Gene Fisch

[Orangeyes]

As a kid growing up in the Parochial league I was just as fanatic about basketball as I am now. In grammar school and high school I was lucky enough to witness some of the greatest games, players and coaches to grace Central New York's gymnasium's.

At one point, a few years ago I was even going to write a book on the league. I knew my best resources were near the end of the their lives and I would have to interview them while they were still here and of sound mind. I wasn't going to do this for any monetary gain, goodness knows this project would probably lose money. No, I would do this as a service to the community, a way of saying thank you to an era that was truly glorious and unique. To preserve the memories of several generations and maybe put together a shrine to the people who made so many happy moments for so many people growing up in and around it.

If you are too young to remember the Parochial League or if you have never heard of it you were one of my intended audiences. The book would serve as a reference and guide to an era of tiny gyms, and David versus Goliath encounters that were staged at the War Memorial between the Champions of the Parochial League and the City League. The Parochial League was always David and many times they overcame their big city brothers.

Most of the makeup of the Parochial league teams were of neighborhood kids of similar ethnic backgrounds. Sacred Heart was mostly the "Polocks", St. Pat's the "Irishmen" and Assumption the "Italian's".

Some schools like mine, St. John The Evangelist, were comprised of hybrids, as kids like me who had no nearby Catholic Church, migrated downtown. We also were the destination for most of the Eastwood kids who graduated from Blessed Sacrament some six miles away.

Gene Fisch was perhaps the greatest player to have played in the Parochial league. I remember seeing him up close and noticing that the skin on his face didn't look normal in spots. I learned that he had been in a prisoner of war camp in Poland during the German takeover and was scalded with hot water by his captors. Whether or not that story was true I have no way of knowing but everyone knew that story and we all believed it.

Edit: It was true, the Germans were using Polish prisoners as guinea pigs to do skin graphs in practice for when they had to treat their soldiers who had burns.

I never did do the book, as I was told by the Onondaga Historical Society that someone was already in the process of doing that history. A few years later I checked back to see if and when the book was going to be published. I tracked the author to Chicago. To my dismay I learned that his book was going to cover the Bishop Ludden era forward. That era came sometime after the Parochial League's demise.

Bob Felasco, coach at St. John the Evangelist and a former Orangeman basketball player as well as Greater Syracuse HOF inductee who passed away last year

There is still a book to be written but some of the main resources have since died. Below is the Hall of Fame bio of Gene Fisch, Geno as we called him. Regrettably, it doesn't even scratch the surface of his greatness as seen through the eyes of the child that I was. "Geno" will be inducted into the Greater Syracuse Hall of Fame tomorrow right along with Syracuse greats, Chris Gedney, John Cherundolo and Bernie Fine. I just thought I should let you know a little bit more about him and that bygone era that holds so many sweet memories for those of us who lived it.

Congratulations Gene and and thanks for the memories of a lifetime.

Gene Fisch Hall of Fame Bio
　
　
Was he the greatest basketball player in Parochial League history? That question can be debated but never answered to the satisfaction of all. But, Gene Fisch's ball-handling wizardry was legendary. In 1959, and only a sophomore, Fisch, along with senior Dick Pospiech, led Adam Markowski's Sacred Heart team to its first Parochial League championship and an unblemished 21-0 record. The next two seasons Fisch led the Hearts to two regular season titles and one playoff crown. He was the league's leading scorer despite not even measuring six foot tall. He was rated the best player, pound for pound, during his time in the Parochial League. Fisch went on to play collegiately at New York University.

 

[PeteCalvin]

Thanks, OE. This is a story that must be told. You still hear about the old parochial league in certain circles around town. I remember my father talking about it when I was a kid. What was the full list of schools that comprised the league? Wasn't St. Anthony's in it as well?

 

[Orangeyes]

The list as I remember it is St John The Evangelist, St. John the Baptist, Holy Rosary, Sacred Heart, St Patrick's, St Anthony's, Assumption and St Vincent's.

Schools like St Matthews, St Bridget's, Pompei, Blessed Sacrament, St Daniel's, St Margert's and Our Lady of Lourdes all had grammar schools. They were part of a much larger Parochial Grammar School League. Many of the graduates of these schools migrated to to the Parochial League high schools or CBA, Convent or even public schools.

