Presented by CASCADE RAFT COMPANY.
Monday, June 6, 2016.
Tweaking a much-discussed old football phrase here in the aftermath of Saturday night’s USL exhibition game between the Portland Timbers 2 and Swope Park Rangers of Kansas City. In this case, is Boise a soccer town or an event town? The Basque Soccer Friendly at Albertsons Stadium last summer was an event, drawing 21,948 to see an international soccer match—and the blue turf covered with natural grass. Saturday’s game was seen as a barometer of Boise’s worthiness of a future USL franchise, and it sold out, with a count of 4,352 at Rocky Mountain High. It was an event, to be sure, and it was well-promoted. Would attendance approach that on a regular basis for a local USL team? That is the question.
Boise went from 1963 to 1987 with only three minor league sports seasons of any kind, the Boise A’s (1975-76) and the Boise Buckskins (1978). Since the Hawks arrived, the area has had a generally vibrant minor league scene. The Idaho Steelheads and Idaho Stampede came about in 1997. The Hawks have had their ups and downs in the new century but appear to be in the ups as they continues to harbor hopes of a new stadium. The Steelheads have had a strong run, while the Stampede ultimately didn’t make it, victims of a small fan base and competition from a Division I college program. Soccer would seem to have challenges as a mainstream sport. The difference might be that there is a super-dedicated soccer community in the Treasure Valley that would take the success of a USL franchise personally.
As for Saturday night’s game, Timbers 2 forged a 2-0 lead and held on to defeat the Swope Park Rangers 2-1. It was the first neutral-site regular-season game in USL history, and league president Jake Edwards was there to see it. Since it was a regular-season contest, the starts by Eagle’s Blake Bodily and Pocatello’s Terrell Lowe weren’t just window dressing for family and friends in the crowd. They earned their spots.
The Big 12 meetings are over in Irving, TX. The conference is bringing back its football championship game in 2017 and is set to divide into two divisions—with 10 teams. The Big 12 just paid lip service to expansion. “I’ll just say we’re not ready to vote on expansion,” said David Boren, the Oklahoma president and chairman of the league board. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to reach some kind of consensus. It may be a consensus that we keep revisiting it in the future. We’re definitely committed to talking to each other as a group before the summer is over.” Is that non-commital or what? Boise State had low expectations surrounding the outcome of these meetings to begin with. For schools like BYU, whose hopes were so high, this is a downer.
Denver Broncos center Matt Paradis spent the weekend in Boise working Alex Guerrero’s seventh annual Gridiron Dreams Football Academy. Now the former Boise State and Council High star is headed for Washington, DC, as President Obama is set to honor Denver today for its championship in Super Bowl 50. From being waived by the Broncos, to a season on the practice squad, to the starting lineup, to a Super Bowl ring, to the White House. Not a bad ride.
It was going to be a sad, sad day when Muhammad Ali passed away, and that day came late Friday when he died at the age of 74. Boise’s connection in the ring with Ali came early in his career, when he was known as Cassius Clay. He fought Boise’s George Logan at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles in April, 1962, less than two years after Ali’s Olympic gold medal. The matchmaker was the legendary Joe Louis. Ali won by technical knockout at 1:34 of the fourth round and took home a guaranteed $7,500—Logan was guaranteed $4,000. The Boise boxer had a 25-9-2 record with 16 knockouts during a nine-year pro career.
PGA Tour Sectional Qualifying commences today at 10 sites around the country, including Royal Oaks Country Club in Vancouver, WA. Former Eagle High and Boise State standout Ty Travis, new Eagle High graduate and Texas A&M-bound Josh Gliege and Washington State golfer Nick Mandell will be in the field there after making it through Local Qualifying last month at TimberStone in Caldwell. Close to half the field for the U.S. Open next week in Oakmont, PA, could be decided by Sectional Qualifying.
Lewis-Clark State has its 18th all-time NAIA World Series championship in the bag after out-slugging Faulkner University of Alabama 12-11 Friday night in Lewiston. Harris Field was no match for either team’s bats, as they combined for an NAIA World Series single-game record 11 home runs. The old mark of eight had stood for 29 years. The Warriors hit six of the round-trippers, including two from sophomore Micah Brown. The wild affair ended when the player representing Faulkner’s potential tying run was thrown out at third base in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Congratulations to Middleton’s Tiana Thomas, named the 2016 Cascade Conference Women’s Track and Field Athlete of the Year. The College of Idaho senior wrapped up her career with a slew of exclamation points. Thomas claimed five conference titles and four NAIA All-America honors, capped by a national title in the 400-meter hurdles at the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
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June 6, 1956: The birthday of one of the all-time greats in tennis, Bjorn Borg, who dominated the sport from 1974-81. Borg won 11 Grand Slam singles crowns, including five straight championships at Wimbledon from 1976-80. In three of his Grand Slam title runs, he did not lose a set. Borg, however, never won the U.S. Open. By the end of 1982, he was burned out—and he retired at the age of 26. Bjorn Borg…60 years old today.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 The Ticket. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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