Note: A few individual honorees and stories are BHF (before Hooking...Foul.) and will be denoted as "Classic." They were so "special" we would be remiss to leave them out.
HONORED INDIVIDUALS
Cory Petero, former youth football coach...inducted 10/6/06.
Latrell Sprewell, former basketball player, NBA (Classic)...inducted 10/6/06.
Jose Canseco, former baseball player, MLB...inducted 10/5/06.
Ron Artest, basketball player, NBA (Classic)...inducted 9/15/06.
Maurice Clarett, former running back, NCAA...inducted 9/8/06.
Angela Keathley, former cheerleader, NFL (Classic)...inducted 9/5/06.
Renee Thomas, former cheerleader, NFL (Classic)...inducted 9/5/06.
Ricky Williams, former running back, NFL (Classic)...inducted 9/2/06.
Onterrio Smith, former running back, NFL (Classic)...inducted 9/2/06.
HONORED STORIES
Youth Coach Surrenders After Striking Player
STOCKTON, Calif. (KCRA.com) -- A Riverbank youth football coach who triggered a brawl after running onto the field and striking a player has turned himself in to police and is facing charges of child abuse.
The incident happened during a Pop Warner football game in Stockton on Saturday. A 13-year-old player was knocked to the ground by an assistant coach from the opposing team.
"For a parent/coach to come out and attack one of my kids, it's just terrifying," Stockton Bears Coach Rudy Garrido said.
The Bears were facing the Redskins from Riverbank. With less than a minute left to play in the game and Redskins leading 16-6, there was a late hit on a Redskin player by a Stockton Bear. Right after that, the Redskin player's father -- who is also an assistant coach -- ran onto the field to deliver his own knock-down tackle.
Immediately after that, parents from both teams rushed on the field and began trading punches.
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SUBJECTS: Football | Parents | Fight
Sprewell: I never choked coach (Classic)
(SLAM!) -- Though he admits he had his hands around the neck of his coach, Latrell Sprewell insists he never choked P.J. Carlesimo and he does not need anger counseling before returning to the NBA.
In a transcript of an interview broadcast Sunday night on CBS' "60 Minutes," Sprewell said the marks on Carlesimo's neck were made by his nails and prove he wasn't choking the Golden State Warriors' coach.
"I wasn't choking P.J. I mean, P.J., he could breathe. It's not like he was losing air or anything like that. I mean, it wasn't a choke, I wasn't trying to kill P.J.," Sprewell said in his first public comments since an arbitrator reduced his punishment Wednesday.
"If you're choking someone, you don't get scratches. You get welts totally around your neck. It's not like I was going to sit there and kill the man. No, I would have stopped, definitely."
Warriors spokesman Eric McDowell said the team would not comment Sunday on Sprewell's remarks.
Sprewell attacked Carlesimo at practice Dec. 1. Two days later, the Warriors terminated the remaining three years on Sprewell's $32 million contract. The following day, the NBA suspended Sprewell for a year.
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SUBJECTS: Latrell Sprewell | P.J. Carlesimo | Basketball | Assault | Suspension | Golden State Warriors
Canseco walks five, hits four for Armada
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Jose Canseco's knuckleball was uncontrollable -- and it made his debut as a starting pitcher pretty ugly.
The former American League MVP hit four batters and walked five others in 4 1-3 innings for the Long Beach Armada on Wednesday night. He also gave up a home run on a "flat knuckleball" and recorded his first career strikeout during an 8-2 loss to the Reno Silver Fox.
"Overall, it felt pretty good," said Canseco, who joined the independent Golden Baseball League earlier this year. "It took me a little while to get a rhythm out there, and I walked too many guys. It should get better."
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SUBJECTS: Jose Canseco | Baseball | Golden Baseball League
Indy's Artest suspended for season after brawl (Classic)
NEW YORK (ESPN) -- Ron Artest was suspended for the rest of the season Sunday, and two of his Indiana Pacers teammates must miss a total of 55 games for fighting with fans during a melee that broke out at the end of a game against the Detroit Pistons.
Overall, the NBA issued some of the harshest penalties in its history by banning nine players for more than 140 games. Artest's suspension is the strongest ever levied for a fight during a game.
"The line is drawn, and my guess is that won't happen again -- certainly not by anybody who wants to be associated with our league," commissioner David Stern said.
Indiana's Stephen Jackson was suspended for 30 games and Jermaine O'Neal for 25. Detroit's Ben Wallace -- whose shove of Artest after a foul led to the five-minute fracas -- drew a six-game ban, while Pacers guard Anthony Johnson got five games.
"I'm sick about that for Indiana. I'm devastated for them," Pistons coach Larry Brown said. "And we lost our heart and soul."
Four players -- Indiana's Reggie Miller, and Detroit's Chauncey Billups, Elden Campbell and Derrick Coleman -- were suspended one game apiece for leaving the bench during the initial fracas.