 

[alibrat66]

I played against Gene Fisch in practice games; he for Sacred Heart and me for Eastwood. Sacred Heart was a very good team; they had a fast break that beat all hell. He was and is a great guy. We were fairly good friends and have rediscovered one another on the internet.

No one is more deserving of this honor than Gene.

Not sure if he was the best ever to play in the Parochial League. A teammate of mine at Blessed Sacrament, Bob Kallfelz, was the best shooter I've ever seen. If it hadn't been for a ruined knee when he was a junior, he probably would've broken all the scoring records. There was a kid, Lou Napoliwitz (sp) at Assumption who was very good. Chuck Bisesi, I believe also at Assumption, was also terrific. John Caveny at St. John the Evangelist was very good. I'm really stretching my memory on this one. There were many great ones.

 

[Orangeyes]

Bob Kallfelz owned the Grotto in Eastwood. No doubt he was one of the PL's legends along with Chuck Bisesi who once scored 63 points in one game without the benefit of the three-point line. John Caveny's name was also spoken in reverant tones.

Alibrat did you see this piece on SJCA?

 

[alibrat66]

Bob Kallfelz owned the Grotto in Eastwood. No doubt he was one of the PL's legends along with Chuck Bisesi who once scored 63 points in one game without the benefit of the three-point line. John Caveny's name was also spoken in reverant tones.

Alibrat did you see this piece on SJCA?

No, I didn't, eyes. Thanks for sharing it.

Bob Kallfelz lives in Las Vegas, as far as I know.

 

[SkanSU]

If I might intrude in on this walk down memory lane ... I went to Central way before the era of Henninger, Fowler, Corcoran,and Nottingham. Then we had Eastwood, North, Valley, Vocational,and Nottingham High Schools. I remember going to the Central games and sitting in the auditorium because the gym was behind the audiorium. Some great names came out of Central in basketball alto sadly I cannot even google the old school. I remember the rivalries well ... and then we did play CBA during the regular season as I recall. Often we would go to the parochial games ... and if I might OE correct you to some degree, the parochial leagues were really better than the city schools in basketball ... Sacred Heart particularly. Wow...talk about going down memory lane here ... (phew age shows)

 

[Halfmooncuse]

Attended Sacred Heart. Saw Gene play. I think he was about 5'7'' but tough as nails. The gyms were small but packed to the rafters. Sacred Heart a number of years (1967) later beat Corcoran High for the City Championship at the War Memorial. Considering that Hearts only had 20 boys in their senior class that year, it was quite the feat. Billy Evaniezeck (sp?) was the coach. St. john's also great teams withthe Satalins.(sp?) There is a west end athletics club that inducts members annually. I'm sure those members would be a good source.

 

[Orangeyes]

If I might intrude in on this walk down memory lane ... I went to Central way before the era of Henninger, Fowler, Corcoran,and Nottingham. Then we had Eastwood, North, Valley, Vocational,and Nottingham High Schools. I remember going to the Central games and sitting in the auditorium because the gym was behind the audiorium. Some great names came out of Central in basketball alto sadly I cannot even google the old school. I remember the rivalries well ... and then we did play CBA during the regular season as I recall. Often we would go to the parochial games ... and if I might OE correct you to some degree, the parochial leagues were really better than the city schools in basketball ... Sacred Heart particularly. Wow...talk about going down memory lane here ... (phew age shows)

As I recall it the bigger city schools were always favored over the smaller parochial teams. Central Tech had five all city starters in their line up one year back in the Steve Nagy days. Coming from the parochial league I remember us always being the underdog. You had guys who ended up at high D1 schools like Nagy, Jimmy Collins, Roy Neal, Manny Breland and Mike Stark. Other guys like Joe Reddick, Jessie Dowdell were pretty good too. I think Geno was the only D1 player to come out of the Parochial schools.

 

[Cheriehoop]

I played against Gene Fisch in practice games; he for Sacred Heart and me for Eastwood. Sacred Heart was a very good team; they had a fast break that beat all hell. He was and is a great guy. We were fairly good friends and have rediscovered one another on the internet.

