That's the well-dressed Greg Etushevski (centre), accepting the award as Bauer's
Canadian Retailer of the Year in Orlando, Fla., recently. You're right . . .
Chevy never expected to end up at centre stage.

Chevy’s Source for Sports, the popular sporting goods shop in Kelowna that is owned by Greg Evtushevski (Kamloops, 1982-86), was named Canadian Retailer of the Year at the Bauer World Sports Expo in Orlando, Fla.
From a Bauer press release:
“Humbling and intimidating” are the words Greg Evtushevski used to describe the top honours his Kelowna sports store, Chevy’s Source for Sports, took recently at this year’s Bauer World Sports Expo in Orlando Florida.
“To be selected as the top store by Bauer, one of the world’s leading sports icons, from all other sports retailers across the country, is an achievement that still hasn’t quite sunk in,” said Evtushevski, after returning from Bauer’s global sports expo in Florida late last month.
The Expo, held annually by Bauer, previews new product launching for the upcoming year and draws attendance from around the world with resellers coming from as far away as Germany, Russia, Sweden, the United States and Canada.
In addition to workshops and product demos, Bauer celebrates industry leaders with an exclusive awards banquet, honouring sports stores representing the highest standards of sales performance, progressive leadership, community involvement and the overall customer in-store experience.
This year, it was Chevy’s Source for Sports singled out as the best of the best.
“This is something that you just never imagine winning,” Evtushevski said. “We’re talking about beating out every other sports store in the country. It’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened to our store and I think it may be the biggest major acknowledgment ever awarded to a sports store in the Okanagan.”
Evtushevski was apologetic when asked about the official acceptance picture sent to him from Bauer.
“It’s embarassing. I honestly never dreamed we’d be accepting Bauer’s top honours at a world renowned event like Bauer World,” he said, “so I didn’t bother dressing up for it. Then they announced us as the winner, and there I am stepping up to accept the award in shorts and sandals! I had no speech, nothing.
“I was dumbstruck. It was absolutely amazing! A moment I’ll never forget”
For Evtushevski, the award is the highest recognition of a standard for excellence that has taken the Kelowna retailer years to build. Chevy’s Source for Sports is today considered the valley’s go-to source for the very best in expertise, value and brand name sports equipment.
It’s a reputation Evtushevski is proud to have earned and one that now is officially recognized globally by the very best in the industry.
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JUST NOTES: If you are interested in the Kootenay Ice, you should know that the WHL’s defending champion has its record book available online. Go to kootenayice.net and click on TEAM and go to RECORD BOOK. . . . F Hunter Shinkaruk of the Medicine Hat Tigers is the WHL’s player of the week. He had 11 points, including seven goals, in three games last week. . . . Mac Carruth of the Portland Winterhawks is the WHL’s goaltender of the week. He was 3-0-0, 1.50, .949 last week.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The OHL’s Oshawa Generals have named Gary Agnew as head coach, while Chris DePiero, who had been general manager and head coach, remains as the GM. Agnew was an OHL coach from 1990-2000, doing two stints with the London Knights and one with the Kingston Frontenacs. He was an assistant coach with the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets (2006-10). . . . The Generals had been looked upon as a possible contender this season but are 8-10-2 and fourth in the Eastern Conference’s East Division. At the same time, they are only six points out of first place in the conference.
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Greg Dicresce of the Winnipeg Sun offers up some thoughts on the MJHL’s Neepawa Natives, the hazing incident and the ensuing apology. That piece is right here.
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Today’s good read is one of the best reads of all time. . . . Seriously! . . . Mark Kram, righting for Sports Illustrated, has the story on the Thrilla in Manilla. . . . What kind of fight was it? "It was like death,” Muhammad Ali said after beating Joe Frazier in front of Imelda Marcos and a bunch of her closest friends. “Closest thing to dyin' that I know of."
Kram writes:
In his suite the next morning (Ali) talked quietly. "I heard somethin' once," he said. "When somebody asked a marathon runner what goes through his mind in the last mile or two, he said that you ask yourself why am I doin' this. You get so tired. It takes so much out of you mentally. It changes you. It makes you go a little insane. I was thinkin' that at the end. Why am I doin' this? What am I doin' here in against this beast of a man? It's so painful. I must be crazy. I always bring out the best in the men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I'll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I'm gonna tell ya, that's one helluva man, and God bless him."
Joe Frazier died Monday night, closing the book on one of sports’s greatest rivalries.
Kram’s story is right here. Don't miss it!

