A Winner Never Quits: One-Armed Baseball Player Pete Gray

Thirty years ago, we saw the premiere of a TV movie dramatizing the life of Pete Gray.  A Winner Never Quits starred Keith Carradine as the one-armed baseball player -- also showing how his one year of fame on the baseball diamond in 1945 led to depression and alcoholism afterwards.  Interesting fact: his real name was Peter Wyshner -- a son of Lithuanian immigrants -- and he changed it to Gray to avoid ethnic prejudice while playing semi-pro baseball.

Gray died in 2002.

Mare Winningham, who played Pete Gray's wife in A Winner Never Quits, retweeted this blog.

Let's go to the videotape!

Warner Wolf's Plays of the Week
April 11, 1986

• 0:32 There must have been an errant VCR button press to erase Warner's 1986 Major League Baseball picks, but... SPOILER ALERT... here's how he did:
  --In the AL West, Warner picked the defending World Series champion Kansas City Royals.  They finished third (76-86) to the California Angels.
  --In the AL East, Warner picked the Toronto Blue Jays.  They did better (86-76), but finished fourth to the Boston Red Sox.
  --In the NL West, Warner picked the Cincinnati Reds, who also finished 86-76 -- good enough for second place to the Houston Astros.
  --In the NL East, Warner picked the New York Mets -- who won the World Series.  By his end-of-the-season recap, he claimed 1-out-of-4 was a pretty good percentage. However, his co-host Faith Daniels quipped back, "my grandmother could have picked the Mets!"
• 0:47 Rex Hudler only played in Baltimore for one of his 14 seasons in professional baseball.  Today, people either know him as the voice of the video game MLB: The Show, or as play-by-play announcer for the World Series champion Kansas City Royals.
• 1:05 According to DropYourGloves.com, Kevin Hatcher scored a "clear win" in this fight against Bobby Bourne.
• 1:11 Billy Smith was known for having a fiery temper; but he was also the first NHL goalie ever to be credited with scoring a goal.
• 1:19 Neither Chris Meakem nor George Ross made much noise in the boxing world -- in fact, half of their bouts were against each other!
• 1:31 Pervis Ellison became known as "Never Nervous Pervis," for his cool demeanor as a freshman on the title-winning 1986 Louisville Cardinals.  Unfortunately, despite a lengthy NBA career, multiple injuries kept him from greatness (teammate Danny Ainge jokingly called him "Out of Service Pervis.")  Pervis did pass his game onto his kids; his son plays for St. John's, and his daughter dunks (!) at Maryland.
• 1:38 The Celtics' home win streak did indeed set records in 1986.  But ten years later in 1996, two teams surpassed their record (the Orlando Magic and Chicago Bulls).  And then thirty years later in 2016, two more teams have broken *that* record -- the San Antonio Spurs and the Golden State Warriors (the Warriors' streak just ended at 54).

The Most Famous Stopped Clock in NCAA History

Thirty years ago, a stuck clock led to one of the most controversial games in college basketball history.  The error was so contagious, that Warner Wolf couldn't find the videotape of the game -- and had to describe it to his audience!  (Click here to watch Warner's original broadcast, and the new remastered version with game footage added).

The date: March 21, 1986.  The place: Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri.  The contest: Michigan State vs. Kansas in the NCAA Midwest Regional, starring Scott Skiles for the Spartans, and Danny Manning for the Jayhawks.

Everything about this game sets the hearts of 80s sports nostalgia fans a-flutter -- even the CBS Sports pregame show, where Verne Lundquist introduces his very young play-by-play man as "former Harvard player James Brown" (JB didn't start sportscasting nationally until 1987).

Like most college basketball games, each team had its peaks and valleys, exchanging the lead several times.  With 2:20 remaining, Michigan State's Vernon Carr made a free throw to put the Spartans up by four.

And that's when things started to go a little sideways.

Kansas' Greg Dreiling inbounded the ball to Cedric Hunter, who let the ball bounce to about half-court before he picked up his dribble -- presumably to save time.  What he didn't realize is that the clock never started at all.

Both teams continued to play, and Kansas' Ron Kellogg made a put-back to bring them within two.  Michigan State inbounded the ball and started up the court.  Still, the clock stayed at 2:20.

Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote noticed the error, and dashed to the scorer's table to holler at the operator (at which point the clock did resume).  The Spartans hesitated, as if looking for a timeout, but then continued playing.  Skiles drove to the lane, and appeared to be fouled by Kansas' Ron Kellogg -- his 5th foul, sending him out of the game (replays showed that Kellogg was barely involved in the play).

As Lundquist points out in the broadcast, both coaches were simultaneously arguing with officials.  Jud Heathcote demanded satisfaction for the 15 seconds lost by the clock error.  Meanwhile Kansas coach Larry Brown, livid about the bogus call against Kellogg, received a technical foul.

During this stoppage in play, could the clock error have been resolved?  Warner Wolf seemed to think so; his "Boo of the Week" went to the game officials for not taking any action to resolve the issue.  After the game, NCAA officials claimed that time cannot be added or subtracted to a game clock unless the exact amount is known.  Ironically, Kemper Arena had experienced similar clock errors the previous week at the NAIA tournament -- but assuming it to be a one-time problem, no NCAA official was keeping backup time.  While Warner's staff couldn't find his videotape, we've re-created the highlight here to confirm that exactly 15 seconds was lost:

The story doesn't end well for Michigan State.  Down by six with 1:08 to go, Kansas began fouling Michigan State players -- who all missed their free throws.  Kansas tied the game with ten seconds to go, and dominated the overtime to defeat Michigan State 96-86.

So did the clock operator cost Michigan State the game?  Both sides have a decent case.  Had the clock ticked off those 15 seconds, Jud Heathcote might not have been distracted, and more importantly, Kansas might not have had time to score their tying basket with 10 seconds left.  However, Michigan State wouldn't have needed the clock defense if they had made any of their free throws (or, indeed, not bottomed out during the overtime).

Kansas ended up losing to Duke in the 1986 semifinal, but returned two years later (with Danny Manning as a senior) to win the championship.  Manning ended up playing 15 years in the NBA, and then returned to Kansas -- winning a second championship twenty years later as an assistant coach.  Scott Skiles also went pro, playing for the Orlando Magic (he is now their head coach).  You might also recognize Michigan State's Carlton Valentine, whose son Denzel Valentine just completed his senior season with Michigan State as college basketball's National Player of the Year.

Michigan State-Kansas is now an annual rivalry, and ironically, both teams' current head coaches were actually at the clock game 30 years ago.  Michigan State's Tom Izzo was a graduate assistant in 1986, and claimed to be the first one to point out the clock error to Heathcote (who subsequently "told me where to go.")  Kansas' Bill Self was also a graduate assistant, but claims he "didn't have many responsibilities" at the time.

And finally, like many other sports, NCAA basketball now embraces videotape replay for all sorts of plays -- who knocked the ball out of bounds, was a three-point shooter on the line, or even the flagrancy of a foul.  Many complain that the incessant stop-and-looks make the ending of college basketball games a laborious affair.  But in 1986, Michigan State fans would have been thrilled to wait, if they had gotten their 15 seconds back.

Warner Wolf's Plays of the Month
March 28, 1986

• 0:00 The lore around this desperation buzzer-beater by Chris Coles of Buena Vista High School in Saginaw, Michigan has outlasted even the school itself -- it closed in 2013.  Not only was this basket Coles' only two points in the game (no 3-pointers in high school back then), it was Coles' final shot in competitive basketball -- check out this documentary about the shot, including an interview with "fainting" coach Norwaine Reed.  Coles stayed in the game, however; he now coaches for Olivet College in Michigan.
• 3:11 Lou Carnesecca did indeed win the Big East in 1986 -- but never won the Final Four in his 25+ years of coaching.  However, respect for Carnesecca runs so deep that St. John's basketball venue is now called Carnesecca Arena.
• 3:19 Rare mistake from Warner: hall-of-famer Gary Suter played for the Calgary Flames, not the Red Wings.
• 3:25 According to HockeyFights.com, George McPhee got the best of Rick Tocchet in this particular fight, and lead the Rangers with 8 fights that year -- but Tocchet had 23!
• 3:46 Stan Jefferson, who made that catch during his brief career with the Mets, eventually became a NYC cop, who was on duty (and on the scene) during 9/11. 
• 4:00 Ulf Findeisen's crazy ski-flying accident was one of several that occurred during the March 9, 1986 event in Kulm, Bad Mittendorf, Austria.  In fact, Findeisen didn't "get up and try it again"; his injuries prevented him from ever competing again.  After events like this, most ski-jumpers adopted the "flying V" form, which is much more stable.
• 4:16 Calvin Peete didn't just ace this hole at the USF&G Classic; he won the entire event -- his final PGA Tour win, before passing away last year.

