FORMER Guyanese sports journalist and basketball pioneer in Linden, Al McDonald, who later changed his name to Alred Naisan Chapman, died on May 25, aged 72, in Florida, USA.
According to relatives, with whom he’d been living since 1984, Al died at a medical facility in Florida, where he’d been hospitalised after suffering severe burns during a fire at the apartment in which they were living.
A May 10 social media post quoted his son, Junior Sean, as saying “My father Alred Chapman Sr. sustained 30% bodily burns that included his face, arms, chest and back”, and that he would later succumb to complications caused by his injuries.
His remains are, reportedly, to be cremated tomorrow, June 8, in Florida, and his ashes brought back by family members to Guyana.
Al, as he was popularly known to sports fans at home and in the Diaspora, began his journalistic career in the 1970s with the Guyana Chronicle, and at one time was based in Linden at its Sports Correspondent.
His close association with basketball included his covering the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Santo Domingo in1975 with the Guyana National Men’s team.
After covering the CAC Games, he was posted to Linden, where he worked as the sports reporter, and got involved in the administration of basketball there.
That posting afforded his the opportunity to link up with the top Linden players the likes of national players Harold ‘Czar’ Caesar, Gavin ‘Poppy’ Kendall, Clifton Brusche, and Hubern ‘Zunty’ Clarke, as they examined the development of the sport over the years.
His influence and love for the game created an avenue for the founding of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) in 1976, becoming its first President, with Frank Fraser as Secretary, and Neville Rigby as Treasurer.
As he once told the Guyana Chronicle during an interview, he at one time worked as a sports journalist with the popular sports publication, Robert Sam’s ‘Sports Special’, and that before migrating to the US served as Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Olympic Association between 1982-1984.
