Athletic Facilities

For more than half a century, it was a musty pugilistic monument--preserved in liniment and sweat--where generations of Los Angeles prizefighters learned the lessons of "the sweet science." The Main Street Gym, on the edge of skid row, was the rattiest workout venue in the city (some said the world), but it also was the most famous. "World Rated Boxers Train Here Daily" read a sign at the entrance.

For an athletic program on NCAA probation, USC shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to constructing state-of-the-art athletic facilities. The $70-million John McKay Center is on schedule to open in time for football training camp in August and USC announced Tuesday that it had received an $8-million gift from former Trojans swimmer Wilfred “Fred” Uytengsu for an aquatics complex. USC said the gift was the largest ever made to the athletic department by a former athlete.

Rising dramatically out of the north end of the Long Beach State campus, the distinctive future home of the school's basketball and volleyball teams is still months from completion but has already infused the athletic department with unbridled optimism. Officials can barely contain their enthusiasm for the potential of the Pyramid, a $22-million structure they say will be unique among campus athletic facilities in the United States.

Mike McQueary, the Penn State assistant football coach under fire for his reported lack of action in an alleged 2002 rape of a boy by Jerry Sandusky, said in an email to a former classmate that he stopped the assault in an athletic facility shower and discussed it with police. In the email obtained by the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call, McQueary wrote that he "did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police" following the alleged incident between Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant coach, and a boy. McQueary also wrote that he "is getting hammered for handling this the right way or what I thought at the time was right.

Cal State Northridge's student senate on Tuesday voted 14-0 to place a referendum on the ballot in the October campus elections, asking students to help finance new athletic facilities and a recreation center. The referendum calls for a fee increase of $27 per student in 2000 and 2001, and $36 in 2002, with the money going toward the construction of a recreation center, an 8,000-seat multipurpose stadium and a 3,000-seat baseball stadium.

If a university such as Cal State Northridge is to best prepare students for an increasingly complicated and fast-changing world, there's no doubt the job requires a combination of talented and committed faculty members, top-notch classrooms and support facilities, and the financial support of the community.

The goal is to raise as much as $1 million for a stadium. The method will include everything from collecting loose change to seeking $5,000 donations from local businesses. It's all part of an ambitious plan by staff, parents and supporters of Highland High School who are preparing to kick off a fund-raising drive to build a 6,000-seat stadium at their school.

An informal meeting will be held today at the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District to seek input into a proposal that would charge teams or groups wishing to use district athletic facilities. The meeting is the first step in the finalization of a pay-for-play proposal. Deputy Superintendent Sid Thompson will chair the meeting, which is open to the public and will begin at 4 p.m. in the district board room at 450 North Grand Ave.

Youth teams wishing to use athletic facilities at Los Angeles Unified School District campuses may find the gates locked and doors closed beginning Wednesday. The Los Angeles Board of Education voted on Thursday to eliminate from the 1992-93 budget nearly $1.4 million that previously was earmarked for Student Auxiliary Services. Slashed was the youth services arm of that division, which provided supervision and granted use permits for athletic facilities at district campuses.

Having exhausted nearly every avenue of appeal, local youth sports teams will today be locked out of athletic facilities at Los Angeles Unified School District campuses as a result of budget cuts approved last week by the Board of Education.

It is the day before homecoming, and there is trouble at the Robert Lee High School football field. The field is dying. The field that was once so lush, so emerald green, that the maintenance staff took calls from other schools begging to know its secret. Visitors sometimes assumed it was AstroTurf, then genuflected and found, to their surprise, real blades of springy Bermuda grass. Then came Texas' punishing drought. The parched field now has patches of yellow and brown while the rest struggles to stay green.

Worldsnowboarding.com offered a comprehensive look at the quaint mountain resort of Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, with one seemingly minor disclaimer. The website said the resort's only disadvantage was its size and mild climate, "which means there is a risk to find too little snow at the lower runs even in January." Wait a minute. . . . Didn't we just go through this for the last two weeks, let alone the furious lead-up effort to redistribute snow to weather-challenged Cypress Mountain?

The controversy surrounding the safety of the Olympic sliding track escalated even more Thursday when some of the world's best bobsledders found the track difficult to navigate, leading to at least 11 crashes over two days of training. Among those was gold-medal favorite Beat Hefti of Switzerland, the top-ranked two-man driver in the world. He was suffering from a severe headache and still needs medical clearance to participate in Saturday's two-man competition. His coach said he plans to take a practice run on Friday.

As soon as Steve Petrie arrived at Cypress Mountain, high above the city, a hint of panic set in. It was early January, and Petrie needed a whole lot of snow to build a halfpipe for the Vancouver Olympics snowboard competition. All he got was rain. "It rained and rained and rained," he recalled. "We were watching all the snow melt away." Which makes the last two nights semi-miraculous. After weeks of fretting -- not to mention complaints from riders -- Petrie's creation produced stirring performances in both the men's and women's finals.

Los Angeles-based entertainment titan AEG has found a sponsor for its new $280-million arena in Shanghai -- Mercedes-Benz. The German auto manufacturer is expected to announce today that it would lend its name to the basketball and entertainment venue under construction on the Huangpu River in one of China's most cosmopolitan cities. The facility is being developed by AEG, the National Basketball Assn. and Oriental Pearl Group, a division of Shanghai Media Entertainment Group.

When the lights go down in the cavernous Wigwam and two high school kids dressed as Indians come out and dance in the spotlight on the glossy maple wood basketball court, it's as if nothing has changed. This is Anderson Indian basketball night at the 9,000-seat Wigwam, a crucial piece of the fabric of a city torn apart by years of auto parts plant closings and the loss of more than 25,000 jobs.

This summer my mission was to discover the five best public places to play pickup hoops in Greater Los Angeles. I've been playing basketball most of my life. I grew up in Seattle and played guard at Seattle University, then transferred to Occidental College in Eagle Rock where I played the last two seasons on the basketball team. This fall I will be a senior. I searched all over for games.

The Laguna Beach School District is becoming the city's most active developer; it has closed the Aliso School and sold off the land. Now the schoolchildren of South Laguna are bused to El Morro every day. The district has entered into an agreement to sell its subdivision on Alta Laguna Boulevard. It devised a tentative tract map for 36 new houses and used its influence to obtain Planning Commission and City Council approval. The school district has determined that these lands are excess and not required, so the district can obtain the money to remodel the high school.

Never trust online polls. Ever. They mean nothing. At all. Or else how could UCLA's Pauley Pavilion be voted one of the 15 most difficult places to play college basketball for opposing teams? According to an EA Sports poll in which 100,000 college basketball fans voted, UCLA is one of the 15 toughest places to play. This information is going to be used in the next edition of the EA Sports college basketball video game, "NCAA Basketball 09."