Some Olean Sport's Memories- Karuch, Anastasia, and others

    Some Olean Sport's Memories- Karuch, Anastasia and others

    My first memory of Olean area sports is reading about the teams and athletes as an Eldred (Pa.) kid growing up in the mid-60's. The Olean Times Herald covered high school sports so thoroughly with their game coverage and photos that I felt I actually knew many of the athletes before I ever saw them play.

      I didn't actually witness any Olean area games until my brother played basketball vs. Bishop Walsh in 1964-65. A year or two later I was introduced to MUNY League fast-pitch softball followed closely by watching my cousins play football vs. Portville in the late 60's. 

Olean High School basketball captains, 1976-77- Dan Sweeney and Jeff Anastasia. Jon Baker was the head coach of the team. 

     Even when I began to compete as a high school sophomore against some New York State schools in the early 70's, our opponents (Portville, Allegany, Cuba, etc.) were still a bit of a mystery. Despite the fact that Portville and Olean were closer in driving distance than some of the towns we played in little league (ages 9-12) and/or Babe Ruth baseball (ages 13-15) (Coudersport, Shinglehouse, Roulette, Austin and several other Pa. teams) we never actually saw most of our NYS opponents until we were 14 years old or older.

     I chose John Karuch and Jeff Anastasia to highlight the Olean area as two of the hundreds of quality athletes who played during my time as a fan, player, coach and then back to a player, coach and fan again- a period covering a 25 years.

     Along with John and Jeff, I tried to include as many Olean area players in this writing as possible, realizing it would take multiple blog stories to create a completely fair representation of all the top flight athletes.  

     As always, I don't make comparisons re: what player or team was the best during a certain period of time or in a particular school's history. Those can be good barbershop debates or lively discussions over a cup of coffee and a donut. I'm sure that has already occurred a time or two.

        

      Below: John Karuch was a three-sport athlete at Olean Bishop Walsh (1967-1970)- basketball, track and baseball. He was a three-year starter for Ed McGuire's basketball team and had the Big 30's best 100 yard dash time, ten flat.           

Karuch joins Mike Hart as co-captains of the basketball team.

Some of the Olean area best track and field stars: Tony Salmonson (Allegany)-high hurdles,  Marty Torrey (Bolivar) 100 yard dash,  Brian Hart (Bradford)- 440, Larry Decker (Emporium)- 440, Jerry Scutt (Portville) 220 and others are listed above and below.

Photo- John Butler of Randolph (two mile run)

Karuch and Bishop Walsh teammate, John Turek are named to John McCarthy's camp all-star team

Olean defeats Wellsville, 46-40 and Karuch scores 29 and Neal Meacham tallies 23 in Bishop Walsh win over Lackawanna Baker, 80-57. (1970)

Notes on "The Nation's Top 500 HS stars" John Karuch and Neal Meacham of Bishop Walsh are included. Two other area basketball stars, John Oszustowicz (Otto-Eldred) and Paul Stiles (Bradford) are mentioned. Power Memorial HS (Walsh opponent) had three outstanding players- future University of Maryland's All-American Len Elmore, Ed Searcy and Japeth Trimble.

Above and below: John Karuch breaks the Bishop Walsh scoring record with a 42 point effort in league win over St. Mary's of Buffalo. Karuch was 18-26 from the floor and broke his own school of 36 points.

Bishop Walsh baseball team. Henry Bzdak was also an outstanding running back and we also played together on the Allegany Alle-Catt baseball team with Henry's two brothers, Dick and Paul. 

Before his 42 point game, Karuch scored 36 points as Bishop Walsh broke the 100 point mark using their famed full court press to completely dominate the final quarter. Karuch's 36 points broke Tom Heenan's of 33 from the '63-64 season.

Three years ago I wrote a blog story about the 68-69 Hinsdale team led by Don Hurlburt. Tom Oakley and Coach Carl Saglimben. Hinsdale went 8-0 behind Oakley's 28 points and Hurlburt's 22 in 78-54 win over Cattaraugus.

   The complete story of that season was one of the interesting I have ever written, because it was a basketball season that featured a skilled small school basketball team and the emotions and tragedy they faced midway through the year  and how they continued to move forward despite the loss of a friend and teammate. Don is still coaching high school basketball in Georgia and I've been fortunate to stay in touch with him on occasion.

    The piece on this Hinsdale team is still located on my blog site, dankoandmanuel.blogspot.com. along with several other essays on individual players and teams throughout the years of local sports.

 

   Senior Don Hurlburt led all scorers in the Olean area averaging over 33 points per game. Hurlburt went to Canisius College.

   Pre-season notes as Karuch and Rushford transfer, Neal Meacham  are set to be big contributors for the Eagles.

   Bishop Walsh opens the season with two key injuries. 6-6 center John Turek is out for the season (auto accident) and 6-3 junior starting forward Jack Amphlett is out indefinitely with two broken fingers. Karuch will team up with Bernie Gunther in the backcourt. Forwards will be Lee Schafer and Jim Sczudlo will be the squad's forwards.

