Jim Valvano resigns as men’s basketball coach at Hopkins
JULY16,1970: Jim Valvano, 24, resigns as men’s basketball coach at Johns Hopkins after one year, having led the Blue Jays to their first winning record (10-9) since 1946. Valvano becomes assistant coach at Connecticut and later takes North Carolina State to the NCAADivision I championship in 1983.
JULY 22,1967: Steve Krulevitz, 16, of Park School, wins the Maryland men’s singles tennis championship, defeating top-seeded MacPardew, 8-6, 6-0, at HomelandRacquet Club. Krulevitz will be an All-American at UCLA, be ranked as high as 42nd in pro singles and play for Israel’s Davis Cup team.
JULY 19, 1961: Opting for youth, the Colts trade defensive tackle Gene “Big Daddy” Lipscomb, 29, and center Buzz Nutter, 30, to the Pittsburgh Steelers for wide receiver Jimmy Orr, 25, and two others. Orr plays 10 years in Baltimore, catches 50 touchdown passes and makes the NFL All-Pro first team in 1965.
JULY 21, 1951: Cheered on by a crowd of more than 10,000 and a local television audience (WMAR), Leamon Martin Jr. of Du Pont Avenue wins The Sunpapers Soap Box Derby. Racing in “Let Me Through,” a white car with pink glazed chintz upholstery, Martin, 12, completes the 900-foot course at Patterson Park in 33 seconds.
JULY19,1946: Sherm Lollar’s grand slam in the 14th inning leads the Orioles past the Newark Bears, 10-4, in an International League game. Lollar, a catcher, will play 18 years in the majors and serve as Orioles bullpen coach during Baltimore’s 1966 world championship season.
JULY19,1928: In a matchup between two native Baltimoreans, the Yankees’ Babe Ruth hits two home runs off Chicago’s Tommy Thomas (City) in New York’s 6-4 defeat of the White Sox. Before the game, Ruth presents a gold watch to his sister, Mary Moberly of Baltimore, on her first trip to New York to see him play.
JULY 19, 1916: Kid Williams, world bantamweight boxing champion from Baltimore, begins a two-week vacation at a shore near Turkey Point in Essex. There, The Sun reports, “he expects to live in the open and chop trees to add a little more strength to his wonderful shoulders and back.”