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Show Page 6 - THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, Tuesday, March 22, 1983 Old Miners Never Die; They Become Utes, Cougars Old Mlnen never die. They become old Utei or Cougars as the case might be. George Furgis lived in his family apartments above the grocery store run by Chris Apos-tin the Frog Town area of the old mining town of Bingham Canyon. Across tha narrow street was one of the few playground areas in the camp but Furgis wasn't able to sharpen ol his basketball skills on an outdoor hoop in the playground. This was back in the days before and at the start of World War II and Bingham Canyon was town. a thriving, sports-lovin- g To be a good basketball player in Bingham Canyon was to be a hero but George Furgis had to wait until his senior year in high school to become an athletic hero at Bingham High School. The reason was the family business or businesses. This was during the great depression and big bucks were earned only by After college Mannion moved to Las Vegas where he coached high school, married and raised his family. And the Mannion name is carried on today at both Utah and But he was also tall. In high school he was 3 and only Dick Smuin (late of Utah's NCAA and NIT champion) who played for Cyprus in the old Jordan Division was taller. Thus George was behind the other players when he was given a chance to play for the Miners. Coach Sonny Allsop was patient, and George's sophomore and junior years were years in which he learned the skills the other players picked up in junior high. By the time he was a senior, George had gained confidence and was a good high school player, but he started too late to reach his potential. George married a Bingham girl, Ellen Vidalkis, graduated from the University of Utah and went into business. George and Helen ran the business themselves. For a time they lived in Lehi and George ran a laundry service in the Provo area and Ellen the Salt Lake City end. Today George and Ellen Furgis are successful business people but George never forgot the opportunity he missed out on in basketball as a youth. 6-- the few. But George Furgis' father taught his children the value of a day's work when they were young. So, George Furgis could look at the hoop in the playground but he seldom had the chance to play pickup basketball. He was busy in the real world of making a When AH-WA- SPORTS EDITOR Mannion was about 10 years younger than Furgis and the depression and war were only subjects of conversation among his parents and their friends when he was developing as a player. By the time Mannion was a sophomore he was not only taller than Furgis, he was polished as a player. So polished that by the middle of his sophomore year he was a starter and became a three-yea- r great in Utah high school basketball. Jack Mannion played a year at Utah, went on an IDS mission, returned, transferred to BYU and lettered for the Cougars. couragement and every opportunity to develop. And he developed. At East High School he was not only he was voted the most as he valuable player in averaged 25 points and nine rebounds per game while leading the Leopards to the state championship in 1981. all-sta- te 4-- Jack Mannion also grew up in Bingham Canyon. Well, actually in Copper ton, a Utah Copper Co. housing development at the mouth of the canyon where the their son, George, showed an early interest in was given every high school was located when both he and George Furgis played for the Miners. he en- - A son, John, was the starting safety for BYU's football team last fall. Another son, Pace, is an performer for Utah's basketball team where he is a teammate of sophomore George Furgis. Thursday night Pace Mannion and George Furgis will be vital factors in Utah's game with North Carolina State in the NCAA Western Regionals at Weber State's Dee Special C Events Center. Old Miners never die. They become old Utes or Cougars as the case might be. Ellen Furgis brought back a couple of interesting observations from Utah's upset victories over Illinois and UCLA in the NCAA playoffs in Boise last weekend. "One of