Throughout the 20th Century and in virtually every city in the industrial northeast, the model was the same. Thousands of Catholic neighborhood grammar schools, which were run for the most part by teams of fiercely dedicated but virtually non-paid nuns, would act as feeder schools and would channel hundreds of thousands of strapping, well-trained young Catholic boys and girls into what was, invariably, a handful of giant regional high schools operated by the diocese.
Except in Syracuse.
The Syracuse Parochial League was an oddity even by Central New York standards. It was ten tiny schools, all of them within the city limits, and all of them K through 12. What’s more, because that city that spawned them was little more than a loosely knit collection of neighborhoods, each of them steeped in one European culture or another, the ten tiny schools of the Syracuse Parochial League mirrored almost perfectly the ethnic makeup of the neighborhoods that spawned them.
The league’s run was short, even by today’s standards, as such landscape-shifting phenomena as the interstate highway system, urban renewal, the Church’s Second Ecumenical Council, and a sudden, often racially motivated migration to the suburbs that began in the 1950’s and reached its peak in the 1960’s (spurred by what was being called “white flight”) soon conspired to change the makeup of the city and Catholic Church forever and lead to the demise of Syracuse’s blue collar (and largely white) immigrant neighborhoods, not to mention the ten tiny schools of the Parochial League.
These are those ten schools.
Assumption Academy
Location: 800 block of North Salina Street in the heart of the city’s North Side
Opened: ?????
Closed: 1982
Nickname: Royals
Home floor: Rock-hard, tiled and parquet-style playing surface, shared shower room, second-floor locker rooms and bleachers that looked down on the action, balcony-style
Noteworthy players: Carl Wenzel, Bill Heppler, Brad Hooper, Mike Wenzel, Kevin Brazell, John Hanley, Jerry Kessler, Don Hoffsher, Tony Galeazzi, Len Bartosch, John Weber, Bob Hollembaek, Jim Carno, Bob Tenenini, Joe Aiello
Unofficial taverns: Pastime Athletic Club, Aunt Josie’s, Weber’s, Liederkranz Club, Tino’s Pizza
Cathedral Academy
Location: 420 North Montgomery Street, in the heart of the city
Opened: 1915
Closed: 1972
Nickname: Montgomery Streeters
Home floor: The tiny school had no gym, forcing its teams to play home games in multiple facilities over the years, most notably Danforth School, the Jefferson Street Armory, Central High School, the Boy’s Club, and Vocational High
Noteworthy players: Tom Burns, Bobby Quirk, Jake Costello, John Dillon, Bill Holler, Bob Mack, Larry Jefferies, Bob Rayo, Bud Coolican, Ron Wilcox, Dick Dwyer, Bob Nicholson, Dick Casey, Dave Johnson, Billy Benz
Unofficial taverns: Brass Rail
Most Holy Rosary School
Location: 1031 Bellevue Avenue on the city’s far Southwest Side
Year opened: 1915
Closed: 1978
Nickname: Heightsmen
Home floor: There were actually two gyms, plus a spell between the two when the school played its home games in J.T. Roberts Elementary and VO High School. The first Rosary gym burned to the ground in the late 50’s. The second, which opened in 1960, was the best lit and most well appointed gymnasium in the league with new backboards, new, roomier locker rooms, and arguably its tightest, least forgiving rims.
Noteworthy players: T.J. Sheridan, Bill Timmins, Bob Hayes, Bill Byrne, Pat Kennedy, Dick McCarthy, Jim Shults, Dick Kompf, Maurice Lavallee, Bob Barry, John McGarry, Jim Pfeiffer, Jack McCarthy, Bill Schmidt, Jim Murray
Unofficial taverns: Garzone’s, Velasko Inn, Westwood Inn
Sacred Heart School
Location: Park Avenue on the West Side
Opened: 1955 (high school)
Closed: 1975
Nickname: Hearts
Home floor: One of the newest facilities in the league, with relatively ample seating, a halo of windows circling the top of the floor, a relatively large stage for folding chairs, and modern glass backboards. And before that gym was constructed, the school split its home games between Frazer School and VO.
