Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 41, Ed. 1 Monday, March 8, 1982 Page: 2 of 42
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2 A - Burleson Star. Monday, March 8, 1982
StarrlrSports
Spor*s|Commen*ary
With
_ Star Sports Editor
Basketball And Snow In Bean Town
IT W AS a great game that
pitted a young franchise with
little history against an old
franchise with a long and
glorious history
The Boston Celtics came to
Dallas March 2 for the only
tiime this NBA season and
their arrival prompted the
earliest sellout at Reunion
Arena in the Mavericks' two-
year existence. A few empty
stats Tuesday night were
caused by the disappointing
njews before the game that
super forward Larry Bird,
perhaps the best all-around
player in the NBA today,
would miss the game be-
cause of a broken bone in his
left cheek, suffered in a pre-
vious game against Milwau-
kee.
For Bird, it was the first
NBA game he had missed in
his three years in the league.
Nonetheless, the world
champion Celtics and their
mystique and immensely
successful history still man-
aged to draw a huge crowd
despite the absence of Bird
and starting guard Tiny
Archibald.
1 had seen the Celtics num-
erous times on television but
had seen them in person only
twice before, each time a
special and memorable e-
vent.
Three or four years ago, I
saw the Boston team when
it visited New Orleans to
play the Jazz before that
team deserted the Crescent
City for Salt l^ake City Dur
ing halftime, a ceremony
was held for John Havlicek
who was retiring at the end
Tif the season The large
jrowd at the Superdome
jgave Havlicek a long stand
Ing ovation
: THE FIRST time I saw the
BCeltics in person goes a lot
Jurtherback. to early Febru
tarv of 1969, when I was going
rto college in Maine
• A little background to the
(game: To put it as kindly as
^possible, Bowdoin College,
^where I was a sophomore at
The time, was in the middle
T)f nowhere There was little
ito do during the week except
jstudy and the weekends were
Tittle better Bow doin had the
unfortunate distinction then
of being an all-male school of
900 students My decision to
go there, despite the fact that
there would be no pretty
coeds sitting next to me in
class, was one that I very
quickly regretted
The only salvation for the
lonely and bored Bowdoin
student back then and may-
be now was to find some way
to get to Boston, that mecca
of wine, women, and song m
the otherwise dreary cold
and snow of northern New
England.
After hearing my friends
at college complaining con-
stantly about the dearth of
excitement in town and do-
ing more than my share of
bellyaching, 1 decided to
take some action and pro-
posed to my friends that we
go watch the Celtics host the
76ers in early February. Ev-
eryone agreed that this was
an excellent idea
IT HAS BEEN my expen
ence that most people who
complain about a bad situa-
tion and are given an oppor-
tunity to correct it, even
temporarily, never take ad-
vantage of the chance and
are quite content to go along
with the status quo 'which
includes more complaining).
This was the case during the
weekend of the long-awaited
game My college friends,
who had been so enthusiastic
and encouraging about my
buying the tickets to the
game, now suddenly had
other things to do that day
One even had the audacity to
state that he had to study.
Thus what was to have been
a merry band of four college
students escaping to Boston
was reduced to two. And I
was stuck with two tickets.
My roommate and I
jumped into his 1962 Chevy
II, went and picked up a-
nother friend who wanted a
ride to his home in Saugus in
suburban Boston, and head
ed down the Maine turnpike
We noticed it was snowing
lightly as we drove through
New Hampshire around 10
am.
We dropped our friend off
at his home and went to
Boston University where a
girl I was dating went to
school. I was hoping that she
might have a couple of
frignds who might want to
see the game, even at short
notice I had bought a ticket
for my BU beau
Upon arrival at her coloni
al brick dormitory in down-
town Boston, I was told that
all her friends were busy. I
asked her if she still wanted
to go to the game with me.
She stuck her head out the
dorr, looked at the dark gray
skies and falling-more-hea-
vily than-before snow, and
said no. Our relationship,
already on its last legs,
reached the terminus then.
MV FAITHFUL room
mate and I drove our way
through the slushy streets of
Boston to North Station and
the Boston Garden We en-
tered the historical arena
w here the Celtics and hockey
Bruins played and watched
on the parquet floor the two
powerhouses of the league
battle.
The Celtics that year still
had many of their stars from
all those championship sea-
sons. Bill Russell was in his
last year as player-coach
and K.C. and Sam Jones and
Havlicek were also there
The Celts won the NBA title
later in the year.
The 76'ers had won the
NBA championship two
years earlier and were still
Boston's main competition
with Wilt Chamberlain, Bill
Cunningham and Hal Greer.