the classy things that happened came before the Illinois game," she said. "Some students paraded a sign around the floor that said: BYU (in blue) For (in black) Utah (in red) you can't beat 'em, join "All of us thought that was real class and it brought the biggest activities." yell of the Ellen also said that before the game with UCLA a Bruin fan, a man who lives in Boise but works for UCLA, needled her pre-ga- BYU. Marion Dunn coin-operat- If 'em. about the Utes, "He was really arrogant," she said. "First he pointed out that Utah shouldn't even be in the tournament. Then he said the Utes were lucky to beat Illinois and said the Bruins would be able to handle Ralph Sampson and Virginia. "I told him I was glad he felt that way because the reason I like basketball is that any team can get beat by any other team on any given night. He said, 'You sound like a mother to me.' I told him I am a mother and I was looking forward to the game with UCLA. "After we won and returned to our hotel, George and I left two dollars in the bar and asked the bartender to buy him a drink on us the next time he came in." Ahh, yes. The Bruin fans are still winning friends and influencing others in the wonderful world of fun and games. Go get 'em, Utah. full rannrt nnrl commentary on winners, A Sports losers and coming events Provo nt The Provo All-Stgymnastics team took first place at the State Class Two Regional Qualifying meet here and will send eight members to the Regionals at Sunnyside, Calif., April The Provo girls who won indi- vidual titles were Alice Skousen, don Little League baseball tryouts will be conducted at the Lindon City Park at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. Registration is being conducted LINDON-Lin- Jib 36&y Orem's Central Stake captured three of the top four places in the Adult Women's IDS Multi-Regio-n basketball tournament over the weekend. The Orem 15th Ward defeated the Orem 10th Ward for the championship. The Orem 2nd Ward, from the East Stake, defeated the All-Sta- rs Whitney, Kipper Warren, Kay Engle, Rose Roth and Leslie Woodward. The girls are coached by Jay Smith and Eric Groeger. at the elementary schools. The fee is $15. For further details on the program, contact Grant Atkinson at 785-222- 8. BYU's rugby team improved its record to 1 Saturday, defeating Snake River 31-9-- 9. Mark Ormsby scored BYU's run 14 first try on a minutes into the first half and raised the score to 0 with his conversion, but Tom Snebeck 50-ya- 6-- scored on a penalty kick to bring Snake River within three. Ormsby gave BYU a 3 lead on a penalty kick and Rod Nielson stretched the Cougar lead to 15-- 3 9-- 53-5- Orems 1st Ward fur third place. Stake leaders in Orem will now turn their attention to preparation for the softball season. Competition begins in mid-Ma- Registration information is available from region athletic directors or from Cecil Tuley, 225-866- 0. Ruggers Beat Snake River BYU 17-1- 3. when he scored off a broken play. Snake River opened the scoring in the second half, moving to but then the within six at 15-try from Cougars got a Thorpe Faser and another from Paul Meyer to push their advanBrent Foley scored tage to 27-the final try. d BYU will take on third-ranke- d Northern Colorado on Haws Fieid at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. USU Blasts BYU Lacrosse .NV) $ Sl Fresno State's Desi Bormore makes a move on Michigan State's Kevin Willis Monday. The teams played evenly over the final free throw by minutes and only one point was scored over TCU's Brian Christenson the last 2:22. AT COLUMBIA, S C., Mike Brittain and Brad Jergenson scored 15 points each and South Carolina hit key free throws in the closing minutes to defeat Virginia Tech. AT NASHVILLE, Tenn , Delaney Rudd scored 21 points and backcourt mate Dannv for students sters under . Young added 18 Monday night to lead Wake was led by Forest, Vanderbilt, Ted Young with 19 points. James Williams had 14 for the Commodores. AT OXFORD, Miss.. Carlos Clark scored 30 points to carry Mississippi over South Florida. Mississippi made only shots in the first half and the Bulls shot only shots. slightly