Slick Watts

This past week, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame also inducted basketball player Donald "Slick" Watts. The former NAIA All-American at Xavier University in New Orleans went on to become a cult hero in Seattle as a star guard playing for the Supersonics. Having gone undrafted in 1973, Watts was signed as a free agent by the Sonics thanks in part to then Seattle coach and general manager Bill Russell being the cousin of then Xavier coach Bob Hopkins. With his bald head and stylish headbands, Watts worked his way into the starting line-up for the Sonics in 1975 and wound up leading the NBA in both assists and steals that season. Midway through the 1977-78 season, Watts was traded to the New Orleans Jazz where he filled in for an injured Pete Maravich. Succumbing to his own injuries, Watts concluded his 6-year NBA career with the Houston Rockets.

Buford Jordan

Congratulations to former New Orleans Saints fullback Buford Jordan for being inducted to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. After setting the Louisiana college record for career rushing yards during his four years playing at McNeese State, Jordan starred in the USFL playing for the New Orleans and then Portland Breakers. After joining the NFL and the Saints in 1986, Jordan successfully served as chief blocking back in front of tailbacks Rueben Mayes and Dalton Hilliard as the Saints started approximating what a winning franchise should look like. Jordan was inducted last week to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame along with fellow Whodat veterans Morten Andersen and Vaughan Johnson.

Vida Blue

I recall that in 1979 the very first pack of baseball cards that my dad ever bought me had the Vida Blue card shown above in it. Of course, I already knew who Vida Blue was since he was a product of Mansfield, Louisiana. When Blue was attending DeSoto High School, he was a football star in addition to a genius on the baseball field. Playing quarterback for a 10-2 DeSoto squad his senior year, Blue threw for 3,484 yards and 35 touchdowns and also ran for an additional 1,600 yards. Yet despite many football scholarship offers, Blue stuck with baseball and wound up playing 17 major league seasons with the Oakland A's, San Francisco Giants, and Kansas City Royals. A 3-time All-Star, Blue won both the 1971 American League Cy Young and MVP awards, finishing the year with an astonishing 1.82 ERA. Leading up to the A's winning back-to-back-to-back World Series championships from 1972-74, Blue became the fodder for r-n-b singer Albert Jones to record a song about him...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs_8KRZZd2Y

Alvin Dark

Alvin Dark enjoyed quite the dynamic sports career, initially surfacing as an effective running back in the same backfield as Steve Van Buren at LSU circa 1942. The Oklahoma native would then upon returning from service in World War II transfer to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and prove himself to be just as talented at baseball as he was at football. Beginning his major league career with a bang in 1948, Dark became the MLB Rookie of the Year for the Boston Braves. Playing shortstop and third base, Dark also spent quality time playing for the New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and Milwaukee Braves during the course of his 14 seasons in the bigs. Starting in 1961, Dark then went on to manage the San Francisco Giants, Kansas City Athletics, Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, and San Diego Padres, winning a pennant with the Giants in 1962 and the World Series for the Athletics in 1974.

However for all of his successes and accolades, Dark produced controversy of the ugliest order by publicly stating during the 1964 season as manager of the San Francisco Giants that: "We have trouble because we have so many Negro and Spanish-speaking ball players on this team. They are just not able to perform up to the white ball players when it comes to mental alertness. You can't make most Negro and Spanish players have the pride in their team that you can get from white players." Let's not forget that he was evidently including then-Giant players and future-Hall-of-Famers Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, and Juan Marichal within that sweeping analysis.