St Josephs Collegiate Institute - Star Yearbook (Buffalo, NY)

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Illig snags 3 rebound- The St, 1065-Canisius game starts- BALL would hnish the season in that order. The team wondered where they would fit in while the highly excitable fans had already stopped guessing at how many games we would win and started talking about another champion- ship. ST. jOE'S-38 ST. MARY'S DEAF--20 Our fourth outing was an easy win, enjoyed at the expense of a weak St. lV1ary's quintet. Although the team was never in real trouble, flashy ball handling and sharp cutting forced the first stringers to play a de- fensive game throughout most of the first quarter. As the younger and less experienced five tired, however, St. Joels pulled away, holding a 22-11 advantage at halftime. The second team ran the lead to 33-15 before the third stringers entered, matching an opponent's five points with a like amount to clinch the game, 38-20. Al Illig again led the Saints with six baskets. ST. jOE'S-39 ST. MARY'S, FALLS-25 Win number five, marking the initial contest of our first major road trip which was to bring us into con- tact with Aquinas, Holy Angels and Canisius on rival courts, was another breeze. Seven men, led once more by A1 Illig with twelve points and Dave Hoen with ten, set up a 38 point barrage which proved too much for the Blue and White. sr. 1012's-19 AQUINAS-25 Round one of our trigonous week saw the Maroon five start slowly and never quite pick up enough momentum. Although the first quarter whistle blew with St. Joe trailing 7-3, a sustained bombardment of the Aquinas basket produced enough points to force a halftime tie at 11-all. But where there should have been a third quarter spurt, only two foul shots were advanced to match four baskets dropped in by the home-town boys. Spirited play during the last stanza served to leave us an additional two points in the hole and the final score stood at Aquinas: 25, St. joe's: 19. On the trip home, the bus reverberated with the much repeated figures: 11 out of 14 and 13 out of 16.', The first is the number of foul shots Aquinas made, second is the number we didn't make. ST. jOE'S-22 HOLY ANGELS-28 On the ropes and breathing hard, we were no match for a strong rival who were hepped up for the game. Early in the game it became apparent that the Blue and White were out for their first win over St. joe's in five years and that they were well prepared to exact the victory. Throwing in difficult long shots while the Saints were missing lay-ups and free throws, Holy Angels extended its two point half-time advantage to 21-15 late in the third quarter. From this time in, St. joe's manag- ed to match their opponents, basket for basket, but the six point deficit proved too large to over- Bill Sullivan U'

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fl' ' ii-K dans a iff +A x cp Y ,kr 'Nik J .55 Basketball T 21, . fam: F. 111- . oidz, Hehrr. A. Illig Kg: lgorigo, Krysinski F1 h b k t St joe's Neumann ' - Wh. Miller M' mn' A scramble under t e as e , . - - v ui-ray. BASKET Thanksgiving: turkey and basketball! Two weeks after the last football game, the athletic director had all shoulder pads, jerseys, etc. safely on their way to the cleaners and those leather spheres commonly called hasketballs all shined up and ready for the initial practice session. Under the critical eye of coach Frank Schi- avone, a record turnout of almost one hundred boys melted quickly to a squad of sixteen aspiring basketeers. At first appearance the task of defending the championship won last year did not look very promising. Only Captain Frank Illig, his brother Al, Dave Hoen, Harry Kerr and john Krysinski remained of last year's team and Captain Illig alone had been an important member of that winning combination. Mr. Schiavone appeared undaunted, however, and went about shaping the raw material of the team with the same quiet instruction and uncanny judgment that had brought two championships to the school in his three year tenure as coach. The schedule called for three games before Christmas, so the practice sessions were very long and very strenuous. Things finally did get under way on the twenty-third of December with St. Joe's journeying to Lackawanna to meet Our Lady of Victory. staunch supporters of the team did not think that we were capable of retaining the Bishop Burke Trophy and concerned themselves more with predicting how many games we might win rather than in what position we might finish the season. Thus with the qualifications of a b1ack- horse outfit the Maroon opened defense of the Western New York Catholic High School Basketball League Championship. sT. Joes-33 o. L. v.-zo Our Lady of Victory, always hard to beat on their own court, put up a stiff battle and at half- time the score showed the Saints ahead by only one point, 13-12. At this point, however, Al Illig entered the fray and dropped in nine points to spark a ral1y that put the game on ice. Bill Sullivan and Capt. Bucky Illig contributed eight and seven points, respectively, toward the win. ST. jOE'S-35 AQUINAS-22 The second game, a non-league contest, proved to be easier than expected. Highly-rated Canisius had been hard pressed to down the Flower City aggregation, 45-42, but a tight zone de- fense limited Aquinas to a minimum of points from the floor. Ahead by a basket at halftime, St. Joe's pulled away to a 13-point lead with the third quarter spurt again evident before the re- serves came in. Captain Illig was high with twelve points, while brother Al netted six. 2' ST. jOE'S-19 NEUMANN-30 The Neumann game was a repetition of the first two fracases with St. -1oe's enjoying a 22-13 advantage at halftime and a comfortable 33-16 lead when the reserves entered at the fourth quar- ter mark. It now became evident from experience, observation and reports, that Canisius, Holy Angels, and St. Francis of Athol Springs were the powers in the league and that most probably they Bill O'Connor 'N