No one is more deserving of this honor than Gene.

Not sure if he was the best ever to play in the Parochial League. A teammate of mine at Blessed Sacrament, Bob Kallfelz, was the best shooter I've ever seen. If it hadn't been for a ruined knee when he was a junior, he probably would've broken all the scoring records. There was a kid, Lou Napoliwitz (sp) at Assumption who was very good. Chuck Bisesi, I believe also at Assumption, was also terrific. John Caveny at St. John the Evangelist was very good. I'm really stretching my memory on this one. There were many great ones.

I went to one of those parochial league schools, Rosary. In fact our school played Bishop Ludden's Green Machine team for the city/county/parochial League championship at the old War Memorial. Our center was all of 6' and a half inch tall but all those kids lived and breathed basketball.

I worked with Lou Nelipowitz at the Northside CYO and BFDC Camp for a number years. He did play for Assumption and graduated about 1957. He told me he got some heat from the Polish community for playing for his neighborhood school, Assumption over Sacred Heart. Unfortunately he passed away way too young in his early 50's almost 20 years ago.

As Orangeyes alluded to St John the Evangelists' had a phenomenal team around the middle 60's. They were special and I think a small extremely talented player named Downey led them.
Sacred Heart, mostly of Polish descent, always had excellent teams when I was in school and always seemed to have the tallest players. St Pat's, St John the Baptists (Satalin brothers), St Anthony's, St Vincent's, Cathedral, St Lucy's, Most Holy Rosary, Evangelist, Assumption and Sacred Heart made up the Parochial League as I recall. The only team that could claim it was from the East side was St Vincents' since most of the teams were centered in the West, south and North sides.

The gyms themselves could be the subject of a book. Many like the St Pat's and St John the Baptists gyms served double duty as auditoriums and gyms. At both these small gyms folding chairs would fill the stages. Some didn't even have usable gyms to play in for extended periods of time having to play/practice in rented gyms or grammar school venues. Rosary played in other venues from 1947 to almost 1960 after its gym burned down. St Vincent's gym was condemned but continued fielding good teams while having to play and practice elsewhere also. Those bandbox home gyms were filled to more than capacity every Friday. Even at our new large gym in the 1960's , you had to get there early enough with your dollar in hand to get a seat. It is was a phenomenal league where simplicity, fundamentals, fanatic school spirit and team play was the rule.

The league deserves a book, it used to have a bar on Burnet for years owned by a Rosary grad(Parochial League bar whose walls were filled with parochial school memorabilia), nice time for a literary tribute.

 

[Orangeyes]

Cherie I had forgotten St. Lucy's in my original list, so there were nine teams not eight or are we forgetting someone else? Do you remember Bernie Lampe from St. Vincent's, he was 6-10, the tallest center I ever saw in the league.

The bar The Parochial League was co-owned by Louie Snow and Mike Barrillo. I supplied on loan many of the articles that were on the walls. When the place closed down I got them all back.

That 1960's team was recently inducted into the Greater Syracuse HOF Al Denti the local insurance man who is noted for his SU memorabilia collection was on that team. As a side note, Al is always happy to show off his collection. He's in the book and his business is located on Milton Avenue in Solvay. Anyone on this board who loves SU has to see his collection to believe it. Tell him Dan sent you. Before this bunch came along we used to have our practices at North High School. When this 1965-66 team came along North was closed so they relocated to Grant & Henninger.

Here is their HOF write-up

Our third honoree of this prestigious award is not just a team, but back in the elite days of the Syracuse Parochial League provided great basketball drama, intense rivalries, somewhat heated neighborhood debates with some of the local all-time high school coaching legends getting the most out of players who represented their schools with the deepest of loyalties. And, oh what great basketball this community witnessed in those days.

One of those unforgettable collection of athletes and a legendary coach leading his group was the 1965 and 1966 St. John the Evangelist basketball squad led by coach Bobby Felasco. Molding a cohesive unit was no easy task as the Evangelist school had no gym. Felasco scheduled practices at Grant Junior High with league games at Henninger High School. A coach who loved his team to run, the Eagles played it to perfection along with a defense that shutdown some of the league's most potent offenses. Add in a radar like outside shooting touch and the '65 and '66 teams were tough to beat.

