# The Prize heel of sports! **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 28, 2000, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595 "2000-02-28T22:08:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2000, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/1 "2000-02-28T22:08:00Z")
I give my award for the Prize Heel of Sports to Avery Brundage, one-time head of the International Olympic Committee. Brundage was a fellow competitor of Jim Thorpe in the 1912 (Stockholm) Olympics; he apparently lost out to Thorpe in an important heat or final competition, and for the rest of his life saw to it that Thorpe would never be reinstated to his Olympic honors. (Thorpe played semipro baseball, at third base, one night for $10–and was unjustly branded as a “professional”; I suspect it’s because 1) He was an American Indian and 2) Brundage decided to get even with him. Brundage opposed the entry of women into the Olympics, asserting that they are scarcely better than ornamentation and not for consideration as serious competitors. In 1970, as head of the IOC, he kept Philadelphia–or any other United States city–from being considered for the 1976 Olympics, which of course could have tied in with the Bicentennial. Instead, he got the IOC to choose Montreal–according to the late L. A. _Times_ columnist Jim Murray, so the Olympics couldn’t be hosted by the United States but could use the American broadcast media. Nash and Zullo mentioned Brundage in their “Olympics Hall of Shame.” ☹ ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2000, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/2 "2000-02-29T03:03:00Z")
[Moderator Hat: ON] What, exactly, is the debate here? If it’s just a rant, it belongs in the Pit. If it’s just mundanity, it’s MPSIMS. But I don’t see much of a debate. So please let us know, or we’re movin’ it. Thanks. * * * David B, SDMB Great Debates Moderator [Moderator Hat: OFF] ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2000, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/3 "2000-03-01T19:11:00Z")
Well, David, go ahead if it would be more appropriate…I know I have considerable opposition to my convictions about sports, as shown in the Shoeless Joe thread in this forum… ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2000, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/4 "2000-03-01T19:47:00Z")
A correction: Nash and Zullo never mentioned Brundage; I got his sexist quote from the _Ultimate Book of Sports Lists,_ not connected the Nash and Zullo’s “Hall of Shame” books. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_North](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Peter\_North](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_North)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2000, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/5 "2000-03-01T22:31:00Z")
Daryl Strawberry is on that list…The Prize Heels of Sports * * * Up the Irons! ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2000, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/6 "2000-03-01T22:38:00Z")
Pete, I don’t know if Strawberry, like Steve Howe of the Dodgers, is so much a prize heel as a slow learner… other candidates are: George Steinbrenner Robert Irsay, owner of the NFL Colts Red Auerbach The judges in the 1972 Summer Olympics who handed the win in basketball to the USSR on a silver platter ☹ Mike Tyson Don King Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (for handing down the 1922 U. S. Supreme Court decision that baseball was not “interstate commerce”) Bobby Knight Woody Hayes Billy Martin Whitey Ford ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2000, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/7 "2000-03-01T22:42:00Z")
I would award it to the olympic judges that stole Roy Jones, Jr.'s gold medal. With professional boxing its to be expected, but not olympic. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2000, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/8 "2000-03-01T22:51:00Z")
Could you tell me exactly happened with this, Mojo? I didn’t see that nor do I even know _which_ Olympics it happened in. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2000, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/9 "2000-03-02T02:58:00Z")
Are any of you familiar with the comic strip _Tank McNamara_? Every year, the writer and artist, Jeff Millar and Bill Hinds, have a contest to see who will be **Sports Jerk of the Year**. The 1999 winner looks to be John Rocker and they’ll announce it in print this week. Past winners (losers) include Latrell Sprewell and Roberto Alomar. Past nominees have included Wayne Huizenga, Marv Albert, Daryl Strawberry and Bud Selig. Its internet address is [www.uexpress.com/ups/comics/tm/](http://www.uexpress.com/ups/comics/tm/) Strips are published on that site two weeks after they see print. Enjoy! * * * \>\ \_ **L\_\_\_L** ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2000, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/10 "2000-03-02T05:35:00Z")
Was Roy Jones robbed at the Seoul Games in 1988? MAN, the boxing at that Olympiad pissed me off…still irks me to this day. Picture this, y’all: South Korea, the host of the games, puts two boxing rings in the same arena, so that matches can go on concurrently. One ring uses a buzzer to signal the beginning and end of rounds, the other uses a bell. One of the lower weight classes, USA versus South Korea. The Korean boxer hears the buzzer from the match in the other ring and, thinking it was the signal that the round in his match had ended, drops his hands and begins to walk back to his corner. The US fighter, knowing that the ring he’s in is the one that uses a bell as its signal, throws an unimpeded hook at the Korean fighter, striking him pretty flush in the face. Referee, also apparently fooled by the buzzer, jumps in and escorts the US fighter to his corner. While the referee’s back is turned, the Korean’s corner madly signals at their unhurt fighter to drop to the mat and feign injury. He does. Ultimate result: the US fighter was disqualified. Yes, disqualified, for a legal punch, thrown before the round ended, that didn’t hurt the other fighter, because the Korean fighter pretended he was hurt. I was mad enough to chew nails. Korean boxers behaved shamefully throughout that Olympiad. I recall that one Korean boxer, who objected to the judges’ ruling against him, sat down in the ring and refused to leave. He finally left after the arena closed for the night and they turned the lights out on him. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/11 "2000-03-03T23:12:00Z")
Yeah…he showed _them,_ didn’t he? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-prize-heel-of-sports/17595/12 "2000-03-04T01:06:00Z")
Yep, he was at Seoul. From Roy Jones, Jr.'s own website (yeah, I know; not an unbiased source): Jones began his career as an auspicious amateur, but his dream of winning a gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul became a nightmare in the worst boxing decision in Olympic history. Although he dominated his South Korean opponent, he was forced to settle for the silver medal. Despite the decision, he was awarded the Val Barker Trophy as the outstanding boxer of the 1988 Olympic Games. From Cyberboxing: …the biggest robbery since Roy Jones, Jr.'s controversial points loss in the Gold medal final at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. There probably have been worse robberies in the Olympics (and definitely in boxing by itself) but none that I’d witnessed. He pummeled the bejeezus out of his opponent and **everyone** thought the gold was a foregone conclusion. No other single sporting event has made me as cynical. “I thought robot wrestling was real- like professional wrestling. Instead I find that its fake- like boxing.” -_Frye from Futurama_ (I’m probably mangling it.)