Eldred Township's All-Around Player

      Next month (January 2023) will mark 53 years since I saw one of the best high school basketball games I ever witnessed. I don't remember it simply because Otto-Eldred, in a home game, defeated Emporium High School. That in itself made it an upset in that Emporium had dominated the North Tier League for several years and would continue to for many more.

     There are several reasons why a 12-year-old watched the entire game from the permanent seats and saw a basketball clinic and remembers it so fondly. It wasn't a one point game that was won at the buzzer, had a star player score 30 points or was a game of a handful of slam dunks.

     One of the central reasons I have vivid memories of the game is that the Terrors, at least twice if not three times, worked the ball around at the end of several quarters setting up for the period's final attempt. The ball ended up in the hands of O-E guard, Tom Sherwood, who calmly and confidently drained 16-17 foot jumpers that helped break the spirit of a very good Red Raiders' team.

Tommy Sherwood was my neighbor. Well, not exactly my next-door neighbor, but he lived along that mile and a half stretch of highway south of Eldred that in 1968 housed a host of families that had Eldred postal addresses, but was known as Larabee. Tom's home was almost across from the Ethan Allen Factory (Viko) that employed 250 people before it was shut down in 2009.

I'm not sure where the Eldred Township line began and where it ended, but I think I knew every house from the Eldred Legion to the Larabee Y- bear right and you could go to Coryville and on to Smethport and if you stayed to the left, Turtlepoint and Port Allegany were on the way. 

The Eldred Township Elementary School

     Just that Larabee section of our trip half-filled our yellow bus each school day. We never drove more than a hundred yards without stopping and picking up kids who were headed to the Township grade school or the high school. The Lathrop brothers, the Jackson kids, Bruce Cordner, John Holleran, Randy Stebbins -nearly every youngster along that route boarded the bus on that ride to and from school.

     

The basketball court that my father put in for me and all my buddies. We had to duck just a little on the right baseline because of the apple tree. When I was shooting by myself, I just pretended it was a defender.

     

The box score of O-E's 64-51 win over Emporium. Tom Sherwood and sophomore John Oszustowicz both had 18 points and Randy Nuhfer hit for 13. NOTE: Olson scored 34 in Smethport's win over Austin.

Tom was three years older than me and most of my closest buddies, but the older guys were never too rough with us (at least, I don't remember that). 

The ball games didn't slow down much when we went to school because we had a giant playground at the grade school and a beautiful, shiny and perfectly maintained gymnasium that doubled as an auditorium. Those cold winter days, waiting for the bus to take us home, saw us in the gym playing basketball and the warm days allowed us to play basketball on the outdoor court, baseball or touch football. 

     Below: O-E's win that evening was Emporium's first loss in 44 regular season games and their first defeat in 43 North Tier games. It was the Terrors' first victory over Emporium in 23 games- 11 and a half years. 

Jim Kinsler was in his first year as the head coach at O-E. He was an Emporium graduate and also a basketball player at Mansfield University. He was my junior high math instructor and I'll always remember that he walked into our first period class and encouraged all of us to come to the game and watch O-E beat Emporium. We may have not known everything about eighth grade mathematics, but most of us knew that Emporium didn't lose basketball games.

The coach wasn't bragging-he was just that confident and evidently that rubbed off on his players. The team played a flawless game with each player contributing, doing what they did best. The guards did not turn the ball over, Nuhfer and Oszustowicz were inside scoring threats and along with Tut Hanks controlled the boards. It was a textbook performance. 

     It wasn't any surprise to me when Tommy made those shots against Emporium. I had seen him make those same jumpers in our playground games, over and over again.

     

This win over Allegany was Kinsler's first win as a varsity coach. Sherwood led the way with 27, Nuhfer and Oszustowicz were also in double figures.

     

Hal Hansen had been the previous Terrors' coach and like Kinsler, was a Mansfield graduate. He recommended Kinsler for the O-E head coaching position.

The pre-season look at the 67-68 season with Nuhfer, Sherwood and Denny Bickford returning regulars.

