The first Senior Championship year 1962
These
are my teammates and coaches and the story of this year is
found below the photo.
(the
photo is courtesy of Herman Dreier#64)
Front
Row knelling: Gerry
Meditz(68),John Trezzel(21),Bob Kletcher(75), Heman
Dreier(64),Dennis O'Toole(71),Roger Smith(54),Bob
Werkmeister(55), Dennis Mckeever?(61),Jack O'Hara,Karl
Degnarro(62),Mickie Ennis?(77),Joe
Artle(15),
Rear
Row standing: Teddie
Ipollito, Jack Philips, Joe Florenza(35),Bob
Blake(82),Gintz Mazzeli(40),Bob Martin(80),Tom
Wilson(8),Little Vinnie Mazzeli(17),Jimm Gantz(1),Decatur
Rodgers(9),George Schonenman(26),Charlie Riggio(84),Lou
Bradley(7),Eddie Krause,Frank Vernie,Bennie Kolb, Torchy
Smith.
Summary Schedule and
results.
(courtesy of Torchy
Smith and Tom Wilson)
(They both supplied them independently of each
other)
Pre-season
All-star team consisting of primarily Garity players and
some from GreenPoint and Rego park beat the defending
champs (Rockaway) 12-0
Regular season
Garity 22 Electchester 12
Garity 12 Lynvets 6
Garity 18 Far Rockaway 6
Garity 42 GreenPoint 0
Garity 42 Rego Park 14
Garity 8 Far Rockaway 0
Garity 6 Lynvets 0
Garity 26 Rego Park 8
Playoffs
Garity 20 Rockaway 8
Garity 36 Electchester 6
Details follow:
The All-Star game
We come
of age
Pre-season scrimmage with Electchster
Electchester
was coming on as a Pop Warner powerhouse. This year we had
a pre season scrimmage with them. This is when I knew we
had something special—a really good team. We were
playing at the Oval and on one play Lou Bradley gets the
ball and we proceed to block everything that wasn’t
already knocked over. Louie is dancing in and out of
Electchester players and we are down field with him wiping
out opponents before they reach him. He is zigging and
zagging into the lanes we just cleared and he dances the
length of the field untouched. Louie wasn’t that kind
of runner—he could bruise you for a yard but scooting
here and there wasn’t his thing. The line of
scrimmage was 5 yards back and I was there with Louie and
quite a few other teammates—we had escorted Louie all
the way.
When the season opened we started winning. I don’t
know who the opening game was. I will guess it was
Rockaway.
Opening game: Garity ?? Rockaway less than ??
Garity 12 Lynvets 8
We beat
them at home in front of a large crowd.
Little Vinny had a 75 yard punt return called back on
clipping. I was called for clipping. It wasn’t a clip
though I can see how a ref would call it that way.
At the end of the game I went in at right guard (unusual
for me—I usually went in at left guard). Torchy used
to use me to ferry in plays. This was the only time I
played against Teddy Horischack, one of the leagues best.
We were running out the clock running quarterback sneaks
and wedging against them. I don’t remember anything
special except I remember after the game thinking that
there was nothing special. Its hard to judge in tight
situations like that everyone goes straight ahead and
everyone is in the same pileup. I can still see the day and
the players. The Lynvets with their maroon jerseys and
white pants. The image floats before my eyes.
I played the right line backer in a wide tackle 6-2
defense. Linebacking really wasn’t my forte—I
could never see what the hell was going on. The Lynvets had
a back from St. Vincent’s named Huarte—everyone
knew of him—he was a terror in the juniors. He was
doing OK against us that day, nothing spectacular but you
knew he was a threat, big and fast and very nimble. On one
play around midfield we changed our defense and I went for
the gap between the guard and center. I was down in a
stance and I got clean through—it was me in the
backfield in the middle of their play—I missed the
tackle Huarte was on me so quickly, but I disrupted the
play. After the game it was one of the few times Torchy
singled me out to say something. He said he was waiting all
season for someone to penetrate like that. It made me feel
good, Missing the tackle wasn’t a big deal. They
didn’t make much yardage, if any on the play.
Later in the game I think they were running cross bucks
they would fake to some one going in one directions and
give to Hurarte coming back. It was on this type of play I
found myself once again in the middle of their play only
this time I made the tackle behind the line of scrimmage.
Next week I moved to the right defensive guard and things
really fell in place for our defense. We put Gerry at the
left linebacker and Tommy Dawn or Joe Artale at the right
one and we really started shutting down opponents.
Note: I have excellent movies of this game (supplied by Tom
Wilson) and plan to either have clips placed on this site
or somehow make them available to anyone who wants them.
Bob Martin joins us after this game. He was on the lynvet
team but didn’t get a chance to play and was upset
enough to go to Kelly tell him that he didn’t want to
play with them anymore—instead he wanted to play with
Garity. Tom Wilson was a close friend of Bob’s and
must have cleared the possibility with Torchy. Kelly,
disdainful as ever, said ok. This is actually a fine trait
of Larry’s in that he couldn’t care less who
played against his teams—that’s how confident
he was in his own ability to lead them to victory. So he
didn’t stand in the way. I think a lot of other
coaches in that league might have tried to prevent a player
from leaving. I know I wouldn’t and we now know Kelly
didn’t.
