RIP George Sauer

When George lived in Charlotte he was a city rec league volleyball official. I played in several games he officiated back in the day at the Hawthorne Center. Nice dude. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/charlotte/obituary.aspx?n=george-sauer&pid=164735071#fbLoggedOut

[quote=“49er1, post:1, topic:27778”]When George lived in Charlotte he was a city rec league volleyball official. I played in several games he officiated back in the day at the Hawthorne Center. Nice dude. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/charlotte/obituary.aspx?n=george-sauer&pid=164735071#fbLoggedOut[/quote]

[font=Arial][size=14px]Charlotte Hornets of the World Football League[/size][/font]
I have never heard of them before. Interesting to know that the NBA team was not the first.

Nor was the WFL team, which I also saw back in the 70s. The minor league baseball team here waaaay back in the day were the Hornets first.

The Charlotte Hornets football team actually has sort of an interesting story:

http://charlotte.about.com/od/DefunctTeams/a/Charlotte-Hornets-Wfl.htm

Despite what the Observer article (obituary) showed over the weekend, Sauer was actually the HEAD COACH of the Carolina Chargers (semi-pro) team in ~1979-80. I know because my dad took me to a couple of their games. One in particular stands out. Sauer’s old friend Joe Namath (one of my childhood heros) did an autograph signing on the field at halftime. BTW, those games drew 20,000+ with regularity as well.

We had these guys (the Charlotte Hornets Football Team) have a reunion in the hotel I used to work at several years ago. They were a hoot and full of interesting stories, most of which happened OFF the field.