DELAWARE SPORTS IN THE 1980S 

Andre Agassi, Greg LeMond, Betsy King, Bill Elliott, Patty Sheehan, Brad Gilbert, Donna Adameck, Darrel Waltrip, Michael Chang, Nancy Lopez, Tim Mayotte, Bobby Allison. These were the stars that came to be Delaware sports in the 1980s. For the first time since the coming of professional sports to the state a century earlier there were no play-for-pay team sports to be found in Delaware. No minor league baseball, no football, no basketball. In their place Delawareans discovered individual sports.

The standard bearer for these national events was the bi-annual NASCAR races at Dover Downs. For two weeks each year the capital city is transformed under a sea of trailers and thousands of stock car fans. The NASCAR races grew ever more popular until attendance topped 60,000, doubling the population of the town. Dover was a favorite of fans and drivers alike and many people around America know of Delaware only as the home of Dover Downs.

The next sports beacon flashing from Delaware across the country was the LPGA McDonalds Classic, the richest event on the women’s golf tour. The meticulously organized tournament drew daily crowds in excess of 30,000 from its first day at DuPont Country Club and soon its action was picked up on national television. That TV signal from Delaware went around the world when DuPont picked up sponsorship of the Tour de Trump bicycle stage race and made Wilmington its focal point for the East Coast event.

With its reputation for hosting first class big time sporting events professional tennis came to the state in 1987 with the Wilmington Tennis Classic at the Paladin Club. In the 8-man singles draw were Andre Agassi, Brad Gilbert, Tim Mayotte, Emilio Sanchez and Miroslav Mecir, five of the top players in the world. Mayotte upended the top-seeded Mecir in the finals 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. In 1988, the final year of the event, Michael Chang and Andres Chesnokov joined the impressive draw.

In 1989 professional bowling returned to Delaware. The ladies’ tour had stopped briefly in New Castle in 1970 but now a more extended stay began with the Columbia 300 Delaware Open at Holiday Lanes in Claymont. The tournery packed bleachers on loan from the University of Delaware as Donna Adameck won the first title in 1989. By 1993 the pro-am portion of the tournament was attracting more than 1300 bowlers - an LPBT record. The event grew into the third richest on the women’s tour for the ten years it lasted.

In 1988 Delaware staged its inaugural First State Games. The fruition of eight years of work by founder Erik Conrad, the Games were an Olympic-style sports festival with 15 medal sports and seven demonstration sports. Nearly 1,400 amateur athletes from across Delaware competed in events ranging from judo to fencing to cycling. By 1990 the festival attracted more than 2,200 Delaware athletes but the First State Games never caught the fancy of fans and the sports carnival would not survive into the 1990s.

FIRST STATE SPORTS HERO OF THE DECADE: FRANK MASLEY

In 1976 Masley was a pole vaulter at Christiana High School who had never heard of luge until he saw it on television during the Olympics. Three years later, at the age of 18, Masley was the United States singles champion and in 1980 he was an Olympian in luge doubles with partner Ray Bateman. Masley and Bateman, the national doubles champions, finished 18th in Lake Placid, New York.

At Sarajevo Masley was named captain of the luge team and selected to lead the American team into Olympic Stadium as the carrier of the American flag. The computer draftsman placed 14th in singles and 13th in doubles through snowy and windy conditions.

After the 1984 Olympics and six years as America’s top slider Masley’s career appeared in decline. The Newark resident won no national championships in either 1985 or 1986, the first time that had happened since his first title in 1979. But in 1987 Masley once again won the national singles championship and was a silver medalist in the World Cup with his fastest time ever. At the Calgary Olympics Masley became Delaware’s only three-time Olympian and had his best-ever showing with a 12th place finish, the highest ever for an American in the Olympics. After Calgary, America’s “Mr. Luge” retired, a nine-time national sliding champion, six in singles and three in doubles.

After three Olympiads in the 1980s there was no going pro in luge. Even though Frank Masley had helped mke luge a permanent part of the American Winter Olympic vocabulary there are still only two full-size luge tracks in the United States, one in Salt Lake City, Utah and the other in Lake Placid where he had traveled back in 1976 and enrolled in a beginner’s program. Masley continued to support the development of luge and a starter luge track at Muskegon, Michigan.