In Praise of 1980s Video Editors Part 2: Major League Baseball

Last week, we highlighted the skills of the 1980s video editors who assembled montages like this NBA clipfest set to the 1812 Overture.  Now, another brilliant highlight reel -- focused mainly on the base stealers of Major League Baseball, and set to the William Tell Overture.  Watch the montage, and see if you can spot all the players highlighted (listed below).

A few more "where are they now?" notes about the people mentioned in Warner's Plays of the Week:

• 0:00 Everyone knows David Robinson, aka "The Admiral," as a legendary NBA champion/MVP/Hall of Fame/gold medalist.  But he only began playing organized basketball as a high school senior.  Robinson, 6' 7" at the time, followed his father's footsteps and enrolled in the Navy (even though their maximum height allowed is 6' 6", they allow a limited number of waivers for cadets up to 6' 8").  However, when he began to dominate the basketball court, NBA teams came calling -- only to hesitate, because Robinson was required to serve five years of active duty after graduation (this article quotes the Washington Bullets GM as saying that Robinson may be "worth the gamble").  This problem was solved when Robinson grew to be 7' 1"; he no longer met the physical requirements for Navy service, so after just 2 years of special service, Robinson was drafted by the Spurs, and the rest is history.
• 2:35 Ohio High School, located in the tiny of Ohio, Illinois (with a population of 550), made huge waves when they surged through Illinois' state basketball championships in 1986. Lance Harris, he of the 70-foot buzzer beater, moved a little closer to Chicago and became a firefighter.
• 2:47 Speaking of Chicago suburbs, Triton College is a 2-year community college just northwest of the Windy City.  James Parker's crazy behind-the-back shot was a staple of sports highlights shows for years -- very few of them mentioning that Triton went 29-5 that year.
• 3:07 While John Gibbons only played 8 games with the Mets after Spring Training, both he and Howard Johnson became MLB managers: Gibbons with the Toronto Blue Jays, and Johnson most recently with the Mariners.

Warner Wolf's Plays of the Week
March 21, 1986

Players in the William Tell Overture montage: 
0:29 Rickey Henderson
0:33 Mookie Wilson
0:34 Mookie Wilson
0:36 Mookie Wilson
0:37 Lenny Dykstra
0:40 Vince Coleman
0:53 ?
0:54 ?
0:54 one errant frame!
0:54 Ken Landreaux
0:54 Robin Yount
0:55 Darrell Porter
0:56 ?
0:57 Tim Raines
0:57 ?
0:58 Ken Landreaux
0:59 Willie Wilson
1:00 Willie Wilson
1:01 Carlton Fisk (putting out Dale Berra and Bobby Meacham)
1:03 Tim Raines
1:04 Tim Raines
1:04 Tim Raines
1:05 Rickey Henderson
1:06 Rickey Henderson
1:08 Rickey Henderson
1:09 Rickey Henderson
1:10 Mookie Wilson
1:11 Mookie Wilson
1:16 Lee Lacy
1:19 Mike Pagliarulo
1:22 Chili Davis
1:23 Vince Coleman
1:23 ?
1:23 ?
1:23 ?
1:24 Willie Wilson
1:24 Tim Raines
1:26 Tim Raines
1:27 Tim Raines
1:29 Lee Lacy (put out by Jesse Orosco)
1:32 Rickey Henderson
1:35 Tony Gwynn
1:39 Pedro Gurrero and Mariano Duncan
1:41 ?
1:41 Rafael Ramirez and Dale Murphy
1:42 Dickie Thon and Enos Cabell
1:43 ?
1:44 Rickey Henderson
1:45 ?
1:47 Brian Harper tripping Dale Berra
1:48 Bill Buckner
1:49 Mike Brown
1:51 Terry Harper
1:53 Ivan de Jesus
1:55 Ken Griffey Sr.
1:59 Ken Landreaux
2:00 Bob Walk
2:01 Chris Chambliss
2:01 Rich Gedman
2:02 Keith Hernandez
2:02 ?
2:02 ?
2:03 Lenny Dykstra
2:05 Juan Samuel
2:06 Scott Sanderson
2:07 Glenn Brummer
2:08 Juan Samuel
2:09 ?
2:10 Pete Rose

In Praise of 1980s Video Editors

As a professional video editor, I work with the latest high-definition non-linear software -- but as a kid, I got my start in editing by wiring two VCRs to each other, and then hitting play/pause/record very quickly.  You might not believe it, but in the 1980s, professional video editing was more like the latter than the former.  That's why quick-cut montages, like the one highlighted today, are all the more extraordinary.

