Stallworth: “Ready for a change”

By Ron Kantowski

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 | 3:50 p.m.

NOW

--- The voice at the other end of the line sounded familiar but incredulous. Steve Stallworth said he was stunned to log onto the Sun's Web site and read that he had resigned as the director of the Orleans Arena effective June 13 to accept a similar position at the South Point Equestrian Center, because it was supposed to be a secret. I told him I was Garry Moore. His official reason for quitting: "Just ready for a change," said Stallworth, who might have been remembered as a pretty good UNLV quarterback, had he not had succeeded Randall Cunningham at that position in 1985. Stallworth left the suits at the Orleans with a lovely parting gift: He recently extended the lease with the Wranglers hockey team, re-upped with Chris Spencer's NCAA holiday basketball tournaments featuring heavyweights such as Kansas and North Carolina and signed a contract to bring next year's West Coast Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments to the 7,773-seat state-of-the-art horseshoe. Said Stallworth: "We're leaving on top."

--- Speaking of those 7,773 seats, I think Stallworth's last official act at the Orleans should be setting up four folding chairs next to the penalty box to raise the attendance to 7,777. Then when the building sells out, we could write "they lined up 7s at the Orleans last night." If you're scoring at home (or just reading this blog) the Orleans actually has five different capacities: 9,500 for boxing, 8,921 for concerts, 7,773 for hockey, 7,471 for basketball and 5,736 for rodeo.

--- Now that you can bet the ECHL finals at the Las Vegas Hilton, what are the odds that Charles Barkley disguises his voice as that Frank Caliendo guy and puts down the maximum $3,000 on the Wranglers?

--- Miracle on Ice II: I overheard some co-workers talking about going to Friday night's Wranglers vs. Cincinnati ECHL playoff game. And they said they even were willing to pay to get in.

THEN

--- One of the cool memories of my youth was going to a hockey game at old Chicago Stadium and watching Bobby Hull score a goal, Actually, it wasn't the goal that was such a great memory, because that was old hat trick for the Golden Jet. It was those consecutive chest cavity rattling blasts from the massive 3,663-pipe Barton organ following those goals that I'll never forget. W-O-H-H-H! W-O-H-H-H! W-O-H-H-H! It sounded like the Edmund Fitzgerald had run aground on Lake Michigan and had come crashing through the mezzanine.