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January 5, 2001/Tevet 17, 5761, Vol. 53, No.14
AJHS honors state's Jewish athletes
BARRY COHEN
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 Farley Weiss leaves the court after practice. Photo courtesy of Arizona Jewish Historical Society |
The Arizona Jewish Historical Society, with its annual "Mishpocheh Dinner," will honor the state's Jewish athletes on Saturday, Jan. 13.
One honoree is Marilyn Ramenofsky Wingfeld, who won the silver medal in freestyle swimming at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
"I hit at the right time," says Wingfeld. She credits her accomplishment to coaches Nancy and Walter Schlueter and to her own "huge drive."
Prior to the international Olympics, she participated in the 1961 Maccabiah Games in Israel, which she remarks was the first time her Judaism intersected with sport.
"Phoenix was a small, wonderful community," says Wingfeld. "And the Jewish community came out of the woodwork (to support me)."
In many ways, she looks back on the Maccabiah games more fondly than the Olympics.
"The athletes all had a connection," she explains. During the event, Wingfeld lived on a kibbutz, toured Israel and shared the experience with her parents.
Currently, she lives in Seattle and is a researcher at the University of Washington, specializing in environmental endocrinology.
Olympic gymnast and gold medal winner Keri Strug will also be honored. She, too, participated in the Maccabiah Games in Israel, in 1997.
Strug says going to Israel was a chance "to get back with my culture and heritage," since, when training for the Olympics, "my coach wouldn't let me engage in other activities."
Since competing in the Atlanta games in 1996, she has participated in synagogue and Jewish community center events across the country.
"The Jewish community has been wonderful and kind," says Strug.
She is now completing her undergraduate education at Stanford University and plans to remain at Stanford, in Palo Alto, Calif., to earn a master's degree in sociology and business.
Strug just returned from a semester at sea, visiting Japan, China, Vietnam, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Cuba, among other places.
She is planning a career in marketing consumer goods or in public relations.
If not for the flip of a coin, former Phoenix Sun Neil Walk would not have come to Arizona. At the University of Florida, Walk was an "All-American," and as a senior, the only player in the country to rank in the Top 10 in scoring and rebounding.
During the National Basketball Association draft, the Phoenix Suns lost a coin flip to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks chose Lew Alcindor - who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - and the Suns chose Walk.
He played for Phoenix from 1969-1974, the New York Knicks from 1975-1976 and Ramat Gan Hapoel in Israel from 1979-1980.
In the 1980s, Walk was diagnosed with a tumor affecting his spinal cord. Despite operations to treat it, he became a paraplegic.
However, his basketball career did not end; he played for a number of years for the Samaritan Wheelchairs Suns in the Southern California league of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.
"It was a real eye-opener," says Walk of his experience in a wheelchair league. "It became clear there was a whole subset of society I was now a part of."
He looks upon the experience as an important transitional time in his life, when he received the support and compassion he needed. He was surprised about the "hard-nosed men and women who were equally adept at moving a wheelchair as a former NBA player."
Walk returned to work for the Suns 13 years ago, first in community relations and now in digital archiving.
Another AJHS honoree is Don Pitt, a founder of the Phoenix Suns along with partners Donald Diamond and Richard Bloch, who will also be honored.
Pitt says in the mid-1960s, he saw the potential of league expansion to Phoenix.
"I never doubted what would happen. ... The only question was how fast it would grow."
He had been a basketball fan since childhood.
When he was 36, he took advantage of the opportunity to bring professional basketball to Phoenix. He says that over the years, he has had the two-fold advantage of being a fan and seeing the team from the inside.
Pitt says his Jewish identity has been an asset.
"I was a youth at a difficult time for Jews in the world and in the U.S.," he explains. "I had to work harder, and it helped develop a work ethic that stayed with me." Being Jewish, he says, also helped him develop empathy for minorities and for those who are not always accepted by society.
Another former Phoenix Sun being honored by AJHS is Joel Kramer, who played for San Diego State University in the 1970s and the Suns from 1978-1983.
He explains that during his rookie year, even before he had made the team, he faced a difficult decision. Just 30 days into training camp, one of the pre-season games fell on Rosh Hashana.
When Kramer asked Coach John MacCloud if observing the High Holidays would adversely effect his making the team, MacCloud responded reassuringly, "Do what you need to do."
Kramer went to synagogue and made the team.
After playing for the Suns, Kramer joined the Macabi Tel Aviv team. He was there only a few months.
"They wanted a 'Dr. J-type.' The slam-dunk. They assumed by virtue of my being from the NBA, I would be that kind of player," says Kramer. He describes his style as 'non-flashy' and team-oriented.
Kramer had been to Israel before, in 1976 as a participant in the Maccabiah games.
"I had a sense of pride, being one of the Jews representing our country in competition," he says.
Since 1984, Kramer has worked as a CPA for Miller Wagner. He is president of the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center board of directors.
Rich Chiate, who will be honored for playing baseball for the University of Arizona, remembers no problems or prejudice growing up as a Jew in Phoenix in the 1960s.
"It was kind of fun growing up Jewish in a gentile world," he explains. The Jewish community was small, and everyone knew each other.
Chiate participated on a high school American Legion team that won the national championship; as a result, he remembers with pride, the New York Yankees offered him $10,000-15,000 to play in its farm system after graduation. Instead, he chose to accept a full scholarship to play for the University of Arizona.
He says he does not regret his decision because he discovered at Arizona he was an "average player" compared to his teammates.
After graduating, he worked for Levi Straus in Denver for several years, then returned home to Phoenix with his wife and their three daughters.
In 1975, he started his own company, PROCLEAN, catering to the food service industry.
Farley Weiss will be recognized for participating on the professional tennis tour 15 years ago.
"I am honored to be honored," says Weiss. He adds he had a difficult time quitting and transitioning to professional life. He practices law with his father and three of his siblings at Harry Weiss and Associates in Scottsdale.
Weiss toured during the summers when he was an undergraduate at Arizona State University and the University of Pennsylvania, and after his first year of law school at ASU.
He says he played on the only ASU tennis team to beat Stanford University, "a powerhouse in college tennis."
He also points with pride to having won the state tennis title five times in the Arizona Independent Athletic Association, for small private schools - a record that has never been broken. He first won as a seventh grader, defeating opponents five years older.
On the professional tour, his Jewish identity never was a point of controversy, he says.
"I had become pretty religious by the time I was on the professional tour," says Weiss. His hat served as a yarmulke, he observed strict kosher dietary laws, and he arranged for his racquets to carried to and from the court when he had to play on the Sabbath.
Weiss is married to Jessica; their son Benjamin just celebrated his first birthday.
The AJHS will feature a special exhibition, "Winners All." Joe Gilmartin, senior staff writer for the Arizona Diamondbacks media department and former sportswriter for the Phoenix Gazette, will be the featured speaker.
In addition, Sharon Briskman will receive the Dorothy Pickelner Enduring Legacy Award for her years of community service. She is the co-chairwoman of Shoah Remembrance Center for Reflection, Learning and Discussion at Temple Chai; chairwoman of Partnership 2000 for the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix; and chairwoman of the outreach committee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
The Jan. 13 event will include a raffle, featuring jewelry from Molina Fine Jewelers and an original wood stadium seat from Wrigley Field in Chicago.
Cost is $150 per person, $100 for those under 35 years of age.
Cocktails are at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., at the Radisson Resort, 7171 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. For reservations and information, call 602-274-7870.