Pitarresi: Tough guy Evashevski started at Hamilton

 

 

Forest Evashevski died the other day. Evashevski was a savage blocking back for Tommy Harmon and captain at Michigan. He began his coaching career at Hamilton College in 1941, then gained famed for winning two Rose Bowls at Iowa in the 1950s. His best known player probably was Alex Karas, who went on to a great career with the Lions, then was as a Monday Night Football commentator and actor. Evashevski and Karras had an all-out fistfight when Karras played for the Hawkeyes. Not too long ago Evashevski said he got a call from Karras apologizing for his behavior – like 50 years after the fact. Which sounds just like Alex Karras.

 

Waterville’s Milt Jannone, Hamilton’s first All-American, played for Evashevski, and so when Jannone was inducted into the Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, I called Evashevski in Florida to get his recollections  He told me that Jannone, a great all-around athlete, was better than any back he had at Iowa. Jannone pooh-poohed that, but it was a great compliment.

 

Evashevski had a reputation as a very tough guy, a stern taskmaster who many players hated, but he also was revered by many as a builder of men and father figure. I know when I spoke to him – he was 81 or so at the time – he was as pleasant and as engaging as could be.

 

Evashevski’s College Football Hall of Fame plaque, by the way, rests in the trophy case in the lobby of the Hamilton gym. I imagine there are very few people at the college who have any idea who he was. He’s was there just one year before going into the Navy, but I guess he liked the place, which is nice to know.

 

Pitarresi: Kudos to the Evans family

Everyone seems stunned by LeMoyne’s 82-79 exhibition basketball victory over Syracuse Tuesday.

 

Some SU fans see it as the end of the world, others just toss it off.

 

My thoughts? Congratulations to Rome’s Steve Evans, the Dolphins’ coach – and his dad, Stan “Buddy” Evans – for their victory. I think it is great. LeMoyne gets some good ink, air time, and a lot of confidence, and SU isn’t really hurt much, unless ….

 

Unless the Orange get off to a slow start in the regular season, in which case everybody is going to remember this game and Jim Boeheim and his players will never hear the end of it.

 

At the other end, Steve Evans downplayed the win, saying it was just an exhibition and that SU would be just fine. Probably so, and a smart and classy move by Steve, but he has to be walking on air. No New York State team had beaten SU in a game, exhibition game or - I'm assuming - scrimmage since about 1957.

 

One thing the game did was set off an eruption of comments on syracuse.com. I check in there every now and then when I want to get thoroughly depressed about the state of civility and the level of intelligence in our society, or if I want a good laugh. Today, I got a good laugh, thanks to the people discussing why LeMoyne is known as the Dolphins (a Christian symbol) and SU is known as the Orange (supposedly based on Protestant King William of Orange, although now I’m having trouble verifying that.)

 

Someone wrote that that there are no dolphins around Syracuse, so another guy writes that there are no oranges, either. Then another writes that SU has that name because the nickname used to be “Orangemen,” which, he claims, is another name for American Indians. What!?!? And I don't think the guy was horsing around.

 

 

Pitarresi: Williams' departure hurts SU

 

Mike Williams has quit the Syracuse football team.

 

I’m not sure what his reason was, but I’ll bet you’ll read about it in the national media. For years now, every time there is a controversy involving an SU football or basketball player, the local media get stony silence from the coaches and administrators, and then someone blabs to ESPN or Sports Illustrated.

 

But …

 

I don’t care why Mike quit. I just know this is not a smart move for him and it’s a big blow to the team. Williams is SU’s biggest talent, and I think he would have been no worse than a second-round selection in next year’s NFL draft. I’m not sure what his quitting does to those prospects, but I’m certain it can’t be good. Meanwhile, the Orange are robbed of their most explosive player and the only one who has shown he can stretch a defense vertically.

 

Williams has been an obvious talent since he arrived from the mean streets of Buffalo in 2006. He can run, jump, catch and block. Without him, SU is much less dynamic. Maybe one of the other receivers can take up the slack, but SU has seldom has shown the desire to go deep even with Williams in the lineup. Without him, I think they might be condemned to the low-risk football that won the Akron game but is unlikely to work against Pittsburgh and the remaining Big East teams on the schedule.

 

I don’t know what this is all about with Williams. He was out of school last year because of academic issues. When I spoke to him in the spring, he seemed a much more mature young man, someone who learned his lesson, and knew what the score was. He said he had grown up, and it really seemed like it. And he was having a really good season until he was suspended for the Akron game last week for violating team rules. Maybe one thing led to another and he didn’t want to deal with school or discipline any more.

 

The bottom line is the decision is bad for Mike Williams, and worse for the SU football team.

Pitarresi: Football at the Dome: Be there

Be at the Carrier Dome Friday.

 

New Hartford versus Whitesboro – for seemingly the 30th time in the last 10 years – and Westmoreland against Weedsport.

 

These are going to be terrific high school football games, and they’re for Section III championships. All three of the local teams are high energy and fun to watch. They play tough, smart, well-coached football, and it will be well worth the $5 or whatever it is to get into the Dome.

