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 fourth series of moments, the school moves through the Great Depression and after a world war, the school enters a new era as a four-year collegiate institution with a new name. With that period came many changes in the athletic program, from the disappearance of the football program due to both the world war and the Korean War, to the beginning of the school's swim program.

The school, led by Dr. John W. Long, made the transition from a junior college and seminary to a four-year institution during the 1948-49 year, but officially changed its name to Lycoming College in 1947-48. With the transition came record enrollments at the Williamsport campus and the reemergence of tennis.

With no more ado, here are moments 31-40 in our series of 200:

31. Don Manno, 1934-36 – “The guard without a flaw,” was how Coach Earl Z. McKay described Don Manno. A 6-2 lanky guard, Manno was one of the stars on one of the Junior College’s best teams in 1934-35, leading the “Miracle Basketball Team” to a 13-2 record. Also a tackle on the football team and a member of the baseball team, there was no doubt that Manno was a special athlete. After graduating, he went on to West Chester State Teachers’ College and began to play semi-pro baseball after college. The Williamsport High School graduate eventually was signed by the New York Yankees and he spent four years climbing through the minors. In 1940, he led the Three I (Indiana, Iowa and Illinois) League with 19 triples and 113 RBIs and he found himself in the big leagues, with the Boston Bees (now the Atlanta Braves) in September. The highlight of his two-year big league career was when he hit his only career home run, a go-ahead grand slam in the sixth inning to lead the Bees to a 5-4 win over Brooklyn on Sept. 26, 1940. He is the only student-athlete in the history of the school to go on to play in the major leagues. Milt Graff, who played with the Kansas City A’s in 1957-58, went on to attend and graduate Lycoming College after his playing career.

32. Eastern Junior College Championship Team, 1936 – In just its second year competing as a junior college football team, the McKaymen, as they were known around campus, enjoyed one of the best turnarounds in school history, turning an 0-7-1 team into one that finished 1936 with a 4-1 mark. Under the guidance of coach Earl Z. McKay, the team opened the year with a 21-0 win over York Collegiate Institute, as Peanie Gates started off the year with an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. It was a sign of good things to come, as the Junior College rolled by Cook Academy, 57-7, the Dickinson Freshmen, 15-0, and the Western Maryland Freshmen, 20-0. The lone loss came in the season finale to the Army Plebes, 6-0, finishing the year by allowing just 12 points. After the season, the team issued a challenge to claim the Eastern Junior College Championship “throughout the metropolitan and Middle Atlantic States districts, but received no dispute over the title recognition,” the Dickinson Union announced. The team was led by quarterback Louie De Barbieri, who doubled as the team’s kicker and punter, Gates and end Lester Dye.

33. Win over Army Plebes, 1937 – While some of the mystic of Army football may have worn off in the last 14 years, as the team made its only bowl game in 2010 during that period. However, in the 1930s, Army football was one of the elite programs in the country, posting a 36-11-1 (.760) record from 1932-36. Each of those teams was cultivated from the Army Plebes, the team’s freshman squad. One of Earl Z. McKay’s coups as coach of the Dickinson Junior College squad was starting a Thanksgiving day tradition, facing off with the Plebes, beginning in 1932. However, entering 1937, the team had no wins in the series in five years and the games were mostly noted for the miserable weather, garnering the moniker the Mud Bowl. The story was different, on a Wednesday in November 1937, though, as the Junior College travelled to West Point and left with a 6-0 win. A pass interference call on a deep pass to Les Dye in the fourth quarter helped give the team the ball at the 20-yard line and after a pair of runs led to a first down at the 10-yard line and on a fourth-and-goal from the two yard line, a handoff to Ralph Cordisco drove in from the right side for the only score of the game. When the team returned to campus, it was greeted with a feast before a pep rally was held in the chapel. A victory parade and “an impromptu band toured the streets of Williamsport.” A bonfire followed the parade celebrating one of the largest wins in the school’s history.

34. Kenny Stofer, 1937-38 – Along with Ralph Cordisco, Kenny Stofer provided one of the best running tandems in the Dickinson Junior College era. From Olmstead Falls, Ohio, Stofer lettered for two years in football, basketball and baseball. Stofer was a star on the team that finished 5-1 in 1937 and posted wins over long-time thorns in the side of the program, the Army Plebes and Wyoming Seminary. In 1938, he was even better, posting a 4-2-1 record and finishing second on the team in scoring with 26 points. During his last year at the junior college, Stofer also spent some time behind center, passing for a touchdown in a pair of games. Stofer went on to spend two seasons at Cornell University, serving as a captain in 1941, and helping the team to an 11-5 record in his two years. After World War II, Stofer spent a year with the Buffalo Bisons in the All-America Football Conference, a challenger to the NFL and an early precursor to the American Football League. As the team’s quarterback, Stofer tossed a touchdown, ran for 36 yards, caught a pass and served as one of the team’s punters. In 1947, he moved on to play semi-pro football in upstate New York before hanging up his cleats. Stofer passed away in 2006.

