Yearnings from 46 years ago: We were the first champions of the Lilly Adult Basketball League in 1980

The team: Kneeling, Don Godish, Hugh Conrad, Rick Nadolsky. Standing: Fred McCabe, Ron Leap, Dan Amrhein, Dave Thrower, and Kelly Campagna. Absent were Mick Muldoon and Mike Felus.

Little clippings from the past can evoke a plethora of emotions, particularly when the story focuses on an accomplishment from almost a half-century ago.

Granted, this was not an NCAA or state basketball championship, but for guys who just loved to play the game, capturing a title is something we can cherish even today.

Suddenly, out of the blue, I received a text from a friend that contained a photo of our Lilly VFW championship basketball team in the first year of the Lilly Adult Basketball League’s existence. So, thanks to Art Martynuska for finding this somewhere, probably in his dad’s paraphernalia, although neither he nor his father wa part of this team or the league.

According to the caption on the photo, we finished the season with a 16-2 record, which was great in the four-team league.

So, first, how did this league start, and what led to our success in the first year?

History

It was initiated with a conversation between Fred McCabe, a former Bishop Carroll High School star, and Hugh Conrad, who played for Lilly-Washington High School. This occurred during the summer of 1979 on the infamous “court” on Main and Washington Streets across from the original Lilly High School. We played there quite often, but Sunday night was the premiere competition.

Fred asked me if I could help him start an adult league that could play on the former Lilly-Washington High School court in the Dutchtown area of Lilly, which was then being used by the Penn Cambria junior high team. I said that we would have to do some work both practically and politically to accomplish it.

First, we had to determine whether or not there would be sufficient interest in doing this. Second, we had to secure use of the court on a night when we would be able to play there. This would include permission from the school, along with trying to avoid having to pay a rental fee. Then, we had to find some businesses that would be willing to give us some money for sponsorships, including a shirt to wear for games.

All of that came together, and we asked the Lilly War Memorial to use the plan to provide the baseball field free to Penn Cambria in exchange for use of the court on Friday nights.

The teams

Approximately 35 to 40 young men signed up to play in it. We then had a draft with the coaches of each one of the teams making the choices. The sponsors were the Lilly VFW, the Sokol club, Tookies bar and restaurant, and the infamous House of Steins. All gave us something like 50 to 100 bucks, and we, in turn, agreed to go down en masse after the games on Friday night to one of the sponsors, a different one each week. In four weeks, we could pay back that sponsorship with quite a bit of money spent on beer and food, and we played from November through March, with a week off for Christmas.

The Lilly VFW Champions

The coach of the Lilly VFW team was Fred McCabe, whose uncle, Emil Salony, was the long-time coach for Lilly-Washington High School. As a result, Fred grew up learning and loving the game of basketball just as the Salony family and all its relatives did.

Fred was pretty cagey in his selection of a team. He was a fabulous shooter, so what he really needed were some inside players like Dan Amrhein, who had just graduated from Penn Cambria, and Dave Thrower, a guy who knew how to throw his weight around.

Now, I will add some humor. I was 33-years-old at this time, somewhat elderly in the eyes of the younger guys, but I was still a good point guard with one goal: Slow down the game and allow us play a good half-court offense.

My job was simple: Dribble up to the middle and dump the ball off to Fred on the wing. I have no idea how many points he had that year, and it was prior to the installation of the 3-point line, but Fred was definitely the leading scorer in the league.

I must have set a record for assists just finding Fred open so often. I seldom took a shot from the top of the key because that was not my role. I understood this, and I knew that we did not need a transition game. Granted, the rest of the league played playground offense, or as we called it, the “Boob Saparo out of this world game,” but we were able to win by playing some good, half-court offense that featured Fred and the rest of us role players.

Eligibility and contemporary existence

Times have definitely changed since those years. We wanted all of the players to be from Lilly originally, lived there then, or had some marriage ties to the Lilly-Washington community.

However, today, the athletes no longer play on the playground since that one does not exist, and there are very few young people living in Lilly today.

However, according to a photo that I saw on Facebook last year, the league still exists. That means that it has been in existence for 46 years. What I noticed on that photo, however, was that none of the players who won that year had any ties to Lilly.

That does not matter. The fact is that we had a tremendous amount of fun in this league. It was a great idea, and while Fred is still in the area, he no longer plays nor does anyone over the age of 50. The original players may not be active, but the joy of the Lilly Adult Basketball League still exists.