Committee Chairman

Riddick Bowe headlines Int'l Boxing HOF Class

Dec 06, 2014

The International Boxing Hall of Fame has announced their latest class and it is a trio of former world champions who have had a place on the world stage and will be placed on the world stage this summer.

This class includes, three former World Champions in the form of former Heavyweight Champion, Riddick Bowe, former Lightweight Champion, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and former Featherweight Champion “Prince” Naseem Hamed, which by all accounts should be considered a stellar class for this Hall of Fame.

Riddick Bowe was a former two time heavyweight champion of the world, first winning the WBA, WBC and IBF titles from Evander Holyfield in November of 1992, dealing him his first career loss. He would have successful title defenses against Michael Dokes in the fabled Madison Square Garden and Jesse Ferguson in RFK Stadium in Washington, but his tenure as Heavyweight Champion was not without controversy.

The WBC had named British star Lennox Lewis as the number one contender, but the two could not come up with a financial division of the purse that seemed fair and Bowe relinquished the title (ceremonial throwing the title in the garbage) rather than fight the Englishman.

Holyfield would reclaim the title in Las Vegas winning a majority decision over Bowe, though the fight was more known for the appearance of the “Fan Man” who dropped in to the open air stadium via a fan type apparatus.

Bowe would later reclaim a portion of the Heavyweight Championship, knocking out Herbie Hyde in the 6th round and would later defend the belt against Jorge Luis Gonzalez, though it was a rematch with Holyfield that he craved.

Surrendering the WBO Title, Bowe would win the rubber match with Holyfield but would later engage into a series controversial fights with Andrew Golota, both of which ended in disqualification victories for Bows when the Polish heavyweight repeatedly threw low blows.

Overall, Bowe retired with a very impressive record of 43 and 1 and though he has not received the respect due over his career, this is an honored well earned.

Former WBA Lightweight Champion, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, joins Bowe. The popular Italian-American rose up the Lightweight winning the NABF title and would challenge Alexis Arguello for the WBC Lightweight Champion, but would suffer defeat in the 14th round.

Mancini would rebound winning his next two fights and would again challenge for the World Title, this time the WBA version of the Lightweight Championship where he defeated Arturo Frias in the first round by Knockout.

Mancini would make four successful title defenses, though tragedy would befall one of those matches where he defeated Duk Koo Kim, whom he defeated in the fourteenth round and the fallen challenger would die fur days later due to the beating he took in the ring. Mancini would later lose his championship to Livingstone Bramble in 1984, and would lose a rematch shortly after. He retired with a record of 29 and 5 with 23 Knockouts.

The third inductee is “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the flashy British pugilist known for his over the top ring entrances. Hamed could back it up and he won the WBO Featherweight Title in 1995 over Steve Robinson and would go on a tear winning the IBF Featherweight Title in 1997 over Tom Johnson and the Lineal Featherweight against Wilfredo Vazquez.

Hamed would only lose once in his career, which was to Mexican star Marco Antonio Barrera, where he lost the lineal Featherweight title. He would retire with a record of 36 and 1 with 31 Knockouts.

Two former Japanese World Champions join this group. Former WBA Light Flyweight Champion, Yoko Gushiken (24-1, 23 KO) and the first ever WBA Flyweight Champion, Masao Ohba (35-2-1, 16 KO) are part of this class as is former American Middleweight, Ken Overlin, (113-18-9, 23 KO) who was a top star in his weight class in the 1940’s.

Manager, Rafael Mendoza, referee, Steve Smoger, broadcaster, Jim Lampley and publicist John F.X. Condon round out the class.

This class will be inducted on June 14th at Canastota, New York, which will be the 26th annual ceremony.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate this year’s Boxing Hall of Fame Class.

Daniel Alfredsson Retires

Dec 05, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

A major retirement took place in the world of professional hockey as Daniel Alfredsson has officially retired from the game.

Alfredsson was not a highly regarded player from the nation of Sweden and was only drafted in the sixth round by the Ottawa Senators in 1994. It was not long before General Managers across the National Hockey League realized that they had made a mistake in passing on the feisty Scandanavian as he would win the coveted Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie in 1996.

The Swedish star would emerge as the top producer for the Ottawa Senators and after years of struggles would lead them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2007 where he was the leading scorer in the Playoffs.

Alfredsson would spend the bulk of his professional career with the Ottawa Senators and over his career would score 1,108 Points over his career with a 0.94 Points per Game Average. In terms of his trophy case, Alfredsson would earn Second Team NHL Honors in 2006 and the King Clancy Award in 2012.

As we take a brief look at the career of the Swedish star, we openly ask is this the resume of a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, and upon first look he isn’t that far off.

Regardless, we here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to thank Daniel Alfredsson for the memories and his wonderful career.

RIP: Jean Beliveau

Dec 03, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

It was a sad day in the world of hockey as we learned of the passing of one of the sport’s true gentlemen, Jean Beliveau, who died at the age of 83.

Beliveau, played twenty seasons in the National Hockey League (1950-71) with the fabled Montreal Canadians where he had his name etched on the Stanley Cup ten times as a player. “Le Gros Bill” would earn another seven names on Lord Stanley’s mug as an executive with Habs.

