Tags
3 point-play, 3rd Grade, Alan Sheehan, Basketball, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Chris Mullin, Chris Ryan, Colin Quinn, F-Train, grammar school, Holy Family, Holy Name, IHM, Joe Ciazzo, Johnny Molava, Keith Burroughs, Latrell Sprewell, Louie Zito, Marv Albert, OLA, OLG, OLPH, R-Train, Red Hook, Regina Pacis, Schools, Sports, St. Agnes, St. Brendan's, St. Finbar, St. Mark's, St. Mary Mother of Jesus, St. Rose of Lima, St. Saviour, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Vincent Ferrer, Steve Leondis, The Tablet, Tommy Sina, Ty Cobbs, Tyrone Williams, Visitation
Great discussion on the school system in my previous blog. Thanks to the many readers who posted their comments – great input and insight into the educational system.
After reading about many of the Catholic blackboard havens that will be closing or have been closed, I had to think back to all the places I played basketball as a young, grammar school ballplayer for Holy Name.
Starting in the 3rd grade playing for Georgie Rauthier all the way to the 7th grade where I suited up for Danny Pisselli and the late Joe Farrell, Getting your name in the Tablet after a game was like seeing your name in the Daily News or Post. I got my name in every now and then.
I remember driving to places like Regina Pacis in Bensonhurst where a Steve Leondis led team crushed us 63-9. They had a bowling alley in the building.
Going to St. Finbar, also located in Bensonhurst and losing 29-3. Our only points came on a Frankie Cullen ‘traditional’ three point-play. As Marv Albert would say sitting courtside with Cal Ramsey, “YESSSSSSS, and it counts!” (I would be remiss not to mention Frankie’s coast-to-coast game winning drive against Brooklyn in the Holy Name Summer league in one of the biggest upsets in the history of basketball)
OLPH, their court was by far the longest I had ever played on.
Our Lady of Angels on 74th and 4th, it’s where I picked up my first technical foul as an overaggressive 6th grader. “Ref you suck!’ is what I said. This was back in 1976. And they say today’s kids are out of line?
Visitation in Red Hook, did they ever have a player that was NOT a ‘ringer’. Do they still call over-aged players ringers? Probably the greatest games I ever played in. Tyrone Williams, Keith Burroughs and I can never forget ‘Murray’, their coach. The games we played against them down P.S. 10’s were SRO. Birth certificates people, we want to see some sort of I.D.! They had kids with hair on their faces.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, it’s where a guy choked me as we were in transition. Serious, it was a Latrell Sprewell – PJ Carlesimo deal. While a member of Ty Cobbs, we were trying to get back on defense and some kid and I from OLG bumped into each other and all of a sudden this huge kid wraps his hands around my pencil-thin neck and I’m on the floor gasping for air. We decided we weren’t going to stand for that kind of play and promptly pressed them the rest of the game winning 74-4. Johnny G and I walked about 10 miles to get to that game!
St. Agnes, can’t recall if I ever played well against them – I guess I didn’t. Because you never forget the gyms you played well in.
St. Vincent Ferrer – all I recall is that tile floor that was hard as a rock. Hoping in Mr. Martin’s car on a cold Saturday morning in January was terrible.
Holy Family – that court was bad. 4th avenue and 14th street, rough neighborhood. Johnny Molava and Co. Pillars all over the place. But I scored a lot of points. Jeff Hect was their coach and it was my first experience with recruiting. “Steve, you may not see any light your first game.” he said to me. I never showed up for the game.
St. Mark’s with Louie Zito the scoring machine. Classic battles on Sunday nights playing against them. I recall some lady, an adult at that yelling at me as I walked out of the building, ‘Go back to Holy Name ya bunch of losers.’ Nice way to talk to a youngster, Miss.
IHM with Chris Ryan and the infamous fire extinguisher ordeal. Something that got out of hand after the game. Do you recall the long chute they had that led down to the locker rooms?
St. Mary Mother of Jesus, another school located in Benshonhurst. The original home of Father Devlin and Gerard Geneivive.
St. Patrick’s with Alan Sheehan. Hopy on the ‘F’ to 4th avenue for the ‘RR’ to 95th street.
St. Thomas Aquinas, home of Chris Mullin. Enough said.
St. Brendan’s, I enjoyed their summer league a lot better. Jocko Armstrong let me play in a game one night.
St. Rose of Lima with Tommy Sina, and The Baker Brothers. Can’t forget Gerard Byrnes, Louie and Ziggy.
And of course while I was in the 7th grade I would go down to St. Saviors on 8th avenue and 6th street and watch the Cullen’s play in Carl Manco’s league. Carl would post the scoring leaders up on a board high on the gym wall. This palce had to be the smallest gym in Brooklyn. They had the stage under one of the goal’s. David Quinn, younger brother of Colin was a scoring machine! Speaking of St. Savior, which happened to be pretty close to us, I hear Joe Ciazzo has a daughter that is a pretty good hoops player playing for the high school team. Remember Auncha Brown played there?
I’m sure I missed a school or two. If you have any memories of playing C.Y.O. basketball or even baseball, feel free to post them in the comments section below.
