Streetplay Discussions
Hi, I played for the 1959…
Hi, I played for the 1959 senior Lynvets and then for the Garity Knight from 60 through 63. One of the games that still lives with me is the 63 game with the Lynvets at St Raphals. They had a great team, they were undefeated and we were undefeated and it was the end of the regular season. It was a beautiful day for football. There was one play that still geves me goose bumps when I recall it. I played defense and our team had the ball at midfield. I looked up and saw Jimmy Gant (#1) our quarterback rollout behing blockers to the farisde of the field. THe Lynvet defense which was ferocious that day moved to the same farside to close him down. All of a sudden, Jim crossed the line of scrimmage and cut back to the center of the field. He seemed to be the only one moving – all the lynvets were caught flatfooted and Jimmy only had one man to beat – the defensive halfback on the nearside. Jimmy headed straight towards him, frezzing his position and setting up the block by Decatur Rogers our wide split end. Decatur cut the halfback down and Jimmy went the remaing 40 or 50 yards untouched. Decatur was called for clipping ( I dont think he did – but there are no films. Are there? We have been looking for the holy grail films since then. The Lynvets filmed all their games). Jimmy, who passed on last year, was the only offensive player to cross the goal line that day. We finally won on another spectacular play when Little Vinny Mazzili (#17) intercepted a pass in the center of the field and ran up the middle and down our right side 50 or 60 yards. These were moments that are riveted in my memory and they are made more special by the caliber of the opponents against which we played. The Lynvets had some of the best players to play in that league in Mike DeAmato, John Mulivihil, Teddy Horishack, Richie Sardilo, I forget the centers name but he was real good also. They had a thundering back in Doug Berry and so on. (sorry if I’ve spelled someone’s name wrong ). If you played in the league in 63 you knew who the people I named were. You also would know of the people who played with Garity, Jimmy was the league MVP, little Vinny was the Leagues outstanding back, Literally everyone on our offensive line was on the allstar team – Herman Drier(#69) and Gerry Meditz(#68) at Guard, Bob Kletcher(#75), who passed away a few years ago, and the eqally talented John Trezel(#77) at tackles. Bob Werkmeister(#55) at center. It was great team that had the opportunity to be tested by an almost equally great team. Bob Hague, the league president said that the 63 game was the best he ever saw played in Pop Warner football. (I don’t know about best or rating across eras or years thats not what I want to claim – only I do know that when I do think of it – I still replay parts of it in my mind occassionally and it seems almost to good to have been true). I would love to hear from anyone who took part in that game. Regards from Roger Smith #54
When my sister and I were…
When my sister and I were kids in Alberta in the 60’s we used to play a game where we put what we called an”Indian Rubber Ball” in an old nylon and then would stand with our back to the wall of the house and recite: “Hello, hello, hello SIR. Can you come out to play SIR? No SIR. Why SIR? Because I caught a cold SIR. Where did you catch your cold SIR? At the North Pole SIR. What were you doing there SIR? Catching a polar bear SIR. How many did you catch SIR?” All the while bouncing the ball from side to side. When we said SIR we had to raise the appropriate leg and bounce under that side. At the end, we would answer the last question by bouncing under our legs as many times as possible. We tried to get higher and higher each time.
I RECENTLY PURCHASED A CHINESE…
Hello,Im trying to get the…
Troop 118 in the 60’s ,…
I grew up on Ely Ave off…
The program on WNYC brought…
The program on WNYC brought back many memories of Brooklyn, Quentin Road > between West 4th and 5th street. We played all the games you mentioned and > some variants. Playing Association with a rolled up Daily News or Mirror > for a football or square or triangle using a spaldeen. The dificulty with > square was that Mrs. Deutch had a window between second and third and we > had to avoid a tag as well as the water she threw at us. > We also played Chinese handball both with our hands and and our FEET. We > also had a novel form of stoop ball. It was played on Mr Bock’s “stoop” > with a spaldeen and invisible runners. The stoop was not steps but a > “correctly” slanted wall surrounding his lawn. Mr. Bock was also an a > constant thorn in our side by calling the police. > During WWII we play “Commando Tactics”. At dark we would meet and find a > route thru the yards of a neighborhood. It was more than once people in > their homes would come out to see who was there. It was a miracle that we > had no ‘wounded”. > Thanks for the memories!! >
Has anyone been able to…
I got my kids some jacks,…
I got my kids some jacks, but they don’t seem to know enough about how to play, so they aren’t being used. I played jacks a lot as a kid; though we didn’t call them “fancies”, we did have a lot of variations. Eggs in the basket was always first, just putting the jacksinto your cupped left hand on placed on the floor. Then came pig in the pen: you held your left hand on the floor making a semi-circular “pen”–the little finger and thumb resting on the floor, fingers together but with a space between thumb and fingers. You did onesies, twosies, etc., each time sliding the required number of jacks into the pen. There was another that I can’t quite recall, something like “sheep over the fence”; you placed your left hand with the little finger resting on the floor and the palm vertical; you picked up the jacks and put them on the far side of this fence. I know we played about ten variations, but can’t remember more. Please post any more you can recall so I can teach my daughters.