Sports

The anchor does a horrible job here but the game is for a great cause. We’ll see if we can find some footage to post later. Read the rest of this entry »

“It’s baseball season again, but what you might not notice amid the crack of the bat and roar of the crowd is that – a half a century after Jackie Robinson’s historic entrance into the game – the number of black players is at its lowest level in almost 20 years. This chart is a racial breakdown of four major sports.”

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The Florida A&M University varsity wrestling team may be the school’s best-kept secret.
Florida A&M’s wrestling team is the only HBCU team in the Southeast Conference, and is certainly making a lot of noise.

The team beat Florida State 33-30 Feb. 5, and is rolling through the season.

The wrestling team is now getting ready for the Southeastern Regional Conference Championship. The regional competition will be held at the Al Lawson Center on Feb. 27.

Before nationals, the team has to take care of business at home, when they host the regional championship for the first time.

The team is looking for the home crowd to show up with much-needed support.

Coach Sharif said the team has some pretty competitive guys that people should keep an eye on. Roland Pitts, at 197 pounds, is one.
“I can see him becoming conference champion and maybe even national champion; he’s on that level,” Sharif said.

Sharif believes the team has a very high chance of winning the championship. “My guys are hyped and they are ready,” Sharif said. “They’ve got their spirits up and I want their spirits to be transcended toward the spectators.”
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Who Dat! Who Dat….would have ever pick the Saints to beat the Colts? Well that’s why they play the game. The New Orleans Saints have been a bottom basement NFL Team for a long time. We all have seen those images from NFL Films with Saints fans draped with bags over top of their heads, well no more. The New Orleans Saints have won Super Bowl XLIV in a thrilling victory over the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17.
With all of the media hype (Tony Dungy) of a Colts blowout victory, the Saints would have none of it and scratched and clawed throughout the game. They were not afraid of the Legend Of Peyton Manning and played aggressively, took risks and went out and left it all on the line.

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Professional golfer Jim Thorpe, who has won more than $15 million in his career, was sentenced to one year in prison for failing to pay federal income taxes for three years.

Thorpe’s request to avoid prison time was rejected Friday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Karla Spaulding in Orlando, Florida. The former college football player pleaded guilty in September to two counts of tax evasion for failing to pay more than $2 million in personal income taxes for 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Allowing the golfer to avoid prison would send a signal that only “poor people should go to jail” if they fail to pay their taxes, Spaulding the judge said.

The government said Thorpe, 60, evaded taxes on income sources including on-course winnings and endorsements. He also didn’t file corporate income tax return in 2003 for his management company, JLT Inc., prosecutors said in the February 2009 charges.

In a 37-year career, Thorpe has won three times on golf’s PGA Tour and has 13 victories on the over-50 Champions Tour, according to the PGA’s Web site. The athlete played football at Morgan State University in Baltimore before joining the pro-golf circuit.

“I never tried to beat the Internal Revenue” out of taxes, Thorpe told Spaulding today. Still, he acknowledged the failure to pay taxes was his fault. As part of his sentence, Thorpe agreed to pay back taxes.

Raymond Celester Crittenden Jr., one of Virginia State’s most prolific players, died Monday of natural causes. He was 83.

At Virginia State College (now Virginia State University), Crittenden started every football and basketball game and lettered in football, basketball and track. He was also all-CIAA in football and basketball, and held a 10-year record for most points scored in a basketball game.

He was inducted into the Virginia State University Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Hampton Roads African-American Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

After getting his bachelor’s degree from Virginia State, Crittenden went on to a long career as a high school teacher, administrator, football coach and basketball coach from 1954-88.

The grandfather of former New England Patriots Raymond Crittenden IV, he was laid to rest Saturday in Newport News, Virginia.

(via Examiner.com)

FAMU Alum Andre Dawson has been elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

Dawson received 420 of 539 votes in voting announced Wednesday by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, 15 more than the 75 percent necessary to gain election. Dawson was an eight-time All-Star, has 8 Gold Gloves, was the 1987 NL MVP, was the 1977 NL Rookie of the Year, and was 1 of 3 players of all time with 400+ home runs and 300+ stolen bases.

Dude’s game was awesome.

Born: July 10, 1954 in Miami, FL
High School: Southwest (Miami, FL)
School: Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 11th round of the 1975 amateur draft.
Debut: September 11, 1976
Final Game: September 29, 1996
Inducted into the Hall of Fame by BBWAA as Player in 2010 (420/539 ballots).

Prairie View A&M senior defensive back Anthony Beck added another honor to his resume’ on Wednesday as he was named to the 2009 Sports Network Football Championship Subdivision All-America Third Team.

A four-year starter at safety, Beck capped off an impressive career at Prairie View as he holds the school record for interceptions returned for touchdowns (3) in addition to picking off 11 passes and tallying over 160 tackles. The Houston native, who played at Channelview High School, also was named to the 2009 All-SWAC Football First Team for the second straight year, the Boxtorow.com/BASN All-American team along with earning preseason All-American honors by The Sports Network and Consensus Draft Service.

A construction science major, Beck also has aspirations of furthering his playing career as he recently participated in the inaugural Russell Athletic HBCU Bowl last weekend in Montgomery, Ala. During the week of practice leading up to the game, Beck had the opportunity to showcase his skills in front of scouts from the NFL, UFL, Arena Football, and Canadian Football Leagues.

Michael Vick will host a youth football camp at Hampton University next summer that’s expected to include several other NFL players as guest counselors.

Details are still being ironed out, but the camp will be for players age 8 through rising high school seniors. It will take place over several days and will be an overnight camp. It’s tentatively scheduled for mid-to-late June.

Tommy Reamon, Vick’s former coach at Warwick and now the head coach at Virginia Beach’s Landstown High, is assisting Vick in putting together the camp. He said that dates, cost and guest counselors are likely to be finalized in February.

Reamon said that they are trying to avoid conflicts with other events at Hampton University, as well as other football camps that may take place locally, where possible.

“We’re very grateful that Hampton University and Dr. (William) Harvey were interested in helping us with the camp and allowing Michael to give back to the community,” Reamon said.

PRAIRIE VIEW, TX – After leading the Panthers to their first SWAC championship since 1964, head coach Henry Frazier was honored this week by being named the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year by the Sports Network.

“It is the greatest honor in my career,” said Frazier. “That award was named after the great Eddie Robinson from Grambling University and I believe I am the first coach from an HBCU school to win the award, it’s a great honor.”

Frazier took over the program back in December of 2003 and in 2007, he led the Panthers to their best season at that point, going 9-1 and picking up several honors along the way , including the Sheridan Broadcast Network/Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year and the American Football Coaches Region III FCS Coach of the Year.

“I thank my players and I thank my coaching staff,” says Frazier. “It has been a great run so far and there are still a couple of more award that I am up for and it has been a blessing.”

In addition to the Eddie Robinson award, Frazier has also picked up three others including the American Football Coaches Region III FCS Coach of the Year, the SWAC Coach of the Year award and the Washington D.C. Pigskin Club Coach of the Year Award.

Prairie View finished #2 in the Sheridan Broadcast Network Poll, right behind South Carolina State who took home the Black College Championship.