The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 45

Mill) MORN I Ml. JAM MO' 1, 1971 i tih; (orHRTorRwr, a- timks, innsvnrr. ky. I ector Blond et: WE by dave kindred TOR I SPECTATOR 'father' of team and a free spirit Forget building arena at lK, football team needs a stadium Li 33 STATrf I know why Kentucky teams don't play each other. They're jealous.

But I can't accept that as a sufficient reason to avoid each other, especially when they all need money. And it takes only a little bit of common sense to realize how much money would be taken in if, say, the University of Kentucky, Louisville, Western Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky played a two-night tournament at Free-deal Hall. I'm not limiting my tournament to those teams. Make it a six-team deal, and add Murray State and Morehead. Or make it eight and invite two of the state's best college-division teams, like Kentucky Wesleyan and Kentucky State.

Out with ruiiners-up vl would schedule UK and Louisville in football. No reason not to. It is a natural game, matching sister state institutions that are the only major-college teams in Ken-tucky. would eliminate the district runner-up from high school regional basketball tournaments. Once' you lose, you're out.

No team should ever win the state championship after losing in one of the earlier state-sponsored tournaments. I would take the Kentucky Colonels to practice where Negro youngsters can watch them. In a time when Negro youngsters con-sider Jim (Goose) Ligon and Cincy Powell and Walt Simon and Sam Smith and Howard Wright and Les Hunter as heroes to be imitated, those youngsters should be able to watch them play. So, every so often, I'd take the Colo-nels out to practice in a neighborhood gymnasium and invite the youngsters in. I'd ask the players to talk to them, and to sign autographs, and I'd remind the players to remember they are heroes.

If I were in charge of this year, 1971 I would build a football stadium at the University of Kentucky. No matter how much John Ray, the coach, works; no matter how sincere his players are in pursuit of victory; no matter how many people are unswerving in their devotion to UK, it does not change one basic fact: No team that wins in the Southeastern Conference is so poverty-stricken in terms of facilities. UK's stadium is awful. It seats 38,000 which is bad enough. But worse, it has no parking.

Fans park in yards nearby. It may be inadequate in those respects, but it's ugly, too. Not many blue-chip prospects are going to dream of playing on Stoll Field. So, why don't people forget about building a new basketball arena? When Adolph Rupp is gone, who knows if anyone will come see UK play basketball? The Coliseum seats 11,500, which is respectable. So before anyone spends money to build a basketball arena, I'd rather see them put up a new football stadium and give UK football a chance.

Would have artificial turf iI would renovate Fairgrounds Stadium. It now seats 22,000 people. If the University of Louisville is to play genuine big-time football, it must have more seats. With the defeat of a bond issue that would have helped build a stadium, the practical thing to do now is expand Fairgrounds Stadium. That would be a tricky feat.

To do it, bleachers would have to be set on what is now a baseball field. The Louisville Colonels play baseball there throughout the summer and would not take too kindly to the concrete pilings needed to hold up bleachers. Besides that, the football field must be repaired. The turf is awful. It turns to mud if anyone spills a soft drink downtown.

What the Stadium needs is artifi- By JOHN FLYNN Courier-Journal Times Staff Writer Responsibility weighs heavily on Hector Blondet. "I sit around and think about it," he said. "Here I am a co-captain, which means I have to set a good example for the younger players. I feel like a father for a whole basketball team. "And I have a three-week-old daughter.

Wow! Me, Hector Blondet, married and a father. Wonder of wonders. "It has me all tangled up right now. I guess I'm just going to have to think about it some more." Hector Blondet an exemplary example of conduct for Murray State's younger, impressionable players; a married man, a father? It boggles the mind. Was Suspended Twice A year ago Blondet was suspended from the Murray team not once but twice by coach Cal Luther.