Philadelphia had the bet-
ter of the game during the
first 3'a quarters. The Cel-
tics finally put on a rally in
the last six minutes of the
fourth quarter and tied the
game just before the buzzer
The overtime period was a
tightly contested affair and
the 76ers took a one-point
lead with two seconds left
Russell called timeout and
I'm sure Red Auerbach was
chewing his cigar.
Everyone expected Havli
cek to be given the ball for a
desperation outside shot
The large Garden crowd
therefore was abuzz when
“Hondo" went to the half
court line to in-bound the
ball Havlicek faked giving
the ball to the guards and
threw a high arching pass
toward the basket. Russell
grabbed the ball just before
it hit the backboard,
slammed the ball through
the hoop, and the buzzer
went off
IT WOULD be nice to end
the column on this note but
my adventures were only
just beginning that Sunday in
February. Upon going out to
our car, we noticed that it
was snowing just about as
hard as it could possibly
snow, a frigid equivalent to a
New Orleans summer after-
noon thunderstorm The
comparision is even more
apt because it was—and I
have never seen this before
or since—lightning out
We paid our 25 cents and
got on the towering Mystic
River Bridge, that colossal
two-tiered bridge leading
from Boston to points north.
The roadway and dark me-
tallic span were invisibile
further than 20 yards away
because of the snow. Flashes
of lightning intermittently il
luminated the winter sky It
seemed that we were on an
ever rising road to heaven
or, as my stomach tightened,
a highway to nowhere.
As we came off the span
and entered the northern su-
burbs of Chelsea and Re-
vere, it was becoming quite
apparent that we were not
going to go very far. The
thick wet snow was covering
the windshield so fast that
he windshield wipers were
'’cs I had to get out of the
iger side every few
swonJs and wipe off the
windshield with a soggy
glove
It was also evident that if
we stopped we would never
get started again in the inch-
es of mushy snow on the
streets. I suggested that we
aim for our friend’s house
where we had stopped on the
way down and stay there for
Ihe night
My sense of direction is
usually very keen and fortu-
nately it was working that
night Unfamiliar with the
area, I directed the car, be-
tween wiping off the wind-
shield to a street that looked
familiar We stopped and
hoped. It turned out our
friend lived only a block and
a half away.
All the power was out by
this time and we stumbled in
the dark to his house I spent
a chilly night sleeping on a
couch in the living room. The
house was heated only by a
gas stove in the kitchen. It
snowed all night.
THE NEXT MORNING,
bright and sunny, came the
task of shoveling out our car
from the several feet of snow
that the wind had piled on the
car The job took the better
part of the late morning and
we waited until some of the
streets were plowed, a task
made harder because of all
the abandoned vehicles.
By 2 p.m. we three decided
to risk the 140-mile trip back
to Brunswick, Maine, nor
mallv a two-hour trip in
those 70 mph days The jour-
ney ended taking nine hours
We drove through an ob-
stacle course in Saugus,
Lynn, and Peabody, weaving
in and out between aban-
doned vehicles and impass-
able snow piles Several
times we had to wait 15 or 20
minutes for a snowplow to
clear a street we had to
traverse Often we were just
a few feet behind a snowplow
as it created a path ahead of
us. We felt like mice in a
maze, hoping we wouldn’t hit
a dead end and have to turn
around
We finally reached Dan-
vers, the outer northern su-
burb of Boston, and Inter-
state 95 at twilight and were
treated to a scene out of a
science fiction movie. Only
one northbound lane of the
usually busy four-lane ex-
pressway was being cleared.
We slowly followed a snow-
plow that was making a nar-
row path for us and looked
across the median at the
southbound lane and saw
hundreds of cars and trucks
in long lines stretching for
miles, unmoving in the fro-
zen white sea just a few
yards aw'ay The northbound
lanes were also littered with
vehicles and we had to dodge
them as we followed the
plow With the fading light, it
seemed we were some
numbed participants in a sci
fi film about a nuclear war
and we were witnessing Ihe
effects.
The three of us reached
Bowdoin at 11 p.m Monday,
a day late, very tired and
cold but with a few stories to
tell our less adventuresome
fellow students It turned out
that classes had been can-
celled that day.
I NEVER did ask anyone
to go to a Celtics game again
until I was in nearly snow-
less Louisiana. Even then 1
looked up at the sky before 1
went
BURLESON STAR
IISP-0797H0>
Second-Class Postage paid at
Kurlrson, Texas, 7602H.
