Sugar Ray, Tommy Hearns, Duran and Marvelous Marvin Hagler made me realise there were other weight categories.
Before they burst onto the scene, I thought only the heavyweight category existed.
My favourite was Sugar Ray with his boyish looks. I think it was a retina injury that retired him. Too bad! Brought some glamour to the lower weight category like Ali did.
Seeing a boxer with curls like Hearns also looked strange to me then.
Hagler, with his bald head, to me was what a boxer should look like. I didn't like him.
I lost a bet with a classmate in the Hagler-Hearns match. Naive as I was then, I supported Hearns simply because I didn't like Hagler's looks!
I also did not like Duran because he was Latino.
I wanted only blacks to rule the world of sports.
The folly of youth!
Hearns had a glass jaw, that's why I suspected that he would lose. He is done for once a solid punch connects with his jaw.
Sugar Ray's dancing and good looks worked well for him. He acted in a movie, but I can't remember the name of that movie.
Damn! Damn! How could I make this kind of mistake? How could I write a thread about Nigerian tennis and not write about this man?
Well, most of the people I wrote about were more famous players than he was (some people might want to eat my head for that statement), but he did represent Nigeria and he rose to become Nigeria's very best and number one coach.
He trained some of the best tennis players in Nigeria and left his mark at all the tennis clubs in Lagos.
Below: Godwin Kienka with Novak Djokovic (long before Djokovic became world number 1).
johnie: That might partly explain the link between the Abacha goverment and Louis Farrakhan.
Video of Nduka Odizor taking part in a charity match in Italy in 1995, which was organised to raise money for refugees in Ethiopia (I believe that this is long after he had retired).
The caption reads:
Charity Event in Brescia - Italy, with Andrei Chesnokov, Jordi Arrese, Nduka Odizor, Stefano Pescosolido and the Italian actor Francesco Salvi.
Chesnokov played the event just after the final in Davis Cup (Russia/USA), playing a match with 5 sets vs Pete Sampras.
Organizers: Lorenzo Turchi and Marco Majrani; marketing: Ellisse Srl
Sani Zoro worked at the National Concord (MKO's newspaper) and he later became the national president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
And here I thought it's always been called Sports Spectacular!
You are quite right. The second name of the show was Sports Spectacular. I just spoke to someone who reminded me.
The show originally started with the name “Big Fight Of The Decade” around 1984, ’85 or ’86. They showed classic fights involving Mohammed Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Henry Cooper, Roberto Duran, Rocky Marciano, Rocky Graziano, Sugar Ray Robinson, The Chicago Hitman Thomas Hearns, John The Beast Mugabi, Marvellous Marvin Hagler, etc. It was shown at prime time (8pm) and I never missed it.
(My favourite matches were those between Sugar Ray Leonard and any of Duran, Hagler or Hearns. Do you remember the “No Mas” fight in which Duran gave up because he couldn’t stand Sugar Ray’s dancing? However, Ali was certainly the greatest. )
Then they changed the name of the show to Sports Spectacular in the late 1980s and they included other sports like tennis, although the show was still primarily about boxing.
johnie: Andrew Young was an exceptional personality
He played a significant role in the Black emancipation movement in the US right from the days of Martin Luther King Jnr.
I think he went on to become Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia and later played a big role is securing 1996 Olympics Hosting rights for the city.
It's good that he went on to hold such an important position as US ambadsador to the UN.
He was an important character in President Jimmy Carter's government and Nigeria's just after Murtala was killed.
As the report on the Ashe visit indicated, there were strong anti-US sentiments just before Murtala was killed.
When Obasanjo took over, Nigeria-US relationship became very chummy.
Carter even visited Nigeria.
I think you once created a thread on the visit.
The story behind the change in the relationship must be very interesting.
In addition to what you wrote, Andrew Young and Olusegun Obasanjo were very good friends and Ambassador Young served as guardian to Obasanjo's son, after the son was smuggled to the US when Obasanjo was jailed by Abacha.
Ishilove: My dear I never heard of Ashe until uncle naptu's thread
Arthur Ashe was the first black man to win a grandslam tournament. He won Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open. He was also ranked number one in the world.
