Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 21

Star Tribuno Wednesday January 181989 1C Mi all too familiar to Brown vertown violence i 49ers' Rice sore but he'll play Bengals win computer match Pag4C How Bengals, 49ers stack up PageSC cars were set ablaze. An auto-parts store burned to the ground. Rioters threw rocks and bottles at reporters and camera crews. They also pelted Mayor Xavier Suarez. Last night, the Miami Heat-Phoenix Suns game, to be played at Miami Arena in Overtown, was postponed, and the violence spread to nearby Liberty City.

"A bunch of us went to see 'Mississippi and we came back to see Miami burning, said Bengals cornerback Solomon Wilcotl And so, five days before Super Bowl XXIII, nobody wanted to talk to Eddie Brown about his considerable talent as a Pro Bowl wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals. Nobody wanted to talk to him about Boomer Esiason or Sam Wyche or the Ickey Shuffle or how to beat the San Francisco 49ers. Well, not exactly. A few people tried to ask him X's-and-O's questions, but those questions seemed so out of place, so trivial, so silly. There was only one subject to Barreiro continued on page 4C really have the sound up.

And they were showing cars burning up. Someone said, Oh, that's But when they turned the volume up, it was something new." Something new and painful and tragic. On the birthday of Martin Luther King the man who had a dream, the Overtown section of Miami lived a nightmare. Overtown erupted in violence after a black motorcyclist whom police had been chasing was killed. Snipers fired randomly at police.

At least three Miami, Fla. When Eddie Brown looked at the TV screen Monday night and taw the burning cars and angry faces, the looting and the tear gas, he did not think he was seeing history repeat itself. He thought he was seeing history. "The news came on the TV when we were at the cable station for an interview, and we thought it was the '80 riot when they were televising it," Brown said Tuesday. "We didn't Dsn Csrreiro Miami riot prompts NBA to Three bouncing steps to his right with ball in left hand call game ioj Associated Press Miami, Fla.

Gunfire and rock-throwing near Mi ami Arena forced the postponement -of Tuesday night's game between the Miami Heat and Phoenix Suns. VO' The Miami Herald reported it was'1' Three bouncing sm Wi V. steps to his left, I right hand 3 extended with ball. Spited ball. 0 if Ii 1 With team ZmS members, Woods twirls his finger and swivels his hips.

Bengals' Woods is af inrunner, but as a dancer he stands alone the first time an NBA game was11 postponed for non-weather reasons'1' since games were called off after the assassination of President John Kennedy in November 1963. ''4 Lewis Schaffel, Heat managing genera al partner, said the decision not to' play the game was made on the recommendation of the Miami city manager and police chief "for the' safety of the fans, players and offi rials." He said NBA commissioner David Stern had agreed. i. The drive to the arena, on the edge of Miami's Overtown area, gave game officials Joe Crawford, Jack Nies and Gary Benson a first-hand look at violence. "We got hit by a Crawford said.

"I've got glass all over me" from a shattered car window. Benson got some glass in his eye. Nies said an officer told the officials 1 to stay in their car because a sniper was on the roof. "But the windshield broke in a way that made us think it' was a rock," Nies said. i "The guy (the police officer) starts making out a report, but I told him, 'Hey, buddy, we've got a game to The game must go on." I All players and about 100 fans were in the arena when Schaffel made the announcement "We were inside when most of the stuff; started," Suns forward Armon Gil- liam told TBS.

"We heard some stuff outside. More and more people came down (to the arena) and were throw I I 1 I 1 scoring a touchdown. He has done It often. danced with more and i more frequency as the season wore on, His two touchdowns in the AFC championship game against Buffalo gave him 18 for the season. He rushed for 1,066 yards In the regular season and had a pair of 100-yard games in the playoffs.

Ickey continued on page 4C Baryshnikov? Certainly not. Who, then? "Ickey Woods," said Woods. Woods is an original. Ms 8-inch-long hair in a ponytaH dur- ing games. He wears more gold than Fort Knox has in some of Its vaults.

And he dances. He does a dance that has become all the rage in Cincinnati and other points, the Ickey Shuffle, after By Robert Sansevere Staff Writer Miami, Fla. Ickey Woods compares his run- ning style with that of Earl Campbell: big and bruising, but built for speed, too. Finding an analogy for his dancing style wasn't so easy. Fred Astalre? No, Woods said.