better, making AT LINCOLN, Neb., Stan Cloudy scored 24 And 8 rebounds to lead grabbed points Nebraska. Playing before a crowd of 14,712 fans the largest of the season at the Bob lona led most of Devaney Sports Center the first half. AT CORVALLIS, Ore., A. C. Green scored pounts and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead to its victory over New Oregon State, 20-1Charlie Sitton and Danny Orleans, 23-Evans chipped in with 15 point apiece for Oregon S'ate. 18 Games Thursday 12 and over. Young12 are admitted free. raised toward all-st- ar The monies Boys Club of Utah County. The annual games, which match the top male and female players from throughout the county, will be played at Mountain View High School Thursday with the girls' game at 6 p.m. and the boys' game at 8 p.m. As an added attraction, the first 50 girls and the first 50 boys who qualify for halftime shootouts will receive two tickets to an upcoming Jazz game. Registration will be conducted before the games. .Tickets are $2 for adults and $1 port of the Boys Club, which is open to boys throughout Utah Valley. Coaches include Debbie Freestone, who led her Mountain View team to the state title, and Wendy Weaver of Spanish Fork on the girls' side and Art Allred of American Fork and Tim Lewis of Timpview on the boys' side. Teams are broken into North and South squads with players from the Alpine District schools making up the North teams and those from Provo and Nebo district go 3-- A sup- teams making up the South. The girls' North include Mountain View's Michelle Burnett and Nannette Ferre; Orem's Missy Anderson, Wendy Johnson and Becky Bradshaw; Pleasant Grove's Mary Ann Phelon and Karen Bezzant; American Fork's Lisa Gardner and Vickie Barney; and Lehi's Kris Brady. The South include all-sta- all-sta- rs Timpview's Teresa Thomas; Anna Taylor and Tonua Hamilton; Spanish Fork's Julie Nelson; Payson's Sherilee Rowley and Donna Blackburn; and Provo's Amy Wright, Tiffany Rogers, Genie Lamb and Kristyn Springville's Utah State defeated BYU's lacrosse team 14-- 7 Saturday. BYU's Dave Heath scored five of the Cougar goals with Dan McAferty and Dick Baines adding the other two. 'We didn't play up to our potential at all," said BYU coach Gregg Freihofner. "However, we still Team, 14-- 7 have one more time against them." The Cougars will travel to Arizona for a tournament this weekend. They will play New Mexico on Friday and Arizona State and a Santa Clara, Calif, team on Saturday. Cougar Baseball Rained Out UPl Telepkolo All-St- ar Plavers have begun final prepa rations for the two Daily Herald games which benefit the 12-1- 4; 1. Orem Central Stake Leads Way that was any bigger than this one. Maybe because I've been such an admirer of (MSU coach) Jud Heathcote." The Bulldogs, winners of nine of their last 10 games, advanced to a quarterfinal matchup on Thursday at Oregon State. The semifinals and final will be held next week in New York. The Spartans, playing before a home crowd of 8,839 at Jenison Field House, finished at "We played awfully hard, but we didn't play as intelligently as we'd like to," said Heathcote. "We couldn't convert key possessions into points when we needed them. They do a great job defensively and play a matchup similar to what we use." "Overall, it was a decent season but a disappointing ending." Reserve guard Omel Nieves' basket gave Fresno State a 2 lead with 3:50 remaining. The free Bulldogs then hit throws down the stretch to pull away. Bernard Thompson and Tyrone Bradley added 13 pointss apiece for Fresno State. Scott Skiles and Sam Vincent led Michigan State with 17 points each. County and over; Jennifer Ekins, and Melissa Myers, who qualiThe other fied for the Regionals are Brandee 15 Lindon Sets Little League Tryouts "I don't know if we've had a win In other second-roun- d games, DePaul shaded Northwestern Texas Christian South Carolina nipped Arizona State beat Virginia Tech Wake Forest Vanderbilt stopped Mississippi topped South Florida 65-5Nebraska eliminated and Oregon State defeated New Iona Orleans Rounding out the quarterfinal matchups: on Thursday, it's Viake Forest vs. South Carolina