SARASOTA — It was at the Red Shield Community Center in Denver where, as a teenager, Michael Ray Richardson learned to play basketball and so much more.
“I learned to communicate with people,” Richardson said. “It was great.”
The Shield center was a haven for children in the low-income part of the city. It offered a place where they were safe, where they could play sports, where they could learn to enjoy life without the pressures of doing those things that often lead someone down the wrong path.
It was for those reasons that Richardson was one of 16 current or former professional athletes who attended the seventh annual Champs Celebrity Sports Night on Friday evening at the Sarasota Hyatt.
The event is a major fundraiser for the 13th Avenue Community Center in Bradenton, a place similar to the Shield center in Denver.
“I think this is a great cause,” Richardson said. “Anytime you can give back, I think it’s great.”
Sam Jones, whose name appears on the list of the NBA’s 50 “All-Time Legends,” attended Friday’s event for the same reason.
“A great cause,” Jones said. “I do quite a few of these around the country. So many people, because of the job situation, can use a hand.”
With tickets selling for $100 each and a live auction, Champs vice president of marketing Rob Broderson hoped the event would raise at least as much as the $79,000 generated by the 2008 event.
“The big number is $500,000,” Broderson said. “That’s what we have raised in the past six years.”
The money is going toward a new rec center. Patrick Carnegie, executive director of the United Community Centers, expects ground to be broken on the new center this August.
There were some familiar faces Friday. Former NBA all-stars Otis Birdsong and Artis Gilmore were back for their seventh year. Dominique Wilkins, another on the list of the NBA’s 50 “All-Time Legends” and a teammate of Palmetto’s Wilmore Fowler at the University of Georgia, was in attendance as well.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Luke McCown and running back Earnest Graham attended for the first time. Carnegie was the defensive coordinator at Bayshore High in 1996 and charged with stopping Graham, who played at Cape Coral Mariner. Didn’t happen. Graham rushed for 205 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-28 Mariner victory.
Former Ray Wade Boggs was in attendance wearing a Red Sox jersey. Former Pittsburgh Pirates and longtime Bradenton resident Milt May was on hand again, making it a rare night when two former Rays batting coaches were in the same building at the same time.
Women’s soccer legend Mia Hamm attended. So did Earl Morrall, perhaps the best backup quarterback in NFL history. It was Morrall who won 12 games while filling in for the injured Bob Griese during the Miami Dolphins’ perfect 1972 season.
“Unbelievable,” Carnegie said. “This event gets bigger and bigger every year.”
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