Masley took his degree in mechanical engineering to W.L Gore and Associates where he woked as a textile engineer. He eventually developed a military glove that shields against fire and germs while remaining supple enough to be dexterous enough for soldiers to handle weapons in extreme conditions. He was able to plug his company, Masley Associates, by delighting David Letterman during an appearance of “Audience Show and Tell” on the Late Show in 2006.

DELAWARE STATE EMERGES

There’s an old saw about publicity that it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad, just so the name is spelled right. For decades Delaware State College played football like several hundred other small schools - in total anonymity. There were some good years in the under coach Eddie Jackson, the 1934 team went 8-0 and allowed only two points, but few beyond the 200 or so students knew of the Hornets’ exploits. And so it went, good or bad, until November 8, 1980.

On that Saturday afternoon Delaware State made all the televised scoreboard shows for the first time. The next morning the name “Delaware State” was plastered in headlines across the country. The Hornets happened to be on the short end of a 105-0 humiliation by Portland State.

An injury-depleted 1-7 team flew across the country to play the powerful Vikings and their NFL-bound quarterback Neil Lomax. The game was over before many fans had settled in their seats. Portland State had four touchdowns less than five minutes into the first quarter. On offense the decimated Hornets fumbled 16 times. As the score mounted even ambulance attendants were jumping around the sidelines cheering for the Vikings to reach 100 points.

The next week Delaware State rebounded to shock Central State 20-14 at Alumni Stadium. But America didn’t hear about this victory. The Hornets were buried back in the small type on the sports page.

The Portland State game had long-term ramifications in Dover. It cost coach Charles Henderson his job. Plans for a long-anticipated meeting with the University of Delaware, made viable by a Hornets’ trip to the 1977 Orange Blossom Classic, were scuttled. And in a response most controversial, officials at Delaware State brought in Joe Purzycki, the college’s first white coach, to resurrect the football program.

Purzycki was an All-American defensive back at the University of Delaware in the late 1960s before beginning his coaching career at Woodbridge High in 1972. He guided the state’s third smallest school to its first winning season ever, barely missing the state tournament. In 1975 he moved to Caesar Rodney and won a state championship. Purzycki’s college coaching career began with three years under his college mentor, Tubby Raymond. He would then re-tool the Hornets with the potent Winged-T offense imported from Newark. Within three years Purzycki had the moribund Delaware State football team nationally ranked.

More importantly he was bringing talent to Dover that would build a lasting program. He found an ex-Army tank driver playing a touch football game in town and made him a fullback. Gene Lake went on to rush for 1,722 yards in his junior year, the most for any running back in college football in 1984. Purzycki’s most important player was never recruited. John Taylor arrived on the Dover campus after a year of baseball at tiny Johnson C. Smith Collge in North Carolina. He had played football as a 130-pound defensive back and when he transferred to Delaware State to be closer to his New Jersey home, Taylor, now 6’1” and 185 pounds, decided to walk on as a non-scholarship wide receiver.

Delaware State didn’t feature much of a passing game at the time and the coaching staff was so oblivious to Taylor they called him “Jake” for three weeks. When he caught a game- winning touchdown as a freshman Taylor wasn’t even listed on the Hornets’ roster. But Taylor’s skills forced Purzycki to find a way to get him the ball. He scored 13 touchdowns as a sophomore, two on electrifying punt returns. By graduation Taylor had 100 catches and 42 touchdowns. He was drafted in the 3rd round by the San Francisco 49ers and would become the first player from a Delaware college to make All-Pro.

Purzycki left Delaware State after only four years. He was 15-5-1 in his final two years before moving to James Madison University. Assistant coach Bill Collick took over and the Hornets’ ascendancy continued, reaching the 1-AA Top-10 for the first time in 1987. Delaware now boasted two quality college football programs.

Raymond was given no instructions. Phillie experience with mascots heretofore had been limited to those staid patriots Philadelphia Phil and Phyllis. Raymond was paid $25 a game to bound on the field and through the stands and see how fans reacted. He slipped into the 35-pound costume and made the green furry creature with the megaphone mouth and bulging eyes a Philadelphia institution.

