28 February

## 1920

**Syracuse Herald**- All-Syracuse Meets Strong Rival Tonight

All-Tonawanda Basketball Team Made Up Of Well Known Players
The All-Syracuse and All-Tonawanda basketball teams will meet tonight at the Armory, the game being the twentieth of the season for the local squad. To date, Syracuse has won 17 out of 19 games, winning every game on the local court and being defeated in the only two games it has played out of town. The team appears due for a real test as the visiting aggregation has in its lineup some of the most widely known stars in the western section of the state. The game begins at 8:30 o’clock with the teams lining up as follows:

ALL-TONAWANDA: Scott, lf, Smith, rf, Lewis, c, Miller, rg, Wolf, lg. ALL-SYRACUSE: Martin, lf, Rafter, rf, Tormey, c, Casey, rg, Crisp, lg.

## 1947

**Syracuse Herald Journal**- Nats Minus Manpower Drop To 5th

Toledo, Ohio- Three Syracuse National basketball players, John Chaney, Kenny Exel, and Jack Dugger, missed the train carrying teammates from Syracuse to Toledo and as a direct result the Nats dropped two rungs down the National League ladder, losing to the Jeeps, 69-48 in the Ohio city last night. Only five members of the team were in uniform and were obliged to play the entire game since the trio failed to arrive until seconds before the game ended. If Syracuse had managed to win the contest it would have been forced to forfeit for violating a loop rule which stipulates that at least eight players must be in uniform for each contest. John “Chick” Meehan, in Memorial Hospital, and John Gee, Waterloo school teacher, could not make the trip. Hal Tridick, second highest scorer in the league, tossed in 21 points, while Mike Novak with 15 topped Syracuse. Steve Sharkey, playing in the post of the absent Meehan, had 13 markers. Moline defeated Youngstown 47-39 while Toledo was beating Syracuse to put the Tri-Cities club two percentage points ahead of fifth place Syracuse in the standings. Next game for the Nats is at Rochester Saturday night against the Royals.
TOLEDO: Tidrick, f (8-5-21), Mehen, f (1-1-3), Sobek, f (4-5-13), Schick, c (0-1-1), Patanelli, c (4-2-10), Seymour, g (2-1-5), Gilhooley, g (2-0-4), Hamlon, g (1-0-2), Gerber, g (2-0-4), Rivlin, g (3-0-6) TOTALS (27-15-69). SYRACUSE: Rizzo, f (1-6-8), Sharkey, f (6-1-13), Novak, c (7-1-15), Nelmark, g (3-2-8), Nugent, g (2-0-4) TOTALS (19-10-48).
Score at half-time- Toledo 31, Syracuse 23. Free throws missed- Toledo: Tidrick, Sobek, Patanelli, Gilhooley, Gerber 3. Syracuse: Rizzo 2, Sharkey, Novak 3, Nelmark 3, Nugent.

Nats To Play In Chicago
The Syracuse Nationals basketball team has accepted a bid to compete in the world’s professional basketball tournament at Chicago April 2 to 12. The tournament will have 12 teams competing on a one-defeat elimination basis with the winner gaining the right to play the Collegian All-Stars next year. The prize list calls for the winner to receive $15,000, with $10,000 going to the second place team, $5,000 third, and $3000 fourth. Each quint beaten in the first round will receive $1,000 while a defeat in the second round will gain $1,500. There is still a possibility that Syracuse will compete in a New England professional tourney if the team fails to qualify for a playoff position in the National League pennant chase.

