Last night, The Times-Tribune and ESPN Radio WEJL held the 69th annual Athlete of the Week celebration at the Scranton Times Building. The evening was sponsored by Coordinated Health.
For Throwback Thursday, we look back to the Athlete of the Week celebration held on June 9, 1954. That year the event was held at the Hotel Casey and was sponsored by the Globe Store.
The Scranton Times / WEJL Athlete of the Week dinner was held on June 9, 1954 at the Hotel Casey.. Front row left to right – Joe Romanczyk, Dave Mitchell, Don Rogers, guest speaker; Harold W. Lahar, head football coach of Colgate University; Sam Marchese and Don Hall. Second Row – Joe Palmere, Gene Pitoniak, Carmen Stambone, Joe Casarin, Emil (Moe) DeCantis and Pat Dolan. Third Row – Jim Guillon, Tom Needham, Billy Bendowski, John Godek, Billy Judge, Joe Flanagan and Tom Stewart. Times-Tribune Archives
The Scranton Times / WEJL Athlete of the Week dinner was held on June 9, 1954 at the Hotel Casey. Front row left to right – Billy Rinaldi, Jimmy Timlin, Kenny Carey and Tom Oltorik. Second row – Joe Grzenda, Norbert Eiden, Lenny Lavelle and Dick Mennig. Third row – Phil Harding, Vince Cesare, Eddie Cosgrove and Bob Kearney. Times-Tribune Archives
Seeing Billy Rinaldi, Jimmy Timlin and Kenny Carey in the second photo, got me thinking, they are bit young for high school sports. A check of our archives turned up why the three boys were are the dinner. The boys were selected as honorary athletes to represented three charity drives that were underway in the city – Carey represented the March of Dimes, Rinaldi represented the Muscular Dystrophy and Timlin represented Easter Seals.
Brian Fulton has been the librarian at The Times-Tribune for the past 15 years. On his blog, Historically Hip, he writes about the great concerts, plays/musicals and celebrity happenings that have taken place throughout NEPA. He is also the co-host of the local history podcast, Historically Hip. He competed and was crowned grand champion on an episode of NPR quiz show “Ask Me Another.” Contact: bfulton@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9140; or @TTPagesPast
