3 NYPD officers heading to Ohio rescue woman in Pennsylvania

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Kendra Pfeil lifts Hazleton Area past Pittston Area and into a first-place tie

<p>Nearly 55 years have past since that magical night at the Harrisburg Farm Show Arena, but the memories remain strong and now they&#8217;ll be revisited.</p><p>The Nanticoke High School basketball team which won the 1961 PIAA Class A state title will be honored Friday prior to the game between Nanticoke and GAR. The ceremonies will begin at 7 p.m. and a banner honoring the team will be revealed.</p><p>Two of the five starters who defeated Hickory Township 56-46 will be present, Bill James and Rich Kiewlak. James lives in Jim Thorpe while Kiewlak resides in the suburbs of Philadelphia.</p><p>Joe Shepela, who lives in California, and George Yanchik, who lives in South Carolina, won&#8217;t be attending. Ken Legins, the fifth starter, died in 2013. Coach Syl &#8220;Stretch&#8221; Bozinski, who finished with 616 career victories, died in 2001. Other players and some cheerleaders are also expected to be there.</p><p>&#8220;Never, never did we doubt our ability,&#8221; Shepela said. &#8220;We worked as a team and were very well coached. At practice, we went through the drills over and over and over. We were like a well-oiled machine. When any team threw something at us different, we were able to change our tactics. Maybe instead of hitting Kenny all the time, hit Billy. And then Richie would hit some really long ones.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s why I feel we were adaptable to changing situations.&#8221;</p><p>And every player had their role and accepted it. Yanchik didn&#8217;t have any classes with the others and described himself as &#8220;a social outsider to that degree&#8221; yet played a huge part in the team&#8217;s 26-1 record that season.</p><p>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t a big part offensively,&#8221; Yanchik said. &#8220;My area was playing defense and rebounding. We had plenty of scoring.&#8221;</p><p>All four of the surviving starters agreed Legins was the star of the bunch. He scored 16 points in the championship game and went on to play at George Washington University where he led the team in scoring for three years and was All-Southern Conference as a senior.</p><p>&#8220;Kenny, everything he that got he earned it,&#8221; said James, who was a co-captain with Legins. &#8220;I never had any jealousy toward him.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He was the kingpin,&#8221; Shepela said of Legins. &#8220;He had the ability to overcome taller guys in the post. He was only 6-4, 6-5 and he overcame great odds against taller guys in the post.&#8221;</p><p>Nanticoke also overcame being a small school winning at the state&#8217;s highest level. The PIAA had three classes in 1961, with Class A having the schools with the largest enrollment. Nanticoke was grouped with the smallest teams in Class C, but elected to play at Class A.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think a lot of people know that we are the only Class C team that took a Class A title in Pennsylvania,&#8221; Kwielak said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think that will ever be done again with all the jointures.&#8221;</p><p>A year before winning the 1961 championship, Nanticoke rode a 26-0 record into the Eastern State Finals only to lose to York. The championship season didn&#8217;t start out well for the Rams, who were also called the Nans, as they dropped an early season game to Sharon in a tournament in Johnstown.</p><p>Nanticoke never lost again that season.</p><p>James recalled a memorable game against rival Newport Township during the championship run. The two high schools would eventually merge with Harter High School, located across the Susquehanna River, to form what is now Greater Nanticoke Area.</p><p>Newport was coached by Jim Davis, who would later coach and become the athletic director at the new school. Word got out that the Newport players were saying they were going to come to Nanticoke and leave with a victory.</p><p>&#8220;They were getting cocky and saying they were going to come our place and they were going to beat us,&#8221; James said. &#8220;You know what we beat them by? Fifty-five points. That&#8217;s how good this team was.&#8221;</p><p>Every home game was packed. The gym at the high school &#8212; which stood where a CVS Pharmacy is now when entering the town via the Sans Souci Highway &#8212; held about 700-800 people. Sometimes twice as many would squeeze in to see the Rams.</p><p>As good as the Rams were, they once again ran into trouble in the Eastern State Finals against Reading. Trailing by seven with barely two minutes left, many fans began to leave. Nanticoke, though, went to a full-court press and pulled out a 51-47 victory by scoring the game&#8217;s final 11 points.</p><p>There weren&#8217;t as many dramatics in the championship game against Hickory Township. Legins scored 10 first-quarter points. James had 19 points and 12 rebounds. Except for a lull in the third quarter, the Rams kept Hickory Township at arm&#8217;s length on the way to a 56-46 victory. Nanticoke fans made up a large part of the 9,000 in attendance.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;d hate to think what would have happened if we lost,&#8221; Yanchik said. &#8220;We certainly would have been disappointed. We had a good team and in the game we were never really threatened I guess. We had the lead throughout the game. I don&#8217;t remember any specific times where the game was getting away from us.&#8221;</p><p>The game was played on a Saturday night, so the team stayed over in Harrisburg. The next morning on the trip back, the Rams were met in Bloomsburg by a fire truck on Route 11 and escorted to just outside of Nanticoke. There, the team switched to convertibles and was escorted through town until reaching Central Park where a ceremony was held. Various reports had the crowd at the park estimated between 20,000-30,000.</p><p>&#8220;There were 20,000-30,000 fans and there are only 11,000 people in Nanticoke,&#8221; James said. &#8220;So we had a lot of people rooting for us. And another thing, for months we ate for nothing. We were in every restaurant from Nanticoke to Wilkes-Barre to Scranton. These are things you never forget.&#8221;</p><p>Shepela didn&#8217;t want to forget the Nanticoke reserves, who he called the best practice team the starting five could have. He was the only starter to return for 1962 where the Rams&#8217; season ended in the Eastern State Semifinals.</p><p>&#8220;Everybody on the team worked well,&#8221; Shepela said. &#8220;Looking back at it, there wasn&#8217;t any person who thought they were well above anybody else on the team. We were five guys who worked hard.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Members of the Nanticoke High School boys basketball state championship team ride in a parade the day after winning the state basketball championship in 1961. The team will be honored Friday prior to Nanticoke&#8217;s game against GAR. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_Nanticoke-1961-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Members of the Nanticoke High School boys basketball state championship team ride in a parade the day after winning the state basketball championship in 1961. The team will be honored Friday prior to Nanticoke&#8217;s game against GAR. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta></subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By John Erzar</p><p>jerzar@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>NIGHT TO HONOR 1961 NANTICOKE STATE CHAMPIONS</strong></p><p>Players, cheerleaders and other representatives from the 1961 Nanticoke boys basketball team which won the state championship will be honored Friday. The event is sponsored by the Greater Nanticoke Athletic Recognition Committee.</p><p>5 p.m. &#8212; Reception at Nanticoke H.S. cafeteria</p><p>5:45 p.m. &#8212; GAR at Nanticoke junior varsity game</p><p>7 p.m. &#8212; Ceremony in gymnasium</p><p>7:30 p.m. &#8212; GAR at Nanticoke varsity game</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</p></shirttailMeta></div>

One memorable ride: Nanticoke High 1961 state champs to be honored