Don Calhoun, last seen sinking a 75-foot, $1 million shot in the Chicago Stadium last April, went 2 for 3 Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. These baskets were layups, but Calhoun couldn’t have felt richer. They came in his U.S. pro basketball debut. Well, never mind that he was playing for the Harlem Globetrotters-the legendary barnstorming team that never, never loses to the Washington Generals, or whatever their nightly, friendly foe is called.
“A year ago at this time, I’d dropped out of junior college, just started on my new job in Bloomington (Ill.) at the Reliable Office Superstore and was playing at the YMCA,” said Calhoun, shortly before taking the floor with the Globetrotters for a Sunday game in South Bend, Ind. “Now I’m traveling, playing basketball and bringing a lot of happiness to people. I could never imagine something like this happening.”
The 24-year-old Calhoun never had seen the Trotters play in person, but he jumped at an invitation to a tryout camp last August in Wisconsin. The club, purchased last year by former Illinois star Manny Jackson, signed him to a one-year deal that began last month with a tour in Spain. “A fantastic experience,” Calhoun said. “I couldn’t believe the reception we got.” After coming home, he joined the main U.S. touring unit. “We go to Springfield (Ill.) Tuesday, and I can’t wait,” he said. “It’s only an hour from home, closest I’ll get.”
Will Calhoun be asked to take another 75-footer? “In the show part, I’m a dunker and not a long-shot guy,” he said.
Pssst: Highland Park officials granted Michael Jordan special permission last week to erect an extra-high security fence around his new home, which will be completed next summer. The house will be in the Architecture Point section, but this, apparently, will be no big secret. Plans call for the main gate to have the number “23” in 4-foot-high numerals.
Hoop scoop: The Black Coaches Association knew what it was doing when it called off its boycott in favor of the White House negotiating a settlement in its scholarship dispute with the NCAA. President Bill Clinton is a real fan of the sport. When he attended an Arkansas game earlier this season, Razorback researchers said this was the first time a sitting U.S. president had attended a major-college basketball game. And both coaches-Arkansas’ Nolan Richardson and Texas Southern’s Robert Moreland-are black. . . . An announcement is expected soon that Indiana and Michigan will be among participants in next season’s Maui Invitational basketball tournament in Hawaii. Also, the prestigious event is likely to be moved from its mid-December dates to Thanksgiving weekend. . . . The Mid-Continent Conference, torn apart after the Midwestern Collegiate Conference’s raid on its members, could also lose Eastern Illinois. Panthers officials are rumored to be pursuing Ohio Valley Conference membership.
Media patrol: A Newsweek poll to be published this week says 41 percent of Americans think Tonya Harding was involved in, or knew about, the attack on rival skater Nancy Kerrigan. Even if she isn’t charged, only 56 percent still felt she should be allowed to compete in the Olympics.
Tubing it: An interview in the February issue of Chicago Sports Profiles may not do much for Jeremy Roenick’s relationship with Blackhawks management-already a touchy subject. In particular, Roenick raps the club for its home-game TV blackout policy in Chicagoland. Said Roenick: “Putting the games on will attract more fans. People in Canada who see the games (in Chicago) on TV say, `We have to make a trip to the Stadium.’ They travel a long way to get here. Why wouldn’t people in Chicago do the same thing?” Good question.
Cold facts: In the toasty comfort of his suburban home, Jim Grabowski watched the Bills-Raiders playoff contest. Perhaps more than any other Chicagoan, former Packers star Grabowski could relate to the brutal weather in Buffalo. He played for Green Bay in its famous “Ice Bowl” playoff game with the Cowboys in 1967. “Just the other morning I was in my car and it was 8-below zero,” he said. “I thought it was bad, but then I started thinking about that game. I felt better. It got down to 17-below that day. We didn’t even know what wind chill meant in those days, so I couldn’t guess about that. We had heaters on the sidelines, but the only thing extra we wore on the field was long underwear. We didn’t even wear gloves.”
Around town: Red Kerr hosted a private reception late Friday night in his restaurant after the earlier Bob Love ceremonies in the Stadium. Classiest guy in the joint? Had to be Utah coach Jerry Sloan, who stayed to the end of the party despite the night’s painful loss to the Bulls. . . . Northwestern’s appointment of Rick Taylor as AD has to bode well for Wildcats football. Taylor, who compiled a 55-32-1 record at Boston University before going into administrative work, still ranks as the school’s winningest all-time football coach.
And finally: Two marathons were run over the weekend, and somewhere, there has to be a story here. In Florida, the Walt Disney World Marathon was won by Leonid Shvetsov-a Russian. Mickey, Goofy and the gang were all there to greet Shvetsov at the finish line. Meanwhile, half a world away in Ho Chi Minh City, thousands of Vietnamese lined the streets to cheer American Doug Kurtis as he won the third annual Vietnam Marathon.