The Barrier Had Long Been Broken

In celebration of black history month, pioneer sports figures such as baseball’s Jackie Robinson have been featured in museums and art shows.

Many remember Robinson as the first black to play major league baseball after joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. But according to David Pietrusza in USA Today’s Baseball Weekly, Robinson arrived 63 years after Moses Fleetwood Walker.

Walker, a physician’s son who attended Oberlin College and the University of Michigan, played catcher for Toledo in the American Assn. in 1884. Toledo finished eighth and Walker, whose brother Welday played five games for Toledo that season, batted .263.

“Not all whites appreciated his presence,” Pietrusza writes. “Prior to an exhibition with Cap Anson’s Chicago White Stockings, Anson threatened to walk off the field rather than compete with a black.”

Add Walker: Until Robinson began with the Dodgers, for 63 years, Walker was the answer to two trivia questions: Who was the first black player in the majors and who was the last?

Trivia time: Who was the last boxer Muhammad Ali fought before he was stripped of his world heavyweight title in 1967 and who was his first opponent when he returned in 1970?

Tyson time: While Mike Tyson awaits the decision by the Indiana Court of Appeals for a retrial of his rape case, he will not have to worry about transportation once he is freed.

According to Bill Brubaker of the Washington Post, when Tyson returns to his 70-acre Ohio estate where he has an indoor pool, movie theater and multimillion-dollar jewelry collection, he will have his choice of 27 telephone-equipped luxury cars.

As if he didn’t have enough cars, Tyson completed the purchase of a $264,000 Lamborghini Diablo on the prison pay phone, within the last year.

Bowe who? Friends who have visited Tyson in jail over the last few months say he is looking forward to returning to the ring. A muscular 220 pounds, Tyson runs, lifts weights, does up to 700 sit-ups a day and calls the present crop of heavyweight boxers “pretenders.”

According to his closest friend, Rory Holloway, Tyson said last month: “I was shadow boxing the other day and I said to myself, ‘God, I look gooooood!’ ”

The dancing Celtic? The year was 1950 and Bill Russell was worried that he might not make his high school basketball team. So, rather than give up basketball altogether, Russell tried out for team mascot.

According to the Oakland Tribune, Russell, then a lanky 6-foot-5, 140-pound sophomore, was considered the least talented among the 16 players competing for a spot on the junior varsity squad at Oakland’s McClymonds High School.

And with only 15 uniforms available, Russell tried out for the team and for team mascot. He ended up making the team when the coach decided that he and another marginal player would share the 15th uniform and alternate games.

Hot Hand Williams: After being out of action for a month because of a hand injury, John (Hot Rod) Williams of the Cleveland Cavaliers tried grabbing rice from a bowl with his injured right hand and dipping the hand in hot wax.

It seems to be working. Williams scored 23 points during the Cavaliers’ 110-105 victory over Indiana Monday night although his hand is still in a splint.

Watch your step: A public golf course in Pinehurst, N.C., which received national attention last year by using llamas as caddies, is trying to organize a Llama Open in 1994.

The llama caddies, which cost $100 per golfer, are led around the course by handlers. Each llama carries two golf bags.

“We may have to clean a few spots up,” said John Musto, general manager of Talamore Golf Course. “We do train them to go in certain spots, but llamas that are not familiar with the course--I can’t promise you where they will go.”

Trivia answer: On March 22, 1967, Ali knocked out Zora Folley during the seventh round in New York, and on Oct. 26, 1970, he knocked out Jerry Quarry during the third round in Atlanta.

Quotebook: After facing Boston center Robert Parish, the NBA’s oldest player, for the first time, Shaquille O’Neal, the youngest player in the NBA, smiled and said: “I think he’s in great shape, and he’s going to be a hall of famer. When I take my son to the hall of fame and see Robert Parish. I can say, ‘Son, I played against him.’ ”