The string began with nine consecutive victories in 1965. Following a buzzer beating loss they then won 28 straight games, including the Parochial League and much coveted City League titles. The 1965 team beat perennial powerhouse Nottingham while the 1966 squad did it to an overpowering Corcoran five that included Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Collins, Joe Reddick, Harold Broadwater, Bob Stroman and Howie Harlow. That '66 championship game has many calling it one of the greatest high school games ever played in our town.

Among those who made it all happen on the court were a group whose names were known by all basketball officianados in Syracuse.

They include, in no specific order:

Tom Downey, who later starred for Tom Niland at LeMoyne College, made the Dolphins Gold Wave Hall of Fame and was named to the list of the top 200 players in the Parochial League. He currently practices law in San Francisco.

Al Denti, who was three years all-league, went on to play for Creighton and kept his roots here in Syracuse. Dave Guinta was a two year all-league performer who was the only player to be on five consecutive Parochial League champions. Billy Jackson, Mr. Syracuse community organizer and leader of multiple sclerosis research in our city, was a three year all-league star.

Joe Russo, another three year all-league standout, went on to LeMoyne College and starred for Coach Dick Rockwell on the baseball field. Joe, too, is a LeMoyne Gold Wave Hall of Famer and member of the school's Board of Regents. LeMoyne also had an outstanding basketball career from John Zych after being a four year all-star at Evangelist. Bob Barth and Dan Jones were two-year varsity members and went on the play at Dade Community College in Miami.

Mark Adams was a co-captain of the '65 team. Also contributing to the team's success were Ed Aresenault and another co-captain - Jim Murphy. Juniors on the championship '66 team were Jim Benz and Mike Jarvis.

It was a remarkable era in Syracuse high school sports and St. John the Evangelist, the small school without a gym, made an impact that will never be forgotten.

 

[72Cuse]

I went to one of those parochial league schools, Rosary. In fact our school played Bishop Ludden's Green Machine team for the city/county/parochial League championship at the old War Memorial. Our center was all of 6' and a half inch tall but all those kids lived and breathed basketball.

I worked with Lou Nelipowitz at the Northside CYO and BFDC Camp for a number years. He did play for Assumption and graduated about 1957. He told me he got some heat from the Polish community for playing for his neighborhood school, Assumption over Sacred Heart. Unfortunately he passed away way too young in his early 50's almost 20 years ago.

As Orangeyes alluded to St John the Evangelists' had a phenomenal team around the middle 60's. They were special and I think a small extremely talented player named Downey led them.
Sacred Heart, mostly of Polish descent, always had excellent teams when I was in school and always seemed to have the tallest players. St Pat's, St John the Baptists (Satalin brothers), St Anthony's, St Vincent's, Cathedral, St Lucy's, Most Holy Rosary, Evangelist, Assumption and Sacred Heart made up the Parochial League as I recall. The only team that could claim it was from the East side was St Vincents' since most of the teams were centered in the West, south and North sides.

The gyms themselves could be the subject of a book. Many like the St Pat's and St John the Baptists gyms served double duty as auditoriums and gyms. At both these small gyms folding chairs would fill the stages. Some didn't even have usable gyms to play in for extended periods of time having to play/practice in rented gyms or grammar school venues. Rosary played in other venues from 1947 to almost 1960 after its gym burned down. St Vincent's gym was condemned but continued fielding good teams while having to play and practice elsewhere also. Those bandbox home gyms were filled to more than capacity every Friday. Even at our new large gym in the 1960's , you had to get there early enough with your dollar in hand to get a seat. It is was a phenomenal league where simplicity, fundamentals, fanatic school spirit and team play was the rule.

The league deserves a book, it used to have a bar on Burnet for years owned by a Rosary grad(Parochial League bar whose walls were filled with parochial school memorabilia), nice time for a literary tribute.

