et al.: Welcome to the Real World

Welcome to the Real World

Leaving college for n a mid-September evening in said to open the session. "We have put the outside world is 0 Manley Field House, more than 100 together a group of panelists who are going of SU's most celebrated current to share some of their experiences with you. an eye-opening experi­ athletes, the young men of Syracuse's foot­ They are all former great athletes of SU; ence for any student ball and basketball teams, played audience to some have played pro ball, others have not. but especially for the their own futures. But the one thing they have in common is The event was called Athletes Roundtable. that they are achievers in the game of life. student athlete. For one evening, coaches and teachers "When you are 20 years old, you think According to SU stepped aside, and the lessons-real, some­ you'll always be able to jump to the moon, times difficult lessons-were presented instead go to your left, or run through the line. But alumni who have been by ten of the best-known athletes in Syracuse it comes quickly that you're not able to do through it, the time sports history. those things as well as a lot of other people to prepare for that . Dave Bing. Floyd Little. John do them, and you've got to make a living Mackey. Jim Ridlon. Erich Santifer. Gary the way the average citizen makes his transition is now. Bugenhagen. John Brown Jr. Fred Mautino. living." Vince Cohen. These were men accomplished Cohen, like the others, spoke strictly from in their games and in their later professions. experience. Selected as a basketball All­ They came to share with their present-day American following his senior year at counterparts. Syracuse, 1957, Cohen was drafted to play Cohen served as moderator of Athletes professionally, but chose to accept a scholar­ Roundtable, a component of SU's re­ ship to SU's College of Law, from which he union for minority alumni, Coming Back graduated in 1960. He is today a partner in Together II. the Washington, D.C., law firm Hogan and "1 will explain why you are here," Cohen Hartson.

Ten of SU's top alumni athletes took part in Athletes Roundtable last September: (front row, from left) Jim Brown, Floyd Little, Vince Cohen, and Jim Ridlon; and (back row) Fred Mautino, John Brown, John Mackey, Erich Santifer, Dave Bing, and Gary Bugenhagen.

Event coverage and research by Marty Bah/.

FEBRUARY 1987 25 Published by SURFACE, 1987 1 Magazine, Vol. 3, Iss. 1 [1987], Art. 6

When the football Orangemen Career planning was, in fact, a prominent "A Game Plan for Life" completed their 1963 season, topic of Athletes Roundtable, but panelists John Mackey (below left) was spoke, with no holds barred, about a wide -John Mackey an All-American and the variety of subjects-drug abuse by athletes team 's Most Valuable Player. and policies of the National Collegiate Most of you athletes out there think you are A spectacular professional Athletic Association among them. In every going to be professional athletes. I'm going career with the Baltimore Colts to tell you right now that most of you will and San Diego Chargers way, they discussed the life that athletes face followed. Mackey has been after their last touchdown or three-point play never make it. So if you are going to go voted the greatest tight in as Syracuse Orangemen. four or five years to Syracuse University, the NFL 's first 50 years. " If there are some mistakes to avoid," you need to have your own agenda. You Today, he is an entrepreneur Cohen concluded, "the panelists will inform need to start thinking about what it is that with principal interests in you about them so you won't make them. you are going to do. What is the game plan several companies and serves as Although this is not Philosophy 101, you for your life, when you cannot play this game? national spokesperson for might get a lot more out of this than from There are a lot of reasons why you will No- Tox products. any class. These men are all achievers and never play professionally. You will be in the they can tell you about a world you are go­ wrong place at the wrong time, you will not ing to enter called the Real World." be good enough, you will be playing behind

"Legendary" would be the recurring adjective in any assessment of Jim Brown '57 (jar right). A t Syracuse, he let­ tered in f our sports, including lacrosse, track, and basketball, but it was football that made him a phenomenon. All­ American, Cotton Bowl MVP, NFL Rookie of the Year, and NFL Player of the Year (twice) were among his gridiron credentials. Between 1957 and 1965, he established the NFL 's career rushing record and dozens more. In 1971, the former Cleveland Brown entered the football Hall of Fame. He became a Holly wood actor and is now president of the film company Dolphin Pro­ ductions. He is also a co­ founder and former president of the Black Economic Union.

