THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 29, 1995 TAG: 9512290226
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 161 lines
Joe.
He had to go.
And the moment he admitted it in public he bawled like the little kid he was just a few years back. He collapsed into his mother's lap, people cheered, shutters clicked, lights flashed, emotions streamed out like water over the lip of a coffee cup in the stuffy Maury High School gym.
Joe Smith. Jooooooooe Smiiiiiith!! Basketball star. Nineteen-year-old college sophomore. College player of the year. No. 1 NBA draft choice. Pro. Millionaire.
Man.
On the April 14 morning when Smith declared his eligibility for the draft, forsaking his final two seasons at the University of Maryland, he wrapped up The Virginian-Pilot's Sportsman of the Year award. Because of what he'd done. Because of what would follow.
You can see that now. No athlete or sports personality from South Hampton Roads, Norfolk born and raised no less, was in more national news dispatches and video clips, had more of his life picked over by strangers, answered more questions, shook more hands and smiled more smiles than Smith.
Anyone else so youthful submits himself to that mix of scrutiny and reverence, there's no telling how he emerges. Somehow, though, you knew Smith was going to be all right.
Probably that had most to do with Letha Smith, who rubbed her son's shoulders that day he slumped into her, chest heaving, pressure cap burst. A single parent with a modest ranch home in Lamberts Point, she taught Joe well when he was younger, that much is obvious.
And now that he's older, she cooks his meals in the comfortable San Francisco suburbs when Joe's team, the Golden State Warriors, is home.
``I have a hard time getting him to eat breakfast,'' Letha Smith told a Washington reporter recently. ``So this week, we made a decision: `Breakfast is your main meal of the day, and you are going to eat breakfast.' ''
Nice.
A mom can only do so much, though. Deportment, compassion, common sense, respect for his fellow man, this is where Joe, too, gets credit. And watch. It won't be too long before he puts part of his three-year, $8.5 million contract to work in Norfolk.
That's not fact. Just a feeling.
He is starting in the NBA, averaging 13 points and nearly seven rebounds, the fourth-leading scorer and second-best rebounder on his team. But there are struggles, the usual rookie stuff. Inconsistency. Uncertainty. Fatigue. Dissatisfaction with parts of his game. Plus, the Warriors aren't playing well, leaving Bay Area fans grumbling about their chemistry and heart.
For Smith, it's a huge gulp of reality away from the Larchmont Rec Center, from Maury and from College Park, that's for sure. About the worst thing that happened to Smith in college was being disqualified from consideration for the Wooden Award because his grade-point average wasn't high enough.
These days there is more serious business at stake. Riches, fame, entering a profession at the top floor, that all comes with a price. In 1995, the education of Joe Smith, who can't even legally buy a beer until July 26, covered this and more.
He learned well, and he'll continue to become a bigger, better man than he already is. Because while wondrous years come to an end, the learning never stops.
In many ways it was a pretty spectacular year for some other notable area sportsmen and sportswomen, four of whom are highlighted here in no particular order of merit:
The Rhodes less traveled: This year, Old Dominion University's first Rhodes Scholar finalist and winner was in our midst. Senior field hockey captain Samantha Salvia received that coveted honor and the chance to study at Oxford.
As a student, the 21-year-old from Norristown, Pa., majors in environmental civil engineering and was an academic All-American the last two years. As an athlete, Salvia, a midfielder, ranked fourth in the country last season with 22 assists.
Which proves she is not only adept at setting up goals, but claiming them as well. On whichever field of play she chooses.
The Art of the deal: Art Collins doesn't shoot 3-pointers or throw strikes, but in 1995 he beat a mean drum as leader of the Hampton Roads Sports Authority, promoting the virtues of becoming a ``big league'' market.
Collins, also executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, stepped up aggressively in the push toward regionalism, considered the key to the whole big league sports process. A Sports Authority study produced a vision of a 20,000-seat, $140 million arena, paid for by a hike in sales tax, that, in a frenzied time of franchise relocation, could be our ticket into the NBA or NHL.
The study was ``designed to create community-wide discussion of what an arena could do for Hampton Roads,'' Collins said. Look for Collins to continue at the forefront of that conversation.
Date with destiny: Before Jeff Capel took over as coach, Old Dominion's men's basketball team had not won a game in the NCAA tournament since the 1985-86 season. In fact, the Monarchs had made the tournament only once in that time.
That all changed in '95, and in spectacular fashion. Capel, in his first season after one year at North Carolina A&T, not only led ODU to the Colonial Athletic Association championship, he orchestrated the upset of the NCAA tournament.
ODU, seeded 14th, pulled out a three-overtime, first-round victory over No. 3 Villanova that thrilled viewers from coast to coast as CBS cut in to provide national exposure.
The Monarchs bowed out to Tulsa in the second round, but a message had been sent, one that had recruits who otherwise would never have noticed ODU suddenly giving Capel their ear.
It was the kind of game that builds programs and gives coaches credibility. As if Capel needed any more.
Miller's time: She scored 10 goals in one game, 63 for the season, 160 for her career. Cox's Kim Miller, a bold competitor with the swiftest of feet, branded her name all over the state and national record books as the Falcons won their seventh consecutive state field hockey title.
Miller became the state's all-time leader for goals in a season and career. On the national list for career goals, Miller finished third while establishing herself as one of the country's finest high school players.
``I'm going to miss playing with this team more than you could ever understand,'' Miller said through tears after Cox won the championship. ``This is both a great moment and something that's going to be hard for me to handle.''
The same could be said for trying to replace Miller at Cox.
Hampton Roads sports fans also tipped their caps to these special achievers in '95:
Anne Donovan, former ODU star and assistant coach inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame;
Chris Elmore, Green Run pitcher who went 18-0 in his career and threw a one-hit, 17-strikeout game in the state final;
Mike Bernard, Norfolk State basketball coach who drove the Spartans to the Division II Final Four;
Nancy Fowlkes, Cox field hockey coach, the state's winningest coach with 289 victories in 23 years;
J. Herbert Simpson, who retired from a 24-year career as executive director of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in Portsmouth;
Petey Sessoms, ODU basketball star who capped a fine career by outplaying Villanova All-American Kerry Kittles in the NCAA tournament. Tonya Williams of Illinois, a Norview graduate, and Lawrence Johnson of Tennessee, a Great Bridge Grad, became the first local NCAA Division I track champions, winning the 400-meter hurdles and pole vault, respectively. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff illustration by John Corbitt
[Joe Smith]<
B\W Photos
Samantha Salvia
Art Collins
Jeff Capel
Kim Miller
[Side Bar]
1995 Champs
[List of Champions]
[Auto Racing]
[Baseball]
[Basketball]
[Football]
[Golf]
[Horse Racing]
[Hockey]
[Tennis]
For copy of complete list, see microfilm
by CNB