   Bradford High School with coach Hal Hansen (former coach at Otto-Eldred HS) with Paul Stiles and Jon Poling are 1969-70 is picked to be one of the best in the Big 30 area.

   Karuch and Bradford's Paul Stiles are repeat independent all-stars and Walsh frontline player, Neal Meacham was an Allegany County All-Star the previous season. Dick Glady (Bradford), Bill Potter (Allegany) and Doug Wright of Olean High round out the team. Walsh is 17-1 and Bradford 21-1 at the time of these all-star selections.

February 1970- Steve Cook (Richburg, N.Y), Tom Ripple (Austin), John Oszustowicz (O-E), Karuch, and Ray Hatch (Limestone, N.Y.) are the area's top five scorers at the two-thirds mark of the season.

Independent All-Stars- Front Row (L-R)- Meacham, Glady, and Wright. Top Row (L-R)- Potter, Stiles and Karuch

Bishop Neumann knocks Walsh out of a chance to repeat as Manhattan Cup champion, 69-66. Walsh trailed at halftime by 12, but came back to close the gap, but foul trouble hurt the Eagles with Meachum and Karuch fouling out. Karuch scored 20 and became the all time scoring leader in Monseignor Martin League history topping the record previously held by former St. Bonaventure player, Paul Grys.

   John Karuch signs at Niagara University. Karuch scored 1,278 points in his three-year high school career and Bishop Walsh won 52 of 60 games during his career.

   February 1973- (above)- Senior Jeff Grandusky breaks John Karuch's and Jack Amphlett's's single game scoring mark of 42. Grandusky hits for 47 in 95-70 win over Midzenty

   1974- I first saw John playing fast-pitch softball. He was a leadoff hitter, a left-handed hitter and if he got a bunt down or hit a ground ball to the left side of the infield it had a better than average chance of being a base hit. Tremendous speed and if he lined a ball in the outfield gaps it was likely to be a triple or an inside the park homer. John was a couple of years older than me, but I must have seen him play 15-20 games. I'm quite sure we met a few times on the softball field. Fast pitch was huge at the time in the western NY area. A great game to play. Coaching at Bonas I had some summer opportunities to play in the MUNY League and loved it. Rick Rosenswie, Tom Wilson and Henry Bzdak along with pitcher Wayne Dornsife (one of the top pitchers in the area for many seasons) were excellent players

    1975-Displaying individual player or team records is always frustrating because so many good players are omitted-there were so many. The Times Herald would publish the hitting stats once a week or so- easy to keep track of your favorite players.

   Karuch, second from left on the bottom row, with a slo-pitch tournament championship

   June 1975- Terry Rider was one of the top pitchers among many in Olean. Here's Terry with a shutout win over Salamanca with a no-hitter and a shutout in the Mayor's Conference. Rider was 6-1 with the victory with a 1.40 ERA and 5-0 in the conference.

   1975 with Fillmore ace, Denny Thomas ready to pitch in the Finals of a Class C tourney. The Mayor's Conference 14-man all-star squad was dominated by five players from Salamanca and three each from Olean and Allegany. Pitching selections were Rider and Harry Nelson (Salamanca), Catchers were Mike Calabro (Salamanca) and Tom Verbanic (Olean). Infielder Ray Auman, a sophomore was Portville's lone representative. Ron Dolecki, Matt Kubic and Ron Dolecki rounded out the Salamanca contingent. Brad Weitzel (Salamanca} was an infield selection. Weitzel later went on to be a Division 1 baseball coach and also a professional baseball scout. Allegany's representatives were Dan McCaffrey, John Potter and Ed Grove. 

   Tom Hull was an infield selection (Olean)

   Mike Retchless (Salamanca), Karl Weidt (Olean), Frank Petruzzi (Allegany), Ken Woodruff (Portville) and Bob Mountain (Wellsville) were the league coaches.

   1976- All-Tournament team- left to right, Portville's Tom Yanetsko, Jeff Nix, Tim Yanetsko and Jeff Anastasia (Olean), Jerry Devito (Allegany) and Doug Hallock (Pioneer)

   Portville defeats Pioneer in championship game. The Yanetsko brothers and Jeff Nix score 57 of Portville's 75 points. Olean wins the consolation game over Allegany.

    

   Portville wins three Holiday tournaments collecting six wins in one week. Portville improved their overall mark to 9-0

   Below: Anastasia hits for 28 points in win over Fredonia. 1976

   Area scoring leaders at the halfway mark of the season.

   Fillmore's Thomas leads the way at 25.1. Bolivar's Jeff Scott is in the #2 spot at 23.6. Anastasia is at 18.8 ppg.

   1976- Olean drops a close one to Pittsburgh's Peabody HS in Meadville Elks Tournament.

   Anastasia leads the Huskies with 25 vs, Peabody and 21 in a loss in the first game of the tourney.