     In the 90's and early 2000's, if I was working in Buffalo, Windsor (Ontario) or Toronto, I would drive south down to see my folks, who now were living in Eldred. Many stays would see my dad and I pick an afternoon and just go driving, almost copying my old bus route. 

     I know we didn't hit every township locale, but we made the rounds for an hour or two: Indian Creek, Newell Creek, Slack Hollow, Barden Brook, Moody Hollow, Fowler Brook, the Loop Road, Canfield Hollow and, of course, up to Larabee. I know I missed some spots here and maybe added one that doesn't belong, but we always had a good time. Sometimes we stretched it to get up to Mina, Sartwell Creek, Fishing Creek, Bells Run and some of our other fishing holes.

I'm not sure what the Emporium-O-E matchup is like now, but in my era a win over Emporium was a thrill and quite rare. This is the game ball from our 1973 win, 54-53 over Cameron County. It was not as well-played as that '68 game, but it was exciting. Jerome Wolcott, Kerry Snow and Steve Barrett ked the way for O-E.

     

This was our backyard and made a great baseball field for us. We also had a plastic ball golf course, but the divots were not real popular with my parents.

     

     Otto-Eldred High School

     

     

     BELOW: This is the headline in the Times Herald the day after that '68 win. The last word is "Villain." It was the third league game of the season and left a six-way tie for the league lead (2-1). Emporium won the league-again.

     I can't remember many summer or other good weather days when we didn't have some sort of ball game going on in our neighborhood. The McGonnells' had a large field beside their house and they even constructed their own goal posts so we could kick extra points and field goals. We could play catch at anybody's house. My folks had a large backyard which was perfect for baseball. My father even put in a 20x20 basketball court which along with our backyard caught plenty of action. 

     The Portville Holiday Tournament with O-E losing to Alfred-Almond in the title game. Randy Nuhfer and Tom Sherwood were named to the All-Tourney squad.

     

     I knew Tom was a good basketball player because I saw most of his varsity home games. I played touch football against him, but I didn't realize he had quite a bit of success at the upper high school level. I was probably playing little little baseball and missed most of the town's teener league games. Until I started doing some research I didn't realize baseball was another game where he competed well, even coaching after his youth leagues were complete.

     

O-E loses to Bolivar, 13-6. Sherwood catches a touchdown pass from Nuhfer in the final quarter.

     

     

     Smethport edges Otto-Eldred in this '67 thriller, 32-26. Sherwood had 129 yards rushing in 14 carries. It was the opening game in the Allegany Mountain League. O-E scored 19 points in the fourth quarter.

     

     Sherwood has a touchdown run.  Nuhfer had a TD pass and a scoring run and Ken Kio and Roy Wilbur lead the defense. 1966 

     

A pre-season look at the '67 football squad. Ed Schwab is the lineman in the photo. Nuhfer is the highlighted QB with Mike York, Don Close, Bob Krall and George Palmer  mentioned as the running backs.

      

Sherwood and Denny Bickford were the returning receivers with Johnny Oszustowicz, a sophomore joining the varsity. Rick Schwab and Jim Lasher were also receivers.

     

Tom was not a race car driver, but this is a photo of him at our yearly McKean County Fair. That's a midget car driver explaining the workings of his car. Tom was 13 years old and had just finished pitching for Coryville in little league.

     

Tom and Ken Kio were the Coryville representatives on the LL All-Star Team. Steve Faes and Terry Johnson were the Crosby players and Smethport's were Dennis Bango, Tom Daniels, Brian Quick and John Thomas. 1963 team. Jim Anderson and Rod Peterson represented Mt. Jewett.
     

Tom pitches and hits Eldred to a win in Teener League ball.

Tom goes 2-3 in Teener League Ball and raises his average to .580. Don Close is the winning pitcher for Eldred. Mike Fowler's sixth inning homer leads Austin to a 5-4 win.

1976- Tom is part of the State King team that wins the slow-pitch title over Kamerys in Olean.