26 SYRACUSE UNI VERSITY MAGAZINE https://surface.syr.edu/sumagazine/vol3/iss1/6 2 et al.: Welcome to the Real World

someone, or you will not want to pay the Dave Bing '66 Wa5 the first price that is necessary in order to be suc­ and perhaps greatest of cessful in professional sports. modern-day SU basketball You have got to start out with a plan, stars. He set the Orange career and you are not too young. All of you have scoring record, earned All­ dreams, but in order to realize your dreams America honors, and proceeded into the NBA, playing for the you have to have a road map and under­ Detroit Pistons, Washington stand how you are going to get there .... Bullets, and Boston Celtics. In If you are going to Syracuse dreaming of 1983 the Pistons permanently becoming a professional athlete --~- retired his number, 21; Bing is but do not attend classes, and the only Piston player so all of a sudden you wake up honored. one day and you find out Bing has probably outdone that there is no professional his athletic accomplishments in career for you, you are going his business life. He is the to the car wash. president and owner of Bing Steel, the 12th-largest black What you should say is, I'm business in the nation and one going to get something out of this of the jew steel businesses of experience that's going to last me any kind actually doing quite for the rest of my life. It's up to you. well. Bing recently earned the could have gone through Syracuse and not President's Minority Small learned anything. It was up to me to get it, Businessperson of the Year and it's up to you to have a game plan. I'm award. going to tell you: Most of you will never play professional sports. "Nobody Comes Back to Beat It"

"An Epidemic of Drug Abuse" -Dave Bing -Jim Brown Drugs became an epidemic in the NBA right at the end of my career. I played my last In the there is an year with the Boston Celtics, probably the epidemic of drug abuse, especially with co­ most renowned basketball franchise in the caine. I think most of us know about history of the NBA. The year I played there, heroin, marijuana, and alcohol-alcohol has we had the worst record in the history of been one of our major problems-but co­ the Boston Celtics organization. caine is a very difficult drug, because it at­ As an outsider coming in, I was able to tacks you in many, many ways. see the problem early on. We had a drug It makes you a liar. It makes you cheat. problem. There was a major cocaine prob­ It does things to your body that people are lem in that organization. I retired, along not even sure about. Doctors don't even with John Havlichek, at the end of that know what it does. A few years ago, they year, and that whole organization was said it wasn't addictive. They found out that dismantled the following year. And they it is. A lot of death, due to heart attack, have come back. was drug-related, but doctors didn't know I say all that because most of us think we anything about it. are not going to get caught. We can do it Cocaine drains you economically. It has and nothing is going to happen to us. But I no redeeming factors. It's sort of like Las don't know of anybody that has gotten in­ Vegas. You go to Vegas, you gamble, you volved in it and has come back to beat it. In win a few dollars, and you think you have the last three years, three All-Star players, beaten the system. You go back two or three making over a half-million dollars each, have years and maybe the system gets you. You gotten kicked out of the NBA. In the prime go for 20 years, and it finally gets you. You of their lives, they can no longer come back are not going to get it. It's going to get you. to the NBA and play again. As I said, cocaine is an epidemic. It is an Those guys are not only risking their integral part of life in the National Football careers but also their lives. That seems to be League, and right now there is no realistic the most important thing to me, and I hope program that is going to clear it up. to all of you, too.

FEBRUARY 1987 27 Published by SURFACE, 1987 3 Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 3, Iss. 1 [1987], Art. 6

