When It Comes to Newell, Even Bobby Knight Talks

I had lunch Monday with Pete Newell, the basketball coach’s basketball coach.

He won an NIT title at the University of San Francisco when that was the title to win, an NCAA title at California, and coached a pre-Dream Team dream team, including Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Jerry Lucas, Walt Bellamy and Darrall Imhoff, to the 1960 Olympic gold medal.

But Newell’s contribution to basketball can’t be measured merely in wins and losses. Jeff Fellenzer, a former Times reporter, discovered that a few years ago while freelancing a magazine article about him.

Deciding he needed to speak to Bob Knight, Fellenzer called the Indiana basketball office and was informed the coach was fishing in Montana.

Fellenzer didn’t expect to hear from Knight for a couple of reasons. One was that he was vacationing. The other was that he doesn’t return calls to most reporters even when he’s not.

Knight, however, called the next day, saying he would never pass up the chance to say nice things about Newell.

During the conversation, Fellenzer mentioned that he was thinking about organizing a college basketball tournament and dedicating it to Newell. Fellenzer asked if Indiana would consider participating. Knight said Indiana would insist.

On Dec. 22, Indiana’s basketball team will make its first trip to the Bay Area since 1940, playing USF at the Oakland Coliseum in the first game of the first Pete Newell Challenge. Cal meets BYU in the second game.

Other coaches, among them Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Gene Keady and Tom Penders, are eager get their teams into future tournaments.

UCLA’s Steve Lavin, whose father, Cap, was a captain for one of Newell’s USF teams, is such an admirer he flew to the Bay Area in June to attend the press conference announcing the event, even though the Bruins can’t arrange to play until 1999 at the earliest.

Lavin calls Newell a living legend. Let’s make that clear because these are the sorts of testimonials you usually read about a person in his obituary.

Newell is very much alive. Approaching his 82nd birthday Sunday, he returned to his Palos Verdes home only a couple of days ago from the annual camp he conducts for college and NBA big men in Honolulu.

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Groucho Marx, who didn’t want to belong to any club that would accept him, was among People magazine’s 150 most intriguing people of the century. . . .

Nevertheless, it was an exclusive group. The only four presidents named were Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. . . .

There were nine from sports, including Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe, Nadia Comaneci, Michael Jordan, Vince Lombardi, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods and Babe Didrikson Zaharias. . . .

Producing such a list no doubt was a daunting task, certain to inspire argument. I’d like to think the editors at least considered Wilt Chamberlain, Jack Dempsey, Red Grange, Sonja Henie, Jesse Owens, Knute Rockne and Jim Thorpe. . . .

The only glaring oversight was the omission of Joe Louis. . . .

Carl Lewis runs the last official race of his brilliant career tonight, a 400-meter relay with the Santa Monica Track Club in Berlin. . . .

There couldn’t be a more appropriate site because that’s where his childhood idol, Owens, won four gold medals in 1936. . . .

My vote for track and field’s female athlete of the year would go to Marion Jones. . . .

The Thousand Oaks sprinter’s time of 10.76 seconds in the 100 meters Friday in Brussels tied Evelyn Ashford’s as the sixth-fastest ever. . . .

Florence Griffith Joyner has the four fastest times, including a world record 10.49. But I’ll never be convinced that time wasn’t wind aided. . . .

More credible is her 10.61, which Jones could threaten if she improves her start. . . .

Vic Holchak, a track and field expert from Los Angeles, believes Jones’ best chance for a record could be in the 400. . . .

That could come around the 2004 Olympics in ? . . .

The IOC will vote Sept. 5 to determine the site. Rome and Athens are favored, but Nelson Mandela is expected to make an impassioned plea on behalf of Cape Town, South Africa. . . .

IOC members are concerned about whether there will be a peaceful transition of power if Mandela doesn’t live until 2004. . . .

A consummate politician, he has a response. “Let me go to my grave knowing the Olympics will be in South Africa,” he’s expected to tell the IOC.

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While wondering if Ashe was smiling on Venus Williams, I was thinking: Bill Parcells is finding out what Rich Kotite saw in Wayne Chrebet, I can’t get used to seeing Tennessee among the NFL scores, it seems like the Sparks’ season just started.