Hey Cheriehoop, Thanks for the memories! I worked at the CYO and BFDC too and remember Lou quite well. As I recall he went to Niagara after Assumnption and married a counselor from BFDC, went to the wedding--at the expense of missing the '69 SU/Penn State game. BTW, I went to CBA and was at BFDC from 65-71.

 

[Cheriehoop]

TJ Sheridan of my year (1969) at MHR was a high school All-American and played at Siena as did Mike Ruane a few years later too. TJ is still # 10 for career assists at Siena despite just playing 3 years like they did back then.

Great topic - great memories

 

[Cheriehoop]

Hey Cheriehoop, Thanks for the memories! I worked at the CYO and BFDC too and remember Lou quite well. As I recall he went to Niagara after Assumnption and married a counselor from BFDC, went to the wedding--at the expense of missing the '69 SU/Penn State game. BTW, I went to CBA and was at BFDC from 65-71.

Wow, then you know me and I know I must know you. Yes you are right, Lou, went to Niagara after high school. I was there during the same period as you and I may have left around 1970.

I think quite a few players did play D1 ball but back then it wasn't the ultimate/realistic goal and wasn't their motivation to play. Newspapers etc didn't really follow Syracusans careers either back in the day unless they played local.

 

[72Cuse]

Wow, then you know me and I know I must know you. Yes you are right, Lou, went to Niagara after high school. I was there during the same period as you and I may have left around 1970.

I think quite a few players did play D1 ball but back then it wasn't the ultimate/realistic goal and wasn't their motivation to play. Newspapers etc didn't really follow Syracusans careers either back in the day unless they played local.

I was back in Syracuse for a week this summer--I have lived in Virginia the past 35 years--and stopped in at the Northside CYO. While it has changed quite a bit good to see the mission remains the same. Drove out to BFDC too, the place I remember has vanished. Hope you are doing well.

 

[bevosu]

I remember posting a question on the old board.."Anybody remember Gene Fisch?"

It got a couple of responses...glad to see this one is getting more.

I hung around with a bunch of St Vincent guys back in the early/mid 60's...The Rustic Inn on Burnet Ave. Willie Lavalle (sp) ..actually almost all of them played on the Vincent BB team..small classes do that. I think Wysocki's was also one of their hang outs?

Fisch was a great local basketball player. The Vincent kids talked about how good he was. I did see him play once or twice when he was in college at NYU. His high school years were mostly before I moved to Syracuse.

Those Parochial leagues were fun to watch...lots of pick up games in back of Blessed Sacrament and various other outside courts.. Those kids were basketball gym rats.

 

[Orangeyes]

This says Assumption was German, I remember mostly Italian's like Tony Galezi and Tommy Carfagno
who were both prolific scorers. Tony still plays the game, he's older than me and Carfagno died very young, late 20's, early 30's.
Assumption was feed by the Pompei program which was heavily Italian.

Cherie wait until you hear what the former Mayor of Syracuse called you guys from Holy Rosary.

Forty Roman Catholic churches have closed in and around the Syracuse diocese.

Here are some memory cell ignitors:

October 5, 1993 Tuesday Metro Edition, The Post-Standard
PAROCHIAL LEAGUE: AN ERA NOW GONE
BYLINE: Sean Kirst

The court at Sacred Heart rolled up and down like a low-lying hill. St. Vincent's had a column across the ceiling, and other teams never quite decided how to shoot there. Hot-water pipes ran beneath one end of the court at St. Lucy's. Sometimes you'd be dribbling, and the ball would hit a hot spot and shoot up like a balloon.

The Parochial League. Ten high school teams, symbols of ethnic enclaves across Syracuse. The Hearts. The Irish. The Lucians. Bandbox gymnasiums. Full-house crowds at Friday night games. Tropical heat and deafening noise. Tile floors. Wooden backboards. Little boys watching their brothers play, and waiting for their chance.

"None of us would have believed it could ever go away," says Frank Satalin, a longtime Parochial League coach. "It's something we'll keep talking about until the day we die."

That kind of devotion was evident Monday at Drumlins, where Monsignor Frank Sammons became one of seven new inductees into the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame.

Sammons, 73, ran the Parochial League in the 1950s and '60s, when interest was exploding, when the Catholic and public school champions from Syracuse started playing an all-or-nothing game inside the War Memorial, while 6,000 fans went nuts in the seats.