Blast from the Past: Jimmy Parker. Anyone remember him? Good dude. Good ball player. Last I heard he was working for the New York Sanitation department. He had hops!
Respectfully,
SF
Hoops135@hotmail.com
CONTAINER DIARIES 
Jack Kelly said:
“….I fight for my meals”….thanks coach. It’s 6 degrees outside and I was looking for something to do. Now I’ll just head down to the cellar and find my old Who records dust off the case of guinness that was leftover from last March and wait for the outside temp to reach 30 🙂
hoopscoach said:
Jack,
“I get my back into my living…”
When I put that song on, something magnificent comes over me!
Hope you are well and enjoying the Guinness – save one for me, I’ll be right over!
TonyF16St said:
Now I don’t feel so bad Jack. I’m sitting hear reading and writing this listening to Cream. I think I’m gonna get a pint myself.
Kevin Mahoney said:
The mention of “ringers” makes me think of the bantam baseball team I played on for the Beverly Boys Club. The team had a lot of Holy Name kids on it, and we made up two thirds of the starting lineup. We had a good team and ended up playing in the Parade Grounds League championships which were held at Parkville stadium on 65th street. It was the first time a lot of us played at a stadium where they announce your name when you bat, there’s a homerun fence, etc.. We played the host team in the first round and these kids all looked like they were in high school. Not only were they taller than us, but they looked like they had been in the weight room all winter. I don’t think our pitcher had given up a homerun all year, and their first two batters put balls over the centerfield fence. Needless to say, the championship dream died right then and there.
Larry Maloney said:
“I don’t need to fight…”
What a memory you have.. (and great song)
jimmy vack said:
The gym at Cathedal Prep had pillars on one end of the court. We used to run defenders into them and used them as pick on inbounds plays.
We palyed against St. Agnes HS which had a track above the court. Our coached warned us against taking corner shots due to the overgang . Abour 2 seconds into the game, yoys truly took a corner shot that was blocked by the overhang of the track. The ball cam flying back at me. I
cannot repeat that the coach said to me!!
hoopscoach said:
Larry,
“To prove I’m right…”
GW said:
“I don’t need to be forgiven….”
Go, Larry, Go….
KPM said:
Steve,
The “ringers” are now called “grade exceptions” and its legal.
hoopscoach said:
Kev,
I also hear some parents are holding their kids back from starting school because they want them to be one year older than their classmates for sports purposes.
Jack Kelly said:
Tony, I found at our age nothing is better than a pint and a bit of Disraeli Gears 😉
Kenny Whelan said:
Did anybody catch The Who being honored at the Kennedy Center? They had a group of New York police and firemen singing Baba O’Riley to Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry to thanks them for coming to NY after 9/11 and performing. I swear one of the guys looked like Marty Lang.
Maureen Rice (Flanagan) said:
I made a note to catch that on TV, but lost the note! I cannot hear that song anymore without thinking of the Concert for 9/11. I will have to see if I can catch the Kennedy Center show on a rerun.
Brooklin said:
Anucha Brown now Anucha Brown Sanders the same lady from St. Saviour’s who went on to play for Northwestern University and later worked for the Knicks and sued and won a lawsuit against the Knicks and Isiah Thomas. She was always a classy woman that had a lot of chutzpah to stand up to the Knicks and Isiah! Good for her!
Jerry Cole said:
Yep, that’s her. My wife played hoops on the Saviour’s team with Anucha. She mentioned to me as soon as the story broke that Thomas and the Knicks were in deep trouble. She told me that Anucha is a classy, well-educated woman and that Thomas had better be prepared for the outcome.
jim vack said:
Jerry,
Never liked Isiah. I thought he was a great player but not one of the greatest. I also though the comments of Bird was true to his real character. He was a poor GM, poor coach, and a classless guy. As all know, class is how you act and what you do not how you smile and talk.
Brooklin said:
In difficult, pressure, and stressful times character is not developed but rather is revealed. Isiah Thomas showed us that back when he was aplayer with the Bird comments and most recently with the Knicks. He was a great player and could possibly go down in the Top 100 All Time NBA players. He has the credentials to support that.
hoopscoach said:
Speaking of character; Isiah also is famous for hitting guys like Sid Green and Karl Malone with cheap shot elbows. And don’t forget Isiah started the whole ‘freeze Michael out’ in the all-star game back in 85′.
Frankie Cullen said:
Hey Red, don’t know if anything was ever posted on this game, It was Cash’s team in the summer league and they were getting completely trounced by either Brooklyn, or the other that other team Brooklyn usually faced in the finals(Jimmy Rauthier’s team?). I think they were getting beat by like 25 points, and then Gammy Martinez just started going off!! Gammy and Hank Fifield made up the back court and Gammy just started hitting from everywhere!
He had the best handle I ever saw up there, like the ball was on a string, he could fake getting ready to shoot multiple times without giving up his dribble, catch a defender flat footed, either pull up for a mid range jumper or take it straight to the hoop.
I think they took the whole second half to come back, and finally won in the final seconds of the game, and the schoolyard went nuts!