On the ice, Beliveau was one of the best. Beliveau would win the coveted Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player twice in 1956 and 1964, and was named a First Team All Star six times. He would retire with 1,219 Points, which was a record for the hallowed Canadians and he would be fast tracked into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972, a year after he retired from the game.

Jean Beliveau was a great ambassador for the game of Hockey and the Montreal Canadians and we lost a major legend.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends and family of Jean Beliveau at this time.

2014 Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame Class Announced!

Dec 02, 2014

Published in Not in Hall of Fame News

We here at Notinhalloffame.com are very excited to unveil the first ever Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame Class of 2014, the official announcement, which took place yesterday on the Bob McCown show on Sportsnet in Canada.

This class was chosen by all of you via three levels of voting in a calendar year; the Preliminary, Semi-Finals and Finals, all taking place over a calendar year, and we now have our first full class of induction; consisting of three Fictional Athletes and one Fictional Contributor.

We have to assume that all of you are fans of Baseball as all four inductees to our Fictional Athlete Hall of Fame Class of 2014 are all from that sport. Incidentally, they are all from films of the 1980’s.

The three Fictional Athletes who are entering the Hall of Fame are:

Crash Davis (Bull Durham)

Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn (Major League)

Roy Hobbs (The Natural)

Crash Davis dominated the voting from beginning to end, and at no point ever relinquished the top spot in vote tallies. Played by Kevin Costner in what was not only his best sports role, but what many feel best role period, Crash Davis was a career minor league catcher who would set the record for Home Runs in the minors. There have been many who have called Bull Durham as the best sports film ever, and Costner, who was a natural athlete, looked every bit the part.

Finishing second in the voting was Cleveland Indians Pitcher, “The Wild Thing” Ricky Vaughn, whose 100 MPH fastball, “veg-head” haircut and skull and crossbones glasses made him the most colorful of the motley group of rags to riches Indians that won their division. Next to his role as Charlie Harper in “Two and a Half Men”, Ricky Vaughn has to be the part that the enigmatic Charlie Sheen is best known for.

Roy Hobbs took the third and final spot where he pulled ahead on the second to last day and he narrowly edged out the pugilist, Apollo Creed by only a fraction of the votes. Played by Robert Redford, the Natural is a magical baseball film following the career of Hobbs, who was a nineteen year old pitching prodigy who was shot by a stalker, and had to reemerge as a thirty-five year old slugger for the fictional New York Knights.

As mentioned this Hall of Fame has a “Contributor” section, which basically reflects those in sports films and television shows who are not active participants in regards to direct athletic endeavors.

The first inductee for this category also comes form the Major League franchise, as we are pleased to announce broadcaster, Harry Doyle to our Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame.

The cantankerous Cleveland Indians play-by-play announcer generated the best lines of the film and was responsible for setting the mood of the film; this despite ever interacting with any of the other characters or even advancing the plot. We suspect that this could be the only announcer inducted to the Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame for decades.

The induction of Harry Doyle officially marks Major League as the first film to generate two inductees.

This is the complete voting percentages in the Final Round:

Athletes:

Crash Davis                 51.7%
Ricky Vaughn              50.8%
Roy Hobbs                   49.0%
Apollo Creed                  48.6%
Reggie Dunlop               45.3%
The Hanson Brothers     42.4%
Willie Mays Hayes          32.7%
Happy Gilmore               29.9%
Al Bundy                        26.1%
Bobby Boucher               24.9%
Forrest Gump                 24.5%
Jimmy Chitwood             24.1%
Sam Malone                    19.5%
Fast Eddie Felson           16.3%
Paul Crewe (’74)              14.5%

Contributors:

Harry Doyle                   54.6%
Gordon Bombay               52.7%
Mickey Goldmill               49.5%
Carl Spackler                   49.5%
Norman Dale                    48.0%
Jimmy Dugan                   44.2%
Mr. Miyagi                        42.0%
Morris Buttermaker          25.6%
Chubbs Peterson              13.9%
Jerry Maguire                     7.8%

Here at Notinhalloffame.com, and our Fictitious Halls (The Athlete and Rock and Roll), when one class is officially inducted, the beginning of another class’s eventual induction begins.

The previous nominees who were not chosen return as preliminary nominees. Additional nominees have been added who were either new possibilities from the past calendar year or ones that were not previously nominated that have received additional consideration.

There are two changes to this year’s induction process:

The first is a major one, with the addition of a “Veterans Category”, whereby candidates from films prior to 1970 will have their own point of entry to the Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame. There will be only one Veteran’s inductee this year.

The second change is that for 2015, the process will result in two “Contributor” inductees as opposed to just one. In 2016, it will revert back to one Contributor inductee and back to two in alternating years.

This means that the 2015 Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame Class will have six total inductees; three Athletes, two Contributors and one Veteran.

The process will be the same as last year, whereby the Preliminary nominees will be reduced to Semi-Finalists by the spring and Finalists in the Fall.

Your online votes will decide all of the Semi-Finalists, Finalists, and the eventual Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame Class of 2015.

Athletes

Contributors

Veterans

As always, we encourage you to vote and assist us with determining the Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame Class of 2015.