Queens College - Silhouette Yearbook (Queens, NY)

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the same team, minus the spectacular Gaetano, had an almost identical season, emerging with a l5 and 7 slate. ln the Conference, the Knights placed in a tie with .Hofstra for second place honors. Hurley, who shared the award with Gae- tano the year before, won the Regan-Stein Most Valuable Player Trophy. One of the highlights of that season, was the concentration of the great JV Squad, under the brilliant tutelage of Guido Foglia. Considered one of the top fledgling squads in the city, the embryo Knights had a 19 and 3 season, and peo- ple looked to them to supply the varsity with some of the brightest stars in Queens history. The present season started as people

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baseball, tennis, and soccer. At that time, a permanent coaching staff, comprised of physical education teachers, was named, and a genuine effort was exerted to propel Queens, within the limits of its rigid aca- demic standards, to a position of eminence among schools of equal size. The coaches at that time, and they have remained intact with one exception, were Bob Salmons, basketball, Bob Tierney, baseball, George Spitz, tennis, and Glen Howard, Soccer. Bill Madden remained as head of the Outdoor Club and of the very important Recreation Committee of the Physical Education Department. Salmons, former football and hoop ace at Murray State, Kentucky, suffered a usual Queens fate in his first year, drop- ping more than twice as many games as he won. By the '48-49 season, sparked by George Gaetano, Bruce Hurley, and Dewey Sehring, who set an all-time Queens scoring record with 345 points, the Salmonsmen had made a complete about face, compiling a record of T5 wins against 8 losses. The highlight of the sea- son was the Knights' brilliant one point win over Hofstra, after having trailed by T7 points at the half. ln an extra-season game against Hofstra, which began the Greater New York Collegiate Conference, Queens was unable to repeat against the flying Dutchmen and went down to defeat in the opening round. During the '49-50 season, practically

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had expected. Hit hard early in the season by the loss to Uncle Sam of two of the great stars of the former wonder JV'ers, John McShane and Pete Hoban, and the loss by graduation of Shering and Hurley, the two most prolific scorers in Knight hoop history, Queens nevertheless looked like a smooth-working combination in pre-season scrimmages. Sparked by soph- omore Bob Shapiro, who had led the JV with 333 points, co-captains Arnie Markbreiter, and Herb Sessler, Dave lnz, Dan Kostyshyn, Bob Burggraf and Bob Bier, fans looked to the Knights for their greatest season in history. After the first eleven games it looked as though the Knights would far exceed everyone's expectations. After holding powerful, prefix CCNY even until nine minutes before the end when its big men Kostyshyn and lnz fouled out, the Flushingites went on to win ten straight, including a brilliant 80-61 victory over highly-touted Brooklyn College, in what was probably the greatest game a Queens team ever played. Suddenly, however, the Knights lost their touch. Following an extended mid-season layoff, the Salmonsmen came back to drop seven games in a row. Regaining their form they managed to take their next two, but then dropped the season's finale in a fantastic, five-overtime thriller to Cooper Union, 110-105. Shapiro, who scored 317 points was the Knights' big gun, and was honored to a second place berth on the Metropolitan All-Star team by the NYC's sportswriters. Uncle Sam willing, the future looks bright for basketball at Queens. Shapiro, Bier, lnz, and another sophomore, Bill O'Meara, should all be around for several years, along with diminutive Seneca Thompson, a high 144