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SUBJECTS: Ron Artest | Basketball | Fight | Suspension | Indiana Pacers
Lawyer: Clarett has ties to alleged Israeli mobster
(ESPN) -- Maurice Clarett was bankrolled by an alleged member of an Israeli crime organization after leaving Ohio State, ESPN has learned, and Clarett's attorney said Thursday that his client may have been in possession of firearms last week to protect himself against mob activity.
Clarett's attorney, Nick Mango, said Thursday that Clarett has repeatedly received death threats over the past year but that a cryptic postcard sent from Los Angeles last week has him wondering about Clarett's ties to an alleged mob enforcer.
In the late summer of 2004, ESPN has learned, Clarett traveled to Los Angeles and was introduced by a rapper friend to Hai Waknine, 35, a convicted felon who prosecutors believe is a member of an Israeli crime organization called The Jerusalem Group. Waknine, who at the time was being indicted on extortion and money-laundering charges, became Clarett's sponsor and adviser, along with Waknine's attorney, David Kenner. Waknine provided Clarett with cash, a BMW, bodyguards, drivers and beachfront lodging in Malibu, with the understanding that he would be reimbursed and receive 60 percent of Clarett's rookie contract.
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SUBJECTS: Maurice Clarett | Football | The Mob
Two Panthers cheerleaders dismissed (Classic)
TAMPA (ESPN) -- Two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders who witnesses told police were having sex with each other in a bathroom stall at a Tampa, Fla., nightclub were arrested and charged early Sunday following a run-in with patrons and police.
According to a police report obtained by the CBS TV affiliate in Tampa and the Charlotte Observer, Angela Ellen Keathley and Renee Thomas were arrested following an incident at Banana Joe's, in Tampa's Channelside district, at 2:10 a.m. ET.
The cheerleaders were kicked off the team Monday for violating a signed code of conduct, Panthers spokesman Charlie Dayton said. The two violated a rule that bans conduct that's embarrassing to the team or organization.
In the police report, witnesses claimed Thomas and Keathley were having sex with each other in a stall when other patrons grew angry that the two were taking so long in the bathroom.
Another woman waiting to use the bathroom got into an argument with the two, and Thomas hit that person in the face, according to details of the report posted on TampaBay10.com, the CBS TV affiliate's Web site.
Keathley, who was escorted from the nightclub, was so drunk she could barely stand, the report said. Police described Keathley as rude and belligerent with police.
When Thomas was arrested, she gave police the name of another Panthers cheerleader -- Kristen Lanier Owen, the Observer and TampaBay10.com reported. Thomas, who was charged with one count of battery, might face additional charges for lying to police, once they confirm her identity.
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SUBJECTS: Football | Cheerleaders | Carolina Panthers | Angela Keathley | Renee Thomas | Lesbians | Arrest | Alcohol
Williams trades demands of NFL for travel (Classic)
MIAMI (ESPN) -- The first sign of a change in Ricky Williams came when he returned from vacation in Australia last winter with a shaved head, the distinctive dreadlocks gone.
Now he's gone, too. Williams has decided to retire at the peak of his career, stunning the Miami Dolphins and leaving an enormous void in their backfield less than a week before the start of training camp.
Williams, who rushed for 3,225 yards in two seasons with the Dolphins, phoned from Hawaii to inform coach Dave Wannstedt of his decision, then continued his travels by flying to Tokyo.
"He wants to get on with his life, wants to move on to bigger and better things," Miami Herald reporter and ESPN commentator Dan Le Batard told SportsCenter.
Former Vikings running back Robert Smith, who stunned Minnesota when he walked away from the game at age 28 after the 2000 season, told ESPN Radio on Sunday night Williams had spoken to him about retirement in June.
"Ricky told me back in June that he was going to retire after the season," Smith said on ESPN Radio's GameNight on Sunday. "I guess I'm a little bit surprised that he did it before the season, but he told me back then he was going to retire after the season.
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SUBJECTS: Ricky Williams | Football | Miami Dolphins | Retirement
Viking had 'Whizzinator' drug-masking kit (Classic)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Vikings running back Onterrio Smith, who has a history of violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy, was briefly detained by airport police last month after they found an elaborate kit used to beat drug tests.
Police at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport questioned Smith on April 21 after a search of his bag discovered vials of white powder, according to a police report.
Smith told officers it was dried urine used in conjunction with a device called “The Original Whizzinator.” The officer who filed the report wrote that Smith “told me that it was dried urine for making a clean urine test.” In addition, he had a bottle of pills labeled “cleansing formula.”
Smith told police he was taking the vials to his cousin. The police report didn’t say where Smith was traveling. The Star Tribune first reported the story Wednesday.
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SUBJECTS: Onterrio Smith | Football | Minnesota Vikings | Whizzinator
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