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

RIP — ‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier

FEBRUARY 6, 1973, SPORTS

Copyright 1973/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY

JIM MURRAY

A Fiscal Tragedy

   Joe Frazier reminds me of a guy who lit a match to see if his gas tank was empty.
   In the gallery of serious miscalculations of history, his has to rank with the captain who chose the iceberg route for the Titanic. Or the guy who bought into the market on Oct. 20, 1929.
   It's a financial catastrophe the ripples of which become tidal at the out edges. Joe took a lot of people with him.
   His gamble in fighting George Foreman for what was, effectively, 20 cents on the dollar (compared to what he could have pulled down fighting Muhammad Ali) is a fiscal tragedy for Ali, Frazier and Jack Kent Cooke, who now holds the rematch contract on a bout that has depreciated faster than a new car driven around the block — or off a cliff.
   Joe torched $20 million. It's like selling a house with oil under it, dropping Man O' War into a $2,000 claimer, trading a diamond in on paste. Frazier discounted the heavyweight championship of the world. His parent holding company, Cloverlay, Inc., now becomes officially "Overlay, Inc." The total assets of the company were one left hook on which delivery was not made. There's not even enough left to auction off. The managing director of the corporation, Yank Durham, made a serious marketing error.
   Joe Frazier was made to order for George Foreman, who is what is known in the fight game as a "waiter." Come to Foreman and he will destroy you. Move around and he looks like a guy lost in a blizzard.
   One of the best kept secrets of the Philadelphia gym is that Joe Frazier never was what is known as a fighter-who-can-take-it. Frazier, for all his reckless fury, was aground more often than a near-sighted whale. Who an forget the night the late Eddie Machen, out on his feet, out of condition, rubber-legged and noodle-armed, nevertheless chopped in a right hand that made Frazier sag all the way to Machen's ankles, where he saved himself a count only by hanging onto them till the bell rang?
   Recall the night a so-so puncher named Manuel Ramos lifted Joe four feet in the air with an uppercut? Did the clumsy Oscar Bonavena put him on the floor twice? What about the night Scrap Iron Johnson, a human punching bag, staggered Joe? People forget Quarry took the fight to Joe when Jerry might have been a "waiter" with different results. Frazier sometimes has to hang on in a workout with a heavy bag.
   There is no doubt Foreman is a massive puncher, but all he had to do in Jamaica was hold his enormous arms out at right angles to his body and let Joe Frazier impale himself on the end of them. Frazier came to him like something swinging off the end of a chain.
   I sat with impresario Jack Kent Cooke the afternoon of the fight. The promoter now has the exclusive rights to an attraction about as compelling as frost warnings. "You are going to lose $2 million tonight," I hazard. "I think you're right," Cooke said. "Tell me, why do you think Yank Durham took a fight with a man as dangerous as this Foreman?"
   I shrugged. "Some guys put their fingers in the cage at the zoo. Some guys steal alligators, ride sharks or walk across a chasm on a piece of dental floss."
   Frazier topped them all. His mother should have pinned the title inside his blouse and said, "Now, Joseph, this is the heavyweight championship of the world. It is worth $5 or $8 million. Don't take it out to bet with strangers on the train or put it up for collateral on a crap table — and don't fight George Foreman. A lot of people are depending on you — program printers, ticket sellers, ushers, theater chains and Howard Cosell."
   And Jack Kent Cooke, who now is just another bidder on a Foreman-Ali fight which will be a good one only if Ali wears a bell. Or drops bread crumbs. Otherwise, it'll be more a hunt than a fight. Maybe they should let George bring a pointing dog in the ring with him.

*Reprinted with permission by the Los Angeles Times

Jim Murray Memorial Foundation | P.O. Box 995 | La Quinta | CA | 92247