SHENKAR COLLEGE Pays To Be Sports Minded ON ROTHSTEIN, first coach of the Miami Heat and coach of the Detroit Pistons, recalls his childhood days in the Bronx. He delighted in teasing his younger brother Warren, who was a very quiet kid until he was five. One day Warren couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed one of the plastic stacking tables and broke it over his brother’s head. “We crawled on the floor to pick up all the pieces,” Ron said. “We were afraid our father would kill us both.” Now a successful businessman – chairman of Worldwide Web NetworX and ceo of ATM Service Ltd. – Warren was honored with a dinner at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria by the American Committee for Shenkar College in Israel. “I’m 52 and it’s good to be someone’s little brother,” Warren cracked. Actually he did follow in his brother’s footsteps, at least in his college days. Warren attended the University of Texas at El Paso on a basketball scholarship. Sonny Shar, committee president, also honored Kenneth J. Rood, head of Ralph Lauren Home, and Sami Sagol, ceo of Keter Plastics, an Israeli company that manufactures garden furniture and bathroom accessories. When Sonny called Rood to be an honoree, Rood asked, “What do I have to do?” “You make a speech and send me money,” an unabashed Sonny told him. It was a good choice, as far as doling out honors to deserving sports minded persons. In 1978 the New Jersey Nets drafted Rood after a two-year stint as an all-star in the Continental Basketball Association, the farm system for the NBA. In 1982 he was inducted into the Hofstra University Basketball Hall of Fame. And Sagol? He’s athletic in his own way. He owns Hapoel Keter, Israel’s leading soccer team. |