The St. Louis Gateway Classic Foundation Coaches Luncheon on Friday, September 23 will be one of the major events during the 2005 Gateway Football Classic Weekend. The University of Arkansas Pine Bluff will make what has become its annual trek to St. Louis for the football classic and will take on the Tuskegee University Golden Tigers in that team’s first appearance in the contest.
Back to the luncheon. Bob Wallace, St. Louis Rams vice president and general counsel, Ted Savage, St. Louis Cardinals director of Target Marketing, and Ricky Watters, former NFL running back, will be honored. While Watters seems to stand out as an odd guy to honor in St. Louis, undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah is also scheduled to return to St. Louis for recognition by the Gateway Classic.
The Sportseye has learned that Judah might have been honored along with St. Louis’ own Cory Spinks at the luncheon, but Spinks’ trainer Kevin Cunningham apparently bumped heads with Gateway Classic founder Earl Wilson Jr. at some point during the planning process, and Spinks was left out in the cold.
However, this could just be rumor, because Spinks might be fighting in early October and it is doubtful that he would leave his training regimen (in Las Vegas) and return to St. Louis for the luncheon.
In another interesting twist, Anheuser-Busch Cos. is no longer listed as the event’s lead sponsor, and its name is not connected with the football game in any manner in the 2005 preview insert in today’s St. Louis American.