From The Press Box
The Game
By: Jim Lederman
The Winthrop Summer Basketball League was one of the most popular summer sports for Winthrop youth for over 50 years.
The league would hold an all-star game that would attract the top college players and even players from the NBA. 500 fans watched ‘the game’.
The 1976 game attracted Winthrop’s only NBA player, Terry Driscoll, BC High, Boston College and a ‘number one’ NBA draft selection (Detroit Pistons). Terry visited home to watch an all-star squad that featured two Boston College legends – Jimmy O’Brien (New Jersey Nets) who also coached H\Ohio State, Joe Beaulieau, Owen Wells (Pistons) and Dwan Chandler.
Terry was a member of the 1976 NBA championship Milwaukee Bucks.
The Winthrop team had a front court of Ray Anderson (Bentley), Randy Herdt (URI), Kevin Dowd (Boston State) and Chris Tsiotos (Suffolk).
The back court had Chuck Mullane (Holy Cross), Peter Grimes (Salem State) and Nick Tsiotos (Suffolk).
Winthrop trounced the visiting all-stars and the next season, they repeated the victory a second time.
Theh 1960 all-stars played an all-star team with three members of the Boston Celtics Sam Jones, Tom ‘Satch’ Sanders and KC Jones.
The game was played at the old Ingleside Park courts and the estimated crowd was over 1,000 fans.
When will the ‘premier’ summer league return to Winthrop?
Picking Up The Pieces
The front page picture in last weeks Transcript had Matt Emanuelson and his family. Matt is the assistance superintendent for Gilbane Construction on the new middle/high school. Matt was the WHS quarter back in 2001.
Matt returned for the Viking Pride greatest weekend and joined ex-Viking teammates Bobby Kneeland and Luke Guarino on the field.
The reunion of Kneeland and Guarino, brought back memories of a great Viking Thanksgiving comeback in Revere.
Revere led 14-0 before the Vikings scored 28 consecutive points, to record a (28-14) WHS victory. Kneeland and Guarino each scored two touchdowns to lead Winthrop to another Turkey Day victory.
Kudos to Revere coach Lou Cicatelli, leading the South Agganis all-stars to a (27-19) victory in the 55th Annual Agganis Football Classic.
A.J. Winter represented the Vikings. Doug Santos was North MVP with two touchdowns. Doug will play at Assumption College in the fall.
Dan Murphy, Revere quarterback and 2015 NEC MVP, was a South quaerterback. Dan will play at Saint Anselm.
Speaking of Agganis MVP players, Anthony ‘Touchdown Tony’ Palmer scored two touchdowns in a (36-13) victory in 1994. In 2005, ex-Viking all-scholastic quarterback Anthony Fucillo threw the game winning touchdown pass in the South’s (14-7) victory in a game played at Bertram Field in Salem (Manning Field was under construction).
In 2015, ex-Viking quarterback Dylan Driscoll was selected South MVP playing for his dad Sean’s team. Dylan passed for one touchdown and ran for another.
This is MLB – All Star Week! We salute the three “MVP players†from Winthrop High School in prestigious Harry Agganis Football Classic!
I was in Malden last week and drove by MacDonald Stadium. The Vikings and “Golden Tornadoes†will meet in football when the new NEC schedule comes out. The Vikings will play in the NEC Jamboree at Everett Stadium in September.
Viking football practice begins August 19th. 35 days for the start of Viking football.
The New England Patriots begin practice on July 27th!
Alex “AJ†Winter, had an exceptional Agganis all-star game. AJ broke up a couple of key plays from his corner back position. AJ hopes to play at Anna Maria College this season.
Coach Sean Driscoll has two new assistant coaches: James Fucillo, super bowl quarterback on the 2006 championship team and Matthew Love will join Jon Cadigan, Michael DeFelice, Bobby Nimblett and Eric Mack on the Vikings coaching staff.
The Vikings will play the 2016 Thanksgiving game at (HDR) Harry DellaRusso Stadium for the second year in a row. The City of Revere received a $2,720,000 grant through the Gateway Cities Parks’ Program and the Revere City Council authorized a $5.5 million bond. The seating capacity is for 2,000 spectators.
I watched the exciting tennis math – Across the pond in England on Sunday. Andy Murray won the Wimbledon Championship, defeating Milos Raonic from Canada.
Portugal defeated France (1-0) in extra time. The match was in the 109th minute of play.
The Kentucky Derby is called the most exciting ‘two minutes in sports†– in soccer it was 109 minutes to determine the winner.
Let the Games Begin!