He played an important role in getting South Africa banned from world tennis twice, because of their apartheid policies.
He showed that black people can play tennis at the highest level and Venus and Serena Williams have cited him as being one of their sources of inspiration.
He publicly admitted that he had AIDS in the late '80s or early '90s, one of the first sportsmen to make such an admission. He had been infected during a blood transfusion in 1981.
He died in 1993 and the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York, venue of the US Open, is named after him.
Picture: Arthur Ashe at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club.
Those names bring a flood of memories- The Duke, Igbinovia, Oyibokia, etc.
There was a Lagos ITF tournament which began during Ashiwaju Tinubu's tenure as Lagos governor.
I think it used to be held at LLTC. Does it still hold?
I remember Chuka Momah's boxing programme on NTA.
He played significant roles in sporting circles.
I think he wrote a book recently on his experiences. That should be worth reading.
Yes, the tournament still holds at the LLTC. It's called the Governor's Cup, but it's mainly juniors that attend the tournament. They don't have stars like the Lord Rumens Classics had. http://governorscuplagostennis.com/author/aoke/page/4/
I never missed Chuka Momah's boxing show at 8pm. They changed the name of the show at some point, but it was originally called Big Fight of The Decade.
Cleared a few things I was not sure about and connected some dots for me.
E.g.
1. Thought Murtala was riding from Dodan Barracks to the Federal Secretariat when the coupist struck. The report says he was riding fron his home in Ikoyi to Dodan Barracks. Can anyone clarify?
2. Despite driving through the stretch between where he was killled and FRCN several times over the years, it never struck me that the coupists only had to walk a few meters to the radio station after killing Murtala. Not until I read this.
3. Also never knew LLTC ever hosted such a big tourney. I remember that the Williams sisters played there just a few years back. I thought that was the most high profile event there.
Also noted that
1. Customs also performed the role of immigration in those days.
2. Federal Palace was the place to be in Lagos for many years.
I remember reading about some strange events happening there around the time of the first 1966 coup.
Does Transcorp Hilton fit the bill of FP in Abuja these days?
Thanks for sharing!
1) Murtala lived in the same house he lived in when he was minister of communications. It's in Old Ikoyi, but I've forgotten the name of the street. He didn't even have a generator in that house.
2) I used to call Ikoyi Road "The most important road in Nigeria" in the 1980s. That's because State House Ribadu Road, Dodan Barracks and Broadcasting House all have gates on that road. Flag Staff House (now Defense House) is also nearby. Remember that Murtala was killed at the Bank Road/Ikoyi Road junction.
3) The visit of the Williams sisters was facilitated by Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas, Lord Rumens' nephew. LLTC hosted lots of high profile matches. I spent many Saturdays watching them on NTA Sports World.
4) The strange events during the 1966 coup occurred at Ikoyi Hotel. Colonel Largema was killed at Ikoyi Hotel. You are right, both the Federal Palace and Ikoyi hotels were fun places to hang out in.
The following photos were taken in Benin City, Nigeria in 1978. 7-Up and the Black Tennis & Sports Foundation sponsored a team of players and their coach, Bob Davis, to compete in the Ogbe International Hard Court tournament.
Tennis was big business in Nigeria from the 1950s to the mid-1990s. Stars came from all over the world to play in tournaments in Nigeria. People like Thomas Muster, Jacob Hlasek, Paul Haarhuis and of course Arthur Ashe, played at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club at one point or the other. We had great tournaments with considerable prizes, like the following big three tournaments:
Chief Olatunji Ajisomo Alabi (aka Lord Rumens) was a multi-millionaire who served as president of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club from 1966 – 1975. He led other millionaires like his cousin, Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony, his nephew Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas, Chief Raheem Adejumo, etc, to invest heavily in tennis, particularly in the LLTC. The centre court at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club was named after Lord Rumens after his death in 1998.
The Lord Rumens Classics was the biggest tennis tournament in Nigeria in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s. It was part of the ATP Tour (the ATP called it “The Lagos Classics” or “The Lagos Open” ). Lots of foreigners played in the tournament in order to gain ATP ranking points. It offered very good prize money, between $60,000-$75,000 in the 1970s and ‘80s and this attracted stars from around the world like Karel Nováček , Thomas Muster, Jacob Hlasek, Paul Haarhuis, Arthur Ashe, Dick Stockton, etc. Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas funded the tournament after the death of Lord Rumens in 1998.