An East Side kid, Sammons played in the Parochial League in the 1930s, then ran the whole show after he was ordained as a priest. He began with 30 scholastic basketball teams, and he added a CYO program that gave more children a chance to play the game.

By the early 1960s, he was coordinating 110 basketball teams, along with track, six-man football, cheerleading and baseball.
Even more than today, each parish defined the people clustered around it. The Irish were at St. Patrick's, the Germans at Assumption, the Polish at Sacred Heart, the Italians at the North Side schools. The competition was ferocious, with the fans pushing up to the edge of every court.

It all ended in the 1970s. Parishes could no longer afford their own little high schools. Many Catholics were moving out of the city, and the Baby Boom was over. Of the 10 high school teams in the Parochial League, not one still exists.
Kids can't understand what they're missing.

"The demise of that system in this city was a tragedy," says Mayor Tom Young, who played for St. Patrick's and later coached in the league. "These schools knit together the neighborhoods. They were schools you could walk to, and there were natural rivalries. We always wanted to beat St. Lucy's, (with) the kids from Skunk City, or the snobs on the hill up at Holy Rosary."

The locker rooms were tiny. Two teams couldn't fit inside them at once. Frank Satalin remembers holding halftime meetings in school corridors. Fans showed up by 6 p.m., or they didn't get a seat. The lighting was lousy. The ceilings were low, and everyone played zone. Upsets were common. No win was for sure.

"You'd shoot a layup," says Len Mowins, who starred for St. Anthony's, "and you'd run into the wall."
The best players became neighborhood heroes. Gene Fisch of Sacred Heart. Satalin's kids, Jim and Fran. Tiny scoring ace Bill Jones of St. John the Evangelist. Smooth-shooting Mickey Flynn of St. Patrick's. Ormie Spencer of St. Lucy's, an elegant and quick-thinking wizard who was among the league's first dominant African-Americans.

"He could do anything," Frank Satalin says. "I think he would fit in real well with the game today."
To Sammons, the league helped meet his goals as a Roman Catholic priest. It attracted kids to the Catholic schools. It reinforced neighborhoods as extended families. Nearly 20 years after the end of it all, he often bumps into strangers who remember great games, which brings Sammons back to a bittersweet truth.
"The sad thing," he says, "is that the schools closed down."

 

[72Cuse]

This says Assumption was German, I remember mostly Italian's like Tony Galezi and Tommy Carfagno
who were both prolific scorers. Tony still plays the game, he's older than me and Carfagno died very young, late 20's, early 30's.
Assumption was feed by the Pompei program which was heavily Italian.

Cherie wait until you hear what the former Mayor of Syracuse called you guys from Holy Rosary.

Forty Roman Catholic churches have closed in and around the Syracuse diocese.

Here some memory cell ignitors:

October 5, 1993 Tuesday Metro Edition, The Post-Standard
PAROCHIAL LEAGUE: AN ERA NOW GONE
BYLINE: Sean Kirst

The court at Sacred Heart rolled up and down like a low-lying hill. St. Vincent's had a column across the ceiling, and other teams never quite decided how to shoot there. Hot-water pipes ran beneath one end of the court at St. Lucy's. Sometimes you'd be dribbling, and the ball would hit a hot spot and shoot up like a balloon.

The Parochial League. Ten high school teams, symbols of ethnic enclaves across Syracuse. The Hearts. The Irish. The Lucians. Bandbox gymnasiums. Full-house crowds at Friday night games. Tropical heat and deafening noise. Tile floors. Wooden backboards. Little boys watching their brothers play, and waiting for their chance.

"None of us would have believed it could ever go away," says Frank Satalin, a longtime Parochial League coach. "It's something we'll keep talking about until the day we die."

That kind of devotion was evident Monday at Drumlins, where Monsignor Frank Sammons became one of seven new inductees into the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame.

Sammons, 73, ran the Parochial League in the 1950s and '60s, when interest was exploding, when the Catholic and public school champions from Syracuse started playing an all-or-nothing game inside the War Memorial, while 6,000 fans went nuts in the seats.