From Skidding the Sports Field
John “Chick” Meehan, long in the sports limelight of Central New York as high school and professional athlete, is in Memorial Hospital nursing an eye injury, suffered Monday night when hit by “Pop” Gates, Negro star of the Moline club of the National Basketball League. Meehan, one of the aces of the Syracuse entry in the National League, is a player who is noted for coolness, hard but clean play, and a rather good disposition. He is in the class which pro players call men, who know what time it is, all the way. Meehan is dazed, as regards the blow which hit him, and which caused his plight today. “Get one point straight,” he said today. “This wasn’t one of those racial affairs. I’ve played against Gates a long, long time, often in rough play, too. He’s thrown everything in the book at me, and the same goes for the way I’ve treated him. Being well acquainted, down through the years, whenever we ran across each other, we sat down and talked, mostly about fellows we both know. We got along well. The landing of the blow is something of which I know nothing. I have to take other persons’ words for it that Gates hit me. The going was rough. The game was getting tougher and tougher. I went after the ball and something happened. Maybe I was tripped or maybe I just lost balance. Anyway I went down. I remember hitting the floor with the left side of my face. It is still sore. I think I was dazed and that I got to my feet by instinct. I didn’t know what was going on until sometime later when my right eye was being treated. One of these days, I’ll meet Gates again and we aren’t going to fight. He’s always been decent in dealing with me,” Meehan continued. “But I am going to ask him how he happened to hit me. He’ll level off and tell me the truth. But don’t let anybody tell you I was riding him about color,” Meehan added. “He’s OK with me, and always has been. I get stories now that Gates said after the game he didn’t know it was I and he was awfully sorry about it. I don’t know whether he was just wildly swinging but I do believe the sorry part of it. Gates isn’t a bad guy. I am willing to forget about it, and I wish everybody else would do the same thing.” Someone told Meehan yesterday that Hickey, Moline manager, had suggested he and Gates draw five-day suspensions for fighting. Meehan said he’ll fight that one, on principle. The five days will not mean a thing because it will be 10 days before he can play again, but he says Hickey wants the best of it at times and he’ll fight such an order.

Meehan Tells The Anderson Story
Getting back to the subject of “Chick” Meehan and our conversation with him yesterday, he gave us details on an officiating incident that is worthy of note. Giving Meehan his full credit, I’ve never known him to tell anything but the truth about athletic incidents and he never has tried to give himself the best of the detail. Here’s his story about the incident at Anderson, Ind, a week ago last Monday, which may lead to the suspension of Jerry Rizzo. “I ran into the biggest foul ball I ever encountered as an official in the game," Meehan says. “I don’t mind if an official calls one wrong. I make mistakes. But this guy was awful. He crawled. With 35 seconds to play, Anderson is leading by one point. The ball goes out of bounds. The referee calls: ‘Black’s ball out.’ We are wearing black jerseys, so I chase over and say: ‘I’ll take it.’ An Anderson player argues. Mr. Ref says: ‘You’re right. It’s Black’s ball. Your ball.’ I claim time out and we go over and talk to Ben Borgmann,” Meehan continues. “I want to use a particular play, which I think we can score on this time. Benny had told us to use another for out of bounds plays. We don’t want to cross him. He O.K.’s the change and we go back. I picked up the ball but the referee steps in, grabs it, and says: ‘It’s White’s ball.’ The guy was absolutely cock-eyed on the decision,” Meehan adds. “Everybody in the place had seen him give me the ball before I asked for a time out. Rizzo rushes over. I knock the ball out of the referee’s hands. He sticks out his hands and he pushes Rizzo back. Rizzo comes in again and he puts both hands on him and shoves him again. It is repeated again and he shoves Rizzo the third time, mind you and Rizzo makes a sort of a pass at him but didn’t land. That worries me and I leap at the ref, yelling and taking the play away from Rizzo and tell him he’s a blind bat. Benny yanks Rizzo and sends a man in. Anderson wants to know what he’s going to do. He says he has called a technical foul. I yell “What for?" and the guy answers “On you for knocking the ball out of my hands. So Anderson pitches the foul,” adds Chick, ‘goes two points ahead, and takes possession out of bounds, after the foul. We intercept a pass, get possession, pass to Sharkey and he makes a nice toss for a basket to tie up the game. The regulation play ends in a tie. Then Benny sends Rizzo back in to start the overtime,” Meehan explains. Four Anderson guys rush the referee. They tell him Rizzo hit him and Rizzo should be out of the game. “The guy had been so busy pushing Rizzo he didn’t know whether he had been hit or not. But he crawfished and he said if he was hit, he didn’t know who hit him. He said Rizzo was eligible to play. While Anderson was kicking, asking him if he isn’t going to do anything at all about Rizzo, he says ‘Yes, I have already done it by calling that technical foul on Rizzo.’ That bird never called a technical on Rizzo and he knows it,” Meehan said. “Rizzo and I aren’t built alike and we do not look alike. There can’t be any mistake between us. The referee told me he called the foul on me for hitting the ball out of his hands and that he was right, I couldn’t kick. But he was a champ about changing his story under pressure. Rizzo played the overtime. He didn’t have anything to do with our victory in that overtime because it was Sharkey who went to town. Now Anderson is protesting and Commissioner Lambert is investigating. We appear to be at the mercy of the referee’s report. I think we will be all right if he sticks to his last story. But if he changes his mind, again, that’s different. I only wish Lambert could have been at the game. He’s talked to Borgmann and has been told the truth about the whole affair.”