The Lagos Lawn Tennis Club originally had grass courts, but they were converted to clay courts in the 1970s and then to hard courts (concrete) in the late 1980s. A new centre court was also built for the 1976 tournament.
Brigadier General Samuel Ogbemudia was the sports loving governor of the Mid-West State from 1967-1975. He built Ogbe Stadium (now Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium), set up the College of Physical Education, Afuze (to train coaches and PE teachers) and started the Ogbe Hard Court tournament in 1971. It was also during his tenure that Bendel Insurance was formed and the Mid-West/Bendel State dominated sports in Nigeria.
The Ogbe Hard Court tournament was part of the ATP Challenger Tour. It was sponsored by the Bendel State Government, by Pepsi/7up (in the 1970s) and by Guinness in the 1990s. It attracted players from all over the world who came to acquire ATP ranking points and also for the $50,000 cash prize.
Dala Clay Court Prize = $50,000. Venue = Kano Tennis Club
Dala Clay Court tournament was started in 1980 and it quickly eclipsed the Kaduna Clay Court Tournament to become one of the big three tennis tournaments in Nigeria. It was sponsored by Aminu Dantata, Isyaku Rabiu, etc (and is now sponsored by Aminu Dantata’s grand-nephew, Aliko Dangote).
Premier Hard Court Enugu. Prize = $25,000. Venue = Enugu Sports Club.
Ogun Green Court. Prize = $25,000. Venue = Abeokuta Sports Club.
John Player Classics. Prize = $25,000. Venue = Lagos Country Club, Ikeja.
Nuel Ojei Classics. Venue = Ikoyi Club.
Nigerian tennis stars
Nigeria had so many tennis stars (some of whom were personal friends of mine) who won ATP tournaments all over the world. They included:
1950s and ‘60s: Walter Obianwu, Herbert Oranye, etc.
1960s and ‘70s: Patrick Obi, Lawrence Awopegba, Thompson Onibokun, Yemi Allen, Kehinde Ajayi, etc. and among the women there was Elizabeth Ekong.
1980s: Nduka “The Duke” Odizor (who got to the 4th round at Wimbledon in 1983 and was ranked number 52 in the world in 1984 and number 20 in the doubles. He won 28 titles overall, including in Taipei, Lagos, Thessaloniki, Monterey, Tokyo, Forest hills in New York City, Benin City, etc), David Imonitie, Sadiq Abdulahi, Tony Mmoh, Yakubu Suleiman, Chike and Emeka Obianwu, etc. We had such great female tennis players like Veronica Oyibokia, Nosa Imafidon, Rolake Olagbegi, Nwando Obianwu, etc.
1990s: Katya and Tanya Okpala, Clara Udofia, Osaro Amadin, etc. We also had male tennis players like Sule Ladipo, Jonathan Igbinovia , Kyrian Nwokedi, Priye Hamilton, etc.
It was Monday, February 16, 1976, a sunny day in Lagos, just before noon. The Lagos Lawn Tennis Club terraces were filled with middle class Nigerians and foreign expatriates. Arthur Ashe, current Wimbledon champion, was playing his semi-final match against Jeff Borowiak, a fellow American on centre court. The event was the $60,000 Lagos Tennis Classic tournament, part of the World Championship Tennis (WCT) pro circuit series, and Black Africa’s first professional tennis tournament. Ashe had just won the first set in a tie break. It was a game apiece in the second set and Ashe was about to serve. As he threw the tennis ball into the air, five men marched on to the court via the players’ entrance.
The spectators watched as the men approached Ashe. One of the men was in a brown suit while the others were in military outfit. The leader of the group, an army Captain, shouted “What are you doing? We are in mourning. You are making money. Are you all mad? Please go. Please go.” One of the soldiers shoved the cold steel of his machine gun into the back of Ashe’s sweat-soaked shirt to push him off the court. Ashe walked off the court with his two arms raised in the air, leaving his gear behind. The other soldiers proceeded to clear the Main stand, East and West wing terraces. Pandemonium broke out as spectators ran from their seats for the main exit before the soldiers got to them. The Nigerian spectators moved quicker than their bewildered foreign counterparts. They were well aware of their countrymen’s brutality. Ashe however headed to the dressing room.