The segment has 45 individual clips in 90 seconds.  For each 2 second clip, the editor had to have a physical tape of that 2-hour game, recorded off-air or delivered from a satellite service.  The editor then needed to rewind and fast-forward through the whole game to find the 2 most compelling seconds, mark in and out points, and then hit the "edit" button on the machine, which would transfer those two seconds onto the edit tape.  He'd then repeat the process 45 times, requiring 45 different physical tapes.  Even more amazing, the editor's cuts matched the music precisely.  He likely created a paper logfile of available clips, and did some extensive pre-planning to determine which clips might fit ideally into certain portions of the music.  This was a painstaking process, and could not easily be undone.  If you screwed up the edit, you had to start all over again.  Even film editing couldn't match the agony and the ecstasy of videotape.

That's why today's video software is called "non-linear editing"; users can drag and drop clips, experiment moving them around in different configurations, and then put it all back again with no harm done.  A teenager's mobile phone can edit video more easily and in higher resolution than the best equipment in 1986 (though one could argue about the teenager's skill at the practice).

Perhaps most significantly, video today never sees a physical form.  It's shot onto flash storage, transferred as digital files to a computer, broadcast over satellites and Internet, and played by end users on digital video boxes and smartphones.  Whereas a 1980s video junkie might proudly display his physical collection of tapes or films, a 2010s video junkie outsources his video storage to the cloud -- never to know the joy of having a stack of 45 videotapes, looking for just the right one, as the deadline ticks closer.

That's why it still gives me joy to say, along with Warner Wolf: "Let's go to the videotape!"

Warner Wolf's NBA Montage
(to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture)
March 14, 1986

0:01 Spud Webb

0:06 Kelvin Ransey

0:09-0:12 four unknown swishes

0:13 Julius Erving

0:15 Larry Bird

0:16 Mike Gminski

0:17 Bob Thornton

0:19 Sedale Threatt to Charles Barkley

0:25 Ralph Sampson

0:28 Purvis Short to Terry Teagle

0:31 Orlando Woolridge

0:35 Rod Higgins to Buck Williams

0:37 Trent Tucker to Patrick Ewing

0:40 Darryl Dawkins

0:42 Julius Erving

0:44 Ken Bannister

0:46 Darryl Dawkins

0:48 Patrick Ewing

0:49 Ralph Sampson

0:51 Buck Williams

0:54 Darryl Dawkins (backboard shattered)

0:57 Darryl Dawkins (backboard shattered)

1:00-1:05 seven unknown swishes

1:06 Charles Barkley

1:07 Julius Erving

1:08 Michael Cooper

1:10 Michael Jordan

1:11 Julius Erving

1:14 Charles Barkley

1:15 Michael Jordan

1:17 Dominique Wilkins

1:18 Ralph Sampson

1:19 Lewis Lloyd

1:21 Michael Jordan

1:23 Julius Erving

1:24 Julius Erving (repeated)

Little Big Man: Warner Wolf and Andre the Giant

One of the biggest names in sport -- from one of the biggest men ever to play a sport -- owes a lot to the little guy. (Scroll down to see the whole interview).

"Andre the Giant" was born Andre Roussimoff in 1946 in Grenoble, France.  Most Americans know of him from his WWF days in the 80s (and his role in The Princess Bride) -- though at that point he was 40 years old, overweight, and suffering from alcoholism and other health problems that would lead to his death in 1993.  But take a time machine back to the 1960s and 70s, and you could see his showmanship on full display to audiences in Europe and Japan.  Check out these amazing photos from when he was truly at his physical peak.

So why was the little man (Warner Wolf) so important to the big man (Andre the Giant)?  In the 1970s, wrestling was not nationally organized, but a loose confederation of regional circuits.  If you lived in, say, Atlanta, you only got a chance to see wrestlers from the Georgia Championship Wrestling (check out this map of regional wrestling organizations that were all independent at the time).  The comedian Andy Kauffman's foray into professional wrestling only became public after the fact, because his matches were only broadcast locally in Memphis, Tennessee.

