BRIEFLY TOLD: KICKERS WIN! KICKERS WIN! ... TO LAYNE DIES (WHO?)

 

Once again, for the 15^th straight game, your Richmond Kickers 

gave up the first goal Saturday night … only this time they 

didn’t tie or lose. STOP THE PRESSES! The Kickers won … 

not that it was done the easy way … In a USL League One 

Jagermeister Cup match with the South Georgia Tormenta, the 

home side snapped a five-game losing streak with a rousing 6-5 

edge in penalty kicks after a 1-1 standoff in regulation … 

Believe it or not, old reliable EMILIANO TERZAGHI 

missed his PK, skying the ball over the Tormenta goal in the 

third round. But Kickers keeper RYAN SHELLOW made two 

saves including a game-saving stop on JACKSON KOURY 

with South Georgia ahead 4-3. Then Shellow guessed correctly 

again, diving to his left to handle a shot by DANIEL 

STEEDMAN … and RYAN SIERAKOWSKI followed with 

the game winner … JUSTIN SUKOW, on a perfect feed from 

Terzaghi, accounted for the Richmond goal in the 24^th minute 

after NIALL WATSON opened the scoring in the sixth minute 

for the Tormenta … Next for the 10th-place Kickers (3-6-3, 12 

points) is a Friday (7 p.m.) date at City Stadium with No. 3 

Greenville Triumph (7-4-3, 23 points). 

……. The Virginia Racing Commission has a new executive 

secretary, WAQAS AHMED, who was deputy executive 

secretary of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission … the 

point man for implementation of legal sports wagering that 

grew to more than $9 billion annually, resulting in $140 

million-plus a year in taxes for the Bluegrass State … A 

graduate of Austin Peay, where he majored in biology, with a 

Masters degree in business administration from the University 

of Kentucky, Ahmed also served KHRC as director of 

parimutuel wagering and compliance as well as overseeing the 

launch of new tracks and historical horse racing facilities … He 

replaces DAVE LEHRMOND JR., who was fired (for reasons 

not explained) after years on the job … By the way … Waqas 

Ahmed in Pakistani must be like JOHN SMITH in English. 

Otherwise, how to explain? … call up his name on Google, and 

six other Waqas Ahmeds pop up ... Two are well-known cricket 

players, another an ex-player turned coach, from Pakistan. 

There is a Norwegian cricketeer as well as a journalist and an 

author, both from Pakistan.

……. FLOYD LAYNE died Monday (Aug. 12) at age 94 … the 

last survivor from the City College of New York basketball 

team that, in 1950, won both the NCAA and National Invitation 

post-season tournaments … yet will always be remembered for 

a point-shaving scandal that rocked the foundation of the 

college game … and, along with similar indiscretions by 

players from Manhattan, NYU, Columbia and Long Island 

University, all but killed hoops in the Big Apple for a very long 

time … Ah yes, I remember it well … growing up there in the 

40s and 50s … how awful, shocking, terrible (all applied -- and 

then some) ... to learn some of your boyhood heroes had feet 

made of clay. CCNY’s ED ROMAN, ED WARNER, IRWIN 

DAMBROT and Layne; LIU’s SHERMAN WHITE and

 DOLPH BIGOS; and Columbia’s JACK MOLINAS … I 

haven’t forgotten some of the names. Molinas was the worst 

because he was the fixer, who talked others into doing the dirty 

work for (by today’s standards) chump change … They weren’t 

asked to out-and-out throw a game only keep the outcome 

within the point spread set by Molinas and bookie friends. And 

if that meant deliberately missing a shot or two … or oops! 

Deliberately committing a turnover (called a “lost possession” 

in those days of long ago) … what was the harm? As long as 

you still won … So they took the money, got caught and never 

were the same again. Many, like Layne, spent their lives trying 

to make up for what they did … Molinas wasn’t implicated 

until several years later when he was arrested for his 

involvement in the college basketball betting scandal of 1961.

Until next time ...