Sue llutson hoard Chairman
Chuck llutson Publisher
James Moody Kditor
Mary Cowley Sr. Account Kxec,
Suoscription Price 112.95 Per Year
In Johnson and Tarrant Counties
Other Atrcas of Texas, $15.95
Outside Texas. $16.95
The Burleson Star is an indepen
dent newspaper published twice
weekly on Monday and Thursday In
the interest of Burleson and adja-
cent areas by Burleson Publishing
Company, Inc., 319 N. Burleson
Blvd., HurUson, Tx., 76026. Any er-
roneous reflection on any individual
or firm will be corrected if brought
to the atteaUon of the editor Ad-
dress all Correspondence to the
Editor, BurMpon Star. P.O. Box 3K3.
Burleson. Texas 76026.
POSTMASTER: Send address
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TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
Bird Replacement
‘Alan Bristow (23) takes a shot for the Dallas Mavericks over
‘-Boston’s Kevin Mcilale (32) in first-half action March 2 at
5Reunion Arena. The NBA champion Celtics edged the pesky
; Mavericks 101-97. Mcilale, a 6-10 forward from Minnesota,
>. took the place of Larry Bird who missed the first game of his
£;NBA career with a broken bone in his left cheek.
Elks Win Game No. 3
FORT WORTH—The Bur- driving in all three runners Blakney was the Elk’s
leson Elks won their third to tie the game. Glen Cumby leading hitter with two dou-
straight baseball game of the singled, bringing home bles and three RBIs.
young 1982 season Wednes- Blakney, Tim Towzen Burleson will host Ever-
da.y afternoon, coming from reached on a fielder’s choice, man Tuesday at 4 p:m:.....fn
behind to beat Eastern Hills and Carl Martin brought another pre-district contest.
Towzen across the plate with
a single.
Down 3-0 in the seventh
and last inning, Burleson
sent five runs across the
plate Cory Danneman. John
Erskine, and Mark Bailey
each reached on singles,
loading the bases Brad
Blakney clubbed a double.
Ricky Perkins picked up
the victory and upped his
record to 2-0. He allowed one
earned run and three hits,
struck out six, and walked
two in seven innings of w'ork.
Dunbar Derails Rebels
FORT WORTH Rich
land's foray into the state
basketball playoffs was
quickly ended March 2 as the
District 5A 8 champions
were beaten by Dunbar H2 3rt
in hi district play at the Tar
rant County Convention
Center.
The Rebels shot only 32
percent in the first halt and
fell behind 29-13 late in the
second quarter. Richland,
which boasted a 10-2 record
in district action, rallied in
the second half but could not
cut the Dunbar lead to less
than 14 points.
Ricky Speed tossed in 21
points for the Wildcats while
Mark Perkins tallied 32 for
the Rebels
In other area bi district ac-
tion Joshua won a 2A game
against Allen 46 41 The Owls
trailed 38-31 alter three
periods of play but came
back tooutscore Allen 15-3 in
the final eight minutes to
take the triumph
Joshua, now 27-2. got 10
points apiece from Randy
Brooks and Ray (FNeal
Cleburne, likewise, trailed
in its hi district contest
March 2 and came back to
win. The Yellow Jackets
were dow n 30-28 at halftime
but rebounded in the second
half to defeat WF Hirschi
61 -48
The Class 4A Cleburne
club was topped by Steve
Harper with 26 points
BURLESON
YOUTH
ASSOCIATION
Baseball/Softball
Last Chance Sign-Up
Tuesday, March 9
7-10 p.m.
St Matthew Presbyterian Church
(Across From Mound Elementary)
NOTICE (
BYA Baseball/Softball
COACHES & ASSISTANTS’
MEETING
March 9, 7:30 p.m.
St. Matthews
Presbyterian Church
£ 2
Tickle someone todoy with our FTD
Tickler Bouquet
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V.
Now we con
help vo„ /i
tickle ist
obou'
onybody
jup oboe" *'
any where
With no'
FTD Tickler
Bouquer Irrht- fen
be. jq er you con
send for just abon1
any reason Or no
reason or all
k-4 +■*
'v:
Col. 1 ’r • lilt us
odu. Whenyou see
our FTD Tickler
Be Quer you be
r.ekied roo]
rJ//vfreirS, S/nc .
295-5215
w helping you say it right.
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Moody, James. Burleson Star (Burleson, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 41, Ed. 1 Monday, March 8, 1982, newspaper, March 8, 1982; Burleson, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth761406/m1/2/: accessed July 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Burleson Public Library.