An East Side kid, Sammons played in the Parochial League in the 1930s, then ran the whole show after he was ordained as a priest. He began with 30 scholastic basketball teams, and he added a CYO program that gave more children a chance to play the game.

By the early 1960s, he was coordinating 110 basketball teams, along with track, six-man football, cheerleading and baseball.
Even more than today, each parish defined the people clustered around it. The Irish were at St. Patrick's, the Germans at Assumption, the Polish at Sacred Heart, the Italians at the North Side schools. The competition was ferocious, with the fans pushing up to the edge of every court.

It all ended in the 1970s. Parishes could no longer afford their own little high schools. Many Catholics were moving out of the city, and the Baby Boom was over. Of the 10 high school teams in the Parochial League, not one still exists.
Kids can't understand what they're missing.

"The demise of that system in this city was a tragedy," says Mayor Tom Young, who played for St. Patrick's and later coached in the league. "These schools knit together the neighborhoods. They were schools you could walk to, and there were natural rivalries. We always wanted to beat St. Lucy's, (with) the kids from Skunk City, or the snobs on the hill up at Holy Rosary."

The locker rooms were tiny. Two teams couldn't fit inside them at once. Frank Satalin remembers holding halftime meetings in school corridors. Fans showed up by 6 p.m., or they didn't get a seat. The lighting was lousy. The ceilings were low, and everyone played zone. Upsets were common. No win was for sure.

"You'd shoot a layup," says Len Mowins, who starred for St. Anthony's, "and you'd run into the wall."
The best players became neighborhood heroes. Gene Fisch of Sacred Heart. Satalin's kids, Jim and Fran. Tiny scoring ace Bill Jones of St. John the Evangelist. Smooth-shooting Mickey Flynn of St. Patrick's. Ormie Spencer of St. Lucy's, an elegant and quick-thinking wizard who was among the league's first dominant African-Americans.

"He could do anything," Frank Satalin says. "I think he would fit in real well with the game today."
To Sammons, the league helped meet his goals as a Roman Catholic priest. It attracted kids to the Catholic schools. It reinforced neighborhoods as extended families. Nearly 20 years after the end of it all, he often bumps into strangers who remember great games, which brings Sammons back to a bittersweet truth.
"The sad thing," he says, "is that the schools closed down."

Hey Orangeyes you are right, Father Sammons is a great guy and perfect role model. Sorry to hear of the demise of the parochial league and the schools. This summer when I was back in Syracuse, I learned my parish, St. Andrews, had been merged with St. Lucy's and the St. John the Evangelist had been sold!

 

[SkanSU]

Wow ... I love this post!!! While all of you are alums of the parochials much of what you are reminiscing about brings back very fond memories ... like Wysocki's and the Rustic Inn. Thanks for remembering some of the guys at Central (not Central Tech) OE... Joe Reddick (and I believe he had a brother), Jimmy Collins, Jesse Dowdell. I agree, while we really could never field a decent football team (most of the time anyway cause we always got our butts kicked by Nottingham and CBA) we did seem to have a decent basketball team. Hey while I really do appreciate you parochial yokels prancing down memory lane (and please keep it up;I love this post) don't we have any non-parochial old timers out there?

 

[PeteCalvin]

The list as I remember it is St John The Evangelist, St. John the Baptist, Holy Rosary, Sacred Heart, St Patrick's, St Anthony's, Assumption and St Vincent's.

Schools like St Matthews, St Bridget's, Pompei, Blessed Sacrament, St Daniel's, St Margert's and Our Lady of Lourdes all had grammar schools. They were part of a much larger Parochial Grammar School League. Many of the graduates of these schools migrated to to the Parochial League high schools or CBA, Convent or even public schools.

I thought so. Forgot about Lourdes being in there. My dad played for St. Anthony's back in the day.

By the time I hit elementary/middle, the parochial HS league was gone. I played against Anthony's, Patrick's, Lourdes, Daniel's, Pompeii, Matthew's, Charles' and Margaret's in middle school.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Cherie wait until you hear what the former Mayor of Syracuse called you guys from Holy Rosary.

