200 Memories Central

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Welcome back to our celebration of 200 moments, memories, coaches and student-athletes from the history of Lycoming College athletics. In this fifth series of moments, the school hits its stride as a four-year institution, joins the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the Middle Atlantic Conference. New sports appear on campus and football pulls off another great upset.

Along the way, the athletic department added three new coaches that each spent the better part of the next two decades laying the building blocks of success that made Lycoming College one of the elite athletic programs in the NCAA Division III in the 1990s.

With no more ado, here are moments 41-50 in our series of 200:

41. What’s in a name?, April 1948 – In the early years of the college, Dickinson Seminary’s athletic identity usually revolved around the head coach/athletic director at the time. In the 1920s, the football team took on the moniker of the “Swartzmen” for head coach Cardy Swartz and in the 1930s, it became the “McKaymen” for coach Earl Z. McKay. In the official publications of the Seminary and Junior College, the Dart yearbook and the Union newspaper, a consistent nickname was never used. However, after World War II, with the school quickly changing from a junior college to a four-year school, it seemed a good time to rebrand the school’s athletic identity. In October 1947, the cheerleaders announced a vote to give the College new school colors, with blue and gold replacing the Seminary’s gold and white. Later in the month, after the board changed the name of the College to Lycoming, athletic director T. Sherman Stanford told a newspaper reporter that a nickname would be chosen for all the athletic teams and a Williamsport Sun survey received the suggestions of: Indians, Chiefs, Warriors, Redskins, Susquehannocks and Braves, playing off the Native American heritage of the word Lycoming. In 1947-48, the College newspaper, the Courier, seemed favorable to calling the team the Braves, but in the Bulletin, a newsletter for the College, the team was referred to as the “Warriers” as early as late October in 1947. In 1948-49, the athletic program officially adopted the Warriors moniker and an Indian head logo was designed. Although the logo was dropped in 2004 as the NCAA encouraged athletic programs to remove American Indian mascots, the Warriors nickname, much like it did in 1947, stuck.

42. Jack Sowers, 1947-51 – The first great scorer in the history of the Lycoming College men’s basketball team, Jack Sowers is the first 1,000-point scorer in school history. Originally enrolled in 1947 when the school was still a junior college, Sowers was a star for the team from his first day on campus. As a sophomore, while the team struggled in its first season playing only other four-year colleges, Sowers starred, scoring 275 points and setting a school-record with 32 points against Wilkes. After that 2-19 season, he helped lead the Warriors to success soon after, as the team improved to a school-best 16-3 mark in his senior year. Sowers averaged 18.7 points during that season and he finished his career with 1,016 points. Sowers was also one of the tennis team’s top players.

43. Joining the Club, 1951-52 – Although the athletics program seemed to struggle with administrative support in the early ’50s, the administration worked hard to ensure an athletic future at the college. With the Korean War going strong, the college discontinued football and the swim program ended with the death of coach Don Felix in 1950, leaving just three sports on campus, baseball, basketball and tennis. Still, the school pressed ahead and athletic director Bob Smith and President John W. Long made significant headway in 1951-52 when the school was voted into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC). In 1952-53, the school became a member of the Middle Atlantic Conference, helping the school stand in a league with many natural rivals such as Susquehanna, Juniata, Elizabethtown and Lebanon Valley. Still there were issues, as the school had to comply with the MACs rules that freshmen couldn’t compete unless sports were added. With the addition of football, wrestling, swimming, golf and soccer between 1954 and 1957, the Warriors came into compliance with the regulations and began to build into a strong department. By 1960, the Middle States Association reported, “The program in intercollegiate athletics for men is an ambitious one, both in terms of number of sports and of the time and money spent. It appears to be well run and effective, and certainly in the best spirit of amateur athletics.”

44. 10 Bucks and a Yes Vote, 1954 – Tom Aubrey, a fan of Lycoming College football from his days at the school until he passed away, made the phrase “10 Bucks and a Yes Vote” famous at Lycoming College with his retrospective of the college’s football team released in 2000. The football program, one of the strongest sources of pride in the athletic department at Dickinson Seminary and Dickinson Junior College, was hit hard by World War II, when it was discontinued from 1942-45 due to travel restrictions. After it was continued again after the war, the program struggled and when the Korean War took a big portion of the eligible male student-athletes in 1951, the program was cut again. In 1954, the College discussed bringing back the program yet again. The Board of Trustees approved the sport, as long as the student body approved an increase of $10 in their activities fee. The student body overwhelmingly approved the increase and the Lycoming College football tradition was born.

45. David Busey, 1954-74 – With the reinstatement of the football team in 1954, Lycoming went about the process of hiring a new coach. After a national search, the school found David Busey. A member of the U.S. Navy during World War II, Busey coached four different Navy teams at bases around the world. An assistant coach at the University of Illinois, his alma mater, before the war, Busey had a long history with the game before stepping foot on campus, and he quickly proved a wise choice. In his first year, though the Warriors went 0-6, he made some important decisions that were key to the team’s future success. He brought in 75 men and cut no one from that initial team and in 1956, just two years later, he fielded the College’s first winning team as a member of the NCAA, finishing 5-3. In the next two years after that, the Warriors went 12-2-1. By the time he retired from the football program in 1966, he had coached 10 All-MAC selections, 13 All-Americans and won a then-school-record 41 games. Busey stayed on for another decade as the school’s athletic director and also served as the team’s golf coach. He was inducted into the school’s athletics hall of fame in 1988.