It was rumored that Luther made a bed check and found only a bed in Hector's room. As a result, many figured Hector's collegiate career, which began with a bus trip from Brooklyn to Paducah Community College, was over. But they did not take into account the cham and persistence of Blondet, who is a native of Puerto Rico, a product of the streets of New York, and good enough basketball player to have made All-Ohio Valley Conference first team two jears ago. After his second suspension, which was handed out by Luther on a Sunday morning in Richmond, following a Saturday night game with Eastern Kentucky, Bloncet took a bus back to Murray while the team went on to Morehead for anothar game. At the conclusion of the season he visited Luther's office.

"I walked in," recalled Blondet "and coach looked at me and said, 'start An agreement was reached whereby Hector could rejoin the team. "Technically, I'm under the same rules and restrictions as the other players," said Blondet. "However, I'm not foolish enough to think this is the Blondet says very little about the suspensions. "I did a lot of things for which I'm sorry," he admitted, "but it 'wasn't all that bad, really." i. Despite their differences Blondet and Luther, similar in strong will and intelligence, have retained respect for each other.

"Hector's not a bad egg like a lot of people suppose," said Luther. "He's a free spirit. In fact, I have liked very few of my players more than I like him. But one thing about him, he doesn't, recognize too many rules particularly those made by other people." Blondet, meanwhile, said Luther's players had to understand his style. "He rips his coat off and starts screaming, but that's his style," said Hector.

"He's a helluva coach and he didn't give me a whole lot of bull before he reinstated me." Although Blondet and Luther have made an apparently binding peace, Hector still retains some individualistic ideas on how basketball players should behave. "Take a football player," said Hector. "He's got a reputation for being wild and a hell raiser. Not the basketball player. He's a cool party man.

"If a coach takes his team on the road and lodges it. 15 miles out of town, away from the campus and all, the players spend half the night running up and down the halls of a motel acting silly," continued Blondet. "It also becomes a challenge to get away from the place. "Any good player has to find a way to get himself up for the game and laying around in a motel for eight hours is not the way. I'm not talking about doing anything bad, I'm talking about living.

For example, I love to walk on a campus and have students recognize me and say 'there goes Hector Blondet. Hey Hector, baby, we're gonna do it to you "That's the fun of it. The friends you make, the people you meet and the re- Staff Photo HECTOR BLONDET, suspended from Murray's basketball team a year ago, now feels he has to set a good, example for his younger teammates. membrances you leave yourself. You sure aren't going to have anything to remember playing a monk in some moteL" In Blondet's opinion, college basketball is a job.

"We're on scholarship," he said, "and our job is to play basketball. If you have a bad knee they put some 'Red Hot' on it and tell you it doesn't hurt. The same thing for your, back if it hurts. If you crack a finger, you put a splint on it and play. So why not something for a hangover?" Blondet said he still remembers his days at Boys High in Brooklyn "when we'd go out the night before the game, the night of the game and the night after the game.

It was fun, real fun," he added, "but with the drugs and all, Boys High has gone downhill." Following graduation from Murray, Hector, who is a speech major, said he hoped to work with boys in Brooklyn or Puerto Rico. "I feel it is my destiny to do this," he said, "because I've received so much help along the way." Trouble in Puerto Rico He played basketball in Puerto Rico COACH JOHN RAY Poverty in the midst of plenty cial turf. But again, the baseball team comes in to play. How can the football field be artificial turf, and the rest of the field most of the center and right fields be real grass? Yet it would be prohibitively expensive to put artificial turf on the entire area. In the end, the decision would be up to the Fair board.

Would five, or six, football games drawing people be worth more than a baseball team drawing 150,000 people for 71 games? I would arrange a basketball tournament for Kentucky teams. Pro sports calendar WESTERN CONFERENCE Amvrivan Basketball Association Midwest Divisian last summer, although not without the difficulty which seems to follow him wherever he goes. "The basketball federation down there had a rule that only Puerto Ricans could play," explained Hector. "So all the newspapers said 6-foot-8, 250-pound Hector Blondet was coming down to tear up everybody. "So I showed up at 6-foot-4 and a skinny 185 pounds.

With my 'natural' hair style and thick lips, those people refused to believe I was Puerto Rican. I had to get papers and everything to prove it. And the fans, who were expecting some giant after reading the papers, threw rocks at me all summer. I had my taste of being the star and I don't want any more of it." astern Division Team w. L.

