Sports on the Air
Sports on the Air: Ch. 2 revisits UB’s rejection of bowl bid
If you haven’t seen the story reported by Channel 2 sports reporter Matt Pearl about the stand the 1958 University of Buffalo football team made in declining to accept a bid to the Tangerine Bowl, check it out on the station’s Web site, wgrz.com.
You should be able to find it after a search for “UB bowl game.”
I was out of town and initially missed the 4 minute, 30 second piece, in which Pearl highlighted the team’s unity and brotherhood while being faced with racial prejudice.
Channel 2 General Manager Jim Toellner said the story — which was brilliantly written and beautifully narrated by Pearl — has gotten a healthy response from viewers and on the Internet.
Pearl e-mailed me that he was alerted to it by a UB official. The story also was told by the UB newspaper, the Spectrum, in January, and was mentioned in 2005 and in 2008 in Buffalo News articles.
But it is different reading a story in print and seeing it come alive in TV interviews. Pearl interviewed four players from the 1958 team — junior running back Willie Evans, sophomore quarterback Joe Oliverio, sophomore running back Paul Szymendera and senior tackle Jack Dempsey.
They were on a team that won the small school Lambert Cup with an 8-1 record and declined the only bowl bid in UB’s history after being told they couldn’t bring Evans and another black teammate, Mike Wilson, because it would violate an Orlando school district rule prohibiting blacks and whites from playing on the same field. This was 1958, when segregation was very much alive in the South.
UB players were allowed to decide what to do by the university chancellor, Clifford Furnas, and unanimously voted to reject the bid and stay home.
The only problem with seeing the piece on the Internet is the graphics identifying the interviewed players aren’t visible.
I noticed Oliverio looked different and I did not realize why until calling him. He said he had to take his glasses off to avoid glare from the cameras during the interview.
A sophomore quarterback who split signal-calling duties in 1958, Oliverio said he’s heard a positive response from 20-30 people since the piece ran a few weeks ago.
“Most people weren’t aware that UB had a bowl bid,” said Oliverio, adding that was a time there were only about 12 bowls.
He said that UB only lost one game in 1959, too, but slipped to 4-5 his senior year when its great linemen graduated. He said the team got great support, with 5,000 people going to West Point for a game with Army.
The story comes full circle this season because the 1958 team is being celebrated on its 50th anniversary for UB’s homecoming game against — you guessed it — Army.
“Fascinating, isn’t it?” said Oliverio. The story, which Pearl told movingly without making it maudlin, included black and white file footage of UB games and would make a decent TV movie or book. And guess what? Oliverio said the 1960 team manager, Rocco Versace, has written a book, “Brothers Tonight, We Sing the Chorus Free,” and given it to players on the team. It hasn’t been published, but it sounds as if it could be a hit in Buffalo.
• You won’t be hearing former Empire Sports Network host Jim Brinson on WGR radio again anytime soon. Andy Roth, WGR’s program director, confirmed that Brinson has accepted a television job in Yuma, Ariz. Roth added that listeners have been asking about him since he left the air.
• Had to laugh when WGR’s Mike Schopp and Chris “the Bulldog” Parker spent a good portion of a Tuesday show asking what the Buffalo Bills will do if starting quarterback Trent Edwards is performing so badly that they have to play backup J. P. Losman. Even some callers realized that was a no-brainer — you play Losman.
• Good news for Bills fans wondering if the season opener against Seattle will be carried in high definition on Fox. All Fox games are in HD this season.
• Former teammates Ray Bentley and Steve Tasker are back for a second season as the announcers for the Bills’ televised preseason schedule, starting with tonight’s game in Washington on Channel 7.