"It's Tough Out There" involved in City Hall and did things that I could put on my resume. I wouldn't make a -Erich Santifer lot of money in the summer doing things, but I did get tangible work experiences that I have experienced the competitiveness out showed leadership. I was just as prepared to there in the job market over the past two take a job as I was to go into the NBA. years. I tried to make it with the Pistons, Very few college players are going to have but I also had a game plan, as John said, so a successful tenure of four years as a pro. I I could go and apply and be competitive in lived with that from the day I walked into the job market with people from a variety of Syracuse. As student athletes, you'll find this schools with strong academic backgrounds. community is accessible for you, but it's left During the four years at SU, I took ad­ up to you to make a good impression-to vantage of opportunities. I took advantage go out and market yourself and be the best of who I was as a student athlete in the individual you can. It has been tough out community. If anyone is going to take ad­ there. I have had a lot of interviews, and vantage of you, it should be you. So I got I've been turned down a lot. But I feel that over the years of developing my own per­ sonal portfolio I'm competitive. As student athletes, there's one thing you Erich Santifer '83 was the have that is a previous disadvantage. When youngest of the panelists at Athletes Roundtable. A stand­ you get out in the job market your perfor­ out on the basketball court at mance is going to be scrutinized much more SU, Santifer was a third-round than the next individual's because of a NBA draft choice but was not general stereotype. As a young, black, retained by the Detroit Pistons. former student athlete, I feel that. You have He has already found his to develop an attitude to combat that, to alternative career, though, and show that you are an individual. is currently a production super­ Believe me, gentlemen. It's going to be a visor for the Fisher Guide Divi­ tough, tough go out there. Whether you sion of General Motors. have a degree it's going to be tough. If you don't have your degree, it's going to be ex­ tra tough.

"Get Back to the Discipline" -Floyd Little

I believe that all of us are here because we have discipline. To stay here at Syracuse, we were able to establish ourselves academically as well as athletically. I think, as I look at the youths taking over, that as a group we have lost that discipline that made us what we are as athletes and now business representatives. You have to get back to the discipline. You cannot participate in a sport without having complete control of all your faculties-at all times, to be the best at what you want to be. The drugs were out there before you got here and will be out there when you leave. If you want to make a contribution to yourself and to the sport- to help perpetuate that sport­ then you are going to have to be in control.

28 SYRACUSE UNIV----ERSITY MAGAZINE https://surface.syr.edu/sumagazine/vol3/iss1/6 4 et al.: Welcome to the Real World

Running back Floyd Lillie '67 (far left) was Syracuse Univer­ sity's first three-time All­ American since the 1940s. As a pro, he played for the Denver Broncos until 1975, twice leading the NFL in rushing. Three years ago he was in­ ducted into the National Foot­ hall Foundation Hall of rame. Today he leads a double professional life, serving as chief executive officer for both a Lincoln Mercury automobile dealership in West Covina, California, and Mission Broadcasting.

Jim Ridlon '57 (near left) was the backfield mate of Jim Brown during the glory years of SU football, while also col­ lecting tellers in lacrosse. He closed his career in the Cotton Bowl and College All-Star Game and joined the NFL as a defensive back for the and later the . He has since been named an SU Varsity Club Letterman of Distinction. His career brought him back Peer pressure is a problem. If your frustrated kid in the world. But I had one to SU, where he is a professor friends are doing it, you have to do it to satisfaction: when the bell rang at three I of art and a noted painter, belong. I don't think I've ever let a friend could put on a football uniform and I could sculptor, and printmaker. pick me. I've always picked my friends. I be somebody. did a pretty good job over the years, and I By some miracle, I got to college and I will continue to do that. With the pressures discovered I had a mind. It was like an ex­ of running two organizations today- a TV plosion. Class became the same kind of station and a large dealership- ! don't have challenge for me as the football field. I put the need to resort to the use of any kind of the same kind of energies into it, and you drugs. Too many people depend on me. I can do that too. If you just give I 00 percent want to make the right decisions, and the in everything you do, pretty soon that 100 only way you can make the right decisions is percent that used to fail for you will start to if you understand what you are doing. succeed. There is a discipline and a commit­ ment that is needed in the classroom, as it is "Discover Your Mind" needed on the football field. Small successes will happen for you, and - Jim Ridlon you can build on those. By the time you graduate, if you gradually become committed When I grew up, I trusted my body, the to the process of educating yourself-of way you trust your body as athletes. It was finding out what you are all about intellec­ always successful, always ran fast, and tually- a fantastic thing can happen to you. knocked people down when it had to. If you just give yourself to the classroom the I never got the same feedback from same way you give yourself on the basketball school. I had a lot of learning problems. I court and football field, you can be was dyslexic and had a really tough time somebody. learning to read and write, which gave me a You should not be here otherwise. stuttering problem. I grew up the most

Published by SURFACE, 1987 FEBRUARY 1987 29 5