In January, a month before the start of the Lagos Tennis Classic, Dick Stockton, an American tennis player, had visited the WCT headquarters in Dallas, Texas. He was concerned about travelling to Lagos to play in the Lagos Tennis Classic. He had read reports, in the local Dallas papers, of anti-American demonstrations in front of the US Embassy in Lagos. “I said to them that this could potentially be a very dangerous situation if these reports about all these anti-American demonstrations are true,” Stockton recalled. WCT officials assured him by saying “we have been in touch with the State Department and they told us that everything is fine, there is no reason to worry.”
Arthur Ashe played a key role in influencing WCT’s decision to take the event to Lagos. He had been to Nigeria in 1970 with fellow American tennis star, Stan Smith, as part of a US State Department goodwill tour. This experience had made him keen to promote tennis in Black Africa. The Lagos Lawn Tennis Club fulfilled every WCT condition to host the event which included providing the prize money for the singles and doubles’ tournaments and the building of a new centre court. World Championship Tennis signed a five year agreement with the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club to host an annual series of WCT tennis tournaments in Lagos. The 14 WCT players drawn to participate in the Lagos Tennis Classic were Arthur Ashe (USA), Tom Okker (HOL), Dick Crealy (AUS), Harold Solomon (USA), Jeff Borowiak (USA), Brian Fairlie (NZL), Eddie Dibbs (USA), Ismail El Shafei (EGY), Wojtek Fibak (POL), Karl Meiler (GER), Bob Lutz (USA), Stan Smith (USA), Erik Van Dillen (USA), and Dick Stockton (USA). Nigeria’s two best tennis players, Lawrence Awopegba and Yemisi Allan, were given wild card entries to compete in the tournament alongside some of the best tennis players in the world.
John McDonald, WCT’s International Director, was in the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club dressing room with a plastic bag containing WCT tennis players’ passports that fateful February 16 when Ashe entered. He had just been to the Lagos International Airport to retrieve them. Nigerian immigration officials had collected most of the players’ passports on their arrival from Barcelona and held on to them because their visas needed to be revalidated. These players were unhappy about leaving their passports behind but had no choice if they wanted to be permitted to leave the airport.
The man in the brown suit burst the door open and stepped into the dressing room with a big stick. He was accompanied by a soldier who ordered McDonald and Ashe to get out. The man with the stick slammed it on the table to emphasize this order and took a swing at the men as they ran away. The two men ran out of the stadium on to the street which was filled with people fleeing in all directions. McDonald spotted John Parsons, the Daily Mail tennis correspondent who travelled with the WCT contingent to Lagos, heading in the opposite direction. A soldier with an ebony stick shouted at Parsons “Where are you going?” as he clubbed him across the back. Parsons had been on his way to the local Reuters office to file the breaking story with the Daily Mail; instead he got an 18-inch weal on his back for his effort.
Donald Easum, US ambassador, was in the terraces watching the semi-final match with his security detail, a young marine guard in civilian clothes. He located Ashe, Borowiak and McDonald outside the stadium and secured vehicles to transport them to the US Embassy. Ashe and Borowiak got into one car while McDonald was put in another car. On their way, Ashe and Borowiak’s vehicle was held up in a traffic jam because a soldier was beating a Nigerian spectator in the middle of the road. The players got out of the car and headed to the US Embassy on foot. The Hungarian ambassador on his way from the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club offered them a ride to their destination in his limousine. Easum and the marine guard chose to walk to the US Embassy and had to pass through a group of anti-American demonstrators who chanted in protest with placards declaring “Down with the CIA” and “Yankee, go home.” Some carried pictures of the Nigerian Head of State with placards lauding him.
