This week’s edition of Lots O' Stuff is again a combo platter of spring and winter items.
Winning run
Jackson County Central graduate Aba Turner scored the winning run for the North Dakota State softball team in an extra inning win over Army at a tournament in College Park, Maryland Saturday.
A junior with the Bison, Turner scored with one out in the bottom of the ninth to give NDSU a 5-4 win over Army.
The Black Knights had scored in the top of the ninth to go ahead 4-3.
Using the International tiebreaker rule, NDSU started the bottom of the ninth. That runner scored on a double to tie the game and then Turner came in as the pinch-runner at second. She advanced to third on a fly ball to center field and then scored the winning run on an error.
North Dakota State won four straight to start the tournament before losing to host Maryland 5-3 in the seeded championship game Sunday.
The Bison (18-13) open Summit League play next weekend vs. South Dakota in Vermillion, playing the Coyotes in a doubleheader Saturday and a single game on Sunday.
First home appearance
After starts at U.S. Bank Stadium and Arizona, JCC grad Gavin Jacobsen made his first home start for the Bethany Lutheran College baseball team vs. Buena Vista University Saturday at ISG Field in Mankato.
Jacobsen took the pitching loss, going 4 1/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on five hits, walking one, hitting one and striking out three. He’s 1-1 on the season.
The Vikings are scheduled to host nonconference doubleheaders vs. Macalaster Saturday and Saint Mary’s Sunday.
State tournament officials
Some familiar faces from the region officiated at the state girls basketball tournament.
Ben Scheevel and Jordan Voss of Fairmont, Tom Bromeland of Blue Earth and Tim Hinkeldey all did games at the tourney.
Scheevel was one of the officials for the Class 1A championship game.
And, despite what you hear in stands during games, there are some people who come to watch the referees:
Bromeland also recently worked the NJCAA Division III national women’s tournament in Rochester.
Academic honors
Two Jackson County Central graduates competing in sports at Augustana University have received winter All-Academic honors from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
Earning the award were Hailey Handevidt, a junior with the Vikings’ women’s swimming and diving team; and Jacob Tvinnereim, a junior with the Augustana wrestling program.
NSIC All-Academic team members must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.20 or higher.
Also, the student-athlete must be a member of the varsity traveling team, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing and must have completed at least one full academic year at that institution.
If you read yesterday’s newsletter about the 1944 Utah NIT and NCAA basketball champions, you may recall that one of the Utes, Arnie Ferrin, went on to play with the Minneapolis Lakers.
The following is a tangent I went off on that was cut out because I thought the overall piece was too lengthy.
Since I’d already written it, and I thought it was kids of interesting, here it is:
The Lakers won the Basketball Association of America (later the NBA) championship in 1949, beating the Washington Capitols four games to two.
That Washington team was coached by Red Auerbach.
He later coached the Tri-City Blackhawks and is certainly best known as coach of the Boston Celtics, where his teams would win nine titles in 10 years, including eight straight from 1959-1966.
He became well known for smoking a cigar on the bench when he thought a victory was assured.
Prior to the 1965-66 season, Auerbach had announced it would be his last as coach of the Celtics.
The next April, following a loss in Game One of the 1966 NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers (yes, the finals were in April then) Auerbach he publicly named Bill Russell as his successor. Boston won the series in seven games to send Auerbach out on top.
Russell would become a player-coach and was the first African-American head coach ever in the four major North American professional team sports.
And that wasn’t the first sports color barrier that Auerbach broke.
In his first season in Boston in 1950, much to the chagrin of many in New England, Auerbach did not select Bob Cousy, an all-American from nearby Holy Cross. He argued that the flashy Cousy lacked the poise necessary to make his team, taunting him as a "local yokel".
Instead, he drafted African-American Chuck Cooper, the first black player to be drafted by an NBA club.
Cousy was drafted by Auerbach’s former team, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks as the third overall pick in the first round of the 1950 NBA draft, but he refused to report. He was picked up by the Chicago Stags but became available when that club folded. Boston acquired him in a dispersal draft of Chicago players.