     

     It sure was a good place to grow up. We were in a rural community, but only two miles from Eldred. Especially, as an athlete, it seemed like we sure were on the bus a lot- to and from school, from Duke Center to Eldred after practice and, of course, to all the road games through freshman, junior varsity and varsity ball.

 While I was thinking about this essay, it came to me how difficult it must have been to drive the school bus every day. Snowy and icy conditions, narrow roads, some gravel roads and dead-end hollows where we had to make five or six point turns to head back to where we started.

All those bus rides and maybe I'm forgetting an occasion, but I never remember a bus being more than a minute or two late at any time. Obviously, as a kid you just take it all for granted, but geez, there's no way I could do all that as efficiently as those drivers did.

 

     It was a good place to grow up.

     

      1972- Tom coached the Eldred Babe Ruth team. Jim Thomas was the East Smethport manager and Fella Wright managed the Smethport team. Carl Booth led the Otto squad.

The Staviskys

      From the mid-60's and five decades later, I can't imagine there were many years when there wasn't at least one member of the Stavisky family involved in local high school athletics at Oswayo Valley HS and/or Port Allegany HS or on a collegiate and even professional level.

     Regardless of their role (as players, coaches, athletic administrators and educators), they played a positive role in the success, development and recognition of young people at those schools and probably in some bordering towns also

     

Brian Stavisky inducted in to the Big 30 Basketball Hall of Fame, 2017

     Despite being away from blog writing for four or five months, I'd still like to recognize more athletes, not only from my era, but incorporate players and coaches from more recent times. This essay kind of divides that task right down the middle.

     I had the pleasure of knowing three of the four Staviskys mentioned in this piece. One was my boss and I played against his brother. I scouted another and the youngest, well, I watched him grow in to a very good Division 1 pitcher.

     Bill Stavisky was a 1966 OV graduate and he played varsity basketball against my brother ('65 grad) Even though I can't clearly remember watching him play in the North Tier, since I witnessed almost all of my brother's games, I'm confident I saw Bill play. If that doesn't qualify, a dozen or so years later, Bill and I and a handful of Otto-Eldred teachers played some pickup ball at the Eldred Borough Elementary School.

     Bill was my elementary supervisor for several years at both the Eldred Borough and Township schools and I remember two aspects clearly. He was a true professional in his educational supervisory position and although I'm sure I was a challenge for him as a rookie teacher I respected his daily dedication to teachers and students.

     Secondly, he still had a very competitive court game in our after-school pickup game.

     

Bill led the way in the win over O-E with 28 points. Randy Nuhfer scored 21 for the Terrors in OV's 64-58 win.

     

      A big win for Emporium over OV, but Stavisky hit for 24.

     Oswayo Valley picks up a home win and a reversal of game one with a two point win over Bradford Central Christian. Stavisky scores 25 and Denny Phillips adds 15 points.

OV at 3-6 with five games left on the North Tier schedule. Emporium at 9-0

     

Some of the season's top scorers with Stavisky averaging over 17 per game.  O-E's Randy Nuhfer also on the list.

     

1966 area leading scorers. Northern Tier represented by Smethport's Mike Taylor, Nuhfer,  Ron Caskey of Port Allegany, Pat Fannin (Emporium) and Stavisky.

          

     

     

Bill was a star track and field performer as his brother, Dan, would be in a few years.

     

OV was one of the few area Pennsylvania schools to play high school baseball in the 60's.

     

Stavisky picks up the only OV hit in a 4-0 loss to Olean.

     

Above- Bill was a member of the McKean-Elk All Star squad and as many talented baseball players have done through the years, played All-Catt baseball. This home run helped Shinglehouse defeat Rushford. 

     

A Shinglehouse win over Crosby- a second inning homer by Stavisky

     

     1968- Alle-Catt All Stars, 4 players from Shinglehouse.

An extra inning A-Catt win with Stavisky getting the game winning RBI.

      

Alle-Catt standings after extra inning win for Shinglehouse.

Above-another year of All-Catt All Stars and another look at some '66 basketball numbers.

