Music and sports

1931: Louis Armstrong sponsors a New Orleans semipro team called Louis Armstrong's Secret Nine.

1938: Fred Astaire tees off a series of golf balls in rhythm, pausing only for a fast shuffle between strokes as Dr. Tony Flagg in the musical Carefree.

1963: Before becoming heavyweight champion, Cassius Clay releases an album, “I am the Greatest,” singing, “Here I predict Mr. Liston's dismemberment. I'll hit him so hard he'll wonder where October and November went.”

1970: After winning the heavy weight championship, Olympic gold winner Joe Frazier hits the road with a Memphis-style soul revue, Smokin’ Joe and the Knockouts.

1974: Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley promotes 11-year-old batboy Stanley Burrell to honorary vice-president of Oakland A’s. Sixteen years later, Burrell records top-selling rap album of all time “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em,” under name M.C. Hammer.

1985: Country musician Mike Reid, a former Cincinnati All-Pro defensive lineman, is named ASCAP’s Songwriter of the Year.

1994: Rod Steward pays $100,000 to have a soccer field built next to his home.

1995: Critically acclaimed jazz bassist and NBA veteran power forward Waymon Tisdale signs a 7-album deal with MoJazz records.

1996: Project Rhythm blends sports and music and is sponsored by Rogerick Green, a corner back for the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars.

1997: Music and sports camps are turning up with the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s program, Jazz Sports.

1999: Jose Carreras, one of three tenors with Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo, jokes shortly before a performance preceding the World Cup in France, “We’re singing in Paris in the hope of getting seats at the final.”

2000: L.A. Lakers play Kobe Bryant releases “Visions” in 2000.

Sports psychologist, Don Greene prepares musicians to audition to the New World Symphony

2001: The first African American to claim a United States vaulting record, Laurence Johnson, releases jazz vocal CD “It May Be Right.”

Sources: Sports Illustrated, 5/24/99 Vol. 90 Issue 21. Rock ‘N Roll is Here to Play
Saturday Evening Post, July/August 1996 Vol. 268 Issue 4 p. 15
Rolling Stone
No Fear: Sports Trainer Don Greene Demystifies the Stage Jitters, Strings, April 2000, p. 60, 62.)