Friday the 13th was supposed to be the fourth day of the Lagos Tennis Classic tournament. General Murtala Mohammed, the Nigerian Head of State, was on his way from his Ikoyi residence to his office at the army headquarters in Dodan barracks. His metallic-black Mercedes Benz was stuck in a traffic jam near the Federal secretariat shortly after 8 a.m. The General had his Aide-de-Camp beside him while his orderly sat in front with the driver. He, unlike General Gowon, his predecessor, travelled without an armed security escort.
A group of men with machine guns strolled to the General’s vehicle and fired at the car and its occupants. Pedestrians and drivers stuck in the traffic jam scampered for safety. One of the gunmen fired a whole magazine of bullets at the car, reloaded and then fired another magazine at it. The gunmen left the bullet-riddled car and headed for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. The leader of the group was the head of the Nigerian Army Physical Training Corps, Lt. Colonel Bukar Dimka, a 33 year old man with a waxed walrus moustache and a deep tribal mark on each cheek. He announced from the radio station that the ‘Young Revolutionaries’ had overthrown the Government and declared a 6am to 6pm (sic) nationwide curfew while imploring listeners to stay by their radios for further announcements. His short recorded broadcast played repeatedly on the radio throughout the morning and was interspersed with martial music.
Dick Stockton was asleep in his room at the Federal Palace hotel when his hotel telephone rang. It was Paul Svehlik, the WCT tour manager. He told Stockton about the attempted coup and cancellation of the Lagos Tennis Classic matches for that day. A shocked Stockton was told to inform the other four American tennis players at the hotel. The instruction was to stay in the hotel until further notice. One of the Americans that Stockton called was Eddie Dibbs who asked “What the hell’s a coup?” when he saw Stockton. Pele, the Brazilian soccer superstar, and his entourage were also at the Federal Palace hotel when they heard about the coup attempt. They stayed beside the radio in their hotel room to find out what was happening. He was in Lagos on a Pepsi-Cola sponsored marketing tour to play an exhibition match and run some soccer clinics.
Around lunchtime, the five tennis players went down to the hotel’s swimming pool area to relax. Eddie Dibbs, Harold Solomon, Bob Lutz, Erik Van Dillen and Dick Stockton were by the pool when 30-40 soldiers with machine guns surrounded the area. The scared hotel manager came to the swimming pool and told the guests in the area to get back into the hotel for their safety. Everyone was unsure what the soldiers were going to do.
The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation went off air around 3pm when Federal Government troops tried to recapture the radio station from the coup plotters. Dimka escaped during a brief gunfire exchange between Federal forces and his men. The radio station returned to air around 4pm playing popular Highlife music. At 6.20pm, a spokesman for the Federal Military Government came on air to announce that the coup attempt had been crushed with several arrests made. He stated that a 6pm to 6am curfew was in place throughout the country and all borders and airports were closed until further notice. There was no mention of the fate of the Head of State. Lagos, the busiest city in Black Africa, was subdued as most Lagosians stayed indoors by their radios. The city was on high security alert. There were numerous roadblocks all over the city manned by soldiers tasked with maintaining security and capturing suspected coup plotters. There was no further radio announcement from the Federal Military Government that Friday.
The five American players received a phone call from the US Embassy that evening and were told to pack their stuff and be prepared to leave the hotel. The Federal Palace hotel wasn’t considered safe. Donald Easum sent a minibus to evacuate the players. The driver of the minibus took a wrong turn on the way back and got into an argument with a soldier stationed at a road block. The soldier pointed his machine gun at the vehicle and the tennis players thought they were going to die. He eventually let them go through after he was satisfied that they were harmless. There were no spare rooms at the US ambassador’s residence for the five American players because Ashe, Borowiak and Tom Okker (a Dutch tennis player) were already staying there. This meant that alternative accommodation had to be arranged with an American family. “We descended on this poor family,” Bob Lutz recalled. “They were an elderly couple and he worked for the US Embassy.” The assassination of General Mohammed was officially announced around noon on February 14 and his deputy, General Obasanjo, was named as his successor. His corpse was flown to Kano, that Saturday, and buried in his hometown according to Muslim rites. The Federal Military Government announced seven days of national mourning in honour of the slain Head of State.
