or women, in ESPN history. Although attendance for the women's Final Four is far below that of the men's, the women's event sold out for the seventh consecutive year, with 17,773 packing San Jose Arena for the final. Add NCAA women . . . Spectator interest in a number of women's college championships is quite strong and in some instances dwarfs the men's finals. The recent NCAA Division I women's gymnastics championships held April 22-24 at the University of Utah drew a three-day total of 25,612 spectators. Compare that to the men's championships at the University of Nebraska where just 3,774 fans showed up. Likewise, women's volleyball easily outdraws the men. Last December a crowd of 13,194 crammed the University of Wisconsin's Kohl Center to watch Long Beach State defeat Penn State in a tense five-game match. The attendance record on the men's side dates to 1984 when the Pepperdine vs. UCLA championship match at UCLA drew 9,808.
What's in a name? . . . Meet Nutmeg, the young fox who will soon take a trot as the mascot of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup.
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