35. War-time Basketball, 1942-43, ’44-45 – Everything changed in America on Dec. 7, 1941. With World War II under way, the look and feel of athletics in colleges, high schools and even professional sports immediately underwent massive challenges. Dickinson Junior College’s teams were no exception. Football was discontinued immediately. However, in 1942-43, the basketball team survived, even though the schedule didn’t begin until after Christmas. Part of what the team lost during the 3-6 season was Earl Z.  McKay, who left to serve in the war effort as a Red Cross Field Director after nine years as the head coach of the team. In 1943-44, the school dropped interscholastic sports, only playing intramural sports. Rollie Hain guided the team during the 1942-43 season and continued to coach the team in 1944-45, but that season ended after just two games when three men left the team for the service. Bill Edwards left for the Air Corps, Bob Smith chose the Navy and Bob Bevington headed to the Coast Guard. The next year, the team played a full schedule of 13 games.

36. Charlie Weeks, 1943 – A sharpshooting forward, Charlie Weeks was the star of the wartime basketball team at Dickinson Junior College, posting 125 points in nine games in 1942-43, good for an average of 13.9 points per game. Weeksie, a native of Warsaw, N.Y., also served as the vice president of the sophomore class that season.

37. T. Sherman Stanford, 1946-47 – With World War II completed, the Junior College looked back through its annals, much like it had for Earl Z. McKay, and found Sherman Stanford. The quarterback on the 1931-32 football teams, he helped the team win the state prep title in his first year with the team. He went on to get degrees from Thiel College and Penn State before rejoining the Junior College after the war. Stanford picked up the dormant program and guided it to a 3-3 record. In 1947, he helped the team to a 3-2-3 mark in the school’s first as Lycoming College, including an impressive 18-6 win over Wyoming Seminary, the seminary’s long-time rival. After his second year with the football program, Stanford handed the program over to his assistant coach, Lee Baer, and continued to serve as the school’s director of admissions.

38. Bob Smith, 1946-56 – An economics and history professor from Lock Haven State Teachers College, Bob Smith spent a decade as the coach of the school’s basketball program, guiding the program into a four-year program and eventually into the NCAA. After the basketball program at the junior college struggled through the war, Smith came on board in 1946-47 and immediately led the team to a three-win improvement. In 1947-48, as the school changed its name to Lycoming College and became a four-year institution, Smith led the team to a 12-5 record. In the next season, Smith guided the team through its first varsity year playing only four-year colleges and the team suffered its only losing season with him at the helm. Just two years later, he guided the team to a 16-3 record, posting the best winning percentage in school history in 1950-51. Smith also led his teams to two undefeated campaigns at the Hilltop Gym and he served as the school’s athletic director from 1951-53. In all, Smith led his hardwood squads to an 119-81 (.595) record and he coached three of the school’s 1,000-point scorers. After a decade with the program, Smith stepped down as basketball coach to focus on his role as athletic director, where he stayed until 1957.

39. First Swim Team, 1947-48 – As the school went through the transition from a junior college to a college, it also gave the athletic program a new opportunity. While local high schools and junior colleges didn’t sponsor the sport, several colleges in Pennsylvania did sponsor swimming. So, in the first year of Lycoming College and the school’s last as a junior college, the school finally made interscholastic use of the Hilltop Gym pool, which had been built with the gym in 1924. With Don Felix as head coach, the team struggled to a 1-4 start, but finished with three straight wins, posting home-and-home victories over Wyoming Seminary and a year-end win over Lock Haven to finish at .500. Bill McKinley was the star of the team. Although he struggled with an illness for most of the season, the “Cat” won all but one of his races during the season, finishing second in the 100-yard freestyle against Scranton.

40. Don Felix, 1946-50 – Hired in 1946, Donald J. Felix, who came to Lycoming after working for eight years at Pennsylvania YMCAs and Stevens Junior High School for three years, was hired to bring a swimming program to the junior college. The director of physical education, Felix set to work on doing just that, and in 1947, he guided the school’s first intercollegiate swim program, helping it to a .500 record. As the school made the transition to a four-year institution, Felix continued to take on new responsibilities. In 1948, he became the Dean of men while keeping his title as the swimming coach. However, tragedy struck in 1950, when he passed away after battling a heart issue. In the school newspaper, the Lycoming Courier, he was eulogized, “Those of us who were privileged to know Dean Felix both as a teacher and friend will long remember his devotion to the many tasks he was called upon to perform. The cheerful manner in which he carried out each duty should serve as a guide for all of us.” With his death, the swim team also left campus before coming back when the school joined the Middle Atlantic Conference in 1957-58.

We hope you enjoyed our fourth look at 200 Memories. Stay tuned on Friday, Oct. 14, as moments 41-50 will be released, with moments capturing the rest of the transition to from Dickinson Junior College to Lycoming College.

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.