Rumours circulated across the country that the US Government via the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the coup attempt and assassination of General Mohammed. This was because of the well-publicised differences between the US Government and Nigerian Government over the latter’s support for the soviet-backed People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Tennis matches scheduled for Saturday were cancelled because of the national mourning. John McDonald pushed for the players to continue with the tournament and this led to a big argument between him and some of the American players who weren’t willing to play in such unsafe conditions. McDonald told the players that if they didn’t play then they wouldn’t be let out of the country. This was because their passports were still at the time with Nigerian custom officials who had taken them for visa revalidation.
“We were told that the last coup that had taken place was a bloodless coup and no one was able to get out of the country for a while,” Stan Smith said. “We were concerned that we would not get out of the country to go to the next tournament.” Lagos Lawn Tennis Club officials contacted McDonald late Saturday to inform him that Federal Military Government had authorised the resumption of the tennis tournament on Sunday. The Government also promised to provide a plane to fly the players out of the country at the end of the tournament despite the closure of the national borders and airports. John McDonald contacted the 8 players still left in the singles tournament to notify them that the event was back on. There were six Americans, a German and an Australian in the quarter-finals. The plan was to play the quarter-finals on Sunday and the semi-final and final matches on Monday to make up for the two lost days – Friday and Saturday. The doubles tournament which was in the semi-final stage was cancelled because there wasn’t enough time to fit it into the schedule.
The quarter-final matches resumed at 11am on Sunday, February 15 and all the four matches went smoothly without any incident. Four Americans {Dick Stockton, Bob Lutz, Arthur Ashe and Jeff Borowiak} made it through to the semi-final stage in straight sets. The Lagos heat sapped the players’ strength and motivation so that players who lost the first set went on to lose the match. The players weren’t provided with cold drinks by the tournament organizers and struggled as a result. Some of them snuck into the air-conditioned room close to centre court for a few seconds to cool down during game change-overs. The match umpires permitted them to do this. February would go on to be the hottest month of that year in Lagos.
Sunday was a relatively calm day in Lagos after Friday’s upheaval which meant that Arthur Ashe, Jeff Borowiak and Tom Okker with Donald Easum could go to the Brazilian ambassador’s residence to have lunch with Pele. Whereas the five American players staying with the elderly American couple had nothing to do. “They had this world professional dart board and darts and we were bored. There were these huge lizards running around the property,” Erik Van Dillen said. “We decided to go on a big safari hunt and see if we can get them. We weren’t very politically correct at the time.” The lizards were too quick for the players despite their best efforts. “So Eddie Dibbs is going one way and I am going another and he throws a dart which ricochets off the cement floor and sticks right into my leg. It hurt for a little bit.” Bob Lutz laughed as he recalled the incident. “We had a lot of fun considering what was happening.”
Dibbs and Lutz later approached some soldiers stationed at a road block down the street to chat with them. The soldiers were eating their rations and seemed friendly. The players told them that they were in Lagos to play a tennis tournament. All of a sudden, their Commanding Officer showed up and shouted at the players “What are you doing here? Are you CIA? Are you spies? Get out of here!” The players hurried back to their residence.
The 18-man WCT contingent comprising of 14 players, 2 WCT officials and 2 English journalists departed from their Ikoyi rendezvous point in a convoy of cars in the early hours of Tuesday, February 17, for Lagos International Airport. The Federal Military Government provided an armed police escort to the airport. This ensured that the vehicles were able to pass through the roadblocks that dotted the city. The Government also kept its word by providing an airplane and lifting it’s imposed flight restrictions to let the tennis contingent leave Lagos airspace. They were the first foreigners allowed to leave the country after the attempted coup. The local Pepsi-Cola Manager approached Donald Easum the day before to enquire about Pele and his entourage traveling with the WCT contingent but official government permission couldn’t be secured in time for this to happen. There was a large military presence at the airport to prevent fugitives like Dimka from leaving the country. The plane departed at 7.00am in order to catch the AZ 837 Alitalia plane which left Accra at 8.15am and arrived in Rome at 2.35pm. There was an eruption of cheers by the players as the aircraft took off from the Lagos International Airport runaway. They were relieved that their ordeal was finally over.
