UNLV’s Buddy system to end?

By Ron Kantowski

Friday, May 23, 2008 | 11:13 a.m.

NOW

--- There is no truth to the rumor that when Buddy Gouldsmith handed in his lineup card at Thursday's Mountain West Conference baseball tournament that the umpires handed him a pink slip in return, because that's not the way UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick fires people. He usually has associate athletic director Jerry Koloskie do it for him. Now that the Rebels' season has ended with a 7-4 loss to Utah, Gouldsmith goes from the third-base coaching box to the frying pan: Insiders say his head is the next one on Hamrick's chopping block. You know my take on this -- that good people who coach non-revenue sports should be allowed to stay on as long as they want. Gouldsmith is one of those, but the prediction here is that probably won't be enough for him to keep his job in the wake of a 22-37 season.

--- Last week's column in the part of the Sun you can hold in your hand on colorful former boxer Greg Haugen generated lots of e-mails and phone calls from his many fans in the valley and beyond. One of those was from Greg himself. We agreed to have a beer -- singular -- the next time he comes through town with Jonte Willis, the promising heavyweight he has been training back in Washington state. Willis won his fight on the undercard of the Chris Byrd vs. Shaun George -- make that the Shaun George vs. Chris Byrd -- main event at Cox Pavilion last Friday.

THEN

--- Speaking of Haugen and his 1993 fight with the Mexican demigod, Julio Cesar Chavez, which attracted an all-time record crowd of 136,000 to the national soccer stadium in Mexico City, did you know that another Las Vegan was at least partly responsible for making that bout happen? Daren Libonati, then an intern at the Thomas & Mack Center -- he's the director of it and Sam Boyd Stadium now -- was a friend of Haugen's and wrote a letter to Don King, Chavez's promoter, on behalf of his pal. This was no ordinary letter. It was a poem with lots and lots of verses, like "American Pie." Only them good ol' boys weren't drinkin' whiskey and rye. They were drinkin' Tecate and Cuervo.