Bob and I became fast friends. I loved and admired his
intensity and dedication--he would simply lauch himself at
opposing players when he was on defense.Bob had been an
excellent player for the Lynvets in the juniors and he had
real good speed. He also presented an opportunity for us to
show that Larry was wrong about Bob. It worked out for
everyone at Garity. Bob later that season caught a flat
pass against Electchester in a playoff game and went 50
yards for a touchdown breaking open what was a tight game
until he scored. He later became a mainstay of the defense
on the team that I coached at Garity in 1967.
Garity 30 Rego Park 6
We
revenged ourselves from the year before when they scored on
the very first play of the game. This year we returned the
favor. Little Vinny and Gintz were returning punts. I
intercepted a Butch Mykowksi pass in the flats taking it
off someone’s hands and seeing nothing but open field
a head of me. This was my chance to be the hero!
Unfortunately I have been the slowest player on every team
that I played on and running with the ball didn’t
speed me up any. Butch Mykowski ran me down after, at most,
a 10 yard return. If felt like one of those dreams where
your legs just won’t respond. I was moving like cold
molasses.
We beat them something like 30 to 6 at Juniper Valley.
Garity 6 Lynvets 0
The mud
game. All the other league games were cancelled. It never
happened before to my knowledge but the rain had been going
on for more than a day and it was a deluge. It was and away
game and the refs asked Torchy and Kelly if they wanted to
play. Torchy says Kelly was disdainful, of course they
would play, but only 12 minute running quarters. Kelly knew
it was upset weather.
The opening running play Hurate goes 40 yards but no more.
On this play I was playing right guard and was blocked to
the inside and Herman (our right tackle) was taken to the
outside--opening up a huge hole between us—and Huarte
darted thru the hole and broke against the grain cutting
towards the Lynvet bench which was to our left. Our
secondary (the two Mazzeli's and Decatur Rodgers were all
speedsters and could run anyone down finally haulded him
if). That was the longest play of the day, the mud and
raining putting a damper (pun intended) on scooting and
cutting. After that play I doubt the Lynvets made a first
down for the rest of the day. It was my best game
ever--playing in the mud is a wonderful experience--all of
a sudden I am as fast as everyone else (I guess they really
all become as slow as me) but whatever it was, the guard in
front of me sometimes just missing me and I was free to be
involved in a lot of plays. Due to the terrible weather
(and it was a continous heavy downpour) the Lynvets were
limited to running and their running attack that day was
stymied. This was quite a bit different from our game
against them earlier in the year (we won 12-8) where the
movies I have show them moving he ball rather well.
(Proably the truth is that they made first downs today
also, I just don't remember). Eventually Little Vinny
catches a 4 pound pass from Jimmy to set up Jim's touchdown
run--which gives us all we need to win.
THE DIVE
You can see the press clipping below for some details of
the game. But the press doesn't have one of the highlights.
What has become known in Garity fokelore as "The DIVE".
When the game ends and we are besides our self with
joy--Gerry Meditz finds the largest and deepest puddle on
the field and does a full, arms outstretched, face down
bellyflop dive into it, sending up a glorious splash of
mud. It was the receckless abandon of how he just launched
himself into the air that seemed to capure in one wonderful
gesture the way we had played. In that instand--WE ALL
wished we had thought of doing it. But that was part of
what made Gerry special.
Torchy gave me the Lynvet pin. (what the pin was or where
it came from I don't know. One year later I passed the pin
to Gerry Meditz after we won our second chamionship game in
1963). During this game I had recovered two fumbles and
made or was in the most tackles in my career. If I was hit
by a truck that night--I would have died a happy man that
is how much that game meant to me. In the clipping below
(courtesy of Tom Wilson), you can see that we recovered a
number of fumbles. (Note: The clipping as scanned in is a
little incomplete I will correct it in the near future).
First playoff game:
Garity
12 Rockaway 6
The game
was played at Rockaway High School (or Flushing Memorial?).
We were better, we had already beaten them and the Lynvets.
Rockaway was a physical team and we could always match them
physically but now we had the Mazzeli’s and Charlie
Reggio, Decatur Rodgers and Herman Dreier. So we had added
a lot of football talent and team speed also. Herman, for
instance was as fast as Jimmy Gantz, I saw them race one
day at the Oval in practice. It was amazing. Jimmy was
pretty fast but no one was as fast as Little Vinny, not
even Gintz. So we could match them physically and out race
them.
During the game one of the Rockaway players tried to twist
Jimmie’s head off on a pass play. That caused the
benches to clear and it almost became a brawl. Bobby
Kletcher, who backed down from no one, was facing off with
Tom Chapman. They were both standing there face to
face—Bob was looking UP at him. Chappy was bigger
than I realized. Fortunately the referees put everything in
order and no brawl happened. I think the Rockaway player
was ejected. For a championship game in December it was a
bright warm day. Maybe I have all the Rockaway games rolled
into one but they all seemed to be bright sunshining days.
This is somewhat interesting since I remember all three of
the Lynvet-Rockaway games in 1959 (when I played with the
Lynvets that year) as being overcast dark days! Maybe
winning brightens the picture for my memories.
Championship game: Garity 30 Elechester
6