“It was an unfortunate incident”, Harold Solomon recalled. “We were going down to have a major tournament in a developing African country and it was a case of bad timing that we were there when they had an unfortunate coup de’tat.” The Rome WCT tournament was delayed by a day to accommodate the late arrival of the players. Arthur Ashe went on to win this tournament. Pele eventually left Lagos when the Federal Military Government re-opened the borders and airports a few days later. The Brazilian ambassador insisted that he wore an aviator’s uniform to conceal his identity. The greatest danger that Pele faced throughout his time in Lagos was to lose money during games of gin rummy in the Federal Palace hotel.
The WCT informed Arthur Ashe, Jeff Borowiak and Dick Stockton when they got to Rome that they had to honour their Lagos Tennis Classic match commitments. They had to complete the event to ensure that the prize money and Hagger points for the singles tournament were appropriately distributed. The only available opportunity to do this was at the Caracas WCT Open. On April 1, in the middle of the Caracas tournament, Arthur Ashe completed his unfinished semifinal match against Borowiak by beating him. The following day, April 2, he faced Stockton in the final and lost to him. The match was over in less than an hour and it was Stockton’s first ever victory against Ashe. The score was 6-3, 6-2. The WCT never held another tennis tournament in Nigeria. The Lagos International Airport was renamed ‘Murtala Mohammed International Airport’ a few days after his assassination. Dimka was on the run for three weeks after the coup attempt before his eventual capture on March 5. He was executed on May 15, 1976. There was never an official Government explanation for the military interruption of the Ashe vs Borowiak semi-final match.
This longform story is based on archival newspaper research, biographical accounts of key characters, US Embassy/State Department cables plus telephone interviews with Tom Okker, Stan Smith, Harold Solomon, Dick Stockton, Bob Lutz, John McDonald, Ismail El Shafei, Paul Svehlik, and Erik Van Dillen.
My thanks to everyone who helped me during the reporting and writing of this story.
As an aside, there was this set of Social Studies textbooks (a different for each primary school class) we used in the late 70s that detailed the lives and exploits of people like Mungo Park, Lander brothers,Mary Slessor, Florence Nightingale, etc.
Does anyone here remember the name, publisher or how one can get copies?
As an aside, there was this set of Social Studies textbooks (a different for each primary school class) we used in the late 70s that detailed the lives and exploits of people like Mungo Park, Lander brothers,Mary Slessor, Florence Nightingale, etc.
Does anyone here remember the name, publisher or how one can get copies?
stagger: I remember Tyna Onwudiwe more from her days as co-presenter of Kessingsheen Hit Show (1986 or thereabout). The commercial from AJ Seward, the makers of Kessignsheen hair shampoo and sponsors of the show, stuck in my head: "good secretaries are hard to find, I think I"ll keep mine. Thank you Kessingsheen".
The days of the Jerry Curl hairdos. Can't believe 30 years have flown by just like that.
Are you Stagger Lee?
Skid Ikemefuna (MC Skiddo), Mustapha Amego, Stagger Lee, etc.
DanseMacabre: I love Tina's posture in the fourth picture, she seems like a woman completely aware of and at ease with herself.
naptu2, please I wouldn't mind a mention too whenever you create these kinds of threads. I basically wander through the cobwebbed corridors of this place looking for such.
Ok. I was going to create a thread today, but I'll have to create it tomorrow or on Tuesday. I'll tag you when I create it.
LyfeJennings: Tina couldn't have died in 2001 I was a big fan of her in the 90s I remember the Black on Black video and a lot of her interviews so well She died in the 90s THAT I AM 1000% SURE OF
You are totally wrong. She died in 2001. Can you provide proof that she died in the 1990s and I'll provide proof that she died in 2001?
Here's the confirmation. There were four policemen on the premises. Three were in the guardhouse and a fourth had just left the guardhouse and gone to a back room when the robbers struck.
The fourth policeman confirmed that two policemen, Iboko and Agbor, died from their injuries and a third, Otu Itan (who is the subject of this thread), was shot in the eye.
Punch reports that one of Sergeant Iboko's children slumped and died at his funeral.
Sports › Re: Throwback: When Pele And Arthur Ashe Were Caught Up In A Nigerian Coup. by naptu2(op): 4:27am On Jun 14, 2017
