Boise Births the Grandbaby of Them All

What better time than now, amid the pageantry and the ritual violence of football, football, football that is New Year’s Day, to reflect on the fact that something called the Humanitarian Bowl was played Monday in Boise? And be assured that in this time of the Carquest Bowl, the Insight.com Bowl and the Poulan/Weed Eater Bowl, the term “Humanitarian” wasn’t just the propagandistic moniker of some money-grubbing HMO or insurance firm.

No Nobel Peace Prize laureates were sighted in Boise--alas, Mother Teresa was no longer available for the coin toss--but organizer Myron Finkbeiner says the inaugural Humanitarian Bowl honored some genuine good guys who also happen to be jocks.

“Yeah, we get teased a lot,” Finkbeiner says by phone from Boise. “People come in here and say, ‘Oh, so this is the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame. In Boise.’ ”

To which Finkbeiner may say: Well, why not? Cooperstown has baseball’s Hall of Fame. (Pete Rose has been kept out.) Canton has football’s. (O.J. Simpson has been kept in.) There are, Finkbeiner says, no less than 120 sports halls of fame in America, including ones for fly fishing and mountain biking. But Boise has the only one expressly dedicated to athletes for their good deeds off the field.

The 4-year-old hall of fame is a humble affair that honors its 12 inductees (three each year) in temporary quarters. Finkbeiner says $2 million has been raised toward the $6 million needed to a planned 30,000-square-foot museum. (Former President Gerald Ford, who played college football, is on the selection committee.)

It’s easier to explain why this hall of fame exists than to explain why it’s in Boise. A onetime basketball coach at Point Loma Nazarene College in San Diego, Finkbeiner, who is 64, said he has always believed great athletes should be positive role models--especially now, when so many sports stars are better known for spitting, biting, even choking. This hall of fame was Finkbeiner’s dream and now he works as its president and executive director.

So while baseball’s good name is tainted by Pete Rose’s passion for gambling and Roberto Alomar’s expectoration, Boise’s hall has honored such figures as Dale Murphy and the late Roberto Clemente for their extraordinary personal commitment to charity. And as basketball tries to deal with the misdeeds of Latrell Sprewell and Dennis Rodman, Boise honors Julius Erving and Kevin Johnson. The hall has also inducted such familiar names as the late tennis great Arthur Ashe, gold medal decathlete Rafer Johnson and golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez, as well as skater Bonnie Blair, diver Pat McCormick and the Kenyan runner Kip Keino.

A few nights before the inaugural Humanitarian Bowl, a dinner honored this year’s three inductees.

The Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Johnson was hailed for founding St. Hope Academy, the program for inner-city youth in Phoenix. It was noted that, rather than become a free agent and likely sign a contract with another team worth millions, Johnson said he couldn’t see leaving behind St. Hope Academy.

Billy Mills, the 1964 Olympian whose story inspired the TV movie “Running Brave,” is a member of the Lakota nation who grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He founded Running Strong for American Indian Youth, a foundation that is now involved in the digging of 40 water wells on impoverished reservations.

And retired Pittsburgh Steeler star Mel Blount, already a member of football’s hall of fame, established a working ranch south of Pittsburgh where disadvantaged inner-city children gather every year for lessons on responsibility. Racists burned crosses on Blount’s lawn, but Blount pressed on.

Ironies abound here, and irony helps invite cynicism. On the gridiron Blount was renowned for his vicious tackles, not humanitarian spirit. And football might well be our most inhumane major sport.

History will note that the first play of the first Humanitarian Bowl was marked by trash talking, pushing and shoving. The refs, perhaps in shock, didn’t flag anybody for unsportsmanlike conduct. There was more pushing and shoving in the game’s final seconds.

But at halftime, a player from each team--Utah State and the University of Cincinnati--was honored for their good works.

Our designated heroes, of course, are often found to have feet of clay. And so the Boise hall, Finkbeiner says, requires that considerable research be done to assure that honorees are above reproach.

Football star Warren Moon, Finkbeiner notes, was nominated one year but not the next, after he was charged with beating his wife. Finkbeiner tells of how Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus objected to the possible nomination of Magic Johnson because of Johnson’s history of promiscuity. Muhammad Ali, considered a humanitarian hero by many, has thus far been judged too controversial for various reasons. (Or maybe it’s that Floyd Patterson, whom a brash young Ali toyed with in the ring, is on the hall’s selection committee.)

Meanwhile, the new Humanitarian Bowl, which is sponsored by the Big West Conference, got off to a humble but promising start, Finkbeiner says. It was televised by ESPN2 and attendance of 16,001 exceeded by 1,000 the break-even mark for ticket sales, he says.

Cincinnati, incidentally, won 35-19.

This newest bowl does not have such a pure opinion of itself that it would discourage corporate sponsorship. The bowl’s nonprofit status prohibits it from taking money from tobacco or liquor outfits, but other companies might want to spruce up their image by attaching their name to this game. (Microsoft? Nike? Wal-Mart?)

“Well,” says Finkbeiner, “money talks.”

So here’s hoping the Humanitarian Bowl, if it must sell itself, sells to a sponsor worthy of the name. The Boise State Stadium already has an unusual nickname because of its distinctive blue artificial turf, but it might not be the best sponsor. The stadium is called the Tidy Bowl.

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Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to him at The Times’ Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311, or via e-mail at scott.harris@latimes.com Please include a phone number.