Raymond continued in the role of the Phanatic for 16 years before bowing out after the Phillies’ National League Championship year of 1993. In that time he missed only eight home games. Away from Veterans Stadium he made more than 250 appearances annually and reaped an income estimated at over $100,000. In his wake Raymond, along with the Chicken, spawned a legion of less-talented imitators in sport’s Era of the Mascot. To wit, the Phanatic was voted ‘best mascot ever’ by Sports Illustrated for Kids and Sports Illustrated.

A Delaware Sporting Dynasty

Prior to the 1940s if the average Delawarean knew the name “Carpenter” it was in some vague connection to the du Ponts. But in 1943 R.R.M. Carpenter, vice-president of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, rescued the foundering Philadelphia Phillies franchise - a team that had lost 100 games five years in a row - from stewardship by the National League by purchasing the club for $400,000. Carpenter turned the team over to his 28-year old son, Bob Jr., a prominent Wilmington sportsman.

The young Carpenter, a graduate of Tower Hill, spent three years as a reserve end for Duke University before returning to Delaware. He became president of the Wilmington Sportsmen Club and tried his hand at boxing promotion in Wilmington Park. In 1940 he was elected President of the Wilmington Blue Rocks, a team the family had purchased 50% of from Connie Mack. Also in 1940 Carpenter began a lifetime of benefaction to the University of Delaware by helping entice new football coach Bill Murray from North Carolina to Newark.

Out of the office Carpenter was just as active in athletics. He started the Dilwyne Badminton Club at his home and it became one of the focal points for the game in the East. In the Army, as a leftfielder he led his softball team to the championship of Camp Union. Tending to business as the youngest club president in baseball he reversed the Phillies fortunes and was named Executive of the Year in 1949. The next year the Phillies were National League champions for only the second time.

At the end of the 1972 season the 57-year old Carpenter turned the Phillies over to his son, R.R.M. Carpenter III, familiarly known as Ruly, then 33. Ruly Carpenter had naturally grown up wanting a baseball career - but on the field, not in the executive suite. He threw three no-hitters for Tower Hill in 1958, captained the baseball team at Yale and starred in the Delaware Semi- Pro League before settling into his Phillies career in 1965.

Although the Phillies had once again slipped to the bottom of the National League following an infamous 1964 collapse his father hardly left a barren line-up. Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski, Bob Boone and Mike Schmidt had all recently graduated from the farm system and Steve Carlton just arrived in trade.

Ruly Carpenter knew what he wanted to do with the flagging franchise. He replaced three-quarters of the scouting staff although most baseball decisions were left to Dallas Green, recently installed in charge of the farm system, and Paul Owens, the new general manager. The Phillies were off on their most successful decade in their history, culminating with the team’s only World Championship in 1980.

The world championship was the highlight of the Carpenters’ ownership of the Phillies. Within a year the Carpenter family had sold the team, reportedly from Ruly’s frustration with fellow owners paying outrageous salaries for average players in the free agency era. “I’m going to write a book one day,” Carpenter once cracked. “It’s going to be called How To Make A Small Fortune in Baseball - Start With A Big Fortune.”

Delware’s Own World Series Champions

Little League baseball came to Delaware in 1951. Over the years several state teams advanced to various youth baseball World Series - Stahl Post played in several American Legion World Series and a Delaware all-star team made the 14-15 Babe Ruth World Series in 1975. In 1976 three Delaware teams reached the World Series: Newark in the 13-15 Babe Ruth World Series, Suburban-New Castle in the 13-15 Little League World Series and Delaware in the 16-18 Babe Ruth World Series. But all these teams fell short of the grand prize.

In 1981 a 13-15 year-old Senior Little League All-Star team from Georgetown snuck out of the Delaware tournament with a comeback win against Suburban Little League and then caught fire. In the double- elimination format Georgetown lost only once in the Mid-Atlantic Division and were unbeaten in the regionals to advance to the 1981 Senior League World Series in Gary, Indiana.

Georgetown bludgeoned its first two opponents in Gary, crushing Belgium 15-1 and Taylor, Michigan 12-2. Pitching ace Guy Wilkins shut down Danville, California in the third game 2-1 before Georgetown lost its first World Series game, 7-4, forcing a deciding final game. With Wilkins back on the mound hard-hitting Georgetown crushed San Ramon Valley, California 15-4 to capture the Senior Little League championship.

