St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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WE were not introduced to the hoopgame at St. Sebastian's until the Winter of our Sophomore year. In 1942-43, when we were Freshmen, the School had elected to con- serve oil in the interests of the War effort, and had closed the gym in order to save some thousands of gallons of the precious fluid. That meant, of course, that we had to forego Basketball, and, naturally, the sacrifice was made cheerfully. From the con- versation of the older students we learned that St. Sebastian's had launched upon a limited competitive schedule for its basket- makers during the very first year of its existence, and that the School quintet had engaged the intermediate teams of local parishes with encouraging success. The early Winter of '43, however, found the court game resumed on Nonantum Hill once more, but it was forced to contend with a rival sport, Hockey, that was just being born in our midst. Despite the magnetic lure of the ice game, Basketball attracted its share of candidates, who were only too willing to put themselves under the tutelage of Coach Murphy and Fr. Collins. Building on the veterans of the '41-'42 season, we fielded 2 team that had Captain George Baker at center, '46's Dan Sullivan and Dick Tonner, forwards, and Bob Baker and Bill O'Leary guards. These worthies faced a schedule that was a far cry from the humble beginning of two years before, St. Sebastian's was now attempting to match the skill and stamina of top-flight private school quintets that had long been specialists at the game. O I ,li Our start was promising enough, for in its initial appearance the team managed to nose out Browne and Nichols in our cage by the slender margin of 26-24. The tension was high in that contest, and George Baker's effective covering of the enemy's Adler was in great measure responsible for our triumph. After tasting the cup of victory early, we were forced to wait some time before it came to our lips again. In three successive contests, Belmont Hill, St. Mary's and Weston High -all experienced and smooth-working units ipinned defeat upon us. Only in one of these meetings were we definitely outclassed, how- ever, and that Was in Southborough when the St. Mark's boys uncorked a scoring hurricane against us with a 78-20 score. The Belmont Hill tilt was a close affair, 19-17, and the Weston game could have been ours easily enough if we had a little more sharpshooting to avert a 28-21 reverse. Victory returned, however, when we engaged Rivers and Belmont Hill, defeating them 22-16 and 32-30, respectively. In the Rivers win, Dan Sullivan proved the hero of the day when he chalked up half of our total points. Against Belmont Hill, it was extremely gratifying to administer our opponents a 2 point defeat, the same dose that they had dealt us in our first meeting. As events turned out, the Rivers and Belmont Hill victories were the last laurels in store for us that season. The remaining contests with Weston High, Cambridge School and Rivers all had to be entered in the red, even though our hoopsters emerged bloody but unbowed. To close out the season, the first Red-Blue Basketball

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Vlurphy wins a face-off and hustles in pursuit of thc rubber disc Paul McGrath imlnortalizes the puck that he stopped so often in our 2-1 victory over Malden At the Hockey-Basketball Banquet on March 18th, deserved tribute was paid to the icemen of '45-'46 in words of praise and in the awarding of handsome jackets, bearing the Sehool's insignia. Their record of 12 wins, 2 ties and 2 defeats was another phenomenal success that served as a magnet to draw the attention of Greater Boston to St. Sehastian's. Mul faces off against Davis ofSt. Clement s with Slattery waiting for a pass Mulhern Murphy Slattery McAuliffe Gibbons SCORING RECORD GOALS 33 Ellard 13 McCarthy 13 Boyle 6 Egan 3 PRECIOUS TROPH Y Catholic

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