I remember well the Stavisky family home in Eldred-located on the corner, just across the street from the Eldred Area Park and only a five minute walk to the elementary school. I was the little league coach and operated the park program for all the kids and Bill's son, Danny was often seen with the Pascarella boys during the summer.

Danny was too young for organized baseball during my years supervising the Park activities, but I'm sure he was involved in future years.

I left the area permanently in 1984 and the next time I heard Dan's name occurred when I was a young baseball scout and saw a scouting report issued by the Major League Scouting Bureau- an organization of scouts that wrote reports and furnished them to major league organizations. 

MLSB had submitted Dan's name as a potential prospect as a senior high school pitcher. I think the family was now living in the Pittsburgh region. 

Despite some professional interest, Dan was definitely headed to Notre Dame. I went to a fall scout's day prior to the '98 season in South Bend to see their top pitcher, Brad Lidge, who became an outstanding major league pitcher.

I'm working without a net here (I no longer have most of my notes or evaluation cards), but I know I saw Lidge pitch that day, but I don't recall Dan throwing in the workout. I don't think I would have forgotten him. Indiana was not one of my coverage states and I was just filling in for our territorial scout that day, but as you'll see in the following clips he hade a fine career in South Bend and led the way for his cousin to follow him to Notre Dame.

Dan Stavisky tosses six innings for the win over Toledo. It's Dan's fourth win of the season.

     

Dan's sophomore year and a one-hitter in the second game of a doubleheader versus Pittsburgh. No walks, ten strikeouts and one hit allowed to pick up his sixth win of the year.

     

Dan shuts out St. John's in the Big East tourney. Stavisky extended his scoreless streak to 22 and a third innings with a six hitter.

     

Dan extends his scoreless streak to 23 and 2/3 innings before giving up a solo run in the second. The game was delayed for over an hour in the first inning because of weather and the Irish lost a 6-1 early lead and dropped a one run game to Stetson.

Dan played a big role in his cousin, Brian, following him as a member of the Notre Dame baseball squad.

Notre Dame coach, Paul Mainieri, said, "We had been close to Brian's cousin Dan during his career here and Dan pushed for us to consider signing Brian. Once I saw him play, I knew that we wanted him badly."

     It would be hard to name anyone in the Olean-Bradford area, Big 30, (I'm not sure what it's referred to now-I just call it back home) who achieved the success and recognition that Brian Stavisky did in athletics from his pre-teen years through his 1999 high school graduation.

     A college baseball career at Notre Dame followed and a 2002 sixth round selection by the Oakland A's with a College World Series appearance led to a nine year professional baseball career that included parts of two seasons at the AAA level.

Brian slides home with an early game run for the Irish against Rice in the CWS. Notre Dame picked up a 5-3 win.

     Through the years the Big 30 region and surrounding area have produced some athletes who have reached the highest level in their respective sport; the NFL, MLB, etc. and those players should always be recognized and commended for their accomplishment of playing on the biggest stage. I've written about a few of them and still find it remarkable that one of the smallest populated regions in northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York has produced as many big leaguers as it has. 

     I've always stayed clear of comparisons in these essays and just try to recognize outstanding accomplishments and Brian Stavisky's achievements as a student, athlete and a person would rank him high on any list.

     I wrote a book several years ago entitled "Josh and Josh, Small Towns, Big Leagues." The book featured two players at a Division 2 midwestern university (Quincy University) who made it to the major leagues.

     One of those players was a pitcher who graduated from Port Allegany HS, Josh Kinney. 

     Kinney recalled his high school friend and teammate. "Brian was one grade behind me. He was a tremendous athlete. I don't know how many times he won the Punt, Pass and Kick awards, but I remember he went to the Pro Bowl for the national competition."

     "I don't think I was overshadowed, Brian was just that good. You can't take anything away from him. He was a standout at everything he did. He was an awesome football player and I think he scored a thousand points in basketball before his junior season was over. He could flat out hit a baseball. He deserved everything he got. I was the pitcher, but you put me next to him and you are going to notice him."

     Before Port Allegany had a high school baseball program, the Port kids traveled to Oswayo Valley to play for them and the Oswayo Valley athletes came over to Port to play football. Brian played two years of high school baseball at each school.

