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My condolences to his family, friends and beloved ones
RIP George
My condolences to his family, friends and beloved ones
It's a shame that the link to the NBA.com story above didn't have a picture of Big George waving the Texas flag and keeping the fans in the game. I used to date a lady who was in the Bums. I called her to make sure she knew about his passing, and she said there was a picture in the SA News today on the front page of the Sports section with George and some of the original Bums. Because I was dating her, I was sort of an honorary Bum and went to a lot of their parties, made the bus trips to Houston and Dallas and of course the legendary annual Bar-b-Q where Big George could strut his stuff, cooking for all. So I got to know him some and he was one of the best Spur fans you can imagine.
My favorite Big George story is about the time the Nets and the Spurs got into a real gang fight on the court of the old Hemisfair Arena in Game 4 in the playoffs. Back in the day, the game was a lot rougher. Picks would literally put a player on the floor and elbows flew. For some reason that particular night, tempers really flared when Rich Jones got a little rough on a Spur and a fight broke out. Then another and another as players emptied the benches. Little knots of players would mix it up, the refs and coaches would pull them apart and then they'd go at it again. This wasn't a 10 second deal. It seemed to go on and on.
Big George had time to come down from the Bums section and wanted to get in on the action. When he got down to the walkway around the court, George threw a cup of beer on Rich Jones. Now Rich had been the Spurs enforcer before he got traded to the Nets. He not only looked mean, he played mean, protecting his teammates and closing down the lane on opposing drivers. So throwing the beer on Rich was not a good idea. Which George realized when Jones turned around and started for him. George did the only sensible thing. He took off up the stairs, apparently thinking that height would save him, but Jones was chasing right behind him. The stairs between sections in the old Arena went straight up from the floor to the nosebleed seats at a steep angle. I was in pretty fair shape in those days and let me tell you a trip from the floor to the top was exhausting
Now imagine this 300 pound fan with his pants slipping so his crack was showing, pounding up those stairs with a snarling 6'8" professional athlete in great shape chasing him. And then a miracle occurred. Big George began pulling away. The entire Arena crowd was watching by this time and laughing like . About halfway up, Jones quit and gestured something at George's retreating back. I think Jones was thrown out of the game when order was restored. George made it back to the welcoming arms of the Bum as a hero. The Nets came back to SA for the 6th game and Jones was getting threats so the Nets didn't even let him suit up. They kept a starter out of the game which we won. I always thought that win was on account of Big George's Miracle Run.
RIP, Big Fella.
Nets, Spurs to revive old ABA rivalry - tribunedigital-chicagotribune
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...ion-nba-finals
Oh my god, that is the funniest thing I have ever heard. I can just picture George doing that in my head right now.
Spurs' Baseline Bums Just 120 Pro Basketball Fans Having Fun
April 28, 1985|TERRY FREI | Denver Post
SAN ANTONIO, Tex. — They're loud, doggedly persistent and at times utterly tasteless.
They're bums.
Whether they're the member of the zoning board, the vice-squad captain, the short-order cooks, the nurses, or the co-owner of the hardware store, every last one of them sitting in section 20 in HemisFair Arena's northwest corner is a bum.
Don't believe it? Want to give the matronly nurse in the third row the benefit of the doubt?
She'll pull out her membership card and prove it.
She's one of about 120 certified, numbered and notorious Baseline Bums.
When you're one of the San Antonio Spurs' end-zone regulars, you get the card, cut-rate tickets, the occasional chance to wave the big Texas flag that hangs over the railing, a section of your very own--and part of a tradition that began when the American Basketball Assn.'s Dallas Chaparrals moved to San Antonio and gave the city its first major-league franchise.
The Baseline Bums are the friendly folks who hung then-Denver coach Larry Brown in effigy after he said the only thing good about San Antonio was the guacamole. "The ironic thing about it," says George Valle, the hardware store owner and one of the Bums' ringleaders, "was that when we hung him over the dressing-room door, the dummy had the same color pants and shirt Larry Brown had on that night. We didn't have any idea what he would be wearing, but we got it right."
When Chicago guard Quintin Dailey was playing his first game in San Antonio after pleading guilty to assaulting a nursing student, one of the Bums wore a nurse's uniform and ran on the floor--where another Bum "attacked" him-her.
After the home of Los Angeles center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was gutted by fire, destroying his collection of jazz records and other valuable artifacts, the Bums proudly displayed melted records the next time the Lakers came to town.
"Jabbar was always badmouthing the Spurs and the Bums," says Valle. "But he's not a hustler. One time, he got hurt and we just razzed him something fierce.
"Two years ago, when Denver played here in the playoffs, Dan Issel went down with a hurt knee. When he got up, we gave him a standing ovation. That's one thing the Bums appreciate, hard work. We admire him for the way he plays. If he's on the court, he's not going to loaf on you, like Jabbar does."
Away from the court, the Bums have legendary, twice-yearly barbecues; run toys for tot campaigns and canned food drives; and warm up for the games as seriously as the players in saloons near the arena.
Yes, the Bums can be cruel. But, for the most part, they're just having fun. "They're only vicious in the verbal sense," says Nuggets assistant coach Allan Bristow, the former San Antonio forward and assistant coach who became an honorary Bum by going through the time-honored initiation: "You say something in Spanish, drink a shot of tequila and get an honorary Bums T-shirt, which I wear proudly."
Above all, and above the visiting-team entrance, they're always there. And they've been there since 1973.