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come and the champs, looking like chumps, suffered their first defeat in league competi- tion in two years. ST. jOE'S-52 CANISIUS-29 The Canisius-on-Delaware gymnasium was jammed with enthusiastic basketball fans when game time rolled around on the first. They cheered wildly during the first half as St. joeis established a narrow lead and fought valiantly to maintain it. Both defenses were extremely tight and the halftime score showed St. h1oe's still out in front, 10-9. Resumption of play saw the Saints widen the gap to 15-10 before Captain Murphy' of Canisius threw in two brilliant long shots to keep his team in the game. With only a half minute of playing time remaining, Canisius led, 26-24. Captain Bucky Illig called time out and the boys St. j0e'5.C,-inisius game- paused to look things over. When the referee1s whistle blew time in, the ball went almost im- mediately to A1 Illig who was standing at the intersection of the half court and side lines. In the twinkling of an eye, he had sent the sphere on a long arched journey up near the ceiling. When it came down the ball dropped cleanly through the net to tie the score, put the fans in an uproar and send the game into an extra period. Without a shot having been taken, Bill Sullivan was fouled and received a free throw. The ball hit the back of the rim, bounced back and was promptly thrown through the hoop by the resurgent Sullivan. Seconds later, Don Miller was left unguarded in the heat of battle and dropped in an easy two points. A break-away basket by Laux of Canisius and a foul shot by the same player immediately after kept the Blue and Gold in the game but they knew now that the cause was lost. About five seconds remained when Dave Hoen ended the scoring with another easy basket. ST. jOE'S-4-i OUR LADY OF VICTORY-32 Back on the right road and determined to stay there, St. -1oe's, paced bv the Illig brothers who scored twenty-five points with A1 getting the big half, rolled to win number six by putting on a great fourth quarter display of point getting. At the final rest period O. 1... V. was still in the game, trailing by only one point. When the whistle blew time in, however, it was as though someone had given the Maroon a signal to open up. Three minutes later, the visitors found themselves fifteen points off the pace. They failed to close the gap appreciatively and the concluding tabulation of the score found St. Joe,s the victor, 44-32. ST. jOE'S-33 ST. FRANCIS-31 The accurate foul shooting and confined court at Athol Springs provided two almost insurmountable ob- stacles to the Saints' chalking up league win number seven. A fast, scrappy Red and White five put up a terrific battle to upset the leaders and were denied only in the closing minutes. They led throughout most of the early stages but dropped behind when the fantastic foul shooting accuracy they annually maintain began to fail. Captain Bucky Illig and his brother Al continued to pace the Maroon scorers with eight and nine points, respectively. Two days later in a postponed contest, Canisius handily beat Holy Angels to step into a first place tie with St. joe's and push the Celestials into second place just ahead of St. Francis and Neumann. ST. jOE'S-27 NEUMANN-31 The bubble burst with that suddenness which has become characteristic. The Williamsville cagers, so easily defeated earlier in the season, were hotter than a California cobblestone on their own court before a capacity crowd who must have sensed that a good game was in the offing. Paced throughout by the speeding Eddie Dean, Neumann spurted to a four point advantage in the first quarter. Consistent hard play served to lengthen the Neumann lead to 27-20 as the third quarter ended. A last period rally could do no better than close the gap by three points. ST. jOE'S-55 ST. MARY'S-33 The mid-week contest with St. Mary,s was hardly more than a good workout. Fourteen men helped to roll up quarterly leads of 17-11, 33-13, 43-24, and finally 55-33. The only item of note for the proceedings was Al 11lig's celebration of his sixteenth birthday by scoring twenty-one points. His brother, Captain Illig, and Bill Sullivan each contributed seven counters to the aggregate. ST. jOE'S-32 NICHOLS-30 Continuing their policy of keeping everybody guessing, the unpredictable Saints rolled up a twelve point advantage in the first period before starting to slip. At halftime the score stood at 18-13 but they seemed to of-we A tense moment in the 104