Talking Sports: A walk down memory lane with famous pros

I played softball with Craig Swan in the summer of 1986. Maybe you never heard of Swan, but he pitched in major leagues for about 10 years. As a national league hurler, he struck out a lot as a hitter – but he could smack the daylights out of softball.

I haven’t crossed paths with too many famous athletes in my time, but they always seemed to be memories that stick with me. Funny how they never remember me though – even on the rare occasions when I have met one for a second time.

On Friday night at 7, the Sidney High School boys’ basketball team is going host Scottsbluff at the Cabela’s Athletic Facility.

At the Rolling Hills Hotel and Country Club west of Fort Lauderdale, Florida about 1998, ex-Nebraska Cornhusker and then Miami Dolphins’ player Lawrence Phillips was often seen hobbling around the lobby on crutches. I was the second shift bell captain. I was at his service five nights a week.

He never asked for a thing. Always exceedingly polite, however, with ever a pleasant greeting. I’ve heard others have had different experiences with Lawrence.

Also at 7 p.m. on Friday, the Sidney High School girls’ basketball team is traveling to Scottsbluff.

At Belmont Park – home of the Belmont Stakes – I came across a pair of NHL greats, Phil Esposito and John Davidson. They couldn’t tell me who was going to win the fourth race that day. A year or so later, I saw them again in a hotel lobby in New York City.

“Hey guys, remember me!”

No? Don’t you remember when I asked you who would win Belmont’s fourth that day last summer? How could they forget? Hey Phil, it’s Steve. I could of swore Phil would remember me. I remembered them.

The energy at Sidney High School should be electric Friday night. In Scottsbluff, too.

When I walked up to the late, great Howard Cosell, he didn’t seem quite as pompous in person as on the air. He seemed, oddly enough, shy and full of himself at the same time. Despite his kindness, I still could barley contain the urge to rip the toupee right off his head.Man, what a rug!

A huge game for both Sidney and Scottsbluff – home for the boys and away for the girls. It won’t be the end for any of the four, but it could prove a big beginning for one or more. Dr. Seuss must have given me that line.

Hours after the New York Islanders won the 1980 Stanley Cup, some friends and I hung out with the team at a party held at General Manager Bill Torrey’s house. The Stanley Cup was in the driveway. Torrey lived just a couple of miles from where I grew up. They were almost all there and most were so drunk with joy and beverages, they treated us like invited guests.

I became so drunk with excitement that I told an Ice Lander how happy I was that they had won. But I woke up the next day still a Rangers fan. Rangers? Islanders? Stanley? Who’s Stanley? Does he live in the panhandle too? Is ice hockey even a sport recognized by the NHLPA?

This will be one of those nights where you wish you could be in two places at once.

I didn’t meet him. But I was walking down First Avenue in New York City when Mayor Ed Koch was heading in my direction with a bull horn. He kept yelling into the horn, “How am I doing! How am I doing!” as he kept up a brisk pace down the avenue. And I thought he held his clown routine just for the TV cameras.

District supremacy will be on the line in two gyms separated by 77 miles.

While on an assignment for a newspaper last summer, legendary high jumper Dick Fosbury was telling me he’s in the process of dreaming up a better way to get over the high jump. Of course it was he who invented the last revolution nearly 50 years ago.

How do you like that? He’s won an Olympic gold medal, revolutionized a sport, kicked cancer, passed on his vast knowledge to thousands of aspiring high jumpers and still he’s looking for more efficient way to jump over the moon at age 67. I guess that’s how he got to be him.

Did I ever tell you I was once friends with a guy, who knew a guy, who once touched Giants’ legend Willie McCovey on the shoulder?

Best of luck against Scottsbluff, Red.