Founders Larry Braun and David Boyle had a similar group of rabble-rousers, and ire-raisers, at the games of baseball's minor-league San Antonio Missions in 1972. The next year, the general manager of the Missions--John Begzos--moved into the front office of the city's new basketball team, and Braun and Boyle brought the Bums with them. Begzos sold them their seats for $1 apiece.
Twelve years and a 600% price hike later, the Bums still haunt the corner. The membership requirement is that a Bum must attend 80% of the home games and be a "vocal Spurs fan," says Valle.
These days, Richard Elizondo and Rudy Hettler run the organization. At least to visiting teams, Valle is the most visible of the Bums, not only because of his physique--he is, well, rotund--but because he is a regular in the bar of the hotel across from the arena, where most of the visiting teams stay. And the same man who helps lead the jeers for the visitors shares a drink or three with them afterwards.
On the final weekend of the regular season, for example, Valle became an adopted member of the Utah Jazz traveling party.
"I was over at the Marriott, sitting with (coach-general manager) Frank Layden and Hot Rod (Hundley, the announcer) and all that bunch," says Valle, "and someone said, 'Why are you sitting talking to these guys?'
"I said the ballgame's over, and these are my friends."
Valle also remains close to Bristow. The two men take fishing and hunting trips together in the offseason. Valle remains a big fan of Denver coach Doug Moe, the Spurs' charter NBA coach. Valle's partner in his Devine, Texas, hardware store is New Jersey coach Stan Albeck, who was with the Spurs from 1981-83.
"Allan Bristow's like a brother to me, but during the game, I hate him as much as the players," says Valle. "When Doug Moe was here, he was a good fan of the Bums. He'd drink a few beers with us."
Moe and Bristow aren't the only reasons this series ever so slightly divides the Bums' loyalties. The Nuggets' owner, of course, is San Antonio businessman Red McCombs, a former partner in the Spurs. McCombs used to tell the bartender in the Lone Star Pavilion across the street from the HemisFair Arena to give the Bums all the beer they wanted, and he would pick up the tab. "By game time," says Bristow, "they'd all be primed and ready." Or if the Bums found themselves shut out of team functions by some higher-up ("I used to crash them, but they ruined it for me one year by inviting me," said Valle), McCombs would either wave them in or tell the bartender to take care of the Bums.
Buy beer for a Bum, and you've got a friend for life.
Oh man, when I was reading the article I posted about the bum who dressed up as a nurse, ran onto the court, and got "beaten down" by another bum I said to myself that it had to be Leon in the nurse's uniform, and sure enough the article you posted confirmed it was him.
Here's the pic of George waving the Texas flag from the Express News article:
Thanks for postiing this. I can see some familiar faces and of course, Mom, Marie and her sister Janice. Those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end...Here's the pic of George waving the Texas flag from the Express News article:
Been a long time. Was Leon the Bum with real black hair and black horn rim glasses. If he's the guy I'm describing he was bat crazy at games.Oh man, when I was reading the article I posted about the bum who dressed up as a nurse, ran onto the court, and got "beaten down" by another bum I said to myself that it had to be Leon in the nurse's uniform, and sure enough the article you posted confirmed it was him.
Leon is the dude on the left. He was the funniest bum by far. When Chris Mullin got out of the Betty Ford clinic he dressed up as a beer.
please keep posting old pics and stories. they are tremendous.
seeing him wave that flag is forever burned into my memory from back when i used to go to games
i wish i was a bum in the 80's
RIP BIG DAWG
Thanks for the info WildB and baseline bum.
Coach Moe, Allan Bristow, and guys like that were certainly down to earth people. Coach Moe was really a hoot - the NBA was a much smaller less commercialized universe back in the 70s and early 80s.
I think everyone remembered Big George after attending a Spurs game.
A live band - "Sound of the Spurs"
Cotton Eyed Joe at the end of the 3rd quarter? Good times as a kid.
Speaking of Doug Moe
[QUOTE=baseline bum;8207658]Speaking of Doug Moe
Wow! That was unvarnished stuff. Thanks! That's what I call cussin'
I used to hang out with George Karl & Coby Dietrich. This is a George Karl story about Doug Moe. They were playing out of town and one of the referees that always seemed to have in for the Spurs (Jess Kersey maybe) was making bad call after bad call. Moe kept hollering at him from the bench, but that only increased the bad calls.
Finally Moe had had enough. He. went out on the court and dropped the FU bomb. The referee Teed him up and told him one more word and he was out of the game. Moe replied " You" The ref pointed at the locker room and Moe said, " You". Another T. By this time the assistant coaches were dragging Moe off the court, but he tore away from them, looked back and hollered " You" again Another T. The coaches finally got him to walk away off the court and into the tunnel leading to the locker rooms and everyone heard a ghostly shout of " You" that rang out from nowhere. The Spurs players were laughing so hard they could hardly play and every so often someone on the bench would cover his mouth with his hand and another " You" wafted into the arena.
nice...Speaking of Doug Moe
RIP too. No idea about the real old school Baseline Bums but seems like good people. And good times.
RIP George Valle! He was the Bums! I noticed he wasn't at the games and he was missed! Prayers for his family!
The Baseline Bums usually have a table set up looking for new members. IIRC you have to purchase season tickets and be open and flexible with your schedule to help with community functions etc.
REST in PEACE.
He was buddies with my old man. RIP to the big guy.
Last edited by Frank Dux; 10-05-2015 at 10:40 AM.
Great stories.
Damn. Sad news. Time to win six.
Sounds like he was a good dude. RIP..
Still remember him waving that Texas flag in the first row over the visitors
court tunnel entry at the old HemisFair arena.
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