at Oreensburo, N.C. and Texas Christian at Nebraska. On Friday, Mississippi is at DePaul. AT ROSEMONT, 111.. Kenny Patterson s jumpshot at the buzzer capped a dramatic DePaul rally that gave the Blue Demons a victory over Northwestern. The Blue Demons scored the games last 11 4 with 3 34 points after they trailed remaining. Commented DePaul coach Ray Meyer: "It was a hope to hell shot. I don t know if he could do it again." AT TEMPE, Ariz Browder scored 29 points and Doug Arnold 26 to carry Texas Christian to its triumph. After Browder fouled out with 9 52 remaining. Arnold picked up the scoring slack and helped the Homed Frogs to a lead with 9:30 to go. ar 0. cit. - Gymnasts Take State All-St- ar - LOGAN 72-5- I Briefs Fresno's Grant Forgets Quickly By United Press International How quickly a coach can forget. Last year, Fresno State coach Boyd Grant was beaming as his defense-minde- d Bulldogs made it through the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament before being beaten by Georgetown in the West Regional semifinals. But, after Fresno State beat Michigan State 8 Monday night in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament at East Lansing, Mich., Grant talked about how he's never been more impressed with his team. "We've been knocked down pretty good by Big Ten teams before," he said after Ron Anderson and Desi Bormore scored 16 points apiece to rally Fresno State second half defifrom a nine-poi- - Thompson. include The boys' North Carl Pollard and Ken Rasmussen of Mountain View; Sean Gunter of American Fork; Chris Kitchen of Pleasant Grove; Darin Palmer, Darren Butler and Dave Faldmo of Orem; and Brett Liston, Jeff Burningham and Bob Barnes of Lehi. include Trent The South Healey and Sheldon Cox of Spanish Fork; Bob Armstrong of Pay son; Darrin Williams of Springville; Paul Frampton, Duane Johnson and Kevin Santiago of Provo; and Steve Andrus, Rob Ross and Paul Sageri of Timpview. RIVERSIDE, Calif.-BY- U's baseball game with St. John's in the Riverside Invitational was rained out Monday. The Cougars and Redmen will play at 4 p.m. Tuesday. The game will be broadcast by KHQ radio, 1480 kc, if phone lines can be installed in time. The Cougars will play Oral Roberts at 8 p.m. That game is not scheduled to be broadcast. Orem Woman Leads Bowling Test Susan Carter of Orem leads the singles handicap round of the Utah Women's Bowling Association competition at Vernal and Ft. Duchesne with a score of 726. Pat Olsen from Ogden leads the all events scratch competition with a 1699 score and Annie Hacking of Vernal leads the all events handicap crown with a 2054 mark. The award for the high game of the competition went to Sandra Boren of Vernal, who had a 254 game. Utah 3rd weekend at Women's Bowling Auoc. Vernal and Ft. Dutch ene All eventi scratch: Pat 01 ten, Ogden, 16N All events handicap: Annie Hacking, Vernal, 2054 Singlet scratch: Bobbie Flint, SLC, 110 Singlet handicap: Susan Carter, Orem, 716 y Doublet scratch: Comic Kuiper, SLC. 751 Doublet handicap: Annie Hacking-Pegg- y Latham, Vernal. lKa Team tcratch: Miller Brands, leapt.) B. Dempsey , SLC, 2696 Team handicap: Jordan Livestock, leapt.) P. , Heber, 31 10 Marilyn McMillan award (high game): Sandra Boren, Vernal, 244. all-sta- rs all-sta- rs Hockey Player's Condition Improving - SALT LAKE CITY (UPI) Ed Kea's condition improved to serious Monday and doctors at Holy Cross Hospital say the NHL veteran was improving faster than they expected from brain surgery. Kea suffered a critical head injury March 7 during a Central Hockey League game between the Salt Lake Golden Eagles and the Tulsa Oilers. He underwent brain surgery on March 9 to drain a buildup of blood and fluid from the ar left side of his brain. "The doctors are surprised at the speed of Ed's recovery," Golden Eagles spokesman Chuck Schell said. "And, his condition has now been upgraded from critical to serious but stable." Kea regained partial consciousness Saturday "and he was awake most of the day on Sunday. Today he was responding regularly to instructions from his doctors," Schell said Monday. "This is the response they had been after." |
