Friday, August 26, 2011

The old Hotel Utah has long, storied history in S.L.


For thousands of visitors throughout most of the 20th century, the Hotel Utah was an ultimate haven for guests, an elegant white wedding cake of a building with restaurants serving savory dishes, comfortable rooms and a great chandelier, plush lobby and mezzanine.


"I don't even like to give them time off for Christmas because that's in the season." Fab plays it the only way he knows. Tough but fair."That's the only way to develop basketball and develop the Eagles," insisted Flournoy."That's one thing being player-coach does give me. I run quicker, train harder, do more bench presses and squats etc than any other player. Or at least as many.A New Yorker who at 35 years of age is reaping the rewards for abstinence by still playing at the highest level."If I'm honest it's not about winning trophies but about playing in the right manner and what we do Monday to Friday," Fab told me."My whole world outside of my mam and my family is right here which is why I'm so passionate about pushing the Eagles to the very forefront of basketball."Perhaps his mother Lucy had an inkling how life might turn out when she christened him Fabulous!As one of the world's grand hotels, it was a temporary home-away- from-home to U.S. presidents and movie stars, performers, Supreme Court justices and at least one astronaut. Three presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lived there: Presidents David O. McKay, Spencer W. Kimball and Ezra Taft Benson."Overall running a club is 24/7 and 365 days a year, which is what I tell players when I talk to them about signing.HE WAS crowned Newcastle Sports Personality of the Year beneath the Civic Centre chandeliers last night as those called Fabulous ought to be."It's one of the reasons I still wouldn't recommend anyone becoming a player-coach. In reality it's simply too much, especially on match nights when I must make all the instant decisions on tactics, player use, and the like while still playing myself and looking after my own game.The 10-story structure at the northeast corner of Main and South Temple streets dates back to 1911, making it among the oldest surviving commercial buildings downtown."Yet you can bet on Newcastle always having injuries to key players. I don't just mean us, I mean all Newcastle clubs."As a result last season was looked upon as a bad year because we only won the league and reached two finals! But I don't judge our progress and development exclusively on one season's results."That's recognised as a fact. When I got going I was the only player-coach in the country but now we've had all our success there are four!"I get a lot of stick for being relentless, but if I see things going wrong not once or twice but three times the screaming and the shouting starts.Fab Flournoy from the Bronx ghettos of New York has transformed Newcastle into the capital of basketball. No longer the jokers but the kings who have all others jumping through hoops."I want to build a dynasty at Newcastle. I want them to become the Manchester United or Real Madrid of British basketball, a club which has permanent stature and not a spurt of trophies which then dry up. Fleeting success is not a legacy I want.

Anyone with memories of the Hotel Utah is invited to share them on the Deseret News Internet site.




Author: Joseph Bauman


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