Looking for an old newspaper piece on Svetlana Abrosimova

[orygunpat]

I recall a really interesting piece on how S.A. got involved in basketball. I have been unable to find it.

The article spoke of the federation taking her from a neighborhood school to a special school/program to make a basketball player out of her. It spoke of her home in a tenement and the smell of cooking cabbage permeating the hallways etc.

Can anyone help me find the article?

I found senior night when we were introduced to her parents from St. Petersburg and how she paid for their trip. I also remember a movement to help with their plane fares and how that was nixed because it would violate NCAA rules.

 

[JS]

No cabbage in this one.

 

[DobbsRover2]

No cabbage in this one either, though I did find some with Sveta in a menu for Geno's Food Court, but it was for this wrap selection:

The Svetlana Abrosimova $9.95
Traditional Buffalo, Creamy Gorgonzola

and not the pork and cabbage dumpling selection.

Back in 1997 was the beginnings of article postings to the net, so it may not have been posted live. One suggestion if you have any idea about what newspaper you may have read it in is to do a search on her name and that paper. Of course if only the headline title is searchable and it does not include her name, you might try something like "Russian" and "basketball" and maybe "UConn" or "Connecticut."

Many more newspapers have had their archives scanned in recent years, and I have been finding thousands of cool hits for the sport I cover going well back into the mid 1800s, and there are old defunct newspapers being archived from 1800 on here in NY. For some though only the headlines are searchable, though OCR reading can now do some reasonably accurate interpretations of most of the words in a scan.

 

[uconnfan68]

I recall a really interesting piece on how S.A. got involved in basketball. I have been unable to find it.

The article spoke of the federation taking her from a neighborhood school to a special school/program to make a basketball player out of her. It spoke of her home in a tenement and the smell of cooking cabbage permeating the hallways etc.

Can anyone help me find the article?

I found senior night when we were introduced to her parents from St. Petersburg and how she paid for their trip. I also remember a movement to help with their plane fares and how that was nixed because it would violate NCAA rules.

The was an article or series from Bob Sudyk of Northeast Magazine that I think you are looking for. I tried 'googling' "Bob Sudyk Svetlana Abrosimova" and got a few hits, but not about that article. Some did mention the article.

 

[BroadwayVa]

The was an article or series from Bob Sudyk of Northeast Magazine that I think you are looking for. I tried 'googling' "Bob Sudyk Svetlana Abrosimova" and got a few hits, but not about that article. Some did mention the article.

Svetie (as Sue calls her) Abrosamova waa a great player--Kia Nurse in the way she moves with confidence and with knowledge reminds me of Svetlana. My money is on Nurse filling Sveties shoes at Uconn very nicely before she is done.

 

[UcMiami]

Love Nurse, but the comparison of Sveta to Nurse, except for her confidence as a freshman does not compute for me.

Sveta was more of a greyhound moving so smoothly and gracefully around the court - Nurse, more like an NHL defenseman like her brother - strong, fast, and she'll take your head of in the corners!

 

[maddoggy]

Probably a March 7, 1999 page 6 article Hartford Courant article by Sudyk headlined "SVETLANA OF ST. PETERSBURG RUSSIAN ROOTS OF A STAR: A MOTHER'S BORSCHT, A FLOWERING AT 15, A COACH'S LAMENT"

Here's the abstract, which is free when you search the Courant's archive. It is one of only two articles that include the words Abrosimova and cabbage. The other one, from 2001, refers back to this one but does not mention cabbage in quite the same context as the one you recall.

The apartment is only three rooms good-sized by Russian standards, Svetlana had told me. The walls are papered with images of Svetlana: posters, game photos, newspaper clippings. The ceiling is 14 feet high. On one side of the main room is a large glass bookcase, facing a sofa and two upholstered chairs. At the window sits a 20-inch color TV. At the opposite side is a dining table. Behind it is a cot and a floor-to-ceiling wallpaper tapestry depicting a scene from ancient Rome.


Svetlana had said the same. "It is very thorough education, better than my teammates tell me they get in America," she had said. Students have classes six days a week, sometimes seven: eight major subjects in a school day that begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. They squeeze in their lunches during one of the 15-minute breaks at the end of each class. "It was good preparation, good discipline for me to combine basketball and studies when I came to UConn," Svetlana said.


Ludmila [Abrosimova] later described the awful pressure the Trajeskals put on Svetlana. "They said Sveta wasn't good enough to play in America. They told Sveta that there are so many drug-takers and maniacs in America that she never would get back alive." Sensitive, patriotic Svetlana was made to feel like a traitor.

You can buy the full text from the archive for three or four bucks if you don't have access otherwise (e.g. from your public library or a subscription to the Coursnt or ProQuest).

 

[maddoggy]

And much as I hate to deprive a newspaper of revenue, however trivial, you can actually read the article for free by Googling the word Trajeskals, which appears in the abstract. You'll probably get back only one result -- a link to the full article. The link goes to page 5 of the article, but there are further links to all 9 pages as the bottom of page 5.

 

[snowkot]

An extraordinarily unique player, I remember my impression of her was, a college female Larry Bird, especially given where women's basketball was at the time. The exception being she might have been just a tad more reluctant to pass the ball. But her skills in all aspects of the game were exceptional...

 

[meyers7]

No cabbage in this one.

Why you bring back this horrible day?

At noon today, Abrosimova, the beloved 6-foot-2 sophomore forward, will lead the top-seeded Huskies (29-4) against the No. 4 Iowa State Cyclones (24-7) in an NCAA tournament Mideast Regional semifinal at the University of Cincinnati's Shoemaker Center.

