December 31, 1998

Champions All, and All in Anonymity

Here's to the heroes, those who move mountains. . . .
Here's to the winners all of us can be.

By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI -N.Y.Times

Maybe Frank Sinatra wasn't crooning about the bathtub racing, barrel jumping and Korfball champions of the world when he sang "Winners." The fact remains that for every Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, there are dozens of sports heroes whose names aren't quite big enough for the sports pages, who never get a minute on television or radio, whose talents will not command multimillion-dollar contracts.

So here's to those winners, those you probably haven't heard of.

Here's to David Cullinan, a 28-year-old professional mountain biker who has, luckily, the heart of a champion. The world downhill champion in 1992, Cullinan nearly died in 1993 when he crashed and suffered a torn aorta.

After undergoing three open-heart surgeries over the next two years, Cullinan began racing full time again in 1997. This past year, he was among the top-ranked mountain bikers in the world, and was crowned champion at several national and world cup races.

"Falling down is part of the job," Cullinan said. "Unfortunately, I just happened to fall on the right spot, or maybe the wrong spot."

Here's to Tony Roventini, who last month bowled a perfect 900 series. Bowling officials estimate that more than 10 billion official three-game series have been bowled in the past century, and the 28-year-old Roventini, a model engineer for a construction company in Greendale, Wis., was just the second to bowl 900.

"This is a bowler's dream," Roventini said. "But I never thought it would happen to me."

Here's to Lynda Norry, who became the first amateur bowler in eight years to win the Women's International Bowling Congress, which is equivalent to an amateur tennis player winning the United States Open.

Here's to the McCary clan! Patrick, 58, his wife, Dianne, 55, and their two children, 29-year-old Kristen and 27-year-old Michael, became the first family of four to compete in and finish the Ironman Triathlon world championship in Hawaii. ! 

Here's to Joe Zemaitis, an 18-year-old college freshman from Scottsdale, Ariz., who was the youngest competitor at the Ironman this year, setting a world record for his age by swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and running 26.2 miles in 9 hours 57 minutes 10 seconds.

Here's to the softballer Kaci Clark, who helped the Orlando Wahoos capture the championship of the Women's Pro Softball League and was named the 1998 pitcher of the year. After a car accident in 1992 did severe damage to the right-hander's pitching arm, doctors said she would never pitch again. This past year she won 23 games, including seven shutouts.

Here's to Brian Foster, the Michael Jordan of BMX racing, whose bike-riding skills earn him more than $100,000 per year. Foster, who also has his own line of Schwinn bikes and sneakers, had a colossal 1998 campaign capped off with a gold-medal performance at the X Games, where he won the dirt jumping championship.

Here's to the brothers Hughes, the 1998 United States Croquet Association national champions. Jim, who is 69 and lives in Kennett Square, Pa., is a member of the Croquet Hall of Fame. His kid brother, Tom, is 66 and lives in Wilmington, Del.

"We have a pretty good time playing together," said Jim, "but things do get a little heated at times -- hey, we're brothers."

Here's to the ultra-marathoner Ann Trason of Kensington, Calif., who has won the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run a whopping 10 straight years.

Here's to the 42-year-old fisherman Steve Rajeff of Battle Ground, Wash., who won 21 straight all-distance, all-accuracy and all-around casting titles from 1972-93, and is currently working on a four-year streak in those events.

Here's to the Canadian barrel jumping champions Patrick and Sylvain Leclerc, two brothers from St. Bruno, Quebec, who have spent the better part of the last decade searching for potential competitors, but have found no one who comes close to matching their spectacular skating and leaping skills.

And finally, here's to a champion from Nova Scotia, who, like it or not, is out of a job when the new year rolls in. Stacey's Echo, a 14-year-old pacer who has his own local fan club in his hometown of Sidney Mines, has won 100 of his 600 starts on the harness racing circuit, plus 92 seconds and 76 third-place finishes.

At his age, Stacey's Echo is facing mandatory retirement, so here's hoping he was smart of enough to put away some of that $45,751 of career earnings now that a steady paycheck is no longer coming to the barn.

Here's to those champions, and so many more you probably haven't heard of.