    His four year statistics during his high school years read: a .582 batting average, .725 on-base percentage, 46 home runs, 28 doubles, 11 strikeouts and 79 walks. His teams recorded a 60-20 record. The outstanding team record is not surprising considering they had two long-term professional baseball players on their roster.

     Brian was also the top student in his class. The 6'3, 230 lb. Stavisky also played golf and was active in several non-athletic programs in school. He learned the importance of taking advantage of what his school offered and he continued that same routine at Notre Dame.

A replica of Josh Kinney's Quincy jersey retired on the left center field wall at Quincy Stadium. That's his ex-teammate, Josh Rabe, who played for the Minnesota Twins and came back to Quincy and coached ten plus years at the university, setting a school coaching victory record. Rabe is now the A.D. at Quincy.

     I had not seen Brian's father, Dan, in probably two decades or more until we were at the College World Series in Omaha in 2002. I was scouting for the A's and we had just drafted Brian. I was the closest scout to Omaha (five hours) so I was assigned to go to the tourney and just keep an eye on the players we drafted, just watching their performance and making sure no injuries occurred. 

     I saw Dan in the stands and was fortunate to spend some time with the Staviskys. It was a real treat for me. It was the first time I had watched Brian play since I saw him play a few innings in a Babe Ruth game in Eldred 8-9 years earlier.

     

Notre Dame at the CWS six years after Brian's appearance and Coach Mainieri recalls Brian's game winning home in the ninth to beat Rice.

     

2002- and Brian's two run HR in to a strong wind gives Notre Dame a 5-3 win over Rice and their 50th win of the college season. It was Brian's ninth HR of the season.

     Brian and I were able to have lunch together a couple of years later when the A's Midwest League team was in Davenport, Iowa to play the Cardinals' affiliate. I had a couple of players that I had signed on Brian's squad and we all went to a downtown restaurant.

     Brian was kind of quiet until he and I started to discuss all the people and locations we knew back in Potter and McKean County. 

     Brian played nine seasons and 784 games in the minors. He played parts of two seasons in AAA and his overall career offensive numbers showed him with a .302 batting average and 78 home runs.

     Brian's father, Dan, was the one Stavisky I played against, but that was after watching him play a dozen or more Alle-Catt games for Shinglehouse. My parents and I made many trips over to Shinglehouse on a Sunday afternoon to watch games. I remember how much I liked the field: grass infield and a wire fence that circled the entire field. I think the kids got a nickel or a dime for bringing back foul balls that landed in the crops behind home plate. I thought it was the best field I had seen in the area.

Dan was about 3-4 years older than I was so I don't think we ever played little league, Babe Ruth or other sports against each other. I do recall what a good athlete he was at shortstop- a strong arm and good foot speed. He was clearly one of the better all-around athletes in the league and I'm sure he was still in his teens when I first saw him.

    

1971- Dan wins three events in track meet.

     

1965- Danny no-hits my hometown team.

     

Headlines of no-no

     

1965- Danny and Tim Welch represent Shinglehouse on the P-M all star squad.

     

Danny's HR and double pace Shinglehouse over Austin

     

Two local all star squads win openers. Tony Flint of Port Allegany leads P-M.

    

Danny doubles in all star game and goes 2-5 in win.

    

Basketball returnee.

     

Repeat of P-M victory. Rob Maynard paces Smethport All Stars.

     

Dan and Mary Stavisky retiring from the Port Allegany School District. Mary was an elementary school teacher and Dan was a physical education teacher for 41 years and an athletic director for 32.

     NOTE: Please excuse any errors in this piece. I'm sure I "booted" a few. A little bit rusty, but as always it's enjoyable to bring back some good memories especially about good people. Sometimes I see it like some of the kids in my graduation class- I wish I had gotten to know them better. I know more about them now through FB than I did back in the 70's. 

     I feel the same about many of the athletes I competed against in high school, Alle-Catt or softball. There's a lot of good people- I've written about some, but there's more folks that I hope I can write about in the future-some of the younger ones also.