Rivers, 12 others slated for Ebony inductions

By John Kovach

Maggie McClendon, Olga Rivera and Red Hart are among the inductees.

YOUNGSTOWN — Sanford Rivers, one of seven former South High football players who made it to the NFL, will be among the new inductees into the Ebony Lifeline Support Group Hall of Fame.

The induction ceremonies will be held during Ebony’s “All Sports Banquet” on Friday at our Lady of Mt. Carmel Social Hall, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Rivers is the only member of the South High-NFL connection who didn’t play in the NFL — he was an official for 16 years before retiring in August 2004. Rivers will join 12 others in the Ebony Hall of Fame’s class.

The other inductees will be Maggie McClendon (contributor), Frances Singleton (rifle), Olga Rivera (soccer), Alfred “Red” Hart (golf and baseball), Charles Perdue (track), Carl Bryant (bowling), Leslie Johnson (baseball and community service), Irma Davis (community service and baseball), James Harrod (weightlifting), Charles Coleman Sr. (bowling), William Moxley (bowling) and Charles Lomax (boxing).

Lucille Smith will serve as master of ceremonies while Michael Rhodes, an international representative for the UAW at General Motors in Lordstown, will be the guest speaker.

Rhodes, a 1978 East High graduate, U.S. Army veteran and GM employee, has served area youth in athletics and adults in recovery programs for alcoholic and narcotics addiction.

Rivers is a 1962 South High and 1968 Youngstown State graduate. His brother, Jamie Rivers, are part of the South High-NFL connection that includes Garcia Lane, Don Lisbon, Jay Cunningham, Pete Richardson and Bill Lenkaitis.

Sanford Rivers also went on to a long career with the Carnegie Mellon University administration, and now is a commissioner with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

Rivers played four years of football at South High, two years each for coaches John McAfee and Sonny Friend as a running back and defensive back.

He went on to play football for Dike Beede at Youngstown State, then played in the Canadian Football League for one year with the Toronto Argonauts.

He became an NFL official in 1989.

Rivers continues to be one of YSU’s favorite sons.

“I still maintain close ties with the university,” said Rivers. He was inducted into the YSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993, and served as YSU’s fall commencement speaker in December of 2006.

During that speaking engagement, he received an honorary doctor of the university degree.

In 2000, he established the Sanford Rivers Endowed Scholarship with the YSU Foundation. The scholarship is awarded annually to a student-athlete from Youngstown.

The Ebony Lifeline Support Group, Inc., is a self-help group for minorities afflicted with alcohol and narcotics addiction. The organization developed as a grass roots movement in 1984 through the efforts of Thomas and Luther Stubbs.

Ebony also has founded a sports exhibit to display memorabilia featuring local minority athletes at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society building on Wick Avenue.

kovach@vindicator.com

XTickets are priced at $30 ($220 for a table of eight) by contacting Bob Thomas (330-261-1825), Ed Prayor (330-743-6193) or Pat Traylor (330-792-0234). Anyone seeking assistance can contact the Ebony group regarding recovery issues that are specific and unique to the minorities.