Jan. 16, 2004
(This is another "B" Line column, a collection of news items of particular interest to members of the Baylor "B" Association.)
January and February are always busy months for Houston Rockets General Manager Carroll Dawson as the teams in the National Basketball Association begin to solidify their positions in the standings. But the months in 2004 will take on even more importance, as the former Baylor basketball player and coach will be honored by his alma mater this month and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in February.
Dawson will be among four to be introduced as Distinguished Alumni at the Baylor Alumni Association's annual dinner on Jan. 24 and among seven to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Feb. 12. Both events will be in Waco.
Entering the Hall of Fame with Dawson will be another former BU athlete, All-American football player Stan Williams.
Dawson lettered in basketball at Baylor from 1958 through 1960 and served as head coach from 1973 through 1977. He has spent the last 25 years with the Houston Rockets of the NBA as an assistant coach and member of the management team.
He is currently the Rockets' general manager and the vice-president of basketball operations for the Houston Comets of the Women's National Basketball Association. He is the only person involved with the franchise to have served as an assistant coach during the Rockets' four trips to the NBA Finals, including championships in 1994 and 1995.
Dawson also had a major role in the Comets' four consecutive titles from 1997 through 2000.
Dawson was an All-American at Paris Junior College and made the All-Southwest Conference team at Baylor in 1960.
Played three positions . . .
Williams, a Cisco native who now lives in Waco, was an All-American end for the Bears in 1951. He caught 65 career passes for 1,029 yards and 11 touchdowns while playing end and tailback and was also a defensive back.
He lettered as a freshman in 1948 and went on to collect three varsity letters. Williams was a consensus All-Southwest Conference end in 1951 and was named to Texas Football magazine's all-decade team following the breakup of the SWC in 1995.
In his final game for Baylor, Williams caught three passes in the Bears' 17-14 loss to Georgia Tech in the 1952 Orange Bowl.
Others included in the Hall of Fame Class of 2004 are former Houston Rockets head coach Rudy Tomjanovich, former Houston Oilers defensive end Elvin Bethea, former University of Houston football coach Bill Yeoman, Fort Worth Dunbar basketball coach Robert Hughes and Bob Hayes, the late Dallas Cowboys wide receiver.
Previous Hall of Fame inductees with Baylor ties include Larry Isbell (football), Wesley Bradshaw (football), Frank Bridges (football), Hayden Fry (football), Bill Glass (football), Clyde Hart (track), Bill Henderson (basketball), John Drew "Boody" Johnson (football), Michael Johnson (track), Barton "Botchey" Koch (football), Ted Lyons (baseball), Jack Patterson (track), R. J. "Jackie" Robinson (basketball), Mike Singletary (football), M. A. "Catfish" Smith (football), Grant Teaff (football) and Warren Woodson (basketball, tennis, football).
Two other Hall of Fame members with lesser Baylor connections include Clyde "Bulldog" Turner, who was an assistant football coach at Baylor for a short period, and Jody Conradt, a basketball inductee who was an undergraduate student at Baylor before women athletics were recognized.
THE LAST ROUNDUP - Former BU All-American and NFL All-Pro Santana Dotson is involved in some upcoming Super Bowl events to raise money for Houston's needy. Dotson will join such current and former players as Donald Driver, Michael Irvin, Tony Dorsett, Darren Woodson, Vonnie Holliday, Ray Mickens, Jerry Rice and Hines Ward in a Jan. 30 charity golf tournament at Sienna Plantation Golf Club. (For more information call 281-778-4653, 214-263-1440 or go to Dotson's website (www.santanadotson.com) . . . In December Dotson provided playground equipment for a new park near downtown Houston. The facility, named the Dotson Family Park, is part of St. John's United Methodist Church's inner-city ministry . . . Austin resident Richard Pennington points out correctly that the Dec. 10 "B" Line column was in error when it stated that John Westbrook was one of five African-American football walk-ons at Baylor in 1965. "He was all alone," said Pennington, author of Breaking the Ice: Racial Integration of Southwest Conference Football . . . Good luck to Jeff Brown, who is leaving his job as assistant media relations director and Internet coordinator for the BU athletic department to move on to a magazine job in Philadelphia . . . And with that final item the "B" Line takes a sabbatical - but not before we pass along thanks to those who helped with the weekly column since it began two years ago. They are Jeff Brown, Dutch Schroeder, Reba Cooper and Lee Harrington.
(The "B" Line column is produced by Jack Loftis, editor emeritus of The Houston Chronicle, a director of the Baylor "B" Association and chairman of the organization's Communications Committee.)