If you wanted to follow a phenomenon like Andre the Giant, who was outside of your geographical area, you were out of luck... unless you could watch Warner Wolf's sports highlights.  Unlike many of his prominent sportscaster colleagues, Warner regularly included wrestling in his TV highlights -- in Washington in the 1970s, New York in the 1980s, and nationally on the CBS Morning News.  Listen to this recollection of wrestling podcaster Don Tony, who attributes much of wrestling's early nationwide success to Warner Wolf.

The below interview is a perfect example.  On March 31, 1975, the Capital Centre was hosting a wrestling card featuring Andre the Giant -- who was so popular at the time, that his parent organization regularly "loaned him out" to all the regional circuits to promote his popularity.  Warner Wolf, then the sports anchor for WTOP-TV in Washington (now WUSA), obviously considered it a newsworthy local event, having shown Andre's highlights on numerous broadcasts.  Andre's showmanship was on full display, making jokes about having "too many girls," and picking up Warner with one hand at the end of the interview.  (For the record, Andre and Bruno Sammartino defeated the tag-team champion Valiant Brothers by disqualification).

By 1986, when Warner rebroadcast the clip on the CBS Morning News, wrestling had consolidated its regional circuits into a singular organization called the WWF, with Andre as one of its superstars.  A year later, at Wrestlemania III in Detroit, Andre fought Hulk Hogan in front of the largest audience ever at an indoor sporting event.  A year after that, he was immortalized as Fezzik, the friendly giant, in The Princess Bride.  And a year after that, Andre's image became a pop art sensation that still sells today.  And the WWF (now the WWE) has since become a nationwide media conglomerate, worth more than half a billion dollars.

The local-news interviews, smiling and waving at the end, seem quaint by comparison.

Yet without the little guy, the big guy wouldn't be nearly as big.

Let's go to the videotape!

Originally filmed March 31, 1975
Rebroadcast February 21, 1986

Battle of the Sexes in Tennis: A Short History

On this date in 1986, Warner Wolf asked Chris Evert (then the 2nd-ranked female tennis player in the world) if she could beat the 100th-ranked male tennis player in the world.  Her answer: no way. (Scroll down to see the whole interview).

The "Battle of the Sexes" motif in tennis has a rich and colorful history.  Men and women have played mixed doubles tennis together at the professional level since the 1920s (and even earlier in the United States).  It seems natural that athletes' competitive spirits might compel the occasional scrimmage between men and women, but no notable event had ever been organized until 1973.  Bobby Riggs (who had won championships in the 1940s) had such disdain for women's tennis, he claimed that, at 55 years old, he could still beat the top-ranked female tennis player at the time, Margaret Court.  The match, which took place on Mother's Day, saw Riggs defeat Court 6-2, 6-1.

Emboldened by this sudden publicity, Riggs upped the ante by challenging all other prominent female tennis players with a $100,000 bounty for whomever could beat him.  Billie Jean King accepted the challenge, and the event now known as the "Battle of the Sexes" took place in Houston's Astrodome, complete with Cleopatra-style entrances, commentary from Howard Cosell, and other gimmicks.  King's victory over Riggs was witnessed by 90 million television viewers -- still the largest TV audience ever for a tennis match, and at the time, the largest TV audience since the moon landing.  

In 1985, Riggs (then 67 and in ailing health) revived the "Battle" format, recruiting a doubles partner in men's champ Vitas Garulaitis.  Garulaitis picked up the chauvinist gauntlet, claiming that even the 100th-ranked male player could easily beat the number-1 female player.  Despite this, in the match itself, Riggs and Garulaitis lost to top-ranked Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver (coincidentally, a distant cousin to Warner Wolf's co-host, Maria Shriver).

Without context, Chris Evert's comments might have seemed to bolster those who subscribe to Riggs' brand of chauvinism.  In truth, her response is logical and pragmatic -- all things being equal, if a top-ranked male player competed against a top-ranked female player, the male player would likely win.  Indeed, subsequent male-female "Battles" (Connors vs. Navratilova in 1992, Karsten Braasch vs. the Williams sisters in 1998, or Djokovic vs. Li Na in 2013) have been less about confrontation and more about entertainment.  Indeed, the legendary 1973 match is more cultural touchstone than sporting event; it will soon become a feature film starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell.

