Tiffara Steward, a 4'6" point guard from Farmingdale State has signed to play with the Harlem Ambassadors Show Basketball Team. Steward won a roster spot at the team's training camp in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Ambassadors uniquely feature both female and male performers on the team's touring units.

"She may be small in stature, but she has a big heart and tremendous quickness," said Ambassadors President Dale Moss. Steward has won national acclaim at Farmingdale State winning the Jimmy V Comeback Award (2009), the Women's Sports Foundation Wilma Rudolph Courage Award (2009), and the USBWA Most Courageous Award. She is believed to be the shortest player in college basketball history.

In joining the Ambassadors, Steward shares in another record. When Steward is paired with 6'10" teammate Corey Thompson, the 2'4" difference represents the greatest height differential between teammates at any level in basketball history.

Hoops for Haiti

Our Coach Majic Prophete is American-born of a Haitian family. When I attended the Mizzou Hall of Fame ceremony last month, in attendance were her sister Micheline, brother Alphonse, and her Aunt, all Haitian born.

Seeing the horrific scenes coming out of Haiti, all of our hearts were touched. For Coach Majic it truly hit home as she has lots of relatives in Haiti who have been impacted. The best way the Harlem Ambassadors can help is to use our talent and our show to raise funds.

Students from Florida Atlantic University and Lynn University are joining forces with the Harlem Ambassadors for "Hoops for Haiti," a fund-raising basketball event on Feb. 19.

Student government representatives from both schools are organizing the event, which is free and open to the public. Attendees are asked to donate money to the Lynn University Haiti Crisis Fund, as well as money or canned food to Food for the Poor.

The comedy-style basketball game will feature the Harlem Ambassadors vs. a team made up of faculty and staff from both universities.

The event is scheduled to begin at 6:15 p.m. in the FAU Arena, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton. If you are in South Florida we encourage you to be in attendance.

The First Star

Harold "Red" Grange was the first pro football superstar. Immediately after concluding his college eligibility at Illinois, he dropped out of school and turned pro with the Chicago Bears. Grange was the first player to have an agent (C.C. Pyle) and Pyle teamed with Bears owner George Halas to arrange a brutal post-season tour to capitalize of Grange's notoriety.

Brutal is an understatement. Following a full college season, Grange played the last two games of the Bears' regular season schedule, and then played 10 games in 18 days in cold weather cities in December! Those 10 games were just a portion of the 17 game, six week tour. While Grange was never the same physically, he and his agent took in nearly $500,000 from the barnstorming tour and endorsements. That's when $500,000 was a tremendous sum of money.

It's all described in "The First Star: Red Grange and the Barnstorming Tour That Launched the NFL" written by Sports Illustrated writer Lars Anderson. I enjoyed the book and it's the true story of what pro football was like in the early years.

When games resembled rugby scrums, Grange brought speed and open-field running to the table and thrilled fans both at Illinois and with the Bears. He thrilled sportswriters too, including damon Runyon and Grantland Rice, who helped make Grange famous in their nationally syndicated columns:

Rice wrote:

"There are two shapes now moving / two ghosts that drift and glide / and which of them to tackle / each rival must decide / they shift with special swiftness / across the swarded range / and one of them's a shadow / and one of them is Grange"

Super Bowl Memories

In my previous business, I consulted with NFL teams' marketing departments and corporate sports sponsors. Actually, in those days back in the 80's and 90's, only about half the teams were doing any marketing at all. To call a one or two person staff a "department" would be generous. The personal relationships that I had with marketing people at teams like the Packers, Lions, Chiefs, Giants, Bears, Oilers, Saints, 49ers, and Bucs were all of the friendly, first-name variety.

As marketing staffs and budgets grew, there became many more people, more levels, and the less personal relationships came to mean in doing business with NFL teams for sports marketing programs. It's one of the reasons that I got out of that business and started the Harlem Ambassadors. But it was good while it lasted.

Each NFL team gets a allotment of Super Bowl tickets regardless of where they finished in the standings. In the marketing programs that I would arrange, I always included the rights to purchase Super Bowl tickets into the deal. As a result, from
1990 in New Orleans through 1996 in Tempe, Arizona, I had tickets and attended every Super Bowl. I skipped 1997 back in New Orleans and then attended the 1998 Super Bowl in San Diego as my last.