October 5, 1993 Tuesday Metro Edition, The Post-Standard
PAROCHIAL LEAGUE: AN ERA NOW GONE
BYLINE: Sean Kirst

"The demise of that system in this city was a tragedy," says Mayor Tom Young, who played for St. Patrick's and later coached in the league. "These schools knit together the neighborhoods. They were schools you could walk to, and there were natural rivalries. We always wanted to beat St. Lucy's, (with) the kids from Skunk City, or the snobs on the hill up at Holy Rosary."

"

Tom Young is just defending his brother who was on the St Pat's team that lost to us in the parochial league playoffs to face Bishop Ludden and their Green Machine (who called it the Green Latrine? . We were huge rivals and had quite a bit of fun with it that involved MHR being painted green, lots of eggs and shouts about whose hill was higher-lol. Lots of jokes about lace curtin and shanty Irishmen. Foes on the court but many friends between them off the court. I went to college with his brother and another Young brother coached our womens' rec basketball team made up of a number of former parochial leaguers from St Pat's, MHR and St Anthony's. Fun times and it extended even to cheerleading competitions that used to be held in the War Memorial.

 

[Halfmooncuse]

Ok. Pat Stark qb at SU and coach at Rochester once held the NYS high school single game scoring mark. I think it was 60 pts. plus. He played for VO. My brother Red played with him. Both are now in their late 70's or 80. My brother said he got the game ball for the game that Pat scored all his points. They gave it to him for not shooting. Another of his school mates was Billy Micho (sp?). He was a tb at SU and Jim Browns roommate when Brown was a freshman.

 

[Halfmooncuse]

As a pollock that grew up on Tip Hill i knew a lot of kids in the Parochial League. A lad went to Cathedral and he kept on boasting to all of us that he had Roger Maris's bat and Mickey Mantle's uniform. I never believed him but others who went to St. Pats said that he showed them to them. Apparently his father had press credentials. Anyway I am watching the Cleveland Browns win a championship game on TV (only three channels back then) and a celebration going on. All of a sudden I see the kid in the background with all the players. Next day I read in the paper that the Brown's QB (Ryan?) was upset that someone took the gameball! A few days later a Syracuse cop who apparently new the kid returned the ball back to the Browns.

Roll the clock forward many years and I saw an article in the Syracuse paper about a local man who did some daring picture taking of celebrities. Apparently when Gorbachov(sp?) was visiting the US he crashed security to take his picture. He was lucky he wasn't shot. Yup, it was the kid from Cathedral.

 

[Cheriehoop]

I was back in Syracuse for a week this summer--I have lived in Virginia the past 35 years--and stopped in at the Northside CYO. While it has changed quite a bit good to see the mission remains the same. Drove out to BFDC too, the place I remember has vanished. Hope you are doing well.

I've driven out there a number of times too. We're all together again, we're here we're here...Great memories but sad also knowing that so many kids won't be having the same experiences we did growing up now that all that land and waterfront is in private hands. I heard that the Northside CYO is moving. I assume this is Bob H- happy to hear from you. I wrote you a note earlier that you can access in your inbox here also.

 

[alibrat66]

Another solid player was Mickey Flynn from St. Pat's. He and I played on the same Biddy Basketball team, along with George Deptula, Billy Jones, Joe Lane, Jimmy Joe Young, and some others I can't recall. We won the City, County, and State Championship. We took the train to play in in the world's championship tournament in Peoria, ILL. At that point, I think our record was something like 30-0. We won our first game against Peoria, the previous year's champion. I think we beat Puerto Rico next, then lost to Hazelton, PA, whose players were all bigger than our biggest player, George Deptula. The tournament was won by Jersey City. They had a guard named Vinnie Ernst, who went on to Providence and was the NIT most valuable player (back when the NIT was as big a tournament as the NCAA was).Our coach was Jim Furco (he also coached me in Little League baseball) a gentleman and dedicated to working with kids in the community. His day job was working on EF Hoffman's factory on Thompson Rd.

That time of my life was magical. Great just thinking about it.

PS: For all you Central fans, Eastwood regularly kicked your butts in every sport! I had a lot of friends who went to Central.

Good times.