## 1955

**Syracuse Herald Journal**- Nats Playing Four Games On Road

Syracuse Leads Eastern Division By 4½ Games

Four games in as many nights away from home face the Syracuse Nationals
this week as they continue their attempt to wrap up the Eastern Division
pennant. Following a convincing 105-77 triumph over the Philadelphia Warriors
before a noisy gathering of 6,105 fans including 1,877 children at the Memorial
yesterday afternoon, the Nats are 4½ games in front of second place Boston. The
Celts have 10 games remaining while Syracuse has nine, three at home and six on
the road. New York, in third place one-half game behind the Beantowners, also
has nine games to play. Syracuse’s busy week opens tomorrow night against New
York in the second game of a twin bill at Madison Square Garden. Tilts are
scheduled Wednesday and Thursday against Fort Wayne at Elkhart, Ind., and at
Fort Wayne with a Friday tilt slated at Milwaukee. Philadelphia is here again
Sunday afternoon. During the same period Boston opposes Fort Wayne at New York
Tuesday. Then entertains Minneapolis Friday, plays at Philadelphia Saturday and
is at home with Fort Wayne Sunday. New York has two games with Rochester and
one with Milwaukee in addition to the clash with Syracuse. Coach Al Cervi’s
squad is now only 2½ games behind Fort Wayne in the overall pennant chase. They
have three games left with the Zollners and feel there is still a possibility
of grabbing the entire loop lead. Team balance continued to mark yesterday’s
play as the Nats displayed their best shooting form of the season. The
Syracusans scored 46 baskets in 92 attempts for a neat .500 rating from the
floor. Every member of the squad figured in the scoring column with Paul
Seymour taking overall honors with 24 points. What started out as a close
contest with six ties in the first 10 minutes quickly turned into a romp.
Leading 19-18 with only 1½ minutes to play in the first quarter the Nats
suddenly spurted in front 25-18. In the next 12-minute session the Syracusans
outscored rivals 29-11 to go in front 54-29 at intermission. With only nine
minutes remaining and his squad in front by 23 points, coach Al Cervi used a
combination of Dick Farley, Wally Osterkorn, Jim Tucker, John Kerr and Billy
Kenville and they continued to pull away from the thoroughly whipped Warriors.
The loss dropped Philadelphia 2½ games behind New York in the race for the
final Eastern Division playoff post. Neil Johnston again led the Warriors
scoring attack with 23 points, 10 of them in the first quarter.

PHILADELPHIA: Arizin (6-4-16), Graboski (2-1-5), Zawoluk (4-2-10),
Moore (1-2-4), Davis (0-0-0), Johnston (9-5-23), George (0-0-0), Murray
(5-5-15), Dempsey (1-2-4), Kearns (0-0-0) TOTALS (28-21-77). SYRACUSE: Schayes
(2-4-8), Rocha (2-0-4), Lloyd (7-1-15), Kerr (5-1-11), Tucker (3-1-7), Seymour
(10-4-24), King (6-0-12), Farley (4-0-8), Kenville (4-2-10), Osterkorn (3-0-6)
TOTALS (46-13-105).

Score at halftime- Syracuse 54, Philadelphia 29.