All told I was blessed to attend Super Bowls in eight different cities (New Orleans, Tampa, Minneapolis, Pasadena, Atlanta, Miami, Tempe, and San Diego). By far the most memorable was in 1991 in the "Big Sombrero" in Tampa. The first Gulf War had just started, helicopter gunships circled the stadium, and security was super-tight. Whitney Houston sang one of the most spine-tingling national anthem renditions ever and US flags waived when fighter jets flew over in formation. The game between the Giants and Bills was one of the best ever, concluding with Buffalo kicker Scott Norwood's wide right miss.

Not only was I fortunate to attend these games, but through various connections (often good friend Tim Pearson at NFL Films), we were able to attend many of the NFL Properties parties. I had my picture taken with Diana Ross, Queen Latifah, and Muhammad Ali. I saw the Temptations, Fats Domino, Wilson Pickett, the B-52s, Fleetwood Mac, the Allman Brothers, and many others. I grazed on some incredible buffets. It was great while it lasted.

Big sporting events have morphed into mega sporting events. Those tickets that I got every year for $75 or $100 face value are now $500 face minimum. I have no desire to go back. This sounds self-serving but in this day and age, I would rather see the faces on young children meeting the Harlem Ambassadors in a high school gym in Kansas or Mississippi. I rather see a parent who is spending quality time with his or her family in Oregon or Michigan. Grassroots entertainment and sports events have their place and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Mizzou

The Hall of Fame ceremonies Friday at Mizzou were great and Lade Majic did a great job representing herself, the University, and Harlem Ambassadors. The women's basketball staff at Mizzou were tremendous all weekend long. Associate Head Coach Lynnette Robinson went over and above in proudly showing Majic and I the spectacular facilities they have.

How much the athletic facilities have grown their since my daughter ran track at Mizzou in the late 90's is incredible. Coach Robinson and Head Coach Cindy Stein invited us to the morning shootaround and we met the entire team. Majic gave the women some motivational words prior to their game versus #10 Baylor.

Baylor features 6-8 freshman Brittney Griner. I walked past Griner in the lobby of the Holiday Inn, she's a legit 6-8. Watching her dunk effortlessly in warmups, she is also an athletic 6-8. It was a privilege to watch the game sitting next to retired Mizzou coaching legend Joann Rutherford (422 wins in 23 seasons at Missouri).

Majic's words must have made an impression. Despite being down initially 11-0, the Tigers battled back, outworked Baylor, and won a 70-62 upset victory. Again, the hospitality shown to us by Missouri women's basketball was incredible. Thanks Coach Stein, Coach Robinson, Dr. Rutherford, and everyone connected with this classy program. We are cheering for you!

Touring Japan

From our very first season when the Harlem Ambassadors performed at Beale Air Force Base and March Air Reserve Base in California, the Harlem Ambassadors have been committed to entertaining our men and women in uniform and their families too. Twelve years later we can proudly say that the Ambassadors have performed over 300 shows at more than 125 different bases in all service branches.

That commitment has taken the team to a wide variety of installations scattered around the world. We've had our team entertaining deployed forces in Bosnia and Kosovo during the Balkans conflict. They have been to forward camps along the DMZ in South Korea. We've had our training camp at 7,000 feet at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center (MWTC) in the high Sierras and then entertained the Marines who were stationed there. The Ambassadors have made multiple appearances at remote and isolated installations such as Clear Air Force Station in the middle of Alaska with the temperature a balmy -40 when we showed up in December. We've also played at Naval Station Pearl Harbor and the Pacific Missile Range Facility located in Hawaii.

The Harlem Ambassadors have made six different visits to Japan and I had the privilege of accompanying the team on a tour of five bases in early December. Actually I only went to three of the performances in the Tokyo area (Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Camp Fuji USMC, and Naval Station Yokosuka). After we left the tour, the team continued on, travelling to Misawa Air Base in the northern part of Japan and Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in the south. There is a lot of history with all these bases in Japan. Atsugi has been in U.S. control since August 30, 1945 when General Douglas MacArthur landed there in preparation for the September 2, 1945 formal surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri docked in Tokyo Bay. Yokosuka, strategically located just inside Tokyo Bay, was brought into United States control the very same day, August 30, 1945. Today, over six decades later, it remains a very active base for both the Japanese and United States' Navies.