46. Vince Leta, 1950-54 – When Jack Sowers graduated, he passed the torch onto one of the greatest basketball players in school history. Vince Leta, a powerful forward, averaged 12.1 points per game as a freshman before his scoring average jumped 7.5 points as a sophomore. By his junior year, as he averaged 27.8 points and 17.3 rebounds per game, he had already set the school record for points. With a school-record 30.9 scoring average in 1953-54, he set another school record and more than half a century later, he still holds eight school career and single-season marks and his 1,834 points is still third in school history. His scoring average as a senior was the second-best mark in the NCAA and his 46 points against Bloomsburg in 1952 is still the school record. Meanwhile, Leta’s teams were some of the best in school history, as the team recorded a 61-21 record while he was on campus, winning 16 games in a season three times. Leta went on to be drafted in the ninth round of the NBA draft by the Philadelphia Warriors and he was a member of the famed Washington Generals for two tours with the Harlem Globetrotters. He also played with the U.S. All-American Basketball All-Stars in South America and when he settled down in Williamsport, he played in the Eastern Basketball League with the Williamsport Billies, the Wilkes-Barre Barons and the Hazleton Hawks. He was inducted into the Central Pennsylvania Basketball Hall of Fame and the Lycoming College Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986.

47. Ending Juniata’s Streak, Oct. 13, 1956 – Just two years after reinstating the football program, the Warriors produced three wins. It was in the third year, 1956, that the team began to truly believe in itself and the system under head coach David Busey. With Methodist All-Americans Ken Polcyn and Red White leading the charge, the Warriors pulled off one of the greatest upsets in the history of the school. Juniata came to College Field with a 25-game unbeaten streak, the longest streak in the nation besides Oklahoma’s, and the Warriors came away with a 13-6 win. Early in the game, Athletics Hall of Famer John Joe gave the Warriors some momentum, scoring on a 10-yard run. However, the Indians tied the game before halftime with a long run. Both teams fought through the third quarter and then the Warriors struck again, as Frank Agnello found John Grier for a 25-yard score in the fourth quarter and the Warriors hung on from there. Classes were suspended on the Monday after the game and the whole school celebrated the historic win.

48. Jimmy Sughrue, 1957 – Jimmy Sughrue’s name became synonymous with Williamsport sports from the time he was 11 years old. A third baseman on the Maynard Little League All-Stars, Sughrue was one of the stars of the first Little League World Series, then known as the National Little League Tournament, helping the team take the tournament title. A decade later, Sughrue was a star third baseman and a team captain at Lycoming College. As a junior, he became the first winner of the Outstanding Athlete Award, then known as the Tomahawk Award and in 1991, he was inducted into the school’s athletics hall of fame.

49. Budd Whitehill, 1956-93 – When Budd Whitehill came to Lycoming College to start the wrestling program in 1956, he was just two years removed from the end of a career as a minor league pitcher, having moved around from Quebec to Kentucky. He was also just two years removed from an Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference wrestling title at Lock Haven State Teachers’ College. For the next 37 years, until his death, Whitehill embodied the image that the athletic department came to embrace. He was tough-as-nails, but someone who cared about creating a family-like environment. He began at the college as an assistant football and head wrestling and baseball coach. He stopped coaching baseball in 1963 to focus on wrestling and football before becoming the head football coach in 1966. He spent five years in the dual role before encouraging the hiring of his assistant, Frank Girardi, to take over the football team. Meanwhile, he truly left his mark on the mat. The numbers themselves are astounding. Among numerous other honors, Whitehill coached 11 teams that finished amongst the NCAA’s top 20 and four amongst the top 10. He mentored the school’s first MAC champions in 1962 and added nine more titles after that.  He coached 38 All-Americans, 66 conference champions and four national champions. His overall career record was 376-172-6 (.683) and he is a member of the Lycoming (1993), Lock Haven Wrestling (1991) and NCAA Wrestling Division III (1991) halls of fame.

50. Nels Phillips, 1959-78 – A graduate of Springfield College, Nelson Phillips came to Lycoming College in 1959, taking over the position of George Lawther, who had served as coach of the men’s soccer, men’s basketball and men’s tennis teams from 1957-59. Phillips, like his predecessor, coached all three sports, but he spent just three years as the basketball coach, guiding the team to a nine-win season in 1960-61, the program’s most in four years. However, the hiring of Dutch Burch as head baseball and basketball coach in 1962 helped Phillips focus on his roles as the soccer and tennis coach. He ended up spending 19 seasons on the bench with the men’s soccer program, retiring in 1978 as the program’s then-leader in all-time victories with 54 wins, coaching 11 all-conference players. On the courts, he was even better, coaching for 20 years and helping the team to 12 winning seasons and two appearances in the conference playoffs. He still holds the school-record in tennis with 111 career wins.

We hope you enjoyed our fifth look at 200 Memories. Stay tuned on Friday, Oct. 28, as moments 51-60 will be released, with moments capturing the period from 1959-1963, including the school’s first MAC champions.
As always, if you feel we missed an event or two that can be deemed a memorable moment or a memorable student-athlete, please share them. Tell us why they are special and any information you may have about that moment or person by contacting Sports Information Director Joe Guistina at guistina@lycoming.edu. Special addendums with your feedback will be released following the conclusion of the list in 2012.