Pet. Virginia 28 12 .700 Team W. L. Pet. Milwaukee 29 7 .806 Detroit .26 14 .650 Chicago 23 1 6 .590 Phoenix 23 19 .548 Pacilic Division Team w.

L. Pet. Los Angeles ...22 1 5 595 San Francisco 23 1 9 .548 San Dieso 21 20 ,512 Seattle 18 22 .450 Portland 12 28 .300 Western Division Team Pet. Utah 24 12 .667 Indiana 22 1 5 .595 Memphis 21 18 .538 Denver 23 ,378 .615 .457 .421 KENTUCKY 24 15 New York 16 20 Floridians 16 22 Carolina 15 24 Pittsburgh 16 25 385 Texas 14 24 .368 .390 WEDNESDAY'S RESULTS Pittsburgh 125, KENTUCKY 118. Virginia 124, New York 123.

Texas 113, Memphis 104. Carolina 136, Denver 132. LAST NIGHT'S RESULT Virginia 127, Carolina 117. TONIGHT'S GAMES No Barnes scheduled. National Basketball Association WEDNESDAY'S RESULTS New York 111, San Francisco 103.

Philadelphia 119, Milwaukee 107. Detroit 119, Cincinnati 115. Baltimore 106, Buffalo 90. Seattle 128, Chicago 109. Phoenix 132,.

Los Angeles 114. LAST NIGHT'S RESULTS San Francisco 144, Boston 106. Atlanta 119, Cleveland 85. TONIGHT'S GAMES San Diego at Los Angeles. Portland at Seattle.

Baltimore at Cleveland. EASTERN CONFERENCE Central Division Atlantic Division Pet. .568 .432 .325 .114 Team w. L. Baltimore 21 16 Cincinnati 16 21 Atlanta ......13 27 Cleveland 5 39 Team W.

L. Pet. New York .....31 11 .38 Boston 22 17 .564 Philadelphia 24 18 .571 Buffalo 11 31 .262 ISutional Hockey League EAST DIVISION West Division Team W. L. T.

PU, IHUBEft TOI ft tote 1 mmE Interurban 78 Series Team W. L. T. Pts. 25 6 5 55 24 7 6 54 ..16 11 8 40 ..16 19 1 33 ..14 20 3 31 Boston New York Montreal Toronto Vancouver Detroit cnicago 24 6 5 St.

Louis ....16 8 11 Minnesota 13 16 6 Philadelphia 12 17 5 x-Pittsburgh 9 17 11 Los Angeles 10 18 5 California ...11 22 2 Holiday-idled bowlers turn to tourney action With virtually all leagues suspended because of the holiday, bowlers of the Louisville area will turn to special New Year's tournaments today. Five ten-pin houses have announced plans for special events. Two of the most lucrative tourneys will be held at Ten Pin Lanes and Pee Wee Reese Lanes. Both are five-game singles events open to men and women and offering handicap and actual-score prizes. Hazelwood Lanes has scheduled a four-game singles tourney with prizes for handicap scoring.

Both Okolona Lanes and Eden Lanes will hold "no-tap" events in which one-pin leaves count as strikes. Eden also plans two other tourneys during the day a mixed doubles and a handicap singles. Boston College coach will stay NEWTON, Mass. (AP) Boston Col-lege'announced yesterday that head football coach Joe Yukica has decided to stay at the school and not move to Dartmouth College. 11 20 4 26 20 Buffalo 7 21 WEDNESDAY'S RESULTS Boston 6, Minnesota 2.

Toronto 3, California 1. Pittsburgh 3, Montreal 3, tie. St. Louis 5, Philadelphia 2. Vancouver 4, Los Angeles 1.

LAST NIGHT'S RESULTS Chicago 8, Detroit 3. Pittsburgh 4, Minnesota 1. Tonight's college basketball KENTUCKY SCHOOLS Transylvania at Indiana State. OTHER SCHOOLS Harvard at Washington-St. Louis.

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