My Personal Sports/College World - 1946 - 1950 - Part 2

Dear Readers:

For the next one, or two, or three sessions, I am going to tell you the story of my sports life. You can take the part of my great nephew who asked me to tell him about it.  Just to catch you up on my present status and condition; I was born in 1926, so I’m 98 years old now. I’m still my playing height at 5 feet, 6 inches tall and I'm still the same weight I was while I was in the Navy - I wear the same size clothes that I have worn for all of my adult life.

I am living in an adult community called Independence Village in Naperville, Illinois. I’m in good health and pretty active. I walk a lot and I exercise moderately. I eat well - I have never used any kind of tobacco and I may enjoy one beer or a small glass of wine when we celebrate an event.

My father and mother grew up in Italy and were young adults when they came to the United States. They settled in a small town, La Salle, in north central Illinois. My father worked in the local coal mine and my mother, as in the family life at that time, was a stay-at-home mother. They had very little involvement with my sports life.         

I had three brothers and one sister, all older than me; John was 9 years older; Grace was 8 years older; Geno was 6 years old; and Joe was 3 years older. They were all involved in my sports life.         

John was not a very good athlete but he was an excellent coach; especially with boys’ baseball teams. Grace was not athletic but she watched a lot of high school basketball games including the ones I was coaching. Geno was a good softball player and an exceptional basketball player. Joe was a good football player, an outstanding baseball/softball catcher and a pool shark. He and I were teammates on two topnotch softball teams.         

John took me to my earliest sports events – I was about 6 years old. LaSalle-Peru Township High School had a basketball court with an in-door track overlooking the court. We could stand at the inside rail of the track and watch the games from above the players. During the same summers, Geno was pitcher and manager of a softball team and I was his bat boy.         

Across the street from our house there was an empty space about three lots wide and deep to an alleyway. The older boys put up a basketball backboard and hoop at one end and a softball diamond near the alley. I dribbled the ball and shot at that hoop for hours. Other kids in the neighborhood came and played with us. I even got to play with guys older than me.         

When I was in sixth grade, I joined the city park’s baseball league. I played the infield positions; usually 3rd base. I was chosen to be on our league’s All-Star team and won a trip to Chicago to watch the Chicago Cubs. When I got to eighth grade, the LaSalle Public Schools joined a junior high school basketball league. I was a guard and co-captain of the light weight team. 

High school was not a great place for me and sports. Even though I had the record from my eighth grade basketball experience, the freshmen basketball coach (and varsity football coach) was not looking for a 5 foot, 6 inch player. I was invited to join a very good intramural basketball team during my junior and senior years and learned a lot about the game there.

But that was the least of our worries because on December 7, 1941, I was listening to the Chicago Bears – Chicago Cardinals football game and the radio broadcast was interrupted to report that Japanese airplanes were bombing our Naval Base on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. We declared war on Japan the following day - The United States  joined the Allies in World War II.

My brother John was already in the U. S. Army joining in January of that year.  Geno joined the Army Air Corps, and Joe was also in the Army. Grace was working at the Westclox factory in Peru, Illinois, which had changed from producing clocks and watches to producing aviation instruments for the Army Air Corps.

During my junior year in high school, I also got an after-school job setting pins at the bowling alleys at the Westclox. I was able to do some bowling, trading off bowling and setting pins with other workers. I found a lifelong sport there; averaging in the 180s and bowling a high score of 240. That was my final sports experience until the end of WWII.

I graduated from high school in May of 1944 and on September 16, 1944, I was on my way to boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Station. In January, 1945, I was transferred to Jacksonville Naval Air Base to learn how to maintain and repair the electrical system of the Grumman F6F Hellcat pursuit airplane. Soon after that training, I was assigned to CASU 4 (Carrier Air Service Unit) at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. We were there when the atomic bombs were dropped in Japan.

We were on a ship heading for Guam Island on August 6, 1945 when we heard on the intercom that Japan had surrendered.  The formal surrender was held on September 2, 1945 on the USS Missouri battleship.

We stayed on Guam for a very short time and were then transferred to my final service station; Tinian Island Naval Air Base. Since the war was over there was no need for me to work on an F6F. So, I was put to work in the Island Commander’s office getting the news off the ticker tape and making copies that were delivered throughout the base. The entire base changed from being alert every second to working a regular work week. Our personnel began thinking about  playing sports.

The men who had been out there a long time were being sent home. The college and  high school athletes left behind could now play some games in the evenings and on “weekends.” It started with fast-pitch softball and I really enjoyed that. And, then winter was coming and basketball teams and basketball leagues were being developed at all of the Army, Marines, and Navy bases on the island.  

I got on a team with a “run and gun’’ attitude. I was a high scoring guard -  I made 29 points one game. I was chosen to be a member of the league’s All-Star team.

I never got to play with that team. I got the good news that I was eligible to go home.  I took a boat trip to Saipan Island where I got on a former Italian cruise ship which had been thoroughly rebuilt into a troop ship. We got to San Francisco and after some final medical checkups, on June 26, 1946 I was given an honorable discharge from the United States Navy.

So, I was on my way, going back home. My brothers were already there; John from his infantry corps in the Apennine Mountains in Italy, Joe from his infantry corps in Germany, and Geno from flying bombers to England and returning to Newfoundland.My mother and father were very happy and thankful that their boys had returned safely from the war.

To be continued . . .