 

[UcMiami]

Fun reading the links above. She was an amazing player to watch play. And is a beautiful woman.

 

[UcMiami]

An extraordinarily unique player, I remember my impression of her was, a college female Larry Bird, especially given where women's basketball was at the time. The exception being she might have been just a tad more reluctant to pass the ball. But her skills in all aspects of the game were exceptional...

And just a tad faster and more athletic when compared to her peers. Bird was great to watch and one of my favorite all time players, but he was slow and not particularly 'athletic'. And he had a face that 'only his mother could love'! I am pretty sure Sveta had a face that 'launched a thousand ships'!

 

[JS]

No cabbage in this one.

Why you bring back this horrible day?

At noon today, Abrosimova, the beloved 6-foot-2 sophomore forward, will lead the top-seeded Huskies (29-4) against the No. 4 Iowa State Cyclones (24-7) in an NCAA tournament Mideast Regional semifinal at the University of Cincinnati's Shoemaker Center.

When you're looking for cabbage, you never know when something undesirable will turnip.

 

[Sargassoc]

Yes, the entire article is available through ProQuest (I just checked it). Also, you can use iConn.org with your CT library card number to access it directly at the Courant archives there.

 

[Fiftyish]

Probably a March 7, 1999 page 6 article Hartford Courant article by Sudyk headlined "SVETLANA OF ST. PETERSBURG RUSSIAN ROOTS OF A STAR: A MOTHER'S BORSCHT, A FLOWERING AT 15, A COACH'S LAMENT"

You are correct; it was actually the cover story of that week's Northeast Sunday magazine. I still have the hard copy. That's were my avatar comes from. Still my all time favorite player.

 

[Biff]

You are correct; it was actually the cover story of that week's Northeast Sunday magazine. I still have the hard copy. That's were my avatar comes from. Still my all time favorite player.

Yeah but your avatar leaves out the best part of the picture....the socks!

 

[Fiftyish]

Yeah but your avatar leaves out the best part of the picture....the socks!

Biff, you're right but I couldn't figure out how to fit everything into the allotted avatar space. Those socks are special and even at her young age, those legs go on forever.

 

[j66kicker]

When my son was a little kid I would take him to the women's games and his favorite player was Svetlana. He called her "Spet". One of those games was the BC game in Jan-98, classic "payback" beat-down where Geno left the starters in and ran up 107 points. We went early and ate at a restaurant in the Civic Center with windows overlooking the JP Morgan Hotel across the street, where the UCONN women would stay before Civic Center games. While we were eating the team had taken the bus from the hotel (100 ft?) and parked to unload the player right out in front of our window. My kid wanted to go try to get Spet's autograph on his hat, so I let him go out by himself because I could see him real well out the window. He stood at the bus door and got his hat autographed - not only by Svetlana, but by Geno and the entire team, each player signing as she hopped off the bus. When he came back in the restaurant with the hat, people who had watched the whole thing were offering him $200, etc., for it, but he just wanted to keep the hat. During the game also got it autographed by Travis Knight, who had already graduated, but was in attendance.

This was 17 years ago and my son is no longer a huge UCONN fan, so I didn't know what might have become of the hat. I was visiting him in NJ last week and, since it was Final 4 time, we were talking about UCONN. I asked him what ever became of the hat. He went up to his room and came back down with the hat, totally preserved in plastic. Awesome!

 

[Gus Mahler]

And just a tad faster and more athletic when compared to her peers. Bird was great to watch and one of my favorite all time players, but he was slow and not particularly 'athletic'. And he had a face that 'only his mother could love'! I am pretty sure Sveta had a face that 'launched a thousand ships'!

And a hand that launched a thousand shots. . . ?

 

[svetbird]

in case you couldn't guess I love her. She is so sweet and was such a great player. I have gotten a few responses from her on twitter, always so happy to hear from her fans. I am half Russian myself so the chance to root for such an amazing Russian helped me cheer for the Storm (since I sadly missed her UCONN days).

 

[j66kicker]

Geno said Svet was difficult to deal with at times, but at the end of the day she is one of those players who could be counted on to make the play to win the game.

 

[DaddyChoc]

When my son was a little kid I would take him to the women's games and his favorite player was Svetlana. He called her "Spet". One of those games was the BC game in Jan-98, classic "payback" beat-down where Geno left the starters in and ran up 107 points. We went early and ate at a restaurant in the Civic Center with windows overlooking the JP Morgan Hotel across the street, where the UCONN women would stay before Civic Center games. While we were eating the team had taken the bus from the hotel (100 ft?) and parked to unload the player right out in front of our window. My kid wanted to go try to get Spet's autograph on his hat, so I let him go out by himself because I could see him real well out the window. He stood at the bus door and got his hat autographed - not only by Svetlana, but by Geno and the entire team, each player signing as she hopped off the bus. When he came back in the restaurant with the hat, people who had watched the whole thing were offering him $200, etc., for it, but he just wanted to keep the hat. During the game also got it autographed by Travis Knight, who had already graduated, but was in attendance.

This was 17 years ago and my son is no longer a huge UCONN fan, so I didn't know what might have become of the hat. I was visiting him in NJ last week and, since it was Final 4 time, we were talking about UCONN. I asked him what ever became of the hat. He went up to his room and came back down with the hat, totally preserved in plastic. Awesome!

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great story and pics... thanks!