   Allegany's Craig Rieman reaches over Jeff Anastasia (#25)

   Jeff Anastasia attempts a jumper in game vs. Pioneer. Anastasia hit for 26 points

   Section VI all-stars in the Expressway Conference include Dick Heidrick (Salamanca), Anastasia and Mike Carr of Olean and Jim Cooney of Allegany.

Cattaraugus County CC all-star team includes four players from Portville (Tim and Tom Yanetsko, Jeff Nix and Fred Caya.

   Olean Times Herald Big 30 Basketball Banquet- left to right: Ray Deland (Portville) coach of the year,  Jeff Nix (Portville) Cattaraugue County Class CC MVP, Jeff Anastasia (Olean) Expressway Conference Class C MVP and Bruce Crandall of West Valley Cattaraugus County Class C MVP.

   1980- Olean always put together a strong recreation league made up of former HS area players. Anastasia leads the way in this game with 36 points.

   1984-Rec League trophy winners representing their respective teams-Steve Mountain, Jim Wright, Joe Sgro- a team sponsor, Bob Hannon and Anastasia.

   1988- Salamanca vs. Olean pre-game notes. Jeff Anastasia was now the head coach of the Huskies, Olean starts five seniors- Matt Threehouse, John Wolfgang, Kevin Klingbell, Joe Gunther and Jeff Sherman. Olean comes into the game at 8-3.

   2016 (below)Inductees into the Western NY Sports Hall of Fame. The list includes: Jeff Anastasia (coach), Dave Hollins- former major league third baseman and Warren Spahn- MLB Hall of Famer-lefty pitcher for the Milwaukee Braves. 

   Below: Three new members elected to Big 30 Basketball Hall of Fame- Second from the left, Scott Crist accepting for his father, Chuck Crist. Middle- Jeff Anastasia and second from the right, Margie Holland.

   Margie Holland was an outstanding women's HS basketball coach at Bradford HS. She coached there for 16 years, with her teams winning 80 percent of their games, nine district titles and going 18-0 in the 1975 regular season.

   Anastasia's HOF bio: Jeff coached at Olean HS (his alma mater) for 32 years. He had 602 wins, 21 league titles, 14 sectional titles, 12 regional trips, seven state final four appearances and two Class B state championships.

   Jeff is a member of the NYS Basketball HOF and is the winningest coach in Western New York basketball history. He retired from coaching after the 2018-2019 season. His varsity basketball coaching career began in 1987. He graduated from Olean HS in 1977.

   Chuck Crist HOF bio: Crist, a Salamanca HS graduate, was a four-sport, dominating HS player (football, basketball, baseball and track and field). He was awarded an athletic scholarship to Penn State and primarily focused on basketball at PSU. He was the Nittany Lion's team captain during his senior season, averaging over 10 points a game and leading Penn State to a 17-8 record, the best in school history at the time. He was the team MVP in both his junior and senior seasons.

   After his college career, he signed with the New York Giants as a free agent to play defensive back. He played in the NFL for seven seasons and recorded 20 interceptions in his career.

Crist is a member of several Hall of Fames including: Cattaraugus County HOF, Chautauqua Sports HOF and the Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.

   Alle-Catt baseball was a long-time staple of amateur baseball in the western New York and western Pennsylvania area. Their were some team changes throughout the years, but Olean Bradners and the Crosby Mudhens were the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants of the league year after year.  Another team(s) might step up as a challenger each year, but they almost always would have to get past Crosby or Olean to advance in the western NY playoffs.

   Here's a clip of Olean and Crosby near the halfway mark of the season at 1-2 in the South Division. Doug Dallas was the key player for Franklinville years before as they won five straight western NY titles. He joined the Olean club this season and in his first game went 2-4 as Olean won their seventh straight game. Lefty Jim Thomas picks up another win for Crosby vs. Fillmore.

   Olean and Crosby always had excellent pitching through the years and just a few names to toss about were Olean's Tim Brewer, Gary Witter, Mike Carr, Mike Martello (also a VG all-around performer). Crosby was led by lefty area legend Jim Thomas, Ed Faes and Jeff Schultz. Again, these guys represent only a portion of the fine pitchers those two clubs had. It seemed the league teams always had at least one guy who was difficult to face on Sundays. 

    I'm not sure when Alle-Catt baseball and MUNY fast-pitch shut down their leagues, but even not living in the area since 1985- I felt the loss, Great memories of playing and just watching all the teams, tournaments and players through the years.

Olean's Tim Brewer is mentioned as a pitcher (one year after his high school career)  one of the "hardest throwers" in the league. Having faced Tim a few times, I would have to agree. 

March 1971-   

Cattaraugus BB All-Stars- left to right, Pete Weishan (Cattaraugus), John Ames (Franklinville), Jeff Hunter (Franklinville) and Jeff Stark of Ellicottville

Paul Dorman averaged 24.3 ppg.

Below photo- Portville stars- Jim Schott and Paul Dorman