West Philadelphia High School - Record Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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N Tl-lE opening gome of the N38 seoson, West Philly hod but one thought in mind to defeot the defending chompion, Northeost, This we succeeded in doing by o score of 8 to O, The first score of the gome presented itself in the third period, when Neol Hoekstro, hord-running bocla, oided bv John McDowell, scored from the eighteen-yord morkt Loter in the gome, the West Philly line croshed through the defense to block o punt, which wos recovered in the end zone bv North- eost This gove our boys o morgin of eight points over Northeost, The next gome found the Speedboys focing o strong Germontown foe, which held our teom to o scoreless tie, The l-lockmen hod severol scoring opportunities, but were unoble to cross their opponents' gool line, West Philly rose victorious in the next encounter, which wos with o strong Fronk- tord eleven, The Pioneers led West Philly, fourteen first downs to one, but Western led the score ond won the gome, The only score for the Speedboys come in the first ouorter, when Bobe Gekoski returned o punt sixty yords for o touchdown. l-en Zoroff's educoted toe kicked the extro point, which proved the winning one of the gome, The score wos in West PhilIiy's fovorj 7 to 6, The next victim of the l-lockmen wos Southern, bowing by o score of l8 to O. Gekoski to Shirley, ond Burns to l-loekstro proved the winning combinotions for the Speedboys, os most of the offense wos by oir, Western's victory morch wos cut short by o strong Centrol teom Their mighty mochine proved too much for our defense, thus the Speedboys bowed to tho Mirrors, lo to O This defeot shottered the teom's chonces for the Ieogue chompionship. A well-orgonized Uverbrook teom held our worriors to o O to U tie in the trodi- tionol bottle on Armistice Dov Credit is due to Neil l-loekstro for his fine punting, ond to Dove Willioms for his defensive ploy. On Turkey Dov the Speedboys took the field ogoinst the Burrs of West Coth- olic, in the onnuol clossic. After o tzght tussle, the Speedboys emerged victorious, winning by' o score of 3 to O, A field gool from the fifteen-yord mork proved to be the morgin of victory for West Philly The Speedboys hod the boll deep in their opponents territory on severol occosions, but were not oble to push over o touch- down ln the third period Len Zoroff dropped bock ond kicked the pigskin over the crossbor, goining the victory for Western FOOTBALL Q Q ,f Back Row-Coach Hackman, Manager Cohen, Dougherty, Hake, Briner, Hoekstra, Sigholtz, Gekoski, Pinarean, Manager Ricci, Assistant Coach Hoffman. Middle Row-Hunter, Zaroff, Miller, McDowell, Williams, Earley, Davis, Milligan. Front Row-Evans, Scott, Burns, Phayre, Warren, Shirley, Walker, Druse. Twenty-nine

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Twenty-eight LETTERMEN MILLER PERICLES CURTIS KLEYLA CALLOWHILL SILVERMAN WILTBANK LEVENTON WALDOW BRADFORD LEVICK FAILOR SEIDMAN

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HE Speedboys, under the direction of Coach Harr, got off to a good start in their V339 campaign, by defeating Central High, in a high scoring battle. At the end of the game the scoreboard read West Philly l7, Central 2, Miller did the twirling for West, with Gekoski behind the plate The hitting of Burns, Gekoski, and Curtis was an important factor in Western's victory, Benjamin Franklin High, with their newly organized team, was the next opponent for West Philly. The Speedboys managed to come through on top of a 7 to 6 score, Lawrence and Gekoski were the batteries for Western. Western was trailing in the fourth inning, but Sterner hit a home run, which tied the score. Seidman then doubled and was driven home with the winning run by Cain, The Speedboys kept in stride by defeating Overbrook, lfl to ll, Two of Western's runs were homersedriven out by Bill Burns and Al Sterner ln this game Babe Gekoski was behind the plate for West, and he received the pitches of Erv, Miller, ln the next game, which was with Gratz, Cain and Lawrence pitched a great game for West, winning by a score of 4 to 3. West Philly's third baseman, Bill Whitehouse, won the game in the last inning by driving the ball over the right field wall, for a home run. Western's victory march was continued by a well-deserved win over a powerful Northeast team, by a score of 3 to 2, Western was in a tight spot in the ninth, the bases were loaded with Archives, and there were two outs. Smith, of Northeast, hit a ground ball to Seidman, who relayed to first, The throw was wide, and the runner was safe on first, however, a relay to home caught the runner scoring and Western's victory was pulled out of the fire by the quick thinking of Seidman and Gekoski. ln the next ti't the Speedboys played fine ball and defeated Frankford, de- fending champions, by a score 7 to 4. Roxborough next fell before the Westernites by a score of 7-6 Traveling to Southern, Coach Harr's boys nosed out the Rams of South Philadelphia by a one run margin, the score was 4 to 3. After defeating Germantown, in the next game by a score of l6 to 6, the Speedboys were declared to be the Public High Baseball Champions. Praise is due to Coach Al Harr for bringing the championship to West Philly during his first year on the coaching job. Under the leadership of captains Gekoski, Curtis, and Miller our team has achieved its goal, the City Championship, This is the first time Western has held the cup since l92B. BASEBALL Last Row-Dougherty, Ford, Murray iMgr.l, Sterner, Sigholtz, 0'Barr, Gekoski lCapt.l, Kohler lMgr.l, Miller lCapt.l, Harr lCoachl. Middle Row-Laurence, Seidman, Curtis lCapt.l, Whitehouse, Loesche, Wiltbank, Klein, Burns. First Row-Boston, Pepino, Cain. Thirty li