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Letter to the Editor: Deny ‘Slick Willie’ a return to capital as nation’s ‘co-president’

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Villa Capri Cruisers Car Club awards scholarship to student of Johnson College

<p>KINGSTON &#8212; Every time I walk into the Kingston Armory, I get goosebumps.</p><p>Back in the early 1960s, the Wilkes-Barre Barons basketball team of the old Eastern Basketball League played its home games there.</p><p>Boo Ellis, Bill Keller, Cowboy Krieger, Sherman White, Lavern Tart and many more donned the Barons&#8217; uniform and delighted the crowd night after night.</p><p>The armory was quite the venue back then. Large crowds filled the bleachers and the balcony.</p><p>As the games began, smoke from cigarettes and cigars rose to the ceiling.</p><p>At one end of the armory was the Stegmaier Beer game clock &#8212; which is no longer there. I&#8217;m told it was taken down and sent out for repairs, but hasn&#8217;t been seen for months.</p><p>I was a member of the Junior Barons &#8212; a group of local seventh and eighth graders who were pretty good at basketball. Our starting five included me, Mark Brislin, Mitchell Johnson and Preston Cross, of Meyers, and Tyrone McMullins, of Coughlin.</p><p>We never lost. In fact, we won every game by 30, 40 and 50 points. Sometimes, the visiting team would want to play on 8-foot biddy baskets. Those teams didn&#8217;t realize Johnson, Cross and McMullins could dunk on 10-foot baskets.</p><p>Our coach was &#8220;Pop&#8221; Hughes, who taught us how to make a layup by saying, &#8220;Just lay it in like a basket of eggs.&#8221;</p><p>It was a lot of fun. By halftime of our games, the armory was jammed with people. We played before thousands and the fans loved to watch us. It was a great experience for a bunch of little kids.</p><p>We also got to meet the Barons. Each and every one of the players were gentlemen. They often watched us play and gave us pointers. We were never intimidated by those guys who, for the most part, were taller than most buildings in Kingston.</p><p>The Barons played against great teams from Allentown, Trenton, Sunbury, Williamsport and Scranton whose center, Bill Spivey, was 7-foot tall. Spivey also played for the Barons for a few seasons.</p><p>Chick Craig was another great guy who often &#8220;coached&#8221; us a little.</p><p>As I progressed through high school, I went from being the tallest kid on the junior high team to one of the smaller kids on the varsity. At 6-foot, I had to either alter my game or sit on the bench so I learned to shoot from the outside.</p><p>At Plymouth High School, I dressed varsity in ninth and 10th grades and again as a junior at Plymouth Area, one of three high schools that made up the Wyoming Valley West School District in its first year.</p><p>As a senior at &#8220;monster&#8221; WVW in 1967-68, I was cut from the team. That was difficult because I had looked forward to my senior year for six years. Instead, I was off to the intramural league.</p><p>What made getting cut even more difficult was the fact that the WVW Spartans&#8217; home court was &#8212; you guessed it &#8212; the Kingston Armory, the same place where I had averaged 35 points a game as a Junior Baron. It was a place where I had never lost a game. It was where I learned the value of teamwork and much, much more.</p><p>But in my senior season at WVW, I sat in the balcony with my friends &#8212; all seniors who were really good basketball players &#8212; and cheered for the Spartans.</p><p>It was a painful time.</p><p>When Nanticoke came to the armory, Coach Syl Bozinski sat near us as the fourth quarter of the junior varsity game began. Coach Bozinski told us we better get dressed for the varsity game.</p><p>We told him we had been cut. He told us if he had known that, he would have had us transfer to Nanticoke.</p><p>Something sounded nice about that, but it also sounded so wrong.</p><p>A kid from Plymouth playing for arch-rival Nanticoke? I don&#8217;t think so, Coach.</p><p>I don&#8217;t think I could ever play a game in the Kingston Armory as a member of the visiting team.</p><p>As I watched senior citizens fill the armory last Thursday for the Senior Expo, memories of those days as a Junior Baron and a disappointing senior season consumed me.</p><p>I may have felt a little better if the old Stegmaier clock was still there.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_Oboyle_Bill-2-1-4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle, or email at boboyle@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Beyond the Byline: Remembering basketball days of old