Noteworthy players: Mark Bowka, Gene Fisch, Rich Pospiech, Ron Stepein, John Szczech, Jody Markowski, Ron Micho, Pete Schmid, Stan Sieradzen, Jim Klimaszewski, Mike Hanley
Unofficial taverns: Old Port, St. Louis Club, Leo Bielski’s, Val’s/Billy E’s, Polish Home
St. Anthony of Padua School
Location: Corner of Midland Avenue and Colvin Street on the city’s South Side
Opened: 1925
Closed: Early 1970’s
Nickname: Paduans
Home floor: A horseshoe of bleachers looking down upon two wooden half-moon backboards, virtually no out-of-bounds area and playing floor affectionately referred to by the screaming, rabid Paduan faithful as “the pit”
Noteworthy players: Ray Flynn, Lenny Mowins, Don Savage, Bob Glessing, Dave Rose, Sanford Heim, Frank Woolever, Bill Feyerabend, Chuck Kraft, Marty Shiel, Mike Kitts
Unofficial taverns: Enrico’s, McCarthy’s
St. John the Baptist School
Location: 406 Court Street on the city’s Northeast Side
Opened: 1890 (high school)
Closed: 1975
Nickname: Vikings
Home floor: The most spacious gym in the Parochial League, which admittedly is small praise, with firm backboards, a well-maintained floor and an arched ceiling
Noteworthy players: Jim Satalin, Fran Satalin, John Riley, Greg Duda, Paul Gilchriest, Mike Kondra, Lou Snow, Butch O’Brien
Unofficial taverns: Danzer’s, Pastime Athletic Club, Weber’s
St. John the Evangelist Academy
Location: Northeast corner of Willow and State Streets, just blocks from downtown
Opened: 1884
Closed: 1968
Nickname: Eagles
Home floor: There was no gym, forcing the team, like Cathedral, to play in multiple facilities over the years, most notably North High and Grant Junior High, while practicing in any number of locations, such as nearby Prescott School.
Noteworthy players: Tom Downey, John Zych, Bob Dietz, Jack Underwood, Bob Kallfelz, Al Nelson, Dick Nendza, Bill Franey, Pete Ganley, Billy Jones, Al Denti, Jim Benz
Unofficial taverns: Eastwood Sports Center, Carmen’s Drug Store (student hangout), Tino’s Pizza
St. Lucy’s School
Location: Gifford Street on the city’s Lower West End, in a working-class Irish and Italian neighborhood
Opened: 1892
Closed: 1972
Nickname: Lucians
Home floor: A free standing building that sat across Gifford Street from the church, school and rectory, it was, nevertheless, still small even by Parochial League standard
Noteworthy players: Lloyd Chisholm, Ormie Spencer, Chuck Bisesi, Milt Fields, Bob Canty, Rob Eden, Bob Alexander, Mark Higgins, Norman Reeves, Bob Bregard, Lou Moore
Unofficial taverns: Merten’s Grill, Mahley’s, Eagle Cafe, Welcome Inn, Oswego Tavern, Hofbrau
St. Patrick’s School
Location: 300 North Lowell Avenue, at the base of Tipperary Hill on the city’s West Side
Opened: 1911
Closed: 1973
Nickname: Irishmen
Home floor: The smallest and perhaps oldest gym in the league, with abnormally low ceilings, soft rims and even softer wooden, dog-eared backboards, along with any number of “dead spots” on its time-worn and spongy hardwood floor
Noteworthy players: Leo McInerney, Jack Briaddy, Joe Karpinski, J.J. Harrison, Tom Hutchison, Mickey Flynn, Gary DeYulia, Mark Regin, Mark Sierotnik, Joe Boehm, Gene Bausinger, Jim Dorsey
Unofficial taverns: Coleman’s, Blarney Stone, Nibsy Ryan’s, James Restaurant, ?????
St. Vincent de Paul School
Location: Burnet Avenue on the East Side
Opened: 1931
Closed: 1970
Nickname: Saint Vees
Home floor: The most peculiar in the league with a tiny stage that sat almost on the court, cramped sidelines, limited bleacher seating and a conspicuously low ceiling, made lower by an 4’ protrusion running crosswise over one basket, leaving a shooting clearance of roughly 12’
Noteworthy players: Billy Jenkins, Bob Kawa, Chuck Sammons, Butch Lipke, Bernie Lampe, Bob Hughes, John LaFex, Marty Laws, Ed Ducar, Mike Kawa, Frank Sammons
Unofficial taverns: Blaich’s, Eastwood Sports Center
The Parochial League
By Ron Blakeman
St. John the Evangelist, Class of 1960
Parochial means limited, but not in heart
In this city the league played a big part
You remember the schools and the memories surface
Categorizing them all with a meaningful purpose
There was St. Anthony’s, Assumption and St. John the Baptist
Cathedral, St. Lucy’s and St. John the Evangelist
St. Patrick’s and Most Holy Rosary weren’t far apart
And don’t forget St. Vincent’s and Sacred Heart
They say basketball is a tall man’s game
But the Parochial League made big look tame
The players may not have been very tall
But on the court they never played small
The expertise of their coaches inspired them clearly
Allowing them to pay with abandonment and fury
The spirit displayed on a cold winter night
Kept the fans warm and was sure to excite
The decades flew by, one by one
Each school had a hero comparable to none
You pass the school site, just on a whim
Quietly listening, you can still hear, cheering in the gym.