I had been to both Atsugi and Yokosuka on a previous tour back in 2000, but it was my first visit to Camp Fuji. Situated at the base of Mount Fuji, lies Camp Fuji, a USMC facility with a rich and abundant history that represents the culture of its host nation. The ground adjacent to Camp Fuji was used for training samurai warriors long before the Marines arrived. As far back as 1198 AD, the Kamakura Feudal Government trained more than 30,000 Samurai warriors on the same ground where Marines and other US forces train today.

It is uncommon to have clear days at Mount Fuji in December. We were told by locals that the 12388 foot peak is usually covered in clouds at that time of year. We were blessed to have a beautiful day as our bus made the two hour drive from Atsugi to Camp Fuji and were able to get great photos of the mountain. But even more meaningful than the breathtaking close-up views of Japan's sacred mountain was the opportunity to entertain the US Marines training at the Camp Fuji base and meet them up-close and personal. They are all fine young men and women, professionally trained, serious about their mission, and willing to serve.

On December 1, President Obama announced his Afghanistan plan of sending an additional 30,000 troops in the next few months. When we were at Camp Fuji on December 4, these Marines already knew that they were part of the 30,000. Next stop Afghanistan. With that reality in the near future, the Marines were excited at any opportunity to take a break from training and cut loose. Their team was an eager and enthusiastic opponent, making up with fitness for anything they lacked in talent. The stands were packed with Marines who had a ball cheering and laughing at the Ambassadors antics. Lade Majic is so experienced at working with military crowds and made certain that everyone had a smile on their face.

Those youthful faces are fixed in my mind. They are so darned young! You can see in the picture. I had a similar experience a few years ago when we were training at the aforementioned MWTC. There was a batallion of Marines up there who had just come back from Iraq. These men and women were lean, mean, fighting machines, with not an ounce of fat on them. But again, so darned young! It brings to my mind the poem "Two Sides of War" by sportswriter Grantland Rice that I heard recited by legendary basketball coach John Wooden.

It reads:
"All wars are planned by older men
In council rooms apart,
Who call for greater armament
And map the battle chart.

But out along the shattered field
Where golden dreams turn gray,
How very young the faces were
Where all the dead men lay.

Portly and solemn in their pride,
The elders cast their vote
For this or that, or something else,
That sounds the martial note.

But where their sightless eyes stare out
Beyond life's vanished toys,
I've noticed nearly all the dead
Were hardly more than boys."

As we enjoy our holidays and our freedoms that we have in this country, never forget the young men and women who willingly volunteer to stand in harms way on our behalf. Lift them up in your prayers, do something for them or their families. And if you ever get a chance, look into their youthful faces ... and say THANKS!

Marion Jones and Basketball

Just as we were leaving for Japan (more on that to follow), it was announced that Marion Jones has been working out in hopes of making a sports comeback with a WNBA team.

The public is quick to bury the disgraced and it seems that people forget that Jones was on an NCAA championship basketball team when she was a two-sport performer at the University of North Carolina.

I remembered Lade Majic describing playing against her, so I asked her to share her thoughts. Here's what Majic said:

"She was, and is probably still a world class athlete. She used poor judgment in her decision to use banned substances and paid the penalty for it. I'm paraphrasing but, "She or he without sin, cast the first stone." I don't believe anyone in this world is "perfect." We all make mistakes and everyone deserves a second chance. I played against her when she was still playing basketball at NC and she made me work extremely hard on defense and offense. We went into overtime and my team finally won. Did I mention this was a pickup game in Manhattan? Not only was she a great athlete, but she was also a great person. Anyway, she's a great competitor and deserves the right to move forward with her life. I pray that everything works out for her. I believe she'll win "this" race, bring home the gold and stay on the right track. God Bless her."

I agree!