What 2016 sports spectators have learned is that men and women don't need to compete with each other physically to be successful.  Women's sports -- particularly tennis -- are surging in popularity, and many female athletes are achieving financial and cultural success on par with their male colleagues.  Women are making names for themselves as soccer players, mixed-martial-artists, coaches and referees.  The 1973 "Battle of the Sexes," once the largest-attended tennis match of all time, was surpassed by a 2010 event in Belgium featuring... wait for it... women's tennis champs Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams.

What remains to be seen is whether women will one day compete in sports where they are, indeed, on equal footing with their male counterparts (such as they do today in NASCAR and horse racing).  Can mixed competitions in bowling, curling, sailing, and the e-sports of the future be far off?

Let's go to the videotape!

Where Are They Now?
Plays of the Week: February 14, 1986

• 0:14 It's hard to overstate how momentous the decision was in 1986 for the IOC to allow "professionals" to compete in the Olympics.  The previous head of the IOC, an American named Avery Brundage, held fast to the original Olympic ideals of amateurism -- making the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" that much more meaningful, since the US hockey team that defeated the Soviets were almost entirely college students.  However, the die was truly cast by 1992, when the NBA allowed its players to compete in the Olympic basketball competition, and the first "Dream Team" was born.  In America, "amateurism" is now largely spoken with a giggle -- even in the NCAA, where the concept of paying college players is seriously on the table.  To answer Warner's questions: 1) Would the NHL interrupt its season to allow its stars to skate in the Olympics?  Answer: yes (though the owners still don't like it).  2) Who pays a star if he gets injured in the Olympics? Answer: the owner does.  This was recently highlighted by a horrific injury to NBA star Paul George during a international friendly.  The Pacers still paid his salary, but it did bring up a discussion of who is profiting most from this current mix of professionalism and amateurism.
• 2:11 Stadium geeks might be able to pinpoint exactly when Warner's Yankee Stadium dream was filmed, but we know it was after 1976 renovations that replaced the old wooden seats with plastic ones. The 80-year-old Yankee Stadium was torn down in 2009, replaced by a new Yankee Stadium costing more than $2.3 billion.
• 3:15 Warner celebrated the NHL's foray into videotape replay, but it was the NFL that first used replay in 1986 to supplement official calls (NHL in 1991; NBA in 2001; College football in 2004; Tennis in 2006; MLB in 2008; Soccer in 2014!)  In the coming months, we'll have much more to say about the use of replay as Warner sees it in action throughout 1986.
• 3:46 Hard to believe, but in 1986 Spud Webb's teammate Dominique Wilkins had never even seen the 5' 7" Webb dunk before.  This sandbagging helped to cement Webb's legacy after he defeated Wilkins to win the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest.  His victory was relived twenty years later, when he threw a bounce pass to 5' 9" Nate Robinson, who jumped over Webb as an homage to win the 2006 contest.  Webb also appeared in the 1995 film Forget Paris, where 5" 7" Billy Crystal (playing an NBA referee) famously told him, "You're the only one I can talk to."
• 4:00 Isaiah Thomas also appeared in Forget Paris -- as well as in the 1989 and 1990 NBA Finals, in which he and Dumars and the rest of the Detroit Pistons gained their forever reputations as the "Bad Boys."
• 4:09 The Golden State Warriors were in a bit of a slump in 1986.  It took until 2015 for them to bring an NBA championship to the Bay Area -- exactly 40 years after their previous championship.
• 4:29 Alexis Arguello, "El Flaco Explosivo" ("The Explosive Skinny Man"), was a 3-time world champ. After knocking out Billy Costello in 1986, he didn't fight again except for two brief comeback fights in the 90s.  He instead turned to politics in his native Nicaragua, where he won the mayoral election of the capital, Managua, in 2008.  Amidst allegations of corruption and political retribution, Arguello was found dead a year later, of an apparent suicide.  Though a statue in his honor was erected in Managua, many people still think foul play was involved.
• 4:35 Scott Stevens became known for his hard hits while on the Washington Capitals, being named one of their top 40 players of all time.  But Stevens actually played more years in New Jersey, where he became the first player to have his number retired in Devils history.
• 4:45 Gord Dineen was the definition of "journeyman," playing for 13 major and minor league hockey teams.  Dave Brown, at the receiving end of those 8 left hooks, delivered his own blow a year later -- breaking the jaw of Tomas Sandstrom, and meriting a record 15-game suspension.