The world championship was the first ever for a Delaware youth baseball team. The Georgetown all-stars, culled from a tiny community of 2000, were the first to unseat the powerful Taiwanese in the World Series in nine years. Georgetown finished tournament play with 18 wins and only three losses. Wilkins won ten of those game and shortstop Bill Savage slugged 14 home runs and hit .446 during Georgetown’s championship run.

Delaware was a force in youth baseball throughout the Eighties. Two years later the Delaware 16-18 Babe Ruth League all-star team went on to win the Babe Ruth World Series in Newark, Ohio. Five players of the 1983 champions would eventually be drafted by major league baseball: Mark Brockell, Scott Mackie, Bobby Britt, Jeff Vickers, and Bill Dorsey. And Seaford, riding the arm of future National League star Delino DeShields, became a regular visitor to national tournaments.

An Executive Battery

When Ruly Carpenter was an All-State end at Tower Hill it was Pat Williams tossing him passes. And when Carpenter was baffling opposing hitters on the mound for the Hillers, Williams was his catcher. After Tower Hill Williams and Carpenter parted ways, Williams going to Wake Forest and Carpenter to Yale.

After Wake Forest Williams had a brief minor league baseball career. An injury ended his playing days in Miami in 1963 and he was offered a front office job. He showed an immediate flair for the work. As general manager for Spartanburg he pioneered usherettes in the box seats and handicapped entrances. In 1967 Williams, 26, won the Larry McPhail Promotion Trophy as the minor league’s top executive.

After four years at Spartanburg, he switched sports and became business manager of the Philadelphia 76ers. The Chicago Bulls made Williams a general manager and after turning around a moribund franchise he came back to the 76ers in the same capacity. Under Williams - and Julius Erving - the Sixers became one of the NBA’s showcase franchises. The best days of the Phillies and Sixers were guided by the old Tower Hill battery.

America’s Greatest Multi-Stage Bike Race

World class bicycle racing had been dormant in Delaware for a century when Wilmington became involved in America’s premier bicycle stage race, the Tour de Trump in 1989. In 1991 E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company took over sponsorship of the newly named Tour DuPont. The 11-day race that meandered down the East Coast now started in Wilmington and included a lengthy race to Dover. That year the final stage was a time trial through Winterthur and Hagley Museum. Opinion among the riders was nearly unanimous - it was the most beautiful course they’d ever raced across. Organizers of the race estimated that 200 million people in 100 countries watch the Tour DuPont each year.

The highlight of the Tour for Delawareans was the Prologue, a three- mile-plus time trial on the eve of the race proper. More than 20,000 people would gather along the race route through Wilmington with most eyes - and

television cameras - riveted on Monkey Hill to see the world’s best cyclists hurl down treacherous cobblestones at over 30 mph. Over the years such international stars as Emil Breukink of the Netherlands, Raul Alcala of Mexico and United States superstar Greg LeMond all won the Prologue. Racing for French team Z, the Minnesoate-bred LeMond became the first American winner of the Tour DuPont in 1992.

In 1993 an unheralded 21-year old Texas rider named Lance Armstrong finished a strong second. He repeated the feat the next year and then won the race in both 1995 and 1996, competing for the Motorola team. That year Armstrong was diagnosed with life-threatening metastatic testicular cancer. He would come back and win the Tour de France seven consecutive times beginning in 1999. Back in the States, meanwhile, DuPont dropped its sponsorship of the race after the 1996 Tour. It would not stage a comeback.

Until the 21st century there was no more public persona in sports than the heavyweight champion of the world. Bigger than life figures to hold the title stretch back through Muhammad Ali past Joe Louis all the way to John L. Sullivan. Where can a champ go to avoid the constant glare of the media spotlight? For one unassuming champion that place was Delaware.

In 1985 light-heavyweight champion Michael Spinks moved to Greenville, Delaware, following the earlier path blazed by his manager/ promoter Butch Lewis. Shortly after arriving in Delaware Spinks became the first light-heavyweight champion to take the belt from a heavyweight champion when he stopped undefeated Larry Holmes.

But unlike Holmes, who constantly plugged his hometown of Easton, Pennsylvania, Spinks’ new adopted residence wasn’t even listed in his fight programs. The champ came to northern Delaware to disappear in the wooded hills and conducted his boxing life elsewhere. Philadelphia was for workouts, New York for business meetings and television interviews, glitzy resorts for training. Delaware? It was for privacy.