 

I’d be there even if I had to pay! Yes, I get in for free, but, remember, Ron Moshier, Anne Delaney have to work the whole time, slaving over hot notebooks, and while you can sit there, eat Dome Dogs – although I’d advise against that – and nachos and drink, well, I don’t’ think beer at high school games, but something.

 

Seriously, this is going to be terrific, highly competitive high school football. Be there.

 

 

 

 

 

Pitarresi: "Frillies" too much for Yankees

I wonder what the New York Post thinks of the “Frillies” now?

 

Tuesday, the cover of the Post going into the World Series screamed “GOTHAM TREMBLES The Frillies are coming to town!” and carried a doctored photo of Philadelphia’s Shane Victorino in a skirt. Pretty funny.

 

Inside, several trash-talk stories excoriated the Phillies and Philadelphia from every possible angle. In one, Yankee fans dumped on their City of Brotherly Love counterparts for numerous sins, the chief of which seemed to be throwing beer. Yankee fans, apparently, don’t do that. A chart comparing the two municipalities marked Philly down in every category, including sandwiches, Philly cheesesteak against with a barely printable reference to Derek Jeter’s superior love life. They dragged the Phillie Phanatic through the dirt, too. Not very nice.

 

It was hilarious, really, even if it is 7th grade humor. It read like an edition of the World Weekly News, which I used to love to read. That checkout line rag ran outlandish stories, like the one about Adolf Hitler coming back from South America at age 100 to help Saddam Hussein fight the United States; or the lady who was kidnapped by a sasquatch on a camping trip and ended up liking him so much she refused to go back with her husband when he came to rescue her, or “Attila the Honey,” which claimed, at a time that women in combat and gays in the military were big issues, that the conqueror of Rome really was a girl.

 

I think Vince McNamara was jealous, and I’m sure publisher Rupert Murdoch was proud. The problem is, Cliff Lee and Chase Utley led the "Frillies" to a 6-1 victory in the opening game.

 

So what Yankee will the Post put a skirt on tomorrow morning?

Pitarresi: Marrone backs off, SU builds confidence

I don’t know how much Syracuse’s 28-14 football victory Saturday over Akron means.

 

The Zips are a struggling team with a freshman quarterback, and it was clear that the Orange had more athletes. Maybe not a lot more, but more.

 

A win was badly needed, however, over anyone, especially with fifth-ranked Cincinnati, playing perhaps the best football in its history, coming to the Carrier Dome next Saturday. It is something to build on, for sure, and it least gives the Orange some confidence and belief.

 

The most interesting thing about the game was how SU coach Doug Marrone changed his offensive style. He wouldn’t say he did, but it was apparent that, with Delone Carter running 30 times (for 170 yards), and Greg Paulus and part-time quarterback Ryan Nassib taking few chances downfield, he was looking for strong, fundamental, low-risk football. The suspension of wide receiver Mike Williams had something to do with that, and it was especially true after Ryan Bartholomew, a starting guard who is filling in at center for injured Jim McKenzie, unleashed several incredibly bad snaps when SU lined up in the spread or shotgun or whatever you want to call. And Paulus, an artful dodger on the field and also of probing questions, obviously was under orders to not take chances, although he would never say that.

 

The Orange played it safe, going downfield only when the coaches determined that the situation was perfect.

 

Will that approach work against Cincinnati? Probably not, especially if the Orange let up a long return or two, as they did against the Zips, like Dashan Miller’s 98-yard TD sprint with the second half kickoff. Or if they drop another punt, as Mike Jones did in the first quarter.

 

However, it’s a win. It’s a positive. The guys are up. They believe a little more in themselves. So Marrone’s dial-back was a good idea.

Pitarresi: Honesty not always the best policy

 

We all were told, when we were little kids, that honesty is the best policy.

 

Well, that isn’t true. Not all the time.

 

We all know the proof of that. It’s starts with the question, “Do I look fat in this dress?”

 

I don’t know if Magic Johnson is being honest in the new book he wrote with Larry Bird and Jackie McMullan, especially the parts where he derides Isaiah Thomas. Supposedly peeved because Thomas raised questions about Johnson’s sexual orientation after he revealed he had HIV in 1991, Johnson says in “When the Game Was Ours,” that nobody on the 1992 Olympic team – Michael Jordan, Bird, Karl Malone, Scotty Pippen – wanted to play with Thomas.

 

Thomas was left off that team, which was perhaps the greatest collection of basketball talent ever. That had to hurt, and now Johnson has made it worse.

 

These guys were among the greatest ever to play the game, but their day is long since past, which probably is one reason for the book. Some fans might regard it as a honest look at an exciting era of basketball, but it might just be a grab for cash and publicity. I guess it is morbidly interesting that all the big stars hated Thomas, but that isn’t exactly news.

 

I don’t think you have to lay everything on the line, especially if it hurts someone else, even if you don’t like the other guy. There are such things as decorum and compassion, which sometimes are as important as honesty.

 

I’d feel a lot better about it if Johnson had said what he had to say to Thomas’ face before it came out in a book. That would have been honest.