Garf

J

JackofVirginia

Active member
As a 17 year old kid ready to attend St.John's in the fall I decided to recruit a team for the well known Flushing Tournament. I was able to secure St. Stanislaus Church to sponsor my team -St.Stan's All Stars. On weekends I would bring a local team to play Holy Rosary parish in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Why B'klyn you ask? Well one of my teammates on our catholic high school team came from that parish. One of his teammates was a kid named Lenny Wilkens. You may have heard of him.
Our first game in the tournament was against the Bayside Nationals (Bayside H.S. team) . We blew them away. This brings me to my first meeting Harvey Garfinkel who coached Momma Leone's, our next opponent. With boith Wilkens and Ray Paprocky playing shooting guard and point guard respectively it was hard for any guards to bring the ball a cross half court. BTW, I should mention Garfinkel's team was loaded with high school stars. One of those stars was Alan Seiden who was also attending St.John's with me. Needless to say Wilkens stuffed Seiden's jumper and was an animal on defense. We were able to upset Garfinkel's loaded team. After the game Seiden wanted to play us for money. I told him to get over it and stop whining. Obviously he was a democrat. Unfortunately we lost the semi final game to a team with a 7 footer going to North Carolina. BTW, Wilkens wasn't playing high school ball at the time. As a result of this tournament he began to get offers. That's all folks!
 
I should have mentioned that Ray Paprocky attended Grover Cleveland H.S.(Ridgewood). Received a scholarship to NYU from Howard Cann who attended the tourney. You probably know that Wilkens played in his senior year in H.S. and received a scholarship from Providence amongst others.
 
As a 17 year old kid ready to attend St.John's in the fall I decided to recruit a team for the well known Flushing Tournament. I was able to secure St. Stanislaus Church to sponsor my team -St.Stan's All Stars. On weekends I would bring a local team to play Holy Rosary parish in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Why B'klyn you ask? Well one of my teammates on our catholic high school team came from that parish. One of his teammates was a kid named Lenny Wilkens. You may have heard of him.
Our first game in the tournament was against the Bayside Nationals (Bayside H.S. team) . We blew them away. This brings me to my first meeting Harvey Garfinkel who coached Momma Leone's, our next opponent. With boith Wilkens and Ray Paprocky playing shooting guard and point guard respectively it was hard for any guards to bring the ball a cross half court. BTW, I should mention Garfinkel's team was loaded with high school stars. One of those stars was Alan Seiden who was also attending St.John's with me. Needless to say Wilkens stuffed Seiden's jumper and was an animal on defense. We were able to upset Garfinkel's loaded team. After the game Seiden wanted to play us for money. I told him to get over it and stop whining. Obviously he was a democrat. Unfortunately we lost the semi final game to a team with a 7 footer going to North Carolina. BTW, Wilkens wasn't playing high school ball at the time. As a result of this tournament he began to get offers. That's all folks!
Click to expand...

Way before my time but love these stories. Seiden was quite the character from what I have heard.
 
Great story, albeit a bit before my time. Having said that, Wilkens was playing for Providence right around the time I was old enough to start following sports. I grew up just off Northern Boulevard, Flushing on 154th street.
 
Nice story until you attacked Democrats. If all Democrats are whiners I guess I could assume that all Republicans are racist. I thought people agreed to keep politics off the board
 
Great story, albeit a bit before my time. Having said that, Wilkens was playing for Providence right around the time I was old enough to start following sports. I grew up just off Northern Boulevard, Flushing on 154th street.
Click to expand...



The tournament was held in the Flushing Armory. I believe it was on Queens Blvd.
 
As a 17 year old kid ready to attend St.John's in the fall I decided to recruit a team for the well known Flushing Tournament. I was able to secure St. Stanislaus Church to sponsor my team -St.Stan's All Stars. On weekends I would bring a local team to play Holy Rosary parish in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Why B'klyn you ask? Well one of my teammates on our catholic high school team came from that parish. One of his teammates was a kid named Lenny Wilkens. You may have heard of him.
Our first game in the tournament was against the Bayside Nationals (Bayside H.S. team) . We blew them away. This brings me to my first meeting Harvey Garfinkel who coached Momma Leone's, our next opponent. With boith Wilkens and Ray Paprocky playing shooting guard and point guard respectively it was hard for any guards to bring the ball a cross half court. BTW, I should mention Garfinkel's team was loaded with high school stars. One of those stars was Alan Seiden who was also attending St.John's with me. Needless to say Wilkens stuffed Seiden's jumper and was an animal on defense. We were able to upset Garfinkel's loaded team. After the game Seiden wanted to play us for money. I told him to get over it and stop whining. Obviously he was a democrat. Unfortunately we lost the semi final game to a team with a 7 footer going to North Carolina. BTW, Wilkens wasn't playing high school ball at the time. As a result of this tournament he began to get offers. That's all folks!
Click to expand...

Way before my time but love these stories. Seiden was quite the character from what I have heard.
Click to expand...



The day after Seiden played his last game for the Johnnies he walked into the clubhouse to tell us he was leaving school. Never finished his last semester.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top