At least three or four times in the last year as I've talked to various people, compiling information for several of my essays, the name of Danny Fuss has arisen.
I wrote an essay on Hinsdale basketball legend, Don Hurlburt, and he quickly informed me he had a connection to Duke Center, Pa. (Danny's hometown).
Hurlburt recalled going to see Danny and Marilyn Fuss, his first cousins.
"Danny was one of my heroes. He was older, but he always would play catch with me. He inspired me. Growing up, baseball was my game."
Herb Niles and Rob Locker, two other fine athletes at Otto-Eldred, also brought Danny's name to the surface at different times.
1959 North Tier and Allegheny Mountain Basketball All-Stars: Far left, top to bottom- Jim Snyder (Coudersport), Lynn Sandberg and Danny Fuss (both from Otto-Eldred). Players kneeling, left to right- Jim Turner (Port Allegany), Jim Acker (Smethport) and Ralph Berg (Port Allegany)
NOTE: Seven years later, Jim Turner would be my coach with the Potter-McKean Little League All-Star team.
Danny Fuss and the players listed above played in an era a decade before mine. My first memory of watching older "kids" play basketball competitively was seeing my brother play high school in '64-65.
I was even younger when I became a big fan of what we called in Eldred "the town team." I didn't know the affiliation or any league name (now, I'm quite sure it was part of the McKean-Elk Baseball League). I was only seven or eight and all the players seemed a lot older, when in reality many were just young adults.
I remember Sunday afternoons watching Andy Lathrop, Vince Acre, Dave Wright and I think, Jim Wright also. Ron Rahr, Jim Miller, Jim Lasher....... it was the best "live" baseball I had ever seen. These guys were good players and even as a kid, I could tell they loved to play.
I know that Danny Fuss eventually played in the McKean-Elk League, but I'm not certain how long Eldred maintained a team in the weekend competition. Maybe, I just forgot I saw Danny play in the league. Oh, if only we had today's technology of phone cameras and video capabilities.
Three players made both the North Tier and Allegheny Mountain All-Star squads, Turner and Berg of Port Allegany and Acker of Smethport. Acker led all area scorers. John Minard (Emporium), Harry Whiteman and Rick Renwick (both from Saint Marys) rounded out the Allegheny Mountain team.
Again, I was too young to remember, but this caught my eye:
Danny Fuss certainly had a well-earned basketball reputation, but it was baseball that put him in the limelight in the northwestern Pennsylvania and southwestern New York State area, called the Big 30 for years.
His baseball prowess showed at an early age.
Back to back no-hitters as a Little Leaguer in 1952, striking out a combined 29 hitters in 12 innings.
I thought this was a great photo of the Slavin and O'Brien fathers and children consisting of almost a full nine man team. 1957 is the year of the baseball banquet, also listing all the Eldred players making up the Little League, Babe Ruth and American Legion squads.
Back row: left to right- Russ Slavin, Glen Comfort (representing the Lions Club), Norman Childs (Legion commander) and Tommy O'Brien
Front row: left to right-Mike and Bill Slavin, Buzz and Bob Slavin, Tom O'Brien Jr., slightly out in front, John O'Brien and Mike O'Brien.
There was a Slavin and an O'Brien player at all three levels of the teams in town.
Joe Wolcott, manager of the Little League, (and my first LL manager in 1964) introduced his LL team. Russ Slavin introduced his Babe Ruth team and Bob Bradt did the same with his American Legion squad members.
The committee that put the banquet together and all the ball players are listed below:
A 10-0 no hitter for Fuss against Smethport
Making Fuss' no-hitter even more dominant, there were no balls hit to the outfield by Smethport hitters.
The next evening, Eldred hosted the East-West Junior American Legion All-Star Game. The newspaper noted there would be 17 major league scouts in attendance.
NOTE: There may have been a few full-time scouts there. The majority would be associate/"bird dog" scouts who would help a club and their area scout in a section or region they might not be able to get to for a certain event or to see a specific player. Regardless, having that many scouts, in whatever capacity, would be almost unheard of today and a real tribute to the league and the players.
Box score of the East-West Legion AS game and MVPs listed below, Crosby's George Shirey (East) and Ron Benton of Portland Mills. (West)
16-year-old Danny with his father, Bob. Mike Abdo covering the Kane-Eldred game, won by Kane, 2-1.
Bob Fuss was quite a player, late in his career playing for the best semi-pro teams in the area; the Smethport Quaker States, Wellsville Sinclairs and Olean Nationals.
Bob played for Wichita Falls in '31.
Bob Fuss came to Smethport in 1934. the year before he married a girl from Port Allegany. He ended up playing for the Quaker States in '34 and then moved to the Nationals in '35.
The article goes on to state that Bob "sweats" through some of Danny's games. "It's not as bad when he's playing in the infield or outfield. It's toughest when he's pitching."
Not the best quality for this 60 years plus photo, but Danny with his father.
Eldred with three blowout wins, one on Sunday versus Lewis Run and two on Monday. Skeets Stoughton ( who refereed many of my freshmen basketball games with Bill Slavin) was the winning pitcher in game three and left the next day for the armed forces. Fred Howell went 7-10 on Monday and Sam Capuno and Terry Shields homered.
Eldred with a '61 win over James City which leads to one note and one question.
It's really excellent that the newspaper published a full box score of these games showing everyone's offensive performance plus the line score and........ Where the heck is James City? That one stumped me.
Two clippings of a day in the McKean-Elk.
One of the items I noticed as I looked at the league standings- if it was the American Legion or the McKean-Elk semi-pro league were the number of small towns/ areas represented. Mount Jewett, Lewis Run, Roulette, Austin, James City, Crosby are shown in this clip.
Portland Mills, Sheffield, Johnsonburg and East Smethport are shown in another.
It was the late 50's and early 60's and populations and jobs were much greaterthan in 2021. I think it was true on the New York State side also.
The McKean-Elk League, the Alle-Catt League, many American Legion programs no longer exist. Travel or Select baseball may have replaced a few of the youth leagues, but the sheer number of baseball participants have dropped tremendously-for a wide variety of reasons.
There's a gap in this essay, some years are missing, years and events that probably could be discovered over breakfast or just a discussion at a ball game. What ever happened to.........?
For me, those methods give you better and more detailed answers than an e-mail, Facebook, texting, etc. Unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity and pleasure of the face to face conversation and discussion.
Maybe someone can fill in some of the missing blanks. If not, we've brought up a lot of names, people who should be remembered and appreciated.
I'm reading a memoir currently and the final paragraph in the opening chapter states,
"Wherever I go and whatever I do, the experience of growing up in (in this person's case- a town of 900) travels with me. The memories are too deeply etched to fade. Things that happened in high school or even grade school seem to have happened only yesterday, and there are places in the town that still glow with the expectations of my youth.
I did not go back home. But, in a sense, I also never left. I will always be as much from that small town as I am from anywhere."
Thanks for reading.
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