Phill Smith
12-16-04, - 09:57 PM
Monumenting and Securing Our Sporting Heroes
By Phill Smith
I have been involved in the sporting arena in the Bahamas for many years as an athlete and as a sports reporter. As a basketball player at St. Augustine's college I played under the coaching of two great legends: Vince Ferguson and the late Lou Adderley. In the then Baba John Todd and Steve Pinder. Later I went off to school where I played college level basketball and during that time abroad I had the opportunity to see how the united states treated their athletes. They they adored them and somehow always found ways to insure that they were known by those who came after. Here at home it seems that we are at this late stage. We are still playing service to some of our richest resources; our sporting heroes and we have many.
This week the death of our first major leaguer; Andre Rodgers cemented the position that Andre, in my opinion was not utilized to his maximum potential. He had too much to offer than to just linger around and utilized every now and then. Yes! A stadium was named in his honor but that leaves much to be desired because of its present condition and what Andre represented in this country as far as achievements in sports. In other words the stadium needs immediate attention to match this sporting monument.
When Andre died he left us with only two of our former major leaguers remaining which are Ed Ambrister and Tony Curry. The question is when will we mortalize these two giants so that kids will know who they are and what they did? Currently nothing exists that monuments in anyway the achievements of Ambrister or Curry. Will we wait until they both die? This is exactly what happened with Wendy Ford and Wilfred 'sudgy' Culmer who died and were buried with nothing left behind for future generations to remember these two giants by.
In the area of basketball we have allowed the achievements of Sterling Quaint who was the first Bahamian to play pro basketball to go left unnoticed. Michael Thompson was the first Bahamian to play in the N.B.A; Nothing! Ian Lockhart was the second Bahamian and then Dexter Cambridge. When will something tangible be done for these athletes and why is it taking so long?
In boxing arena we have Doner who is the man who feel, since our independence in 1973 had the single greatest achievement in sports. A grave injustice is being done to Elisha Obed who does not even have a gym or a photo of him placed somewhere. Why?
There are many others such as Donnie Martinborough, Leo Rolle, Roger Smith, Richard Johnson and Glen Griffin (just to name a few). We need to get with it for such a small country where the younger ones need people to emulate. They are there in all facets of society so let's do it now save their memories and achievements. As for what should happen for some of these giants i will speak to that in my next article.
Phill Smith.
By Phill Smith
I have been involved in the sporting arena in the Bahamas for many years as an athlete and as a sports reporter. As a basketball player at St. Augustine's college I played under the coaching of two great legends: Vince Ferguson and the late Lou Adderley. In the then Baba John Todd and Steve Pinder. Later I went off to school where I played college level basketball and during that time abroad I had the opportunity to see how the united states treated their athletes. They they adored them and somehow always found ways to insure that they were known by those who came after. Here at home it seems that we are at this late stage. We are still playing service to some of our richest resources; our sporting heroes and we have many.
This week the death of our first major leaguer; Andre Rodgers cemented the position that Andre, in my opinion was not utilized to his maximum potential. He had too much to offer than to just linger around and utilized every now and then. Yes! A stadium was named in his honor but that leaves much to be desired because of its present condition and what Andre represented in this country as far as achievements in sports. In other words the stadium needs immediate attention to match this sporting monument.
When Andre died he left us with only two of our former major leaguers remaining which are Ed Ambrister and Tony Curry. The question is when will we mortalize these two giants so that kids will know who they are and what they did? Currently nothing exists that monuments in anyway the achievements of Ambrister or Curry. Will we wait until they both die? This is exactly what happened with Wendy Ford and Wilfred 'sudgy' Culmer who died and were buried with nothing left behind for future generations to remember these two giants by.
In the area of basketball we have allowed the achievements of Sterling Quaint who was the first Bahamian to play pro basketball to go left unnoticed. Michael Thompson was the first Bahamian to play in the N.B.A; Nothing! Ian Lockhart was the second Bahamian and then Dexter Cambridge. When will something tangible be done for these athletes and why is it taking so long?
In boxing arena we have Doner who is the man who feel, since our independence in 1973 had the single greatest achievement in sports. A grave injustice is being done to Elisha Obed who does not even have a gym or a photo of him placed somewhere. Why?
There are many others such as Donnie Martinborough, Leo Rolle, Roger Smith, Richard Johnson and Glen Griffin (just to name a few). We need to get with it for such a small country where the younger ones need people to emulate. They are there in all facets of society so let's do it now save their memories and achievements. As for what should happen for some of these giants i will speak to that in my next article.
Phill Smith.