New York Governor Mario Cuomo, right, takes on State Assemblyman David Gantt in a one-on-one basketball game on Main Street in Rochester during the 1990 Jumpin Jack Shootout.(Photo: Staff file photo)
Mario Cuomo had more than his share of victories in a long political career. But the sweetest win of all might have come on a downtown Rochester basketball court.
Cuomo took on Assemblyman David Gantt July 20, 1990, at the Jumpin Jack Shootout 3-on-3 tournament in downtown Rochester.
Former city councilman and tournament organizer Charles Schiano had gotten d**k Vitale and Jim Boeheim to play the year before and thought hed ask Cuomo, a former Pittsburgh Pirates minor leaguer and known basketball fan.
The governor, then 58, agreed immediately; the question then was who hed play against. Schiano tried to get Vitale again, but instead ended up with Gantt, then 48 years old, whod starred on the hardcourt in high school and college.
Cuomo, about 6 feet tall, had an inch on Gantt. The governor got tips from NBA Hall of Famer Earl The Pearl Monroe, who was in town for the tournament.
Hes a very good basketball player surprisingly so for his age, his press secretary, Darren Dopp, said at the time. When he has spare time he really enjoys playing with his sons, Christopher and Andrew. Dopp described his boss as a power forward in executive chamber pick-up games.
Gantt was coached by former Boston Celtic Jo Jo White and got in a quick workout on the School 14 court a few days before.
The Rochester matchup was up to either 12 or 15 points, Schiano recalled, and Cuomo quickly exerted his executive authority on Gantt, showering him with two-handed set shots from behind the three-point arc.
The smaller, younger Gantt tried to respond by driving to the hoop, but ultimately couldnt match the governors long-range accuracy.
(Cuomo) had a good two-handed set shot from the outside and David couldnt match that, Schiano recalled.
After the game, the triumphant governor stayed around to sign autographs and pose for pictures. Gantt couldnt be reached for comment Friday, but Schiano recalled his reaction.
David was b******g afterward he said, I cant believe he beat me! Schiano said. He took a lot of abuse for that from his friends. ... Dont let him tell you otherwise.
Cuomo never returned for a rematch in Rochester, but his playing career continued. He showed up at a 1992 press conference with a black eye and admitted it had been incurred on the court.
He said he was elbowed in the eye during a round of basketball with his staffers, who in games against the Capitol press corp have proven themselves adept at committing vigorous fouls, an aggrieved member of that press corps wrote in the Democrat and Chronicle, noting that Cuomo had been injured on the court two other times in the preceding year.
Cuomo also tried to defend his political hoops title later in 1992, in response to criticism from U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle.
If you really want to come and make a fool of yourself, bring your jock and a pair of sneakers and lets play ball, the governor said about Quayle on the television program Good Day, New York. But if you want to be vice president, lets talk substance.
Quayle countered: If I had time, Id be there for sure. Remember, Im from Indiana. Maybe hes forgotten that.
JMURPHY7@DemocratandChronicle.com
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Faith in Bills misplaced
Perhaps no one outside Orchard Park lost more face than Gov. Mario Cuomo during the Buffalo Bills four-year stretch of Super Bowl losses.
Governors from competing states often place friendly wagers on championship games. When the Bills played the Washington Redskins in 1992, Cuomo staked a plate of chicken wings against Virginia Gov. L Douglas Wilders Smithfield ham.
Cuomo told Wilder that a Virginia ham was only worth about three chicken wings. And New York Sen. Alfonse DAmato predicted the Bills would peel Washington like a redskin potato.
Alas, the crowing was premature. The Bills lost, 37-24.
No room for criticism
Gov. Mario Cuomo never shied from a political battle, even within his own party, as Rochester Assemblyman Roger Robach found in the 1991 budget season.
Robach wrote a letter to the Democrat and Chronicle criticizing Cuomo for failing to take command of the budget impasse.
Gov. Cuomo points fingers, calls people names and attacks our priorities and analyses of his budget proposal, Robach wrote. In fact, he does everything except sit down and negotiate a budget.
The following day, Cuomo got Robach on the phone and excoriated him for 20 minutes, both on the merits of his argument and the fact that hed gone to the newspaper with their dispute.
If you ever think I do anything dumb or stupid, dont write a letter to the paper come down and talk to me and Ill tell you why Im right, Robach recalled Cuomo saying.
Ive never been critical of the governor when I didnt get it back five-to-one, Robach said.
Tainted by Shawcross parole
While Gov. Mario Cuomo deliberated over a run for president in 1991, national Republicans were already preparing an attack based on the deeds of an infamous Rochester criminal.
In 1987, while Cuomo was governor, Arthur Shawcross was released from prison on parole after serving 15 years for manslaughter. From 1988-89, he killed at least 11 more people in Rochester before being caught and returned to prison.
Newt Gingrich, then the Republican House whip, and Buffalo-area Rep. Bill Paxon, compared the situation to Michael Dukakis and Willie Horton. Dukakis was the 1988 Democratic presidential candidate whose campaign was severely damaged by association with Horton, who was furloughed from prison in Massachusetts while Dukakis was governor there and subsequently raped a woman.
Mario Cuomo is attempting to wash his hands, Paxon said. Pontius Pilate couldnt do it any better. Were not going to let him walk away.
In response, a Cuomo aide pointed out that the parole board is independent of the governor, and wrote: The only time (Republicans) dreams come true is when they close their eyes to the truth.
Cant park there
Twenty-three years before Lovely Warrens driver sped down the Thruway, Mario Cuomos driver got into a bind of his own.
Cuomo was in Rochester in June 1992 to address the Greater Rochester Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Industrial Management Council at the Riverside Convention Center. Afterward, he and his staff walked to the Democrat and Chronicle at Broad Street and Exchange Boulevard to meet with the Editorial Board.
The state police officer who was driving him parked the unmarked car behind the newspaper building on South Fitzhugh Street. That, he soon learned, is not a legal parking spot. The car was ticketed by a dutiful Rochester police officer, and the state police promised it would be paid.
Stressed link between city, suburbs
In a 1992 discussion with the Democrat and Chronicle Editorial Board, Mario Cuomo, who famously held to his liberal beliefs as the Democratic party slid toward the center, argued passionately that the health of Monroe Countys suburbs is dependent on the health of the city of Rochester. He disputed the contention that town residents can safely turn their backs on urban ills an argument thats still being made more than 20 years later.
If Rochester goes down the tubes, it comes out of you, he said, referring to suburbanites. You put people out of work, you have to pay their welfare. ... The crime youll pay for it. Youll have to build the prisons. And theyre not going to stay in their own neighborhood to commit crimes.
He referred to a Fourth of July parade and said people who salute the flag should consider the gesture more thoughtfully:
What are you saluting? I mean, what is the idea of the country? That, if you get lucky enough, you make it to Penfield? Thats not the idea of a country. ... The idea of the country is that well take care of one another; that we really are a family. We really mean it. If youre an American, well do what we can to help you. Not that well separate ourselves from you.
If you want to say, Thats a lot of c**p, thats all right. Ill accept that. But for Gods sake, dont show up at the parade. Because the parade isnt about just Penfield and the people who make it.
Honorary degree
In 1985, Mario Cuomo was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Rochester and spoke at its graduation ceremony at the Eastman Theatre.
He was joined by fellow honoree Desmond Tutu, and urged the graduates to follow Tutus example of civic involvement and courage.
I hope, like Bishop Tutu and other champions of involvement, you will become one of the prisoners of hope, helping yourselves and the rest of us to come closer to the realization of our full potential a world always better than the one we found, he said.
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