Remember When the New England Patriots Were the First to Admit to Wrongdoing?

On this date in 1986, Warner Wolf talks about the New England Patriots being the first NFL team to publicly admit wrongdoing.  Also, the Plays of the Week features basketball brawls between 7-footers, hockey brawls that are now catalogued online, and a football brawl involving a Colombian kicker and his mother.  Let's go to the videotape!

The New England Patriots weren't always perceived as cheaters.  The legend began at the infamous Snowplow Game in 1982.  When the Patriots lined up for the game-winning field goal in a blizzard, snowplow operator Mark Henderson, a prisoner on work release, plowed a clear spot for the holder to place the kick.  Opposing coach Don Shula cried foul, and even refused (on moral grounds) a similar opportunity to plow the snow for their own field goal attempt.

Thus began a pattern for New England Patriots football.  Through cleverness and gamesmanship -- and skirting the edges of legality -- the Patriots always find a way to gain an advantage over their opponents.  While fans and players of other teams cry foul, Patriots fans revel in their ingenuity.  In fact, the snowplow from that 1982 game is proudly on display at Patriot Place.

However, this pattern took an unfortunate turn in January 1986, after the Patriots lost to the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX.  In a surprise move, Coach Raymond Berry chose the Monday after the Super Bowl to admit to the media that many of his players had struggled with drug abuse. Reacting to this shocking news so soon after the big game, many fans had the knee-jerk reaction of blaming the Patriots' loss on drug distractions -- you can imagine a similar outcry on social media if the incident happened today.  Only later did the facts come to light: seven out of their 50 players tested positive for cocaine and marijuana before the season, and none tested positive during gamedays.  Still, the Patriots themselves so felt the impact of the problem that they became the first NFL team to independently volunteer for drug testing.

Warner's "Boo of the Month" addresses the subsequent response of the NFL Players Association, who immediately denounced the move, and filed charges against the Patriots to stop it.  In 1986, Warner took a black-and-white stance on drugs, saying that playing professional sports is a privilege, and "if a player's not willing to keep his part of the bargain, then get another job."  The Players' Association, however, feared that the Patriots' unilateral move would put all teams and players in jeopardy.  Likewise, unilateral moves by the NFL to institute a league-wide drug-testing policy were also shot down, and even contributed to an NFL players' strike the next season.  It wasn't until 1990 that the Players' Association and then-new NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue were able to negotiate a successful drug-testing protocol.

What went unsaid in 1986 -- and what we can only know in hindsight thirty years after the fact -- was how drastically all parties underestimated the scope of drug abuse in professional sports.  Indeed, even commissioner Pete Rozelle believed that drug use was on the decline in 1986, based on anonymous opinion surveys of players at the time.  Only later did the overwhelming influence of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs begin to overshadow concerns about cocaine and marijuana.  A casual fan in 1986 might recoil at reading the roll of disgraced athletes who have since been busted due to drug abuse: olympic sprinter Ben Johnson, whose 100-meter gold medal was rescinded; Raiders linebacker Lyle Alzado, who believed his terminal brain cancer was caused by two decades of drug abuse; baseball sluggers Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds, who each broke home-run records while on steroids; WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, who committed suicide after killing his wife and son, with a testosterone level 10 times normal; cyclist Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times before admitting to doping; pitcher Roger Clemens, who was among 89 MLB players named in a Congressional investigation in 2007.

Today, even with increasingly lax societal attitudes toward drugs, professional sports leagues have tightened the lid on drug abuse by athletes.  Offenders are punished in stages, but also offered treatment and rehabilitation.  Guidelines are publicly available, as are lists of offenders.  It's no longer a grand shock when players admit to drug abuse; it's merely Step One of a story toward redemption.

So be thankful that, in the 21st century, the Patriots only have to deal with accusations regarding spy cameras, odd formations, or deflated footballs.