Gregory Hines? Nope. Mikhail liars won't be cUsfenselsss without Hartsburg By gerry Zgoda "You can't replace a guy like Hartsy," said Page, whose team plays the Sabres in Buffalo tonight "Nobody in our organization can do what who could change a game with a rush from one end of the ice to the other. But his ineffectiveness in recent years, especially this season, and the emergence of some young defense-men (all except Curt Giles are 24 or younger) could minimize the loss. "This is the way it was when I first came here," said Giles, the only North Star left from the 1979-80 ing rocks and stuff. Thank God nobody got hurt." He said all players left without incident l-; Police said gunfire broke out around '-sundown after a day of relative calm in the Overtown area, where violence had erupted Monday.

Rocks broke' windows in almost every car near the arena, and a van was Police said about SO rioters were roaming near the arena. The Suns planned to remain at their' hotel last night because the area wasn't considered safe for travel. They play Thursday in Charlotte. he is a mobile defenseman who will be able to create things on the ice. He doesn't have the same abilities as Hartsy, but he's a good skater." Said Giles: unfair to Shawn to compare him to Hartsy, but it looks like he's the next guy to handle a lot of those chores.

Hartsy was naturally able to just step in and play. Shawn can do it, but he's going to need experience and time." With Frantisek Musil out for at least another week because of a fractured North Stars continued on page 8C Said Page: "How many teams would love to have this many young At the top of the great-expectations, list is Shawn Chambers, 22. His 1987-88 season was sidetracked after 19 games because of a shoulder injury, and his numbers this year aren't mind-boggling (three goals, six assists in 38 games), but Page says Chambers can provide some of what Hartsburg once did. "He's the closest player we have to a Hartsburg type," Page said. "I don't think he will ever be a Hartsburg.

But Stall! Writer Thi; question that was asked every timjs Craig Hamburg was injured Whajt will the North Stars' defense be witfebut him? now will be an-swesed for good. Hamburg's retirement announce-mejl last Friday doesn't necessarily mean doom and gloom for a team thaj historically-has had trouble generating offense from its defense. At leak it doesn't if you listen to coach PiegrePage. he could do. nut wnat you tnen nave to do is spread the work around.

That's what we've been preaching all When you play as a team, that compensates for injuries, slumps and unfortunate things like the Hamburg thing. If you play individually, it's tough to replace people." In the the permanent loss of Hartsburg might have meant disaster. He quarterbacked the power play and was the Stars' only defenseman team. "There were a bunch of young guys Hartsy, myself, Brad Maxwell, Greg Smith, Gordie Roberts and there were Fred Barrett and Paul Shmyr. This year, we've got some kids who can play." 'has mind on Propped out For Gophers' Newbern, rule would have shut door 4 urtiua i Zamal (Writer Wtili the Gophers basketball players ByJay Weiner SufT Writer Gophers guard Melvin Newbern re kfU heir locker room Saturday after upt tuna Iowa, they were reminaea thai tonight's Purdue game was.

not tari frwarninB. on a wallboard, was a sial Proposition 42. "Being on prop" under this rule, Newbern said, would have meant pumping gas on the streets of Toledo, Ohio, not reading books on a Big Ten campus. Newbern, a junior in the College of Liberal Arts with a 2.4 grade-point average, is a real-life example to bolster the rhetoric of his coach, Clem Hastens, and Georgetown's John Thompson. "Chances are, under Proposition 42, Melvin Newbern would have been in a junior college or no college at all," Hastens said on Tuesday.

"But Melvin Newbern has proven he can do college work." In Newbern, the gap between 48, which went into effect in the fall of 1986, and 42 can be seen, a differ members the pain, the isolauon. He cant forget two years ago when the NCAA said he couldn't play basketball, when, to use the locker room vernacular, he was "being on prop." "I felt I was neglected," Newbern said. "I didn't feel I was part of the team. I couldn't practice or take training table. The only thing I could do with the team was study table." The "prop" then was Proposition 48, shorthand for an NCAA rule that eliminated Newbern's freshman eligibility but allowed him to attend the University of Minnesota on a basketball scholarship.

The "prop" of the moment is the recently passed, instantly controver 1 feltr ipped listing of the Boilermak-ersyiop players, their strengths and wellnesses. It was ordered by coach CIO Hastens, who leu than 24 hoi after the Iowa game said: "The thing about college basketball it a you cant enjoy a lot about win-'because you just have Jo turn anjd and do it again." Tuf-day, he hadn't changed his Jiah nature is to ride a victory Kkk 'this (the 80-78 decision over the fifth-ranked Iowa) for a few day but the kids have to understand Gephers continued on page 3C f. Staff Photo by FUta Reed The Gophers' MeMn Newbern, left, worked In praotiet Tuetday eaalnst assistant coach Dan KoamosM. Newbera continued on page 3C I.