Sports
R.I.'s brush with Fame
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, September 8, 2006
When Dave Gavitt walks across the stage tonight and is formally enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, he'll be joining a select club.
The hoops' Hall currently celebrates the achievements of just 258 individuals and five teams. That list will grow by six with Gavitt joining UConn women's coach Geno Auriemma, Italian coach Sandro Gamba and former NBA stars Charles Barkley, Joe Dumars and Dominique Wilkins in this year's class.
But Gavitt's achievement also punches his ticket to an even more select society. Gavitt was born in Westerly and lived there until his family moved to Peterborough, N.H. when he was 11. He'll become the first Rhode Island native to enter basketball's Hall and only the fourth person born in the Ocean State to be included in a Hall of Fame in the four major sports.
No Rhode Islander is enshrined in either the football or hockey Hall of Fame, but the careers of three natives live forever at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Lajoie was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1937 as part of just the second class ever inducted. He was joined by all-time greats Tris Speaker, Cy Young, John McGraw and Connie Mack, among others.
There are two "adopted" Rhode Islanders who are in notable halls of fame. Frank Keaney, the University of Rhode Island basketball coach, joined the legends in Springfield, Mass., in 1960. Keaney, who was born in Boston, modernized the game with the creation of the fastbreak, and in 28 seasons in Kingston (403-124), his Rams never had a losing season and played in four National Invitation Tournaments.
Brown University football great Fredrick "Fritz" Pollard is a new (2005) inductee into pro football's Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Pollard was an All-America halfback at Brown who led the Bears to the Rose Bowl in 1915, turned pro in 1919 and became one of two blacks in the American Professional Football Association, later renamed the National Football League. Pollard, who was born in Chicago, became the first black head coach in NFL history when he served as player-coach of the Akron Pros in 1921. He also played for the Providence Steamrollers in 1925 and organized and coached the Chicago Black Hawks, an all-African-American professional team based in the Windy City.
kmcnamar@projo.com / (401) 277-7340
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