Where Are They Now?
Plays of the Month: January 31, 1986

• 0:55 Herb Williams, who made that 81-foot shot for the Indiana Pacers, was traded three years later for Detlef Schrempf.  He never played on a winning team until landing with the New York Knicks, where he was a player, assistant coach, and interim head coach.  He now is an assistant with the WNBA's New York Liberty.
• 0:55 How about those baby blue Sacramento Kings uniforms!  It was great news when they brought them back for 2015. 
• 1:07 Dan Roundfield, or "Rounds", was near the end of his illustrious career when he missed that dunk for the Washington Bullets.  He died tragically in Aruba in 2012, drowning in an attempt to save his wife.
• 1:41 The fistfight between David Dunn of Georgia and Kenny McClary of Florida was big news in 1986.  Though the fight started with Florida's Vernon Maxwell and Georgia's Patrick Hamilton (who were both ejected), David Dunn got the worst of it, requiring three stitches afterwards.  Dunn ended up playing basketball overseas, and even tried out for Buddy Ryan's Philadelphia Eagles, before becoming a high school and college coach in Georgia.  Kenny McClary, who also played basketball overseas, is the stepfather of current NBA star Trevor Ariza.
• 1:49 Certainly the two tallest players ever in an NBA brawl, 7' 7" Manute Bol and 7' 0" Jawann Oldham both had memorable NBA careers and notable activism internationally.  Bol advocated for his native Sudan until his death in 2010, and Oldham helped to found basketball leagues in Korea, China, and Dubai.
• 1:55 It's also interesting to note the fines that Warner mentions after these NBA fights.  While the amounts may have changed, the biggest difference in the past 30 years is the emergence of social media.  Check out what NBA players are being fined for today -- for making comments, for using inappropriate language, or for criticizing the refs.  It seems that in the Twitter era, players and coaches are more likely to be fined for what they say, rather than what they do; for example, in September 2015 the NBA fined Markieff Morris $10,000 for "a public statement detrimental to the league," when he tweeted his desire to be traded.
• 2:10 Mark Johnson, who went blue-line-to-blue-line on the highlight reel, is a veteran of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" Olympic hockey team.  He went on to coach the US Olympic women's team in 2010, and now coaches at the University of Wisconsin in his hometown of Madison, where his daughter Mikayla is a starting forward.
• 2:21 Well-matched hockey fighters Pat Verbeek and Marc Bergevin are now both NHL general managers -- Bergevin with the Canadiens, and Verbeek with the Lightning (as an assistant to his former teammate Steve Yzerman).
• 2:28 Warner loved showing hockey fights, like the Leafs-Red Wings tussle on January 13, 1986.  But thanks to 30 years of technology advancements, the details of every hockey fight in history have now been meticulously catalogued!  Check out the hockeyfights.com page for this particular battle.
• 2:42 It's understandable why Dolphins kicker Fuad Reveiz and Patriots linebacker Don Blackmon might have had a dust-up. A month earlier, Fuad kicked the winning field goal to beat the Patriots in their penultimate regular season game, meaning the Dolphins had home-field advantage for the AFC Championship rematch.  When Fuad missed a 31-yarder in that game, Blackmon taunted him, and Colombian-born Reveiz did not back down.  Blackmon reported that he merely said, "Good kick, Fuad," while Reveiz claimed that Blackmon "questioned my mother's profession." 
• 2:50 What did the above slap and Ronnie Lippett's Super Bowl hit on Jim McMahon have in common?  No flags were thrown, and no fines were levied for either incident.  Try getting away with that in today's media-churned NFL.
• 3:10 Larry Nelson, who hit that chip shot out of the water, has had an incredible career.  But read this Golf Digest story where Larry talks about serving in Vietnam, leading search-and-destroy missions during the Tet Offensive!
• 3:18 Every so often a sports highlight reel will show a horse like "Tribute to Ted," who wins a race after shedding its jockey (no surprise, since they're 100 pounds lighter than the competition).  But could this actually be the future of racing? It already is in the Middle East, where racing camels are now remotely directed by robots, from the comfort of an air-conditioned suite.
• 3:27 Boxer Greg Haugen gained his first of two world titles in December 1986.  He is best known for his 1993 fight against Julio Cesar Chavez in Mexico City -- the most-attended fight in boxing history, with 132,000 spectators.  Haugen had made some not-too-flattering comments about Mexicans before the match, and as a result, the ring was surrounded by a moat and barbed wire!
• 3:34 In 1986, Hulk Hogan was at the height of his popularity, in the middle of his 4-year reign as WWF Heavyweight Champion.  Macho Man Randy Savage would later claim the title himself in 1988, only to lose it a year later to Hogan at Wrestlemania V.  30 years later, both are also well-known for their activities outside the ring.  Hogan showcased the insanity of his family in a regrettable reality show; while Savage faced off against Spider-Man and